It all comes down to what piece of land you can afford

07 Dec 2023

‘Making a house a home’ Independent housing policy consultant, author and former Downing Street Special Adviser for housing, Toby Lloyd. Toby had long experience as Head of Policy and Housing Development with Shelter in the UK and has been a co-author of the truly influential book ‘Rethinking the Economics of Land and Housing’ that was published in 2017 by ZED Books. The book managed to explain in a very accessible and thought-provoking way how many of the key challenges facing modern economies – including housing crises, financial instability and growing inequalities – are intimately tied to the land economy.

Having worked on housing and land from multiple roles, Toby Lloyd is the kind of person one would like to answer questions such as Why isn’t it fair to treat land like any other capital asset? What are the risks of the commodifaction of land? During our Skype call we also asked him to explain how the so called ‘house-price credit cycle impacts the affordability of land. We concluded our virtual meeting with some practical thoughts around what can be actually done to control land prices but also to free up land for development of public, cooperative and social housing. Here’s our interview with Toby Lloyd.