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peteapps.bsky.social
Pete Apps
@peteapps.bsky.social
3.2K followers 26 following 180 posts
Inside Housing + freelance elsewhere. Author of Orwell Prize winning Show Me The Bodies - How We Let Grenfell Happen. https://peteapps.substack.com
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peteapps.bsky.social
Pete Apps @peteapps.bsky.social · May 29
I was born into a city where housing was affordable. But I've grown up into one where it was not. What has gone wrong in London over the last 35 years? And where is it going in the future?

My new book, Homesick, tells that story. Out Sept 25

www.amazon.co.uk/Homesick-How...
peteapps.bsky.social
Are underperformed heat networks poised to become the next cladding crisis for leaseholders?

New govt rules will require upgrades to tens of thousands of systems... but residents will pay:

www.thetimes.com/article/d81f...
The flat-owners facing £60k bills to upgrade communal boilers
Nearly a million leaseholders may be forced to pay thousands to improve heat networks, which are often unreliable and wasteful
www.thetimes.com
December 22, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Reposted by Pete Apps
jessmccabe.bsky.social
We have a majorly important piece by @peteapps.bsky.social today about the risk of scaffolding fires in the UK, with fresh revelations about the Spectrum fire in Dagenham last year >>

www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/from...
Should we be more worried about scaffolding fires in occupied buildings?
In the aftermath of the deadly Wang Fuk fire in Hong Kong, focus turned to bamboo scaffolding. But scaffolding in the UK can pose a fire risk as well.
www.insidehousing.co.uk
December 19, 2025 at 9:47 AM
peteapps.bsky.social
New: following events in Hong Kong, I've been looking again at the Spectrum fire in Dagenham in 2024. The LFB's investigation report, fire risk assessments to the building and its EWS1 assessment produce some concerning conclusions
December 19, 2025 at 10:14 AM
peteapps.bsky.social
Something we need to talk more about: the risk to basement flats in London from the growing threat of surface water flooding.

Long read here for The Developer:

www.thedeveloper.live/reportage/wh...
When London floods: “If you have vulnerable people living in basement flats, there's a huge risk”
No one knows exactly how many basement flats there are in London, or where they are located. And surface water flooding, like rain, can happen anywhere. It’s unpredictable, fast and a threat to life. ...
www.thedeveloper.live
December 17, 2025 at 5:05 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
Question and answer special in the Substack today, where I tackle the following questions from readers:

peteapps.substack.com/p/question-a...
December 15, 2025 at 3:54 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
Hong Kong's horror fire:

peteapps.substack.com/p/hong-kongs...
peteapps.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 9:33 AM
peteapps.bsky.social
Amid the disturbing images from Hong Kong, I'd draw attention to this report from the anonymous reporting service for the construction sector which raises concern about the use of combustible scaffolding systems on buildings with a 'stay put' strategy

www.cross-safety.org/uk/safety-in...
The potential impact of scaffolding on fire safety
An issue has been raised with CROSS regarding the risk assessment process when scaffolding is present around an in-use building. It is considered that combustible scaffolding elements can potentially ...
www.cross-safety.org
November 26, 2025 at 4:24 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
"I would make those people stand in front of the tower. I would make them stand and look at it"

Building Safety Regulator chair, Andy Roe, asked to respond to commentators who call for the regulator to be axed:
“It is really straightforward,” he says. “I would make those people stand in front of the tower. I would make them stand and look at it, because it is the most profound manifestation of system failure. We can’t repeat that, and that is something people are too quick to forget. “I think one of the great advantages of our background is that it’s not hypothetical for us. I have stood next to Charlie in too many awful spaces over the years, on too many streets in London thinking, ‘How do we get to this?’ ‘How did people end up living like this?’ “And while the Building Safety Regulator wasn’t working as it should, that should not be a reason in the short term to just step away and abandon it. The moral imperative is too great.” This afternoon, he says, he is going to a boxing club with his son. Mr Roe has boxed and coached boxing his whole life. When he attended Grenfell, he knew where he was immediately because of the Dale Youth Boxing Club at the base of the tower – a gem in Britain’s feted amateur boxing circuit that has produced multiple world champions from the streets of west London. “When I go into that space this afternoon, I’m going to be with people in an environment I’ve known since I was a kid,” says Mr Roe. “The warmth, the humour, the banter, the energy. And I know there’s estates and blocks all over this country that are exactly the same. And when I think about what motivates me, it’s that, it’s those spaces. It’s protecting them, and making sure they are safe.”
November 21, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Reposted by Pete Apps
municipaldreams.bsky.social
There's no-one I trust more on contemporary housing policy than @peteapps.bsky.social. This is an important read: 'The new social housing programme looks more and more like a genuine step forward'.
open.substack.com/pub/peteapps...
The new social housing programme looks more and more like a genuine step forwards
New government funding will support the development of tens of thousands of socially rented homes a year. Plus, the descent of Assent
open.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:17 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
Latest Substack, looks into plans to let builders sell 'affordable' homes on the open market - and asks whether there is an 'idolatory to victimhood' in UK politics:

peteapps.substack.com/p/sweeties-f...
November 4, 2025 at 2:04 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
Lovely to see Homesick picked as one of the politics 'books of the year' by Waterstones:

"[Apps] delivers a blistering analysis of the capital's housing market over the last four decades through the mixed experiences of a diverse group of Londoners."

www.waterstones.com/blog/the-bes...
The Best Politics Books of 2025 | Waterstones.com Blog | Waterstones
From Nicola Sturgeon to Bernie Sanders, here are the politics books we've loved this year.
www.waterstones.com
November 3, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Pete Apps
jessmccabe.bsky.social
October including a fantastic book by a brilliant colleague, @peteapps.bsky.social

I also very much recommend the Sun King by Nancy Mitford, in case anyone wants to talk about Louis XIV I am ready now
October 30, 2025 at 8:14 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
I've tried to argue why I think the cut to affordable housing targets in London is a really terrible idea in a considered, rather than shouty, way here.

A clumsy patching up of a broken status quo:

open.substack.com/pub/peteapps...
A clumsy patching up of a broken system: Khan and Reed cut London's affordable housing targets
PLUS: leaked audio reveals a Clarion manager encouraging colleagues to produce fake evidence of displaying fire safety notices
open.substack.com
October 24, 2025 at 2:35 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
In Zurich, Switzerland, one in every five citizens live in a housing co-operative, meaning they own the company that owns their home. The result is a different kind of housing market:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Could Zurich’s housing cooperatives be the solution to the rest of Europe’s housing crisis? | Peter Apps
One in every five citizens in the city has bought a share in the company that built and owns their apartment block, says Inside Housing’s Peter Apps
www.theguardian.com
October 24, 2025 at 2:32 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
Substack on the Building Safety Regulator - and the impact the Gateway process is having on maintenace work to existing buildings:

peteapps.substack.com/p/the-buildi...
The Building Safety Regulator and delays to fixing existing buildings. What's gone wrong and how to fix it?
Routine repairs to blocks of flats are taking years to be approved. Fixing this requires structural changes as well tweaks to the new regulatory system.
peteapps.substack.com
October 22, 2025 at 11:11 AM
peteapps.bsky.social
"If you don't get access tomorrow, just put it up on a plain bit of wall, take a picture, it's done... I'm trying to help you hit your targets"

Deeply disturbing audio recorded by a Clarion employee and leaked to Sky News:

news.sky.com/story/dont-t...
'Don't tell anyone': Manager at UK's largest housing association told staff how to fake fire safety notice
A chartered surveyor tells Sky News the consequence of the information not being available in the event of a fire could be "death or serious injury".
news.sky.com
October 22, 2025 at 9:08 AM
peteapps.bsky.social
Of the projects awaiting Building Safety Regulator approval, 159 are new builds and 869 relate to works to existing buildings. Delays are pushing safety projects back by up to a year. What is going on, and how could it be fixed?

A long-read for IH:

www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/why-...
Why are hundreds of existing buildings stuck waiting for approval to make them safe?
The Building Safety Regulator’s ‘Gateway 2’ process is causing severe delays to essential safety works. Peter Apps investigates why.
www.insidehousing.co.uk
October 17, 2025 at 1:15 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
Bit by me in the Big Issue:

Municipalisation of private housing would be a fast, direct route out of the homelessness crisis. The government should support it

www.bigissue.com/news/housing...
Reversing Right to Buy may sound radical. But it could fix the housing shortage
Reversing Right to Buy would be expensive, but it would provide immediate results and would pay dividends over time.
www.bigissue.com
October 16, 2025 at 12:51 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
Something we do not talk about enough with regard to London's housing crisis is climate change

The combination of a hotter, wetter world and housing insecurity should be a very serious concern:

www.thedeveloper.live/opinion/hot-...
Hot property: London’s housing problem? It’s going to get worse
The affordability and supply problem are not the full story. The flats we’ve built could be uninhabitable by 2050. We need to talk about this more, writes Peter Apps
www.thedeveloper.live
October 16, 2025 at 12:50 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
Really good to chat about how the housing crisis has reshaped the London of my childhood on the
A is for Architecture podcast:

youtu.be/rFTYmmhbrZc
Why London's house prices got out of control... in eight minutes
YouTube video by Peter Apps
youtu.be
October 10, 2025 at 1:52 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
New Substack: Why the housing secretary's Alan Partridge populism is not the answer we need - especially with regard to affordable and social housing in London:

peteapps.substack.com/p/build-baby...
Build, baby, build (with lower rates of affordable housing in London)
The housing secretary's Alan Partridge populism is not the answer we need
peteapps.substack.com
October 8, 2025 at 12:52 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
Build baby build is not a housing strategy

Bit by me for the Spectator:

www.spectator.co.uk/article/buil...
Text extract reading: Working out the way forward isn’t easy, but it is the job of serious politicians to at least try. That requires strategy, trade-offs, imperfect answers, compromise and a willingness to at least hear dissenting voices – not branding everyone who questions you a ‘blocker’ or NIMBY, and hiding behind a slogan that is as childish as it is facile. For Reed, the buzz of his cosplay populism will soon fade. He has had his fun being cheered by delegates and surrounded by sycophantic think tank wonks who share his taste for silly hats. But the reality of the state of the economy and the size of the mess he has inherited will soon dawn on him. In the coming weeks, he is likely to meet with leaseholders whose lives have been turned upside down by the building crisis, as well as survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire. When he attends these meetings, he would be well advised to leave his new baseball cap at home
October 3, 2025 at 6:58 AM
peteapps.bsky.social
Manchester's building boom is sometimes called a miracle. Instead, it's created a city of renters and a huge building safety crisis.

The last instalment of my high rise trilogy looks at one block emptied two years ago where residents are yet to return:

peteapps.substack.com/p/a-modern-h...
A modern high-rise trilogy part three: Skyline Chambers
Our journey through three buildings impacted by the building safety crisis in different ways concludes in central Manchester
peteapps.substack.com
September 30, 2025 at 3:53 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
Can't think of many better illustrations of how badly we have botched housing policy than the fact that our bill for housing homeless families (£2.8bn pa) is now higher than the money we spend each year on new affordable housing (£2.3bn)

www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/english...
English councils’ temporary accommodation bill rises to £2.8bn
Councils in England spent a record £2.8bn on temporary accommodation last year, with the annual bill rising by 25% as the homelessness crisis deepens.
www.insidehousing.co.uk
September 29, 2025 at 2:03 PM
peteapps.bsky.social
Since the Grenfell Tower, 419 purpose-built blocks of flats have been emptied of residents after a prohibition notice from the fire service.

Often this process is traumatic (and expensive) for those involved.

Could we do it better?

www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/deca...
‘Decanting’: how to deal with blocks that are too unsafe to occupy
Since Grenfell, emergency relocations of residents are becoming more common. Peter Apps investigates how landlords could be handling decanting more sensitively.
www.insidehousing.co.uk
September 29, 2025 at 1:35 PM