A new Public First report finds that people are likely to support new housing and other infrastructure development in practice as well as in theory – even if it’s often assumed otherwise. Public First researchers conducted immersive research to understand the balance of opinion in areas across the country, conducting over 150 interviews with locals about specific housing and infrastructure developments near to them. The interviews were designed to test whether quantitative polling can be relied upon when assessing whether people will support development. The research was based primarily in Selby and Buckinghamshire & Bletchley, although draws on findings from immersive research in over half a dozen constituencies across the country.

Key findings:

• Qualitative research closely aligns with our recent polling that suggests people are generally in favour of development in their local area – over half (55%) of UK adults say they generally support development in their local area. Young people, and left-leaning voters supporters are the most likely to be YIMBY.
• Polling suggests the main reason YIMBYs want new homes is to address the mismatch in the supply and demand of housing that has grown over decades – our qualitative research reveals that people are desperate for housing costs to come down to make it easier to get on the housing ladder.
• We found that the many people have concerns about development, particularly the impact of new housing on infrastructure, but that these concerns emphatically do not translate into a rejection of new housing locally.
• In line with our polling, there are a reliable minority of NIMBYs in most areas of the country. They are more prevalent in very small, close-knit communities, although the ‘hard no’ position is very rarely seen as the ‘moderate’ view locally.
• Many people just aren’t involved or engaged with debates about local development, even those living right next to proposed sites, with this group likely corresponding to the proportion of people who select Don’t Know in a quantitative survey.

What it means:

Our research indicates there is a quiet majority in favour of development; it also demonstrates that polling on attitudes to development can be relied upon in practice (not just in theory). There are a few reasons why this is not a widely accepted view. Namely, the planning system, local politicians, and media, all systematically overestimate and overrepresent the scale of local opposition relative to passive acceptance. This points to the need for reform to improve the representativeness of the planning system.

Download our full polling tables here.

Public First polled 2,005 UK adults in an online nationally representative survey. Fieldwork was conducted from 11 – 17th July 2025. All results are weighted using Iterative Proportional Fitting, or ‘Raking’. The results are weighted by interlocking age & gender, region and social grade to Nationally Representative Proportions. Public First is a member of the BPC and abides by its rules. For more information please contact the Public First polling team: polling@publicfirst.co.uk