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Tom Nicholas
Tom Nicholas

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Video: How Britain (Almost) Solved the Housing Crisis

Hey all!

Fancy another video to watch?

Over the past month, I've been putting together this little report on the housing crisis in the UK, and how to fix it.

But, I wanted to take a slightly different angle to that which I normally do.

Rather than just discussing how things are bad, I wanted to look at solutions, and for inspiration from the past.

The resulting piece, then, looks at how, during the 20th century, Britain managed to solve its previous housing crisis, why those problems recurred again, and how we can learn from that past experience to fix housing for everyone in the future.

I'm really pleased with how this one's come together. While there's always room for improvement (!), I think it's got a really nice mix of interviews, to-camera pieces and motion graphics.

And hopefully lots to go away and think about!

Thanks as ever for your generous support, it really does make all this possible!

Tom

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Video: How Britain (Almost) Solved the Housing Crisis

Comments

Thank you Charlotte! I'm so glad you found it interesting!

Tom Nicholas

This was really great, Tom! So much of this applies to e.g. Germany too.

Charlotte KL


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