Would China's way home work for Britain?

November 2015

Shangri-La in western China lost much of its ancient old town in a fire early in 2014.

Rebuilding is well underway using traditional Tibetan techniques and materials. All Tibetan men know this way to build, and families work together for years to make a home for four generations and livestock.

Further east in China's booming mega-cities, steel, concrete and cranes shape the high tower apartment blocks that are under construction everywhere.

China seems ambitious to build by the best means that come to hand.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, we're bewildered by our creaking housing market and inability to remedy a supposed shortage.

Fifty years ago, we had one home for every three people, and a house cost three times a worker's wage. Now there is one home for every 2.3 people - at prices around seven times average salary.

In the last thirty years the growth in housing stock has easily outrun that of population - but houseprices have risen three times faster then general inflation.

So can we blame it all on a shortage of buildings? Or do we need to search more deeply to find where our housing market is going wrong?

A new book from Ekklesia is exploring the housing cisis from various Christian persectives. What is the future for our cherished institutions like green belts, social housing and owner occupation? Why is private renting growing fast enough to become the leading tenure by 2040? Are we getting the truth from media and politicians - and are we ready to listen, in a world where most of today's voters gain from a distorted market and a minority bears the brunt of the problems that result?

To find out more, pre-order and support this publication (due out on March), please visit Indiego here.

For an extract from my chapter of Foxes have Holes, click here.