John Perry

About John Perry

John Perry was director of policy at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) for 12 years until early 2003. He led on a range of issues including housing investment, housing strategies and welfare reform. Since March 2003 he has been based in Nicaragua, where he helps co-ordinate projects with low-income farming families, including the installation of solar panels in homes without electricity. He is also a part-time policy adviser to the CIH

Missing the point on migrants and housing

David Cameron’s plans to curtail migrants’ rights to social housing have the appearance of being thought up quickly and not thought through properly. There are much better ways to increase the availability of homes to UK-born applicants Read more...

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Bad arguments on borrowing

The Prime Minister’s aversion to extra borrowing is coming under sustained attack. There is now a strong argument to increase spending in next week’s Budget in order to build more houses and boost the economy Read more

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What happened to the property-owning democracy?

Home ownership among young adults is declining fast as an unwilling ‘generation rent’ takes over.  But could the government be doing more to help? Read more...

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Sense and census necessity

As a wealth of data continues to pour out from the 2011 census, we need to remind ourselves how valuable it is. Government suggestions that this census might be the last one are nonsensical and should be resisted Read more

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Mistaken on migration

There is an urgent need for more credible policies on migration that might slowly regain people’s confidence. By setting numerical targets, the government has begun a contest that is difficult for anyone to win Read more

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Borrow to build

The construction of more council houses could help provide homes to rent while boosting job creation and the wider economy. George Osborne should lift the borrowing caps on local authorities to make this happen Read more

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Council borrowing: the cap doesn’t fit

The case for councils being allowed to borrow up to affordable limits to build more homes has been made before, but there was never a better time for the government to listen Read more

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Housing: the revolution has been postponed

The Future Homes Commission calls for a revolution in the supply of affordable housing , but is relying on local authority pension funds to pay for it. That’s a problem  Read more

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Home thoughts on the Green Deal

Housing bodies should be in the lead in driving towards the government’s carbon emission targets, but energy efficiency has fallen down their agenda. They must make the most of the government’s new Green Deal Read more...

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Making sense of migration statistics

Publication of the latest UK statistics brought gleeful reports of a reduction in net migration – the difference between immigration and emigration. But how reliable are the figures? Read more

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