Entries for the 2018 Breakthrough Prize

are now closed

 

Thank you to all who entered – the first round judging has

commenced, and we hope to be able to update

those on the shortlist by the first week of October

 

 

A 1st prize of £50,000 will go to the best entry. Find out more about the prize pool here

The 2018 prize question is:

What market-based, popular policy would you recommend to alleviate the UK’s housing shortage, and to rejuvenate our property-owning democracy?

Find out more about how to enter here and view the full competition rules here.

One of the greatest issues facing the United Kingdom at present is the cost and inaccessibility of housing for young people. Home ownership rates – even amongst middle income earners – have more than halved in the past 20 years, and as prices continue to rise there seems to be little political appetite for real reforms. Those efforts that have been made often bog down in local opposition to new housing projects and the unwillingness of governments of all political stripes to take on entrenched interests.

But how can we have a property-owning democracy without property owners? The Richard Koch Breakthrough Prize is looking for essays to help answer how we can find a new, market-based policy to alleviate the UK’s housing shortage, and to rejuvenate our property owning democracy, while retaining its popularity.

A tall order, but we know that the idea to unlock the housing crisis is out there.