​​ ​🗺️ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck

​​​Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing in decades to unlock our most limited resource. Is it any wonder houses are unaffordable, productivity has stalled and social mobility has flatlined?

​​​Co-founded by Francis Irving, co-creator of TheyWorkForYou, and Henry Morris, founder of the social mobility charity upReach, Land Talks is a series of evenings to inspire and connect high-agency people to reimagine land for everyone’s benefit.​​

​⚡Lightning Talks, Lasting Ideas

​​​​​Each evening features six sharp, informative and inspirational lightning talks. The six brilliant speakers and their provocative talks booked for the fourth evening of Land Talks are:

​🅿️ Permit to Thrill: What if a Café Outbid a Range Rover? by Sebastian Vetterlein

​Cities weren't built for cars – they just moved in, never paying fair rent. Sebastian traces how cars colonised our streets, explores how we sleepwalked into subsidising their storage on prime public land, and asks a provocative question: what if every parking space went to auction? Could a restaurant’s terrace, a florist or even a pocket garden outbid parking for space?

​🧱 Mortar & Myth: Why It Costs a Fortune to Build in Britain by Chris Moore

​The UK has some of the highest construction costs in the world. But why? Wages? Materials? Or something deeper? Chris digs into the dynamics of Britain's construction market – from the price of a brick to how we procure entire buildings. The answer matters, because you can't build your way to prosperity if building itself is broken.

​🚕 Phantom Cabs, Real Estate: The Robotaxi Land Squeeze by Tym Syrytczyk

​Robotaxis promise a lot: parks instead of park-and-rides, safer roads, cleaner air. But they need a lot too: depots, chargers, drop-off zones and somewhere to lurk between rides. Tym maps what US cities are learning the hard way onto Britain and asks: what must we get right for robotaxis to deliver on their potential?

​🔥 Lit: Did Fire Regulation Kill London's Loveliest Idea? by Bilal Asghar

​For years, Londoners quietly did something lovely: left books for each other on the Tube. Then one morning, London banned book-sharing. On fire safety grounds. Books, it turns out, are flammable. Bilal tells the inside story of how acts of community fell foul of regulations never really meant for them, and what the saga teaches us about making room for creativity in our shared infrastructure.

​🤝 The Trust Deficit: Britain's Real Housing Crisis by Michael Taite

​Michael believes Britain's housing crisis is really a trust crisis. People resist development because they've got every reason to. The government's reforms – lowering standards, mandating densities, overriding local plans – risk deepening that problem, not solving it. If he's right, stripping away safeguards doesn't build homes; it builds barricades. Michael reframes the debate and teases a different starting point.

​⭐ Would Not Rent Again: Why Your Landlord Has No Rating - Yet by Savva Pistolas

​Hotels have them. Restaurants have them. Even dog walkers have them. But landlords, to whom millions of Britons hand over their single largest monthly payment, don't. Savva lays bare renting's information imbalance, where landlords demand guarantees but tenants can't return the favour, and introduces the platform he's building to even the score. The twist? It's partnership, not code, that's the hard part.

​📋 How the Evening Will Run

• ​​​​Arrive from 6.00 p.m.

• ​​​​Three talks plus questions: 6.30 p.m.

• ​​​​Finger food: 7.00 p.m.

• ​​​​Three talks plus questions: 7.45 p.m.

• ​​​​Chat with your fellow groundbreakers as long as you like!

​​​​👯 Join the Groundbreakers

​​​​Whether you’re an analyst, policy wonk, programmer, policymaker, activist, or simply passionate about a brighter, more abundant future, join us at the fourth Land Talks to make Britain’s land system work harder for everyone’s benefit. In the meantime, find out more at landtalks.org.