Good to see the expansion of Bicester getting a mention in today's Sunday Times. Interesting to read too that in a recent YouGov poll that not everyone is a Nimby.
Indeed it looks like 83% could be swayed to Yimbyism i.e. “yes in my backyard” if those homes were more affordable or better designed.
Fingers crossed people are starting to engage with the housing crisis.
.. in Britain’s biggest custom-build site in Bicester, Oxfordshire, where people are building their own homes in partnership with the local council - these schemes share a “civic housebuilding” model, where land is bought at lower prices so the community can get the best possible deal. Doing this takes vision. It takes clever partnerships between councils, developers and landowners, who forego a one-off windfall for a lasting legacy.To do it at the scale of the Georgians will take government leadership, however. Give councils and communities powers to create new-home zones with strict conditions on what can be built and to lock in lower land prices. Set up development corporations that can buy land cheaply and sell it to whoever will build lots of good, affordable homes — including small firms, self-builders and community groups.
