Overview
The UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) is rethinking the role of the state in housing policy and practise. IIPP’s work challenges the treatment of housing as a financial asset, advocating instead for models that prioritize housing need, long-term affordability, and environmental sustainability. Through new economic thinking, empirical research and extensive local, national and international policy engagement, IIPP aims to reshape housing systems toward the common good.
Outputs
- Discussion paper: Taking Stock: A foundation for future housing strategy, Stefan Horn, Beth Stratford et. al, (June 2025)
- Article: Meeting housing needs within planetary boundaries: A UK case study
Stefan Horn, Ian Gough, Charlotte Rogers, Rebecca Tunstall (April 2025) - Shelter essay: Rights-based, mission orientated housing for the common good (pdf)
Mariana Mazzucato (March 2025) - Policy report: The Demand for Housing as an Investment
Josh Ryan-Collins (October 2024) - Working paper: Modern Housing: An environmental common good
Dan Hill and Mariana Mazzucato (March 2024) - Book chapter: The Political Economy of Housing Policy Interventions. In The Routledge Handbook of Housing Economics (pp. 290-304)
Josh Ryan-Collins (February 2024) - Working paper: The right to housing: A mission-oriented and human rights-based approach
Mariana Mazzucato and Leilani Farha (May 2023) - Paper: The London Housing Market: A System Dynamics Analysis
Kaveh Dianati and Josh Ryan-Collins (March 2023) - Book: Rethinking the Economics of Land and Housing
Josh Ryan-Collins, Toby Lloyd, Laurie Macfarlane, John Muellbauer (Foreward) (November 2022) - Article: A home for all within planetary boundaries: Pathways for meeting England's housing needs without transgressing national climate and biodiversity goals
Sophus O.S.E. zu Ermgassen, Michal P. Drewniok, Joseph W. Bull, Christine M. Corlet Walker, Mattia Mancini, Josh Ryan-Collins, André Cabrera Serrenho (November 2022) - Article: When homes earn more than jobs: the rentierization of the Australian housing market
Josh Ryan-Collins and Cameron Murray (August 2020) - Article: Breaking the housing–finance cycle: Macroeconomic policy reforms for more affordable homes
Josh Ryan-Collins (July 2019) - Book: Why Can't You Afford a Home?
Josh Ryan-Collins (November 2018)
- Inside Housing: A system designed to meet housing needs
Josh Ryan-Collins (December 2024) - Chartered Institute for Taxation and Institute for Fiscal Studies: How is Tax managing the housing market and how can we fix it?
Josh Ryan-Collins speaking from 28m 15 seconds (November 2024) - The Guardian:The UK’s housing market is hurting everyone. Time to rethink the whole thing
Josh Ryan-Collins (July 2023) - The Guardian: Falling house prices may seem like a good thing – but it’s renters who are paying the price
Josh Ryan-Collins (March 2023) - The Guardian: Is the UK housing bubble about to burst? These are the best and worst scenarios
Josh Ryan-Collins (July 2021)
- Meeting housing needs within planetary boundaries requires opening the black box of housing “demand”
Stefan Horn (May 2024) - Barcelona’s housing mission: from a market-fixing to a market-shaping approach
Eduardo González de Molina (July 2022) - Could cap-and-auction resolve the UK housing crisis without blowing our net zero commitments?
Stefan Horn and Josh Ryan-Collins (November 2021) - Is it time to end our obsession with home ownership?
Laurie Macfarlane (June 2021) - When houses earn more than jobs: how we lost control of Australian house prices and how to get it back
Cameron Murray and Josh Ryan-Collins (August 2020) - Economic rent, land and housing (lecture)
Josh Ryan-Collins (February 2019) - The economics of land and what that means for Generation Rent
Brendan Maton (February 2019) - Why can’t you afford a home?
Josh Ryan-Collins (October 2018) - Cooperative communities: why we should have a stake in where we live
Jake Sumner (July 2018) - Land financialisation and rays of light amid the gloom
Josh Ryan-Collins (March 2018)
Our impact and engagement
- Addressing the challenges of financialisation in the housing market, Josh Ryan-Collins giving evidence to the EU parliament’s special committee on the Housing crisis in the European Union (HUAS), from 11h 42s (2025)
- Shelter Open Letter: Economists Call on UK Chancellor to Invest in Social Housing (2025)
- Rethinking the UK housing crisis: options for reducing investment demand and overconsumption, Josh Ryan-Collins gave the UCL lunch time lecture (2025)
- How is Tax damaging the housing market and how can we fix it?, Chartered Institute for Taxation and Institute for Fiscal Studies, Josh Ryan-Collins speaking from 28m 15 seconds (2024)
- How is Tax damaging the housing market and how can we fix it?, Chartered Institute for Taxation and Institute for Fiscal Studies, Josh Ryan-Collins speaking from 28m 15 seconds (2024)
- High-level session at UN-Habitat 2nd Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya (2023)
- La Biennale di Venezia’s 18th International Architecture Exhibition. ‘Governing, Designing and Educating Urban Futures’ (2023)
- ‘Shaping Equitable Urban Futures’ at the 11th World Urban Forum in Katowice, Poland (2022)
- Professor Mazzucato influenced Barcelona's ‘Right to Housing Plan 2016-2025', led by Mayor Ada Colau
- She also helped Camden Council to develop its missions, including their housing estates missions ‘By 2030, Camden’s estates and their neighourhoods are healthy, sustainable, and unlock creativity’
Projects
Homes that don’t cost the earth
Homes that don’t cost the earth
A network-building project mapping the policy, financial and technical interventions that can provide affordable homes for all, while protecting and enhancing our environment.
Council on urban initiatives
Council on urban initiatives
The Council on Urban Initiatives is a research and advocacy platform supporting international, national and local actors to deliver transformative change towards a green, just and healthy urban future