Tag Archives: housing

Prefabs: Royal Town Planning Ignorance

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“The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) has not published or led any dedicated research specifically studying how residents of prefab estates feel about living there.” – ChatGPT

“The RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) has not specifically studied the reactions of residents in prefab estates, but they have published insights on community housing design and the importance of considering residents’ needs in estate regeneration projects.“- DuckAI

Asking the bots about prefab living …

Microsoft Copilot

Sources paint a remarkably consistent picture: what began as an emergency measure became, for many, a beloved way of life.

1. Post-War Period (1940s–1950s): Relief, Gratitude, & Pride

Residents who moved into prefabs after the war overwhelmingly described them as a huge improvement over bomb-damaged housing or overcrowded lodgings.

Key themes:

  • Modern conveniences: Prefabs offered hot running water, indoor bathrooms, fitted kitchens, and refrigerators—luxuries many working-class families had never had before.
  • A sense of dignity and privacy: After years of wartime disruption, families valued having their own self-contained home.
  • Optimism: Prefabs were seen as symbols of national recovery and technological progress.

Although officially “temporary,” with a planned lifespan of about ten years, residents often treated them as proper homes and invested emotionally in them.

2. Mid-Century (1950s–1980s): Community, Stability, & Attachment

Continue reading Prefabs: Royal Town Planning Ignorance →

Ideas for a domestic policy for Labour

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Compiled with the help of PerplexityAI, ClaudeAI and DeepSeek.

Our vision

Britain stands at a crossroads. Working families can’t afford secure homes. Young people face a lifetime of debt or permanent renting. Wealth concentrates in ever fewer hands, while millions live in poverty in one of the world’s richest countries. At the same time, the climate crisis deepens and our economic model strains under low investment, low productivity and stagnant wages. jrf+3

These ideas for a new Labour Party manifesto set out a new course: tackling inequality at its roots, building the homes we need, regulating markets in the public interest, and creating sustainable, well paid jobs while restoring our environment. We also propose changes to tackle the unbalanced state of UK news media. These challenges are connected; our solutions are, too.

Our programme is bold, evidence led and honest about uncertainty. Broad outcomes are foreseeable, but no government can predict every consequence of major reform with precision. Existing economic models were built for a different era and cannot fully capture the impacts of transformational change. We therefore commit to a rolling programme of review: policies will be monitored, evaluated and, where necessary, adjusted to stay aligned with our goals of fairness, sustainability and shared prosperity.

Our beliefs

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Bring back the prefab

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Dear York Councillor,

I append the six parts of my emails “Bring back the prefab” as a PDF. These were the result of using various AI chatbots. Here is a summary:

Part 1 told how the post-war prefabs were socially successful. They were designed with people in mind: one-storey homes with green space and private gardens. “Compared to later tower blocks or cramped terraced housing, prefabs gave people space and light, creating a more relaxed environment for community life”.

Part 2 pointed out that the construction of modern wooden prefabs caused a fraction of the emissions of greenhouse gases compared to houses built in a traditional fashion. It also pointed out that prefab construction is much cheaper.

Part 3 concerned neighbourliness, which was high for the socially uniform populations of prefab and council house estates. The social fabric of council housing rapidly worsened in the 1980s driven by policy changes & economic shifts.

This led to a policy of mixed-income developments, where social housing for low income residents was mixed with private housing for more affluent residents. Critics argued that it could be seen as a form of “soft” social engineering—a way to manage or disperse poverty without addressing its root causes.

Mixing low income housing with market priced housing, means mixing high car ownership residents with low car ownership ones.

Part 4 concluded that out of town developments that provide one, two (or even three) car parking spaces are not suitable for lower-income people with limited car use. Such developments also have very high carbon emissions.

Part 5 concluded that new towns are not an answer. They take decades to build, and have high embodied carbon. Estates of car-free modern (mostly wooden) prefabs (with solar roofs, heat pumps &tc) are a good start. They should be placed next to existing settlements to provide low carbon services for them.

Part 6 noted that a plot of agricultural land big enough for a house is valued at less than £1000 – but when planning permission is granted its value leaps to between £100,000 to £150,000 so a large part of the cost of a new house is created by planning permission. This accrues to the land owner. For a £300,000 house on the fringe of York, Copilot has estimated:

ComponentEstimated £% of Sale Price
Landowner share£100k–£150k33%–50%
Build cost£120k–£140k40%–47%
Infrastructure£15k–£20k5%–7%
Developer margin£30k–£50k10%–17%

Best wishes

Geoff Beacon

York Local Plan – Speech to council

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(Delivered on 27th February 2025)

Dear Councillor,

My 3 minute specch about the York Local Plan was met with silence – althoughsince then I have had indications that it was appreciated. I’m inferring that the opinion is that my views do not take into account political reality.   I get that.

However, the Local Plan (as is) will continue the rush towards environmental destruction and increasing inequality.  Reversing these trends will require a break with current “political reality”.

Here are a few extra notes followed by a transcript of what I said to the Council.

New towns are a cumbersome way of solving the housing crisis.

Continue reading York Local Plan – Speech to council →

Cheaper housing

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Housing in York, A letter to York Council, 12 February 2025

Councillor,

Young people cannot afford to buy homes.

In England, the average house costs over eight times the average salary but, in the 1970’s, it was three and a half times. Now, young people cannot afford to buy homes.

In York, the Council have some affordable homes which are “an option for people who can’t afford to rent or buy a property on the open market”. Typical prices for these “range from £70,000 for a 1-bed flat to £125,000 for a 4-bed house, but prices can vary for individual sites.”

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