Paul Finch's Letter from London If housebuilding is to meet Boris Johnsons new standards, Section 106 must be reformed

摘要

About 30 years ago, the annual World Property Congress known as FIABCI (an overlong French acronym meaning the same thing) was held for the first time in Tokyo. That year's congress president, a notable Australian developer, was dumbstruck at the opening press conference when a journalist asked him if he agreed that the homes then being built in Tokyo were 'like rabbit hutches'. This was far too frank a way of describing volume-housing output for comfort, but it turned out that the phrase had in fact come from the local press. The Japanese were beginning to ask themselves why space standards in the country were so miserable, and why an advanced industrial economy should be treating residents as though they were paupers.