Author: PHAEDRA PONTSIVO

Why UK housing policy is like a broken IT system – and why patching no longer works

PHAEDRA PONTSIVO

In engineering, if you define the problem incorrectly, even perfect execution produces failure. A core structural flaw in UK housing policy is that “housing need” is often treated as if: market pressure = social need. But those are not the same thing.

If people and firms concentrate in one part of the country, prices rise and pressure intensifies. The system then reads that pressure as “need” and responds by forcing more development into the same places.

Why EHDC’s Housing Target Must Be Capped at 500 per Year

PHAEDRA PONTSIVO

It sets out clear evidence that East Hampshire is being asked to deliver far more housing per person than most other places — despite having limited infrastructure and no control over where the demand is really coming from.
Key points:
• EHDC is expected to deliver 39% more housing per capita than the national average.
• Past overdelivery has absorbed displacement, not unmet local need — and yet targets keep rising.
• Affordability has worsened, not improved, despite high delivery — so the uplift isn’t working.
• The 500 homes/year cap is based on solid data: local growth, national share, and environmental capacity.

2025-05-30: Submission to Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP.pdf

PHAEDRA PONTSIVO

IP 1: Add Housing to National Risk Register

IP 2: Strategic Land Use Security Bill

IP 3 : Resilience & Sovereignty Test in Planning

IP 4: National Public Land & Development Register

IP 5: Redefine Housing as National Infrastructure

IP 6: Licensing & Criminalisation of Planning Abuse

SUPPLEMENT: Moratorium on Developer Donations