Property
Should a two-bedroom flat worth £2m be called a ‘mansion’?
Many mansions Does a two-bedroom flat worth £2 million deserve to be called a ‘mansion’? — The word ‘mansion’ is…
Why does the Latin mass prevail?
The Pope is visiting Lebanon and Turkey. Will anyone be raising the vexed question of the Latin mass and sacraments…
Why the Budget let banks off the hook
‘Banks don’t vote and citizens don’t love them, so they’ll always be the Chancellor’s target of choice,’ I wrote in…
Why don’t we order houses from a catalogue?
One possible solution to the housing crisis is to convene a group of experts in property, housebuilding, planning and local…
Landlords need protecting too
Do you know how much faeces 30 dogs can produce over a couple of years? I have some idea because…
Angela Rayner and the spite of Labour
As a snapshot of our country, you’ll be pressed to find anything quite so resonant as the one which depicts…
How many homes in England have air conditioning?
Suit cases Volodymyr Zelensky again failed to wear a suit and tie to a meeting at the White House, in…
Land value and the Somebody Else’s Problem paradox
‘The Somebody Else’s Problem field can be run for years on a single torch battery. This is because it relies…
How happy are private renters?
Coined terms Liz Williams, a Reform UK council candidate in May’s local elections, began a High Court action trying to…
Don’t compensate drivers for mis-sold car loans
Surprisingly big numbers are the theme of this week’s column, several having flashed up to disturb the pleasures of a…
Suburbanites vs the countryside
‘Same old boring Sunday morning, old men out, washing their cars.’ So begins the punk anthem ‘The Sound of the…
How to game the social housing system
Westminster council has announced that every single social housing tenant in the borough will receive lifetime tenancies. No test of…
In defence of the Trump playbook
The standard explanation for why charges for plastic bags reduced waste is economic. People were reluctant to pay 10p for…
Which pope has served the longest?
Papal reign The mostly elderly runners and riders to be the next pope are unlikely to challenge the record for…
How many people live in leasehold properties?
Back to the palace Donald Trump was invited for what will be his second state visit to the UK. Who…
Do not be hypnotised by Trump’s America
I’ve been judging a beauty parade, but I hasten to add that no bikinis were involved. Four leading investment firms…
Britain’s shopfronts are a national embarrassment
A few weeks ago, a couple of men with ladders started work on a former bridal boutique at the end…
Letters: The army that Britain needs
Common ground Sir: Katy Balls asks ‘Lawyer or leader?’ (Politics, 25 January), but it became fairly clear which Keir Starmer…
Steven Pinker: The inside story of my Covid ‘bio bet’
Betting men Sir: The bet between Martin Rees and me that Matt Ridley recounts pits two kinds of scruples of…
How to get on the housing ladder
It is always interesting to watch the debates that roil a nation. So far as I can see, the current…
We’re all caught in the insurance trap
In they pour, one after another, cheerily thudding on to the doormat: ‘Thank you for insuring with us again! Now,…
How to buy a house that isn’t on the market
There are many, mutually reinforcing causes of the property crisis: it is too easy to borrow; there are too many…
Could inheritance tax changes help farmers in the long run?
Britain’s farmers are in a bind. Despite sitting on land worth millions, they are unable to release that wealth without…
Who first classified ‘working people’?
Working people Government ministers may have had trouble defining what was meant by ‘working people’ in the Labour manifesto, but…
Goodbye to Old King Coal
So farewell, Ratcliffe-on-Soar: the UK’s last coal-fired power station shut down on Monday, having burned five million tonnes of coal…
