So why am I writing this from a British perspective..? 

Do I think that the UK – England specifically, due to its high population density – will embrace the Oasis-City concept with enormous enthusiasm and lead the world into a new urban paradigm based on pyramidal eco-cities?  

OF COURSE NOT..!!!   

Aside from being the archetypal NIMBY NATION, England – with its very strict building regulations, especially on green-field land – is one of the LEAST likely countries to be an early adopter of Oasis Cities.  Even if building regs were relaxed (highly unlikely except maybe for brownfield sites) – an army of earnest Nimby’s would forge an unholy alliance with the likes of “Extinction Rebellion” (XR) – and other eco-loonies – to fight tooth-and-nail against their own BEST INTERESTS.   I say “best interests” because OA-cities would occupy 90% LESS LAND per capita than conventional sprawl housing estates..!  Furthermore, with 30-40% of each site reserved for a delightful “domain sanctuary” of woodland and ornamental lakes, etc, they would enhance and BEAUTIFY the landscape whilst creating safe sanctuaries for birds and small mammals.  

SO WHY ENGLAND..?

I am using England as my reference case because it is the country I am most familiar with, especially with regard to the eco-debate.  It is worth reminding that England – not Scotland or Wales – is where the demand for more housing is most felt and which is the destination of most migrants, both legal and illegal..! 

Most of England’s political, social, economic and environmental problems are due to over-population – not just people but almost 30 million motor vehicles – the combination of which creates and nurtures SPRAWL, or CITY CANCER as it should be diagnosed as..!

OA-Cities cannot solve over-population but, by eliminating the need for autos and roads – and by simplifying superfluous and wasteful infrastructure – they would help eradicate CITY CANCER which, aside from its ugliness and wasteful inefficiencies, gives rise to many harmful social pathologies.      

Headline-seeking politicians, eyeing up the “youth vote”, constantly bang-on about “solving the housing crisis” by stepping up home-building at at least 300,000 a year.  Which, were they all built in one place, would be the equivalent of another beautiful Birmingham every 2/3 years.  The fact that these hutch-house developments are scattered piece-meal all over the country conceals the overall totality but doesn’t make them any less unsightly.  England’s emblematic “green and pleasant land” is being stealthily erased and buried. 

OA-Cities would save enormous tracts of countryside from unimaginative hutch housing, unsightly “big box” shops with their vast acreages of parking, bland business parks, and endless “road-improvement” schemes, to name just a few.  OA-Cities, otoh, will greatly enhance the landscape since each iconic edifice will be cloaked in greenery whilst being encircled by beautiful parkland, lakes, and woodland glades.

Especially serious for an island, Britain critically lacks self-sufficiency – and therefore national security – in almost every key area.

OA-Cities will aim for 90% self-sufficiency in the 3 essentials for civilised life – WATER, POWER, and FOOD.  

Housing costs in England are absurdly high due to the national obsession with home ownership – epitomised by the manic “housing ladder” scramble, thus inflating the cost of everything else.

Ideally OA-Cities will be built and run by co-operatives, or other kind of non-profit organisation. Apartments would not be sold but long-leased at affordable rents.  It may take a few decades but, once OA-Cities become an established feature of the “housing market”, conventional housing – and conventional cities – will fall out of favour and come to be regarded as obsolete as type-writers.  This will lead to a steep and continuing decline in the value of conventional housing and, once that happens, the “housing ladder” obsession will gratefully disappear.   I believe the biggest impetus for migration into OA-Cities will be the safety and security aspect..!        

England’s overly-generous raft of taxpayer-funded freebies – housing benefit, “job-seekers” benefit, income support, council-tax benefit, “disability” pensions, invalid care allowance, winter fuel grants, single-mother grants, free bus passes, and last but not least the sacrosanct NHS (National Health Service).  Its bad enough that all this free-stuff these benefits are being widely abused but – WORSE – they are also acting as an irresistible magnet for hordes of parasitical 3rd world bogus “refugees” to an already overcrowded island.   The cost of these benefits – both in absolute and % terms – is inflating much faster than the economy is growing – or can ever be expected to grow.  

Finally, in contemporary England (as in other “Western countries”), there is far too much emphasis on “rights” and almost no emphasis on “responsibilities”.    OA-CITIES can and will fix this too..! 

OΔCities would enable England to solve all its most pressing problems – ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMIC, FOOD INSECURITY, SOCIAL and POLITICAL.