The Policy Memo Nobody Wanted to Write

You are a senior housing policy adviser. Your minister has asked for a frank memo — not spin, but a clear account of what must change and why.

Your brief

You have 48 hours to produce a one-page memo to the Minister for Housing. The minister needs to decide whether to reintroduce the no-fault eviction ban, impose limits on institutional investors, or accelerate social housing construction — or all three. Write your name, your role, and the one word that captures the mood of the public right now.

What the minister believes

List two things the minister already believes about the crisis — assumptions you know she holds but that the evidence in the article may challenge.

Assumption 1

Assumption 2

The one non-negotiable

Of the three policy options — eviction ban, investor limits, social housing — which one must the minister act on first? Commit to a single answer and give one sentence of justification using a modal of obligation.

What you must not say

Identify two things a cautious adviser would be tempted to include in the memo that would actually weaken it — either by softening the message or by blaming the wrong cause.

Temptation 1

Temptation 2

Draft the memo

Write five sentences in your notebook: an opening that names the scale of the problem using one statistic from the article; a sentence using 'must' or 'ought to' that states your primary recommendation; a sentence using 'should have' that acknowledges past failure without deflecting blame; a sentence using 'need not' that dismisses the scapegoating argument; and a closing sentence using 'has to' that frames the urgency for the minister.

Read it as the minister

Look back at your draft. If you were the minister reading this for the first time, what would you push back on — and does that push-back reveal a gap in your argument or a weakness in your evidence?

Her objection

Your gap or your counter

The one change that makes it land

Identify the single sentence in your memo that, if rewritten, would make the whole argument more persuasive. Write the revision below. Then name the one word the minister must leave the room carrying.

Why that word?

Discuss Tell your partner: which modal did you use most — and what does that reveal about where you place responsibility?

Society01