About Ground Level

Investigative, data-driven, independent. Ground Level interrogates the planning and economics systems that shape housing and infrastructure across Britain.

We are practising professionals — planners, surveyors, housing officers, policy advisers, developers — who work inside the system we report on. We write under editorial bylines because independence requires it. The analysis is sharper when it cannot be traced back to a client relationship, a council committee, or an employer's public position.

This is not a campaign. We do not advocate for more housing or less housing, for development or against it. We explain how the system works, where it fails, who benefits, and who pays. The reader decides what to do with that.

What we publish

Long-form explainers that take a single mechanism — the standard method, the five-year supply test, Section 106, the residual land valuation — and follow it from statute to street. Every claim is sourced. Every number is cited. Where the data is contested, we say so.

We also publish reporting on live planning cases, infrastructure failures, and policy changes as they happen. The aim is always the same: give the reader enough context to understand not just what is happening, but why.

Why anonymous

The planning and housing industry in England is small. The people who understand it best — the officers writing the reports, the surveyors running the appraisals, the lawyers drafting the agreements — are often unable to speak publicly about how the system actually operates. Professional obligations, commercial confidentiality, and institutional loyalty make honest commentary a career risk.

Ground Level exists so that expertise can reach the public without passing through a press office. The writing is unsigned not because we are unaccountable, but because we are more useful this way. The work is the credential. If the analysis is wrong, it can be tested against the sources we cite. If it is right, the reader does not need to know which firm we work for.

How we are funded

Ground Level is free to read, reader-supported, and carries no advertising. We are not funded by any developer, housebuilder, council, trade body, or political party. Editorial decisions are made solely by the editorial team. No funder, subscriber, or source has approval over what we publish.

Contact

Write to [email protected]. We read everything. Sources can write to us confidentially and we will protect that confidentiality absolutely.