So I decided to start a Substack!

Working in housing and politics, I am lucky to listen in on fascinating conversations and events, which I wanted to write up and think about more.

Starting off on Steve Reed at the Select Committee and LHA rates:

housingalex.substack.com/p/on-lha-gen...

So proud of the whole @labourhousinggroup.bsky.social team for making Labour Conference’s first-ever Housing Zone a huge success.

Our 18 events across 3 days covered the breadth and depth of the housing crisis, now it’s time to take their energy and ideas and put them into action.

Going through IPPR’s new report on improving turnout and spotted this table, a version of which every piece of similar research should have

Finally, Badenoch has made a pretty explicit attempt to link her anti-migration message with a housing one, in blaming migration for high rents.

This is a pretty blunt analysis and ignores a lot of what’s really going on…

On housing delivery, Badenoch has answered Labour’s attempted reforms by simply blaming local mayors like Sadiq Khan and the “bureaucratic state” for failing to get homes built, a worrying sign that she fails to take this issue seriously…

This is even more concerning when you bear in mind that Badenoch’s housing spokesperson is Kevin Hollinrake, the ex-landlord rumoured to be one of the main opponents of the Conservatives’ renters’ reform bill…

First off has been a quick u-turn on renters’ rights, even opposing basic measures like ending no fault evictions.

But it's also clear that, when taken together, the Greens' platform would absolutely flatten housing supply.

This might not worry many on the left, but the delivery of market rate housing is also crucial for building social housing as well...

Lots of what the Greens stand for is...kinda fine? Lots of it is stuff which Labour is doing in government, including investing into housing decarbonisation and improving renters' rights.

Most importantly, it is important for everyone to realise just how completely devoid from fact Reform's allocations policy is.

While it is absolutely right to recognise that some voters have concerns around migration, we cannot have this discussion on Reform's terms.

But what is slightly more surprising is seeing Reform MPs clearly looking to increase barriers to housing delivery, despite having stood on a manifesto of reforming planning and supporting the housing sector.

With figures across the property sector in senior positions in their leadership, it is probably unsurprising to see some pretty blatantly pro-landlord measures like Abolishing 24 and scrapping the Renters' Reform (now Renters' Rights) Bill.

Reform are within touching distance of Labour in a number of seats across a pretty wide geography, and their housing policy is similarly a bit incompressible.