Shiv Malik

We've got one of the best architects in the country, Amin Taha.

We just kicked off our project to actually build a demonstrator house for a four-bedroom terraced home.

And I think, again, people have a reference point for new build, and it's ugly.

They're

I hope they say this is one of the most beautiful places they've ever lived in.

Is that beauty affordable?

Of course, yeah, it is.

It really is.

And look, why it's affordable is because you're actually... Look, agricultural land costs 9,000 an acre.

As soon as you get planning permission, it costs 400,000 an acre.

As soon as you build anywhere in London, it's going to cost you upwards of 10 million an acre.

So people, they're not even comparable in terms of costs, right?

So that's the basic beginnings of how you start to get affordable housing.

It isn't the only thing that you need.

But yes, they will be beautiful.

And actually, here's the intellectual problem, which is how do you then not do...

pastiche right which is much derided and people can also argue the other way and go hey look you're just taking the best of the past and and re-emulating it but for me there's a problem which is to say look at the whole point of forest city or many one of the major points is to say the future is better than the past right if you don't if you simply just adopt the aesthetics of the past wholesale right without any kind of modulation or reformation of it then you know kind of what are you saying about the future you're like oh no they did it better in the you know the golden age was was yesteryear

We can, actually.

We've stated it's a city.

It'll contain all kinds of housing, from mansion blocks and big apartments in tall towers, all the way to two-bedroom houses.