Research Papers
TYI Research Papers
Safe And Abundant Reforming The BSR To Solve The Urban Housing Crisis
In Safe and Abundant, the YIMBY Initiative exposes how the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), created in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy, has become one of the biggest blockages to getting Britain building. Drawing on new data and industry interviews, the paper shows how a system built for safety has instead built delay: 70% of applications rejected, 18-month waits for approval, and housing starts collapsing across London. But this isn’t a demolition job: it’s a blueprint. The report sets out a bold, practical reform agenda: digitising submissions, using AI to triage cases, fast-tracking compliant developers, and transforming the BSR into a Fitch- or S&P-style safety-ratings body that rewards proven excellence. The message is simple: Britain can build more, and build safely, if it builds smarter.
Yes In My Farm Yard: How Permitted Development Can Save Rural Britain
The year 2024 saw a landmark expansion of agricultural Permitted Development Rights (PDR) in England, aimed at unlocking significant economic value in the rural sector while maintaining planning safeguards. PDRs allow certain agricultural building changes, such as barn conversions or new farm structures, to proceed without full planning permission, under nationally set limits.
In May 2024, the government implemented reforms enabling farmers to convert more agricultural buildings into homes and businesses, and to construct larger farm buildings, without a planning application (edgarslimited. co.uk).
The New Build Break: Stamp Duty Relief For Faster Sales
Britain’s housing crisis is a result of long-standing
supply shortages, stagnant planning policy, and
distortionary demand-side taxation—particularly
Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT). With housing
completions failing to meet the demand necessary
to close a 4.3 million-unit deficit, the current
trajectory leaves young people disenfranchised
and developers unable to finance new stock. While
government initiatives have targeted planning
reforms, a major friction point remains the SDLT
regime, which impairs housing liquidity, raises
transaction costs, and disincentivises capital flows
into new development.
Associated Research Papers
Reach or Retreat Powering Britain's Space Industry
Britain helped build the modern space age, but we have too often let others capture the rewards. As the in-orbit economy accelerates, the danger of falling behind is real. Reach or Retreat sets out how fragmented policy, weak scale-up support and slow investment threaten our leadership. The choice is simple: act with purpose now, or watch a trillion-pound future slip beyond our reach.
The risks of AI and how blockchain can solve them
The 21st Century is one of sublime and rapid innovation. Our work, communities, entertainment, and the very columns on which we have built our society, has changed beyond comprehension in the last decade. With all of the upsides of digitisation, artificial intelligence, and interconnection, the downsides are prescient and concerning. Unlike previous revolutions, however, it is technology rather than regulation, which can stem the uncertainty and trust, building credible and wealth- creating solutions for society. For us at Labour Tech, this conversation is about demonstrating these arguments – showing how blockchain in particular will safeguard our democracy and secure our nation’s economic future.
Fund Or Fade Powering A Sovereign Quantum Britain
A call for mission-led investment to secure UK leadership in the next frontier of national interest.
We are a group of professionals with experience in the technology sector and members of the Labour Party, working together to help shape forward-looking policies. We collaborate with experts from industry, academia, and politics to support ideas that drive progress. Britain needs growth now more than ever, and by supporting our homegrown technology sector, we can help deliver the economic renewal our country urgently needs.
We are a group of professionals with experience in the technology sector and members of the Labour Party, working together to help shape forward-looking policies. We collaborate with experts from industry, academia, and politics to support ideas that drive progress. Britain needs growth now more than ever, and by supporting our homegrown technology sector, we can help deliver the economic renewal our country urgently needs.
Defend or Depend The Battle For Defence Sovereignty
When Britain’s technological Crown Jewel, ARM Holdings,
was acquired by SoftBank in 2016, Britain departed
with its sovereign capability in chip design. It has long
been the story of successful British businesses – built
with British tools, by British brains, in British sheds, only
to be snapped up and shipped off to far-away realms.
Now our defence sector faces the same fate.
Fast-Track Growth with Brownfield Planning Passports
This report explores how streamlining planning can unlock underutilised land, boost economic growth, and deliver much-needed housing. Featuring expert insights, it outlines a vision for sustainable, high-quality redevelopment.
Get Britain Building
Standing AS parliamentary candidates – and knocking on thousands of doors in constituencies – during the 2024 General Election campaign served as a reminder, if we needed one, of the many ways in which the housing crisis has had a devastating impact on people’s lives across our communities
and this country.
Homes for London
LIKE YOU, I know that only politics can transform the lives of people in this great country. Integral to this, is challenging ourselves to develop fresh political ideas and policies. We must seek more, want more, and yearn to be radical in policymaking.
Homes for Britian
WE ARE NOW approaching the next election and I hope the next Labour Government. As we work to earn the trust of millions of voters, our responsibility to provide an alternative to this exhausted Conservative government will grow. Housing must be part of that alternative.
