Pete Apps
@peteapps.bsky.social
Inside Housing + freelance elsewhere. Author of Orwell Prize winning Show Me The Bodies - How We Let Grenfell Happen. https://peteapps.substack.com
Pinned
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...
My new book, Homesick, tells that story. Out Sept 25
www.amazon.co.uk/Homesick-How...
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...
peteapps.substack.com/p/sweeties-f...
November 4, 2025 at 2:04 PM
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...
peteapps.substack.com/p/sweeties-f...
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...
"[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
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...
"[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...
Reposted by Pete Apps
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
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
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
I also very much recommend the Sun King by Nancy Mitford, in case anyone wants to talk about Louis XIV I am ready now
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 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
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 status quo:
open.substack.com/pub/peteapps...
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...
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
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...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
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...
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
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...
peteapps.substack.com/p/the-buildi...
"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...
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
"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...
Deeply disturbing audio recorded by a Clarion employee and leaked to Sky News:
news.sky.com/story/dont-t...
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-...
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
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-...
A long-read for IH:
www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/why-...
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...
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
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...
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...
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-...
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
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-...
The combination of a hotter, wetter world and housing insecurity should be a very serious concern:
www.thedeveloper.live/opinion/hot-...
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
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
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
A is for Architecture podcast:
youtu.be/rFTYmmhbrZc
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...
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
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...
peteapps.substack.com/p/build-baby...
Build baby build is not a housing strategy
Bit by me for the Spectator:
www.spectator.co.uk/article/buil...
Bit by me for the Spectator:
www.spectator.co.uk/article/buil...
October 3, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Build baby build is not a housing strategy
Bit by me for the Spectator:
www.spectator.co.uk/article/buil...
Bit by me for the Spectator:
www.spectator.co.uk/article/buil...
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...
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
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...
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...
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...
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
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...
www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/english...
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...
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
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...
Often this process is traumatic (and expensive) for those involved.
Could we do it better?
www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/deca...
Lovely to see @rowanmoore.bsky.social giving space and thought to the ideas in Homesick, alongside the excellent Eviction by Jess Field:
observer.co.uk/culture/book...
observer.co.uk/culture/book...
How Britain’s housing was broken | The Observer
Jessica Field’s Eviction and Peter Apps’ Homesick chart the rise and ruin of social housing in the UK
observer.co.uk
September 28, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Lovely to see @rowanmoore.bsky.social giving space and thought to the ideas in Homesick, alongside the excellent Eviction by Jess Field:
observer.co.uk/culture/book...
observer.co.uk/culture/book...
Labour is pitching the New Towns announcement today as a return to the "transformative post-war housing boom under Clement Attlee".
Actually it looks much more like housing policy under Blair, or even Thatcher and Boris Johnson (thread)
Actually it looks much more like housing policy under Blair, or even Thatcher and Boris Johnson (thread)
September 28, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Labour is pitching the New Towns announcement today as a return to the "transformative post-war housing boom under Clement Attlee".
Actually it looks much more like housing policy under Blair, or even Thatcher and Boris Johnson (thread)
Actually it looks much more like housing policy under Blair, or even Thatcher and Boris Johnson (thread)
Reposted by Pete Apps
Essential reading. Probably not cheerful but definitely necessary.
When I was born, you could buy a house in east London with a modest, irregular income.
Now, it costs £1,000 a month to rent a room in one on the same street.
What on earth happened? My new book Homesick is out today - read an extract here:
peteapps.substack.com/p/homesick-h...
Now, it costs £1,000 a month to rent a room in one on the same street.
What on earth happened? My new book Homesick is out today - read an extract here:
peteapps.substack.com/p/homesick-h...
Homesick: how housing broke London and how to fix it
My new book is out today! Here is an extract of the introduction.
peteapps.substack.com
September 25, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Essential reading. Probably not cheerful but definitely necessary.
Something we don't talk about enough in housing is what will happen when a generation of renters start to retire. The private rented sector is not set up for old age:
www.standard.co.uk/homesandprop...
www.standard.co.uk/homesandprop...
www.standard.co.uk
September 25, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Something we don't talk about enough in housing is what will happen when a generation of renters start to retire. The private rented sector is not set up for old age:
www.standard.co.uk/homesandprop...
www.standard.co.uk/homesandprop...
Reposted by Pete Apps
Hope to see lots of you on Thursday to launch this important book @peteapps.bsky.social
September 23, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Hope to see lots of you on Thursday to launch this important book @peteapps.bsky.social
When I was born, you could buy a house in east London with a modest, irregular income.
Now, it costs £1,000 a month to rent a room in one on the same street.
What on earth happened? My new book Homesick is out today - read an extract here:
peteapps.substack.com/p/homesick-h...
Now, it costs £1,000 a month to rent a room in one on the same street.
What on earth happened? My new book Homesick is out today - read an extract here:
peteapps.substack.com/p/homesick-h...
Homesick: how housing broke London and how to fix it
My new book is out today! Here is an extract of the introduction.
peteapps.substack.com
September 25, 2025 at 11:34 AM
When I was born, you could buy a house in east London with a modest, irregular income.
Now, it costs £1,000 a month to rent a room in one on the same street.
What on earth happened? My new book Homesick is out today - read an extract here:
peteapps.substack.com/p/homesick-h...
Now, it costs £1,000 a month to rent a room in one on the same street.
What on earth happened? My new book Homesick is out today - read an extract here:
peteapps.substack.com/p/homesick-h...
A shame this isn't going to be made retrospective. There's a few council press officers I could get banged up
www.prweek.co.uk/article/1932...
www.prweek.co.uk/article/1932...
September 18, 2025 at 10:47 AM
A shame this isn't going to be made retrospective. There's a few council press officers I could get banged up
www.prweek.co.uk/article/1932...
www.prweek.co.uk/article/1932...
I have a few events coming up surrounding the release of my new book Homesick (out next Thursday).
Really looking forward to discussing how we got into this mess and how we can get out with some great people (thread):
Really looking forward to discussing how we got into this mess and how we can get out with some great people (thread):
September 16, 2025 at 6:25 PM
I have a few events coming up surrounding the release of my new book Homesick (out next Thursday).
Really looking forward to discussing how we got into this mess and how we can get out with some great people (thread):
Really looking forward to discussing how we got into this mess and how we can get out with some great people (thread):
Redstone House in Harlow, Essex, is an upsetting and disturbing story of residents forced out of their homes, and also a tale of how far we have fallen from our post-war dreams:
peteapps.substack.com/p/a-modern-h...
peteapps.substack.com/p/a-modern-h...
A modern high-rise trilogy part two: Redstone House
As we continue our journey through three blocks of flats - all impacted to some degree by the building safety crisis - it is time to journey to Harlow, in Essex
peteapps.substack.com
September 16, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Redstone House in Harlow, Essex, is an upsetting and disturbing story of residents forced out of their homes, and also a tale of how far we have fallen from our post-war dreams:
peteapps.substack.com/p/a-modern-h...
peteapps.substack.com/p/a-modern-h...