38. Build More Bloody Houses

It's Stephanie's last day on staff at the New Statesman, so that means it's Jonn’s last opportunity to do something he’s been threatening for a while: to explain to her exactly why Britain has a housing crisis. The reasons include a growing population, the end of council housing, and the north-south divide in the British economy. The big one, however, remains land – and the fact we place to many artificial restrictions on where we can build.To help explain that one, we’re joined by Catharine Banks, of the policy team at housing charity Shelter, who talks us through the reasons for the shocking fact that we don't know who owns nearly a fifth of the land in England & Wales.And finally, inevitably, you lot tell us your housing horror stories. Warning: involves slugs and kettles.Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman's cities site, CityMetric. It's hosted by Jonn Elledge and Stephanie Boland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.