Priced Out with David Pralong

The one planning authority in Britain that reliably says yes, and what it would take for the rest of London to do the same.

London's housing target last year was 88,000 homes, and only a fraction got built. If you're paying more every year to live further from work, you deserve to know whether the planning system, the voters or something else is to blame.

Tom Sleigh chairs the Planning and Transportation Committee at the City of London Corporation, where business people vote alongside residents. His committee approved half a million square metres of new offices last year and was ranked third fastest in the country for decisions.

You'll hear how predictability and a properly funded planning team cut risk and cost for developers. You'll get real numbers on what heritage rules cost, and a straight answer on why the property industry struggles to make its case in public. David and Tom also test the standardisation lever from the SPADE plan.

This episode covers the London planning system, density, affordable housing requirements and the limits of current planning reform. It's for anyone priced out of London who wants evidence over slogans. If you want a defence of every listed view, Tom has some uncomfortable questions for you.

Key Takeaways

• A 97% approval rate draws suspicion from journalists. Tom explains why it shows the system doing its job when developers know the local plan before they apply.
• Shrinking the City's tower cluster by just 2% would cost over £1bn a year in lost growth. The reason is profit margins, and it applies far beyond the Square Mile.
• The history of how London's protected views of St Paul's were chosen raises a pointed question about whose views they are.
• Standardisation built postwar Britain. Tom makes the case for which level of government could bring it back.

Chapter Markers

00:00 Who really gets a vote on building

01:12 Meet Tom Sleigh, City of London Corporation

01:51 What makes the Square Mile unique

03:18 How the business vote works

04:48 How the electoral system shapes planning

05:55 The Silk Street application and Barbican residents

07:44 Planning by growth forecasts to 2050

08:57 What the rest of London can copy

10:52 Defending the British planning system

12:07 Why a 97% approval rate is healthy

13:27 Predictability, time and developer risk

15:38 Housing as infrastructure and the Goods Yard

19:15 Why density sits in the eastern cluster

21:38 The St Paul's protected views

24:23 Heritage as a political spectrum

26:45 The £1bn a year cost of 2%

28:37 Why the property industry stays quiet

32:48 SPADE, standardisation and metro mayors

35:46 Demolition, France and the Channel Tunnel

36:54 Planning reform or tinkering?

38:50 Close and how you can help

Useful Links & Resources

• Maya Capital: https://www.maya-cap.com/
• David Pralong on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-pralong-bb7a09/

Connect With the Show

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Maya-Cap
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3NpuI114H9c4QmfC4R09Pd
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/priced-out-with-david-pralong/id6821938508

Would you trade a protected view of St Paul's for £1bn a year of growth? Tell us in the comments. And if you have a question for David about how the housing system works, send it in for a future episode.

Share this episode with a friend or family member who can't afford to live where they work. Then like and subscribe so you catch the next one.

#PricedOutWithDavidPralong #HousingCrisis #PlanningReform #CityOfLondon #UKHousing

A London home now costs over 11 years of pre-tax earnings. It used to cost four.

You work in the city, you pay into it, and you still can't afford to live in it. Your parents bought in their twenties. You might not leave home until 26, and buying is a 30s problem, if it happens at all.

In this episode, David Pralong lays out the case for fixing the housing crisis from the developer's side of the table. You'll get the numbers behind London property prices, why the two standard answers keep missing the middle class, and the five reforms he believes would make affordable housing possible again.

It's for renters and would-be buyers priced out of the city they love, homeowners who hold the votes, and anyone tired of slogans about the planning system.

Key Takeaways

• After inflation, London homes cost three times what they did in 1995. A healthy market needs around 5% vacancy, and David puts most cities below 1%.
• Rent control and social housing each help one group. David explains the third group both leave behind, and why that group decides whether a city works.
• Paris was built on standardised designs, and David argues the same principle could take planning from case-by-case approval to pre-approved homes built in months.
• Key workers buying with no deposit, and streets voting to rebuild themselves, are two of the more radical ideas in the SPADE plan.

Chapter Markers

00:00 Why new generations can't afford our cities

00:45 Housing scarcity is a supply problem

01:30 London prices up seven times since 1995

02:45 Leaving home at 26, buying in your 30s

03:30 Vacancy rates below 1%

04:15 Cities as the engine of economic growth

05:15 Why nobody has fixed this yet

06:15 Where rent control and social housing fall short

07:50 The middle class nobody is helping

08:38 Introducing the SPADE framework

08:55 Standardisation and the lessons of Haussmann's Paris

11:20 Modular building and faster delivery

12:30 Protection: homes for people who live there

16:00 Affordability: social housing and key workers

18:20 Cutting build costs and development taxes

20:30 Density: building up and street votes

24:30 Enforcement: going after the bad actors

25:40 The objections David expects

27:00 Why David made this podcast

28:00 What you can do right now

Useful Links & Resources

• Maya Capital: https://www.maya-cap.com/
• David Pralong on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-pralong-bb7a09/

Connect With the Show

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Maya-Cap
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3NpuI114H9c4QmfC4R09Pd
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/priced-out-with-david-pralong/id6821938508

Which of the five levers would you push for first in your city? And which one would you fight? Tell us in the comments. If you've been priced out of where you work, or you're a homeowner who disagrees with David, we want to hear your story. Your questions shape future episodes.

Subscribe to Priced Out so you don't miss the debates to come. Then take this conversation home to your friends and family, across every generation.

#HousingCrisis #AffordableHousing #LondonHousing #PlanningReform #UrbanPolicy

You cannot afford to live in the city you work in, and everyone in the industry has a reason why that can never change. David Pralong is the exception. He has spent twenty years and more than €2bn building property across Europe, and he argues the system he knows best has ended up pricing people out of the cities that need them.

Every episode he takes one piece of that system, explains who it quietly suits, and sets out a fix that has already worked somewhere else. Sometimes he argues it in front of the architect, the conservationist, or the politician who built a career defending the current rules.

By the end you will know why a home costs what it does, and what it would take to build cities people can afford to live in.