Panel Discussion: 'Are there solutions to the UK’s housing crisis?'

Forthcoming Event

Date
 28 May 2026, 5:00pm - 6:15pm
Registration Required

Location
 Oxford Martin School & Online
34 Broad Street (corner of Holywell and Catte Streets), Oxford, OX1 3BD

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This panel discussion will assess how far the government’s good intentions on housing are being realised. But what are the prospects for tackling the UK’s dysfunctional property taxes? Is the speculative builder model for private sector housing supply fit for purpose? Do we need radical new ways of expanding access for Britain’s families to decent roofs over their heads?

The UK faces a severe housing crisis. House prices remain far too high compared to incomes. Renters and the young bear the brunt of the affordability crisis. Many spend over a third of their earnings on housing alone. Political attitudes between them and more secure homeowners are increasingly polarised. 

New housing supply, especially of affordable social housing, isn't keeping pace. Construction activity stayed flat through 2025. 
Economic inequality, especially between generations, and social exclusion, are dramatically influenced by housing and land use planning. Poor housing has negative health outcomes and restricted access to housing affects family formation. Our poorly insulated homes increase vulnerability to energy price shocks and make it hard to reduce carbon emissions. Productivity growth is severely impeded by failing policies and institutions related to land use, housing and credit markets. 

The UK holds the record for the extent of value embedded in the underlying land rather than in buildings. The current government has signalled good intentions on planning reform, land value capture, expanding the social housing stock and improving tenure security. But what is the state of progress? What are prospects for tackling the UK’s dysfunctional property taxes? Is the speculative builder model for private sector housing supply fit for purpose? Do we need radical new ways of expanding access to Britain’s families to decent roofs over their heads?

Professor Eric Beinhocker from INET Oxford and the Blavatnik School of Government will moderate a discussion with four leading experts from Oxford, from MHCLG, from Shelter and from the private sector.

Panel:
Professor Eric Beinhocker, Executive Director, INET Oxford
Professor John Muellbauer, Professor of Economics and Senior Fellow, INET Oxford
Stephen Aldridge, Director for Analysis and Data, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Sam Bloomer, Policy Officer, Shelter
Shiv Malik, Author, broadcaster, technologist and former investigative journalist

This is a joint event with the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School (INET Oxford).
 

REGISTRATION

Eric Beinhocker Bio pic

Professor Eric Beinhocker (Chair)
Executive Director, INET Oxford

Eric Beinhocker is a Professor of Public Policy Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. He is also the founder and Executive Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the University’s Oxford Martin School. INET Oxford is an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to the goals of creating a more just, sustainable, and prosperous economy. Beinhocker is also a Supernumerary Fellow in Economics at Oriel College and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute.

Prior to joining Oxford, Beinhocker had an 18-year career at McKinsey & Company where he was a partner and held leadership roles in McKinsey’s Strategy Practice, its Climate Change and Sustainability Practice, and the McKinsey Global Institute. Beinhocker writes frequently on economic and public policy issues and his work has appeared in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Times, the Guardian, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and he is the author The Origin of Wealth: The Radical Remaking of Economics and What It Means for Business and Society. Beinhocker is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the MIT Sloan School, and is originally from Boston, Massachusetts.

John Maullbauer Bio pic

Professor John Muellbauer
Professor of Economics and Senior Fellow, INET Oxford

John is a Senior Research Fellow of Nuffield College and a Senior Fellow of the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Econometric Society. He is best known for his work on household economics, housing markets and on finance-real economy interactions.  Beginning in the late 1980s, he was one of the first economists to focus on the complex interactions between housing markets and the economy. He has worked with many central banks and the OECD and is a frequent contributor to CEPR’s VoxEU columns, https://cepr.org/about/people/john-muellbauer He is heavily involved in policy debates on housing market reform in the UK, including in the British Academy’s 2025 Keynes Lecture.

Stephen Aldrige bio pic

Stephen Aldridge
Director for Analysis and Data, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Stephen Aldridge has been Chief Analyst/ Chief Economist and Director of Analysis and Data Directorate since 2011. He continues in this role at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

A government economist by background, Stephen was previously Chief Economist and then Director of the Strategy Unit in the Cabinet Office.

He has also worked in the Department of Trade and Industry; various predecessors to MHCLG; the Cabinet Secretariats; and Her Majesty’s Treasury. He has been chair of the cross-Whitehall analysts’ group on public sector efficiency, set up by the Government Economic Service, since the beginning of 2014.

Stephen is a member of the National What Works Advisory Council; a member of the international advisory board for the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence; and other bodies. He is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a continuing fellow at the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge.

Stephen was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the Queen’s birthday honours list 2007.

Sam Bloomer

Sam Bloomer
Policy Officer, Shelter

Sam is a Policy Officer at Shelter specialising in housing supply, especially social housing delivery. He helps lead work urging government to build more genuinely affordable social rent homes through direct investment as well as through the planning system. Sam also works on improving regulations and standards within the social rented sector, including work on the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 and Awaab’s Law. Before joining Shelter, Sam worked in local government supporting policy development on housing delivery, planning, and land policy. He is one of the authors of a recent policy paper  from Shelter.

Shiv Malik bio pic

Shiv Malik
Author, broadcaster, technologist and former investigative journalist

Shiv is an author, broadcaster, technologist and former investigative journalist, who, along with reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan, worked for the Guardian for five years breaking exclusive front-page stories on everything from housing to economics, social policy and international terrorism.

He is the author of two books including the 2010 cult economics book, Jilted Generation, and is a co-founder of the think-tank, the Intergenerational Foundation. In the last five years he has been an entrepreneur in personal data markets and audio AI, and co-founded the Forest City project in late 2025 to help build Britain’s first city in 50 years and repair the social contract.
 

In-Person Registration

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