Reform is doing actually-existing YIMBYism

Build the Houses to Own the Libs

YIMBYism in Britain, despite enjoying the support of everyone in politics under 50, has been entirely impotent as a movement. This is down to two main causes. The first is that, despite claiming to be ‘grey tribe’ rationalists who vote on cold economic calculation, most Effective Altruist YIMBYs are like every 21f, 2:1 Anthropology Grad from Goldsmiths and their revealed preference is that they rank signalling from politicians on emotional issues over building houses.

Observe, for example, this meme which refuses to acknowledge that Robert Jenrick, of Reform UK, is the only politician to have promised to build more houses. The same could be said, on the other side of the spectrum, for George Galloway who was rejected on grounds of ‘hate marches’ which, even if important, are by any impartial reckoning less utility-consuming than ensuring young people have cheap places to live. The creator doesn’t support the people most likely to build the fucking houses because he, like the Gogglebox audience, chooses politicians on aesthetics rather than impartial policy assessment. Because nothing is actually gained from appealing to “YIMBYs”, who will vote for degrowth Keir and Rachel Thieves because of Human Rights instead, very few parties are incentivised to listen to them.

The second is that YIMBYs subscribe to what we shall call the anti-Crank School of Politics which states you can only win Big by appealing to Deano and the Sloppy Slippers Nationalists and the Taylor Swift Tories and the Silly Sausage Brits. As a result, no houses at all have been built in Britain since Halo: Reach.

Reform’s announcement that it will build deportation centres in Green constituencies is the best thing to happen in British politics and the beginnings of serious YIMBYism. Let me remind everyone, Reform have only grown more radical since Zia Yusuf’s ascendency in late 2024 and the people who were part of David Bull-era Reform 2024 are patently less radical and more risk-averse than him. J’accuse is always right. In February 2025, we called upon Reform to embrace housebuilding in left-wing areas like Cambridge while protecting their own constituencies. This announcement, while limited to deportation centres, is clearly a continuation of our logic and it is easy to see it being expanded to housebuilding in general.

The principle of the government forcing necessary infrastructure to be built, in spite, of what ‘local residents’ want is the most pro-growth development of the past thirty years. If this principle is carried through by Acts of Parliament and the Royal Prerogative, even if it is only used for deportation centres, it will create a legal instrument by which nuclear power stations, prisons (the deportation centres will probably become prisons in less than 10 yrs!) and reservoirs can also be built. The hypocrisy of the mainstream YIMBY movement is laid bare by the fact they’d rather counter-signal this because housebuilding isn’t happening through their preferred, decentralised, devolution-friendly plan which Hasn’t Worked.

Absolutely nothing has ever been accomplished through ‘the community’, if ‘street votes’ had been used during the Stone Age we’d still be using wood. You in fact build houses by taking as much power as possible away from ‘local people’ and giving it to civil servants. This is what Charles de Gaulle did, and what is done in China today, while the localist powers of the world – Germany, USA and Britain – are also the most NIMBY. Short of a full-fat authoritarian regime, the best bet for housebuilding is that emergency measures are weaponised by parties to punish their enemies. If you are a bonafide utilitarian, then you should support the political Right doing this rather than the Left because Left-wing voters are the more vocal NIMBYs in places like Oxford, Cambridge and Inner London where we need more homes. With Sir Keir, you get (impotent) threats to build 20,000 homes nobody wants to live in in Gloucestershire. With Emir Yusuf, you will see Hampstead Heath turned into a fusion reactor.

A related benefit is that this policy might force urban right-wingers to actually vote in their material interests. Many of the predictable howls of rage from the Stupid Right claimed Reform were hurting heckin Nick 30 ans’s feelings and making the Dulwich Hamlet girlies (310 lbs) upset. Good, I reckon. If people who hold broadly free-market, anti-crime views in London are perhaps forced to bear the brunt of refusing to vote for anyone except the hypothetical start-up party, maybe we’d have gotten rid of Sadiq Khan 5 years ago. If you don’t want a refugee centre in Hackney, perhaps you could start telling your Hinge dates they are retarded and start organising with people who agree with you on 90% of issues but happen to hold more robust views on immigration. The policy is golden.

Are you a utilitarian? … Don’t you want to make line go up anon? You’re not a monkey brain goo goo ga ga tribalist are you? You want the black cat to catch the mouse don’t you? … Better start voting then! A thousand new prison places in Bayswater…