Thanks Bekah - really good to chat about the paper today :)

Compared to France & Japan in CfC's report on urban density launched yesterday.

Strong link between flatness and oldness of our cities we think

Cynicism probably well placed - but I guess the main point we're making is that any kind of densification as happens in other countries REQUIRES planning reform (even if with reform it'd still take a long time!)

We've looked at this is in the report. The answer is:
- terraces can be pretty dense, but only when they shed big gardens
- adding more terraces at scale would be near impossible
- so mid-rise apartment blocks are the way to increase density.
Culture clash? - we think planning system!

I'm very happy to have a conversation about whether French or Japanese cities are the 'right' comparators (I think they are). But I'd appreciate you engaging with the report and our methology in full before saying we haven't approached this in a serious manner

And the long-term questions are different to the short-term ones.
- Social housing needs to be more independent of private sector and backed by more grant funding
- Costs could fall further and the diversity of builders increase if the new London plan makes the system more spatial and rules-based

Outside of the emergency measures, sorting out delays at the BSR = a key issue.

The main issue, maybe? If my back of the envelope calculations are correct...

There are other changes which affect viability could help both public & private builders.

Gov and the Mayor should do more on these cost issues

Costs up + prices steady = crunch time. What was viable yesterday isn’t today.

Land prices could absorb these shocks, but this will take time.

In this context, time-bound changes to requirements seem a reasonable split-the-difference kind of approach

my partner is a lawyer

All credit my graphics colleague at CfC

There's chart number 2 for the 5% figure