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Government imposed policy costs make up 57% of the clearing price of a new flat in London and 42% of a new home in the Home Counties. Despite a big housing shortage and positive planning reforms, new home starts in England are declining from 182,000 in 2022 to under 125,000 last year. While the macroeconomic context has worsened with build cost inflation and high interest rates, the Government is imposing more burdens on new homes, not fewer. Taxes, levies, planning, and mandates add over £440,000 to the cost of delivering a home in London and nearly £225,000 nearby, with several of these imposed recently like the Second Staircase, Future Homes Standard, Building Safety Levy, Biodiversity Net Gain and Residential Property Developer Tax. Individually these may be justified, but together they are making new homes unviable. As a result, large developers are buying less land and small builders are going out of business; nearly 4,000 construction firms went bust just last year. If we want to build more homes, we should be easing the burdens on them, not adding more. Making housebuilding viable again is the most important issue in housing policy and my co-author, Edward Donovan, has completed excellent modelling showing how big the challenge is. Read the full report: cps.org.uk/wp-content/upload… And simulate what changing the policies does with Edward's modelling here: easing-the-burdens.cps.org.u…