About Prop Views
Why Prop Views exists
Few subjects influence modern Britain more than housing, yet few generate such polarised debate. Housing shapes where people live, how towns and cities grow, how businesses invest and, ultimately, how prosperous the country can become. Yet public discussion often gravitates towards the latest political disagreement, planning controversy or headline announcement, while the conditions that determine whether homes are actually delivered receive far less attention.
I created Prop Views because I wanted to contribute to a different kind of conversation. Throughout my career, working alongside developers, local authorities, investors and policymakers, I found myself returning to the same questions. Why are we building fewer homes? Why do well-intentioned policies so often produce disappointing outcomes? Why does debate focus so heavily on the symptoms of the housing crisis rather than the conditions that created it? Those questions rarely have simple answers, but they deserve more time, more context and a greater willingness to challenge conventional thinking.
Prop Views is an editorial publication dedicated to housing, planning and development. It exists to explore the ideas, policies and commercial realities that shape the built environment through experience, evidence and informed opinion. Rather than chasing headlines or promoting particular interests, its purpose is to encourage thoughtful discussion about how housing really works, why delivery so often falls short of ambition and what we can learn from the people working closest to those challenges.
Why I started writing
I never set out to become a columnist. Writing grew out of frustration. Time and again I found myself listening to debates in which complicated housing issues were reduced to simple explanations or convenient political narratives. The longer I worked across the sector, the more obvious it became that housing delivery is rarely constrained by a single issue. Planning, finance, viability, regulation, infrastructure and politics all influence one another, yet they are often discussed as though they exist in isolation.
Prop Views became a place to explore those relationships properly. Some articles respond to current events, while others step back to examine longer-term questions, but they are all driven by the same objective: to help readers better understand the forces shaping housing and development. I have never been particularly interested in telling people what they want to hear. I am far more interested in understanding what genuinely works, questioning accepted assumptions and continuing to learn from the people working across the industry.
What you’ll find here
Prop Views brings together several different types of editorial content, each intended to help readers understand housing from a different perspective.
Opinion articles respond to current debates, challenge assumptions and explore policy through the lens of practical experience. Foundational explainers examine subjects such as development viability, planning reform, housing finance and land markets in greater depth, creating a growing library of reference articles that opinion pieces can build upon rather than continually revisiting first principles. Case studies look at real developments, planning decisions and regeneration projects to understand what succeeded, what failed and, more importantly, why.
The publication is organised around a series of editorial hubs covering the major themes that appear throughout the site, allowing opinion, explainers and case studies to sit alongside one another as connected conversations rather than isolated articles. My hope is that, over time, Prop Views becomes more than a collection of commentary. I hope it becomes a trusted editorial resource that helps readers make sense of housing, planning and development by exploring not only what is happening today, but the ideas and forces that will shape tomorrow.
The perspective behind Prop Views
Every publication develops an editorial perspective, whether it acknowledges it or not. I think it is better to be open about mine.
The central idea running throughout Prop Views is that housing should be understood as a system rather than a series of disconnected policy debates. Planning, affordability, infrastructure, viability, taxation, finance and economic growth are deeply connected, and decisions made in one part of the system almost always have consequences elsewhere. That is one reason I have become increasingly sceptical of simple solutions to complex housing problems.
It also explains why housing supply appears so frequently throughout the publication. I struggle with the idea that we can make homes more affordable while simultaneously making them harder to build. In almost every other part of the economy we accept that increasing supply creates greater choice, encourages competition and, over time, helps moderate prices. Housing should not be exempt from those principles simply because it is politically difficult.
Viability is another recurring theme. It is sometimes dismissed as a technical concern for developers and planners, but in reality it determines whether homes are built at all. However ambitious a housing strategy may be, schemes still need to attract investment, absorb risk and generate returns that justify the capital committed to them. Without those conditions, housing policy quickly becomes aspiration rather than delivery.
None of this means approaching housing through ideology. Good ideas can come from the public sector, the private sector, academia or local communities, just as poor ideas can emerge from all of them. I have become much more interested in understanding what works than defending where an idea came from. If Prop Views has a philosophy, it is simply this: start with evidence, learn from experience, remain open to challenge and never lose sight of the fact that the ultimate objective is not to win arguments but to deliver better places.
