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Maurice Lange

@mauricelange.bsky.social
336 followers 244 following 295 posts

keen on there being more houses for everyone. crunching numbers and thinking about urban problems @centreforcities.bsky.social; community unionising @acornunion.bsky.social; other bits

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Reposted by Maurice Lange
Viola Pititto @violaviz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Our Density Data Tool 2.0 is live! 📊 A fun refresh: plugged in some new data, added dynamic text and filters, and gave it a neater look. Go have a play 👇
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
We've updated our density data tool, which now compares British cities with their French and Japanese peers based on proximity to rail stations and distance from city centre. Link to explainer blog and the tool in comment below 👇
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
For those that missed it yesterday, we've got a new report out on Council Housebuilding and how to get more of it 25 pages too much? Here's 600 words instead: www.centreforcities.org/blog/how-to-...
centreforcities.org
How to rewire council housebuilding - Centre for Cities
Centre for Cities headline recommendations for how the Prime Minister can achieve his goal of increasing council housebuilding.
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Ant Breach @antbreach.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
For Burnham to reach his (tricky) goals on council housebuilding, he'll want his cash to go as far as possible - we've set out how: Four takeaways: 1. Focus on cities 2. Give councils balance sheet flexibility 3. Get mayors to distribute cash 4. Be broad-minded on defining council housebuilding:
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I have a new paper out today on what Andy Burnham needs to do to achieve “the biggest council housebuilding programme since the post-war period”. A coherent (I hope) to-do list, explaining the contingencies and pre-empting potential missteps. Do read the paper in full, but here's a 🧵
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
It was a pleasure chatting to Kate Youde for this piece in @insidehousing.bsky.social We chatted about my research on the geography of public housebuilding, and, excitingly, about new research coming out on Thursday 👀 www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/earl...
insidehousing.co.uk
Early Career Researcher’s Prize winner on public housebuilding and what Andy Burnham should do next
As the closing date for the Early Career Researcher’s Prize 2026 draws near, Kate Youde catches up with Maurice Lange, last year’s winner, to talk about his paper on the past, present and future of pu...
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
A seriously impressive and useful report out today from my colleagues @oscarselby.bsky.social and @antbreach.bsky.social They've worked out how fiscal devolution can start in a fair and growth incentivising way, in superb technical detail. Give it a read 👇
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Centre for Cities @centreforcities.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
NEW | Fiscal devolution can give mayors stronger incentives to grow their economies without leaving places with smaller tax bases behind. Our new briefing sets out a revenue-neutral route to deliver £21.5bn of devolved taxes between now and 2030 👇 buff.ly/m6Ddr8S
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Oscar Selby @oscarselby.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Fiscal devolution for mayors: the government have announced it, here is how to do it: 1. Switch mayor's Integrated Settlements (grants) to a share of income and corporation tax - where 90% of funding is income tax and 10% is corporation tax.
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Ant Breach @antbreach.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This is the first big step towards fiscal devolution. Major wins here on local autonomy are percentage rate (compared to flat fee) and no capping Together this means the visitor levy will provide a strong growth incentive for mayors who choose to introduce it + can be held accountable for results
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
In new research from @Centreforcities published yesterday, we find British big cities are broadly rubbish at putting houses near transport. Densities are the same (and sometimes lower!) near to rail stations than further away. France and Japan show that much better than this is possible. 🧵
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Centre for Cities @centreforcities.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
NEW REPORT | Britain’s big cities are failing to make the most of land around their train stations. At least 2.4 million homes are missing near stations compared with peer cities in France and Japan. Read 'Mind the density gap' 👇 buff.ly/oIN0KnD
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Oscar Selby @oscarselby.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
The Prime Minister plans to 'rewire the state' and give more power to councils and mayors, who are better placed to deliver locally catered economic policy. Income tax sharing to mayors will be key to this. The UK is the most fiscally centralised country in the G7, holding back wages and growth.
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Have a listen to @antbreach.bsky.social @andrewcities.bsky.social and I chatting about council housing: - what is it? - what could Burnham's plans be? - and where should we prioritise for more building? (hint, big cities)
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Reposted by Maurice Lange
Mark Byrne @markobroin.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
My colleague @mauricelange.bsky.social on why @london.gov.uk should intervene to make sure Crews Hill new town goes ahead www.centreforcities.org/blog/the-lon...
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Will the new towns programme fall at its first major hurdle? I sincerely hope not! At Centre for Cities we've done a lot of thinking about where it makes sense for public sector intervention to get large-scale building happening, and Crews Hill ticks all the boxes as far as we can see.
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
I had a lot of fun making the graphics for this one! As you can see, we identify a clear post-war 'collar' (blues) around the city centres of cities like Manchester and Birmingham This matters because... (chart below)
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Reposted by Maurice Lange
Francis Irving @flourish.org · 29/04/2026
@mauricelange.bsky.social is one of the speakers - going into the details of how Croydon allowed anyone to convert houses into flats, and where else a similar scheme woudl work to increase amount of housing.
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Reposted by Maurice Lange
Francis Irving @flourish.org · 29/04/2026
The final Land Talks of the season is the week after next! The full lineup of speakers is up, and is too varied to compress into this post. Everything from co-ops and buyouts to freeing planning and land-value capture. Get your ticket here, if you're near London: luma.com/hkyckwm8
luma.com
Land Talks #6: Start-Up Nation, Doubling Homebuilding & The Battersea Job · Luma
🗺️ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
We've published more research using our density dataset today We study: - how the 'density gap' has been created by successive waves of development - where in urban cores are especially low density - the effectiveness of recent policies on density
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
I'm very pleased to be on the bill for the next Land Talks Come hear me talk about Croydon and rules based planning and 5 other excellent speakers in a pub 6pm, 11th May luma.com/hkyckwm8
luma.com
Land Talks #6: Start-Up Nation, Doubling Homebuilding & The Battersea Job · Luma
🗺️ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
After lots of talking about Croydon as an outsider, we managed to get the creators of the Suburban Design Guide, Alison & Guy, on the @centreforcities.bsky.social podcast!! They add so much detail to the story. I'd urge all rules-based planning enthusiasts - and sceptics - to give it a listen.
centreforcities.org
City Minutes: The Croydon planning experiment - Centre for Cities
Andrew Carter is joined by Alison Coutinho and Guy Rochez who both worked for Croydon council between 2019 and 2022 when they were designing and implementing a new planning strategy to build more home...
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
The perverse outcome of the failure to build enough social housing (and housing in general). Expect more like this until either we give up on the obligation to house the homeless (we shouldn't) or there's a substantial increase in money for subsidised housebuilding www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Richmond evictions for Westminster housing branded 'disgraceful'
Garden Court tenants are served eviction notices so the flats can become temporary accommodation.
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
A niche but important blog today. When talking about planners doing good things in England, I'm often talking about them using SPDs e.g. for masterplans or making planning more rules-based If not handled correctly, their replacement by Supplementary Plans could make good planning harder
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Centre for Cities @centreforcities.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Supplementary Planning Documents help translate local plans into workable guidance. Replacing them with Supplementary Plans could increase their influence, but added scrutiny may limit how often they are used👇 buff.ly/QrVOYTi
buff.ly
The Government must ensure ‘supplementary plans’ are easy to introduce - Centre for Cities
Why replacing SPDs with Supplementary Plans could weaken a key planning tool if the reforms are not handled well.
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Ant Breach @antbreach.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
The Chancellor's roadmap for fiscal devo is genuinely exciting - done right, it should improve growth + public services across England But the Government needs to act fast - decisions on some new local gov maps are imminent, and we may miss a historic opportunity to get it right
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Ant Breach @antbreach.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Centre for Cities ( @mauricelange.bsky.social ) appeared on City Ed this week to talk about our research on densification www.youtube.com/watch?v=scJP...
youtube.com
How to fix Britain
YouTube video by CityEd.
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
The new NPPF has lots of great stuff, but we think there's more to be done to make it work for cities. Key recs: - designate city centres + urban cores, not just 'town centres' - rewording to make space for bold use of rules-based planning tools outside of allocated sites
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Centre for Cities @centreforcities.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
The new NPPF contains some welcome changes. But it still needs a stronger urban lens. Our new blog sets out how national planning policy could better reflect the structure of cities and support more homes in them👇 buff.ly/S7NAUEl
buff.ly
How the NPPF can work harder for cities - Centre for Cities
Proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework to improve planning and housebuilding in UK cities.
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Ant Breach @antbreach.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Really looking forward to this in-person event in London on Wednesday - should be a great conversation!
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Rob Johnson @rjson.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Alongside fusion of powers across track and train, Great British Railways could put mayors on track to have European-style powers over local trains. Quick thread on my latest piece setting out what the Railways Bill could mean for greater control of commuter rail in England's secondary cities. 🧵
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Centre for Cities @centreforcities.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Rail reform is focused on national coordination. But for England’s largest city regions, the bigger prize may be local integration 🚂 Commuter rail has a different economic role to inter-city services. Devolving it to metro mayors could unlock stronger urban growth. New briefing👇 buff.ly/1mMdvls
buff.ly
All aboard for growth: Why rail reform is incomplete without rail devolution for England’s big cities - Centre for Cities
This briefing sets out how rail reform can fill in the missing piece of the integrated transport puzzle that would better connect 1.2 million more people in England’s six largest urban economies…
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Liam Thorp @liamthorp.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Such a mad story. So Mandelson is allegedly secretly planning to flee to the British Virgin Islands and is accidentally rumbled by the bloody Speaker of the House who just happened to be on a visit there! That’s the kind of bad luck that tells you you’ve ran out of lives.
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
A new blog in which I: - summarise British vs zonal planning approaches to defining developable land in cities - explain the impact on scale and distribution of housebuilding - set out what British planners can easily change Comes with videos! Check it out below
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Reposted by Maurice Lange
Make Planning Make Sense Podcast @mpmspodcast.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Podcast alum @mauricelange.bsky.social (check out S01 E22) continues to lead on research-driven, outcome-orientated policymaking: www.centreforcities.org/blog/why-bri... cc: @centreforcities.bsky.social @yimbyalliance.org @seancanty.bsky.social @london.gov.uk -AZ
centreforcities.org
Why British planning needs to expand the definition of developable land in cities - Centre for Cities
Why Britain’s narrow definition of developable land limits urban housebuilding and how reform could unlock supply.
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John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 16/02/2026
Great piece from @dsquareddigest.bsky.social, which touches on one of the big theories for why English-speaking countries do especially badly at housebuilding: Adversarial and litigious common law systems (Anglo) vs judge-led civil law systems elsewhere. samf.substack.com/p/build-the-...
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Rob Johnson @rjson.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Our latest report looks at lessons for rules-based planning coming from an unlikely London Borough - check this thread by @mauricelange.bsky.social for all the details 👇
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Dave Hill @davehillonlondon.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
The government is to permit a certain amount of social housing "rent convergence" but not as much or as soon as #London councils and housing associations had asked for. What is "rent convergence" and why does it matter? An explainer: www.onlondon.co.uk/what-is-soci...
onlondon.co.uk
What is 'rent convergence' and why does London need it?
The capital's councils and housing associations see it as key to repairing their strained finances, improving their stock and building more
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Simon Jeffrey @simonjeffrey.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
This is a great paper based on that rarest of things: an actual (fleeting) English planning success story. Zero excuse for any council claiming a housing crisis to not have a knock-off version on the books by September. My only criticism is the cowardly dodge of ‘Croydon Facelift’ for its title.
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
If only reports could contain GIFs
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Anna Clarke @annaclarke.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
This is a really interesting thread showing the potential to densify housing in areas with lots of detached houses and large(ish) gardens. We could do a lot more of this.
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
NEW REPORT out today. TLDR: Rules-based planning works and we can introduce it in British cities relatively easily. A small thread on Croydon’s 3-year planning ‘experiment’ and what it means for urban planning…
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Today's newsletter: some thoughts on two excellent reports, one by @dsquareddigest.bsky.social and one by @centreforcities.bsky.social that I think provides excellent collateral and a worked example of his thesis about how to get better at building infrastructure:
ft.com
How to get England building more homes, not ‘bat tunnels’
Croydon’s surge in development on small sites shows how a rules-based system can unlock housebuilding
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Max Nathan @maxnathan.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Want to know what switching from development control to rules-based planning might look like in the UK? @mauricelange.bsky.social has numbers 👇 HT @stephenkb.bsky.social
LB Croydon switched to rules-based planning  in 2019. Croydon then delivered more houses on new-build sites of 6-10 units than any other London borough since 2004.
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
I've learned everything I can about this chart and what it means for planning for more houses in cities. The report is out tomorrow! You can watch me talk about the chart and more at the launch event tomorrow, 2pm. Sign up here: www.centreforcities.org/event/what-b...
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Viola Pititto @violaviz.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
What does income deprivation look like within UK cities? This #DataViz shows the distribution of neighbourhoods by income deprivation percentile in 2025. While the average would paint a limited picture, the variation within cities reveals the true shape of inequality.
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Ross Mudie @rmudie96.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Very swish visual from @centreforcities.bsky.social showing the income distributions of different neighbourhoods within our big towns and cities
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Centre for Cities @centreforcities.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Cities sit at the heart of the UK economy. Cities Outlook 2026 looks at what that means for growth and household living standards ▶️
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
@centreforcities.bsky.social launched a housing density data tool this week. I’m really proud of it and I think it’s got some important lessons. A thread.
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Maurice Lange @mauricelange.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
A little tool I cooked up using @centreforcities.bsky.social's international residential densities dataset Where are British cities missing density compared to their French and Japanese peers? Do you live in a dense neighbourhood? Find out using the tool!
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