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Just audibly LOL'ed at the headline to @ollywainwright's piece on Leeds' latest and forthcoming architectural additions. I shall enjoy reading it and I urge my most Leeds-proud followers to remain positive whether you agree or disagree. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jul/09/why-leeds-looks-like-a-depot-of-discarded-fridges-yorkshire-tallest-building
"These luxury residential havens will be a stark arrival to what is one of the most deprived wards in the country." > but the whole piece is about how crap they are. Which is it? Luxury or crap?
Big fan of the sole positive comment. "Coming from a low rise city, I find the ambition, if not always the execution, in Leeds inspiring. As someone said, the view driving in the M621 is kinda cool."
Here's my three tweet explanation of housing and land use in Leeds. First up, you need to understand the politics. Since 2015 (still miss you Ed), the MPs for Leeds have been a fortress of Labour surrounding by Tories. The Tories are one issue above all else -- GREENBELT!!!
They really care about Leeds' greenbelt. And to be fair, MPs are meant to represent their constituents, and their constituents do care quite a lot about the greenbelt, specifically not building anything on any of it. So Leeds is quite squeezed in.
Leeds City Council ran a really big consultation to assign land for development a few years ago -- Leeds Site Allocations. About 10,000 responses. I got them all put them all through a computer --- TLDR: almost everyone who wrote in from everywhere opposes new homes near them.
There was one exception. There wasn't much opposition to building in the city centre. Lots of people opposing development near them even suggested using that brownfield land for housing. So -- and I do think we underappreciate this element of local government -- Leeds listened.
So that's why Leeds city council gives permission for so many very tall buildings in the city centre. Because with so little land to play with and with no tram to join together areas of flats (as in Manchester), there's little other way the city can meet its housing targets.
Lots of data and maps and analysis of the Leeds Site Allocations process and where Leeds has built homes for the past few decades and where it is planning to build homes in the future. Perhaps best consumed with a chaser of knowing that Leeds has no money. https://www.tomforth.co.uk/flatsandmarkets/
Leeds isn't out of cash because it's badly run. The executive side is efficient and widely praised. The local Tories and Labour will of course bicker a bit, but neither one is calling the other corrupt or useless. That's just local government. It's bust. https://www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/devolution/2020/06/leeds-city-council-faces-200m-black-hole
A 2-bed flat in Leeds city centre will cost you £150k to £200k. Depends on how nice you want it to be, where you want it to be etc...
My substantial approval of the work of the UK's planners within the constraints we give them is consistent. 
