Inflation is at a 40-year high of 9.1% and rising prices are the top issue on voters’ minds at the moment. However, over the last few decades there is one price rise which stands out because it’s being framed as a positive for the public: the cost of housing.

House prices have increased threefold across the past twenty years. Many have argued that the government should build more houses to reduce them and allow people to afford a first home. However, these pro-housebuilding ‘yimby’s’ (yes in my back yard) are often opposed by ‘nimby’ (not in my back yard) residents who worry about the impact of new houses on the environment, local infrastructure, and, it is alleged, the value they draw from their own homes.

“Housing is the most political question”

Former Computer Science student and once Liberal Democrat club (CULA) chair, Freddie Poser, found himself squarely aligned with the ‘yimby’ side of the debate. This year he was appointed director of the pro-housebuilding pressure group, PricedOut.

His belief that house building is “the most important political question” arose over his time at Cambridge. He links the issue to other pressing political problems such as low productivity and climate change, encompassing them all into a “housing theory of everything”.

He has no time for “nimby” arguments against housebuilding. “I don’t care about the character of your neighbourhood”, he scoffs, criticising the idea that we should refrain from construction where new builds could alter the look of an area. He also disregards green concerns, arguing that “it’s completely wrong” to say that constructing high-density buildings would harm the environment. Climate policy isn’t about “maximising the amount of green”, he explains, but reducing net CO2 emissions, which are lower per capita in cities.

“The greenbelt is dreadful”

Particular ire is reserved for the greenbelt. To Poser, it is nothing more than a “Victorian idea” which has caused London to be orbited by a network of commuter towns from which workers must travel for hours every day, spewing pollutants into the atmosphere while doing so. “The greenbelt is dreadful”, he says.

Such beliefs place him at odds with many in his party who exploit local concerns about new development. Indeed, Freddie published a blog criticising his party’s candidate in the Chesham and Amersham by-election last year, due to her opposition to HS2 and developing the Chilterns, a conservation area northwest of London. Nonetheless, he does not intend to leave the Lib Dems “right now”. He assures me that he’s “not a socialist”, and sees the Conservative party as “beyond the pale”. Additionally, he hopes to change the Lib Dems from the inside.

In this vein, he reached out to the volunteer-run pressure group PricedOut over Twitter last year. He began working in publicity, starting with managing their Twitter account before eventually rising to become director. Though it involves “quite a big time commitment”, he finds it “fun and interesting work”.

Poser has appeared on GB News six times this year to advocate for more construction. He has been criticised for appearing on a network that has been accused of platforming bigotry, and he acknowledges that some issues, such as immigration, are not handled in “good faith” by the channel’s anchors. Nevertheless, he praises them for holding “grown-up conversations” about this issue which others eschew, and believes that it is important to spread his message to those who otherwise would not be exposed to it.

He may oppose Labour’s policies, but his final message to the government is reminiscent of Blair’s tricolonic mantra: “Build Build Build”.