Dr Christine Corlet Walker
About
Biography
Christine is a political economist who specialises in postgrowth economics and the privatisation of social care, healthcare and pensions. Her research with the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity asks how we can build resilient welfare systems that meet the needs of all within the means of the planet. Most recently, she has looked at how predatory financing in the care sector is creating poor outcomes for care workers and service users.
She has presented her work on growth dependency to policymakers at the European Commission, as well as the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Limits to Growth. Christine drafted a series of amendments to the Health & Care Bill that were debated in the House of Lords in early 2022, as well as co-developing a House of Commons Early Day Motion on the financialisation of adult social care. Her work has featured in The Morning Star, The Daily Express, The Guardian, The Conversation, BBC Radio Surrey and on a recent episode of BBC Panorama's Crisis in Care series.
Alongside her core PhD research, Christine has collaborated with national and international charities, NGOs and research institutes on projects addressing alternative indicators of societal welfare, the UK's housing crisis, wellbeing economics, and nature restoration. Prior to CUSP, she worked for several years as a third sector consultant and researcher. Christine holds an MSc in Ecological Economics from the University of Edinburgh, and an MA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge.
News
In the media
Publications
Secure housing is core to the Sustainable Development Goals and a fundamental human right. However, potential conflicts between housing and sustainability objectives remain under-researched. We explore the impact of current English government housing policy, and alternative housing strategies, on national carbon and biodiversity goals. Using material flow and land use change/biodiversity models, we estimate from 2022 to 2050 under current policy housing alone would consume 104% of England's cumulative carbon budget (2.6/2.5Gt [50% chance of < 1.5 C]); 12% from the construction and operation of newbuilds and 92% from the existing stock. Housing expansion also potentially conflicts with England's biodiversity targets. However, meeting greater housing need without rapid housing expansion is theoretically possible. We review solutions including improving affordability by reducing demand for homes as financial assets, macroprudential policy, expanding social housing, and reducing underutilisation of floor-space. Transitioning to housing strategies which slow housing expansion and accelerate low-carbon retrofits would achieve lower emissions, but we show that they face an unfavourable political economy and structural economic barriers.