The Great British Housing Crisis: Is a Brand New Mega-City the Answer? (Shiv Malik)
6/18/20261 hr 3 min
This week, Amol is joined by the author and journalist Shiv Malik, to discuss his plan to build a new mega-city from scratch in East Anglia.
In 2010 Shiv Malik wrote a book called the Jilted Generation, which argued that anyone born since 1979 has been robbed of their future because of how expensive home ownership has become.
Now, he’s dedicating his life to a plan for a new city that he thinks will save Britain, and prove that we can be builders again.
Shiv wants to build ‘Forest City’ on 45,000 acres of farmland in East Anglia. His vision is one of Canary Wharf style sky-scrapers surrounded by England’s largest nature reserve of 12,000 acres, with 400,000 affordable homes for one million people.
The ambitious project has got some big economists and architects very excited. But people living in the proposed area are extremely upset by the prospect, with some experts saying it isn’t even logistically possible.
We put those challenges to Shiv, and find out why he thinks that his radical idea is necessary not just for housing British people, but also rebuilding British ambition.
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Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and Monday.
Amol Rajan presents the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and hosts University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was the BBC’s media editor and the editor of The Independent newspaper.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Rufus Gray, Oscar Pearson, and Julian Paszkiewicz. Digital production was by Leona Gasper. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The series producer is Rufus Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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First 90 secondsAmol Rajan· Host0:00
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[upbeat music] Hello, Radical listeners. Let me tell you about a very, very, very exciting guest that we've got coming on soon. I'm gonna be speaking to Oisin Rogers. He is a legendary landlord. He's been running some of the UK's most celebrated pubs for over a decade, doing it rather well according to most of his customers. But why am I talking to a pub landlord on this podcast? Well, Radical is a place where we talk about the radical changes and trends shaping our lives. And if you imagine in your mind's eye a few of the most recognizable touchstones