This is good from Saturday on the Environment Agency whistleblower behind C4's Dirty Business: www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...
Like that he was FoI-ing his own employers under a pseudonym.
The local planning authority should check and ultimately go to the courts if planning conditions aren't met. But LAs tend to be quite risk averse.
Developers "who want to build in areas prone to surface water flooding...would be given the go-ahead, as long as they made their estates safe with flood defences...An investigation by ITV recently uncovered ten new estates around the country that had not been built with the promised defences"
"Thousands of uninsurable homes could be built in flood-prone areas if ministers press on with planning reforms [in the new draft NPPF], Britain’s leading insurers have said"
www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...
Helpfully Tim Leunig accepts as a premise that more North Sea drilling won’t make oil nor gas more affordable in the UK.
But his arguments about tax and the strategic benefit of allowing more North Sea licensing are flawed in key ways (as well as in ways that James has pointed out). Long 🧵 below:
Good that control of land is being made more transparent. eg see bsky.app/profile/guys...
Detail of the new rules, mentioned by the Minister:
www.gov.uk/government/p...
The register comes from the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, where we're slowing seeing regulations from the Act coming into force.
It's also part of the London Loop - here's a pic from 2022
'If we really want to get a sea change in social housing delivery, the way HM Treasury views investment in housing must shift'
labourlist.org/2026/03/hous...
"Factory farm playset" produced by World Animal Protection to "highlight the stark contrast between our perceptions of UK farms from an early age, and the dire reality of living conditions for the majority of farmed animals in the UK"
More here: www.worldanimalprotection.org.uk/our-work/far...
"Food" even.
Exhibition also interesting on possibilities for perennial wheat and rice, reducing need for ploughing and tilling, inncluding Kernza "the first commercially available perennial grain" developed by the Land Institute
kernza.org
What happened to it? And how did it work with the shooting game? I vaguely remember it - the Science Museum only had the paddles for tennis/football.
Future of Fod exhibition is also v good on how current farming is not sustainable and role of biotech and/or regenerative farming can help (pic of Bayer pesticide ad - "E605 destroys all pests")
Playing Binatone / Pong at the Science Museum earlier. We briefly had one in the 70s before my brother took it apart to find out how it worked.
"A new Washington consensus is taking shape. I believe it is in our interest to embrace that consensus..."
(just re-reading Rachel Reeves last Mais Lecture in 2024 ahead of the next one week after next)
Our local Sainsburys (from 2025 but still after their net zero commitments)
The Government recently announced a three-year funding package for local councils. Over the next three years, including council tax income, Lewisham will receive £33.5 million more, compared to this financial year. However, taking into account increasing demand, rising costs, interest rates and inflation, the Council will still need to find £36 million in savings over the next three years.
Austerity is still with us - see below from our council's statement on budget for coming year. "Based on current trends in service demand and expected government funding levels, London Councils anticipates a cumulative £4.7bn shortfall for boroughs in the four-year period 2025-26 to 2028-29."
"The average British home trebled in value between 1995 and 2005, but growth has been much more modest since. In fact, if you adjust for inflation...house prices are a tenth lower now than at their peak before the financial crisis."
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
"When people hear sudden announcements making sweeping changes but no details or answers, it causes panic, fear & uncertainty- undermining people's ability to plan for their futures, & trust in the system supposed to be protecting them": Mubeen Bhutta, British Red Cross
www.lbc.co.uk/article/shab...
Capital spending by housing associations on existing stock increased by 15% (in year ending 2025) compared to fall of 4% on new builds: www.gov.uk/government/n...
"There was a more cautious approach in the year due to economic and policy uncertainty"
New evidence from London (see chapter two) shows how developers negotiate down affordable housing rather than the price they pay for land when assessing if a development site is viable. This explains why residential land prices in London have stayed high despite steep rises in construction costs (which should have put downward pressure on land prices), threatening the viability of new developments. It is plausible that these practices may be taking place across England, raising severe concerns about the potential loss of social homes nationally.
Higher construction costs leading to push down on affordable housing provision rather than fall in land values
WHAT IS ‘TRICKLE DOWN’ HOUSING? • Trickle down approaches rely on increasing supply of new build homes for private sale and rent as the answer to making homes more affordable for everyone. The idea is that when wealthier households buy newly built homes at the top end of the market, they free up properties for others, creating a chain that ‘filters down’ to lower-income families. • This focuses housing policy on meeting demand for private sale rather than solutions which directly meet the urgent need for homes people can afford now. Sometimes advocates insist that deregulation alone can solve the housing emergency, and government should even ignore direct levers like building social homes. • Decades of relying on private supply, without meeting the desperate need for social housing, has fuelled the housing emergency: homelessness, rents and house prices are at record highs, and millions remain locked out of affordable, secure homes. • Several flawed assumptions underpin this approach. For example: as the Letwin Review found, private developers will only build homes at a rate which maintains local house prices; Increasing land supply within the current system isn’t necessarily effective at meaningfully improving housing affordability; and each house sold does not necessarily create a vacancy chain, as investment homes remain empty and chains often break.
New(ish) Shelter report critiquing "trickle down housing" policy: england.shelter.org.uk/professional...
(would also add second homes and private rented sector also take up some of the additional stock)
From Knight Frank survey of SME and large housebuilders on which factors have proven most challenging for their business
www.knightfrank.co.uk/site-assets/...
New home delivery metrics showing sharp rise in planning applications (but still below usual rate from 2018-2023)
Savills: "With the current planning environment viewed by some as a time-limited opportunity, there may be more speculative applications submitted"
www.savills.co.uk/research_art...
True. But more about how you have the institutional basis for that, with political buy-in from a range of key political and stakeholder groups, and then flowing into plans and programmes. Rather than the vision itself.
Trying to find what report detail says on this but not that clear.
1. Relevant - match housing to genuine demographic needs and anticipate emerging lifestyle changes 2. Sociable - investigate housing models that foster social connections through participatory design 3. Equitable - ensure access to quality housing across all income levels, ethnicities, and backgrounds 4. Sustainable - design housing that combats climate change to create resilient homes and neighbourhoods 5. Safe - integrate lessons from past housing failures to prioritise protection and wellbeing
Five core themes from the report:
“Targets alone will not shape the kind of housing London needs and we cannot allow the viability challenges to decide what gets built. We also need to think about the changing population and how people want to live now and in the future": Future of London
www.futureoflondon.org.uk/news/why-we-...
Full report: policyexchange.org.uk/publication/...
Some useful points on need for good design to be embedded in new towns (eg through chief architect).
But, knowing Poundbury well, it's not necessarily the perfect model the report suggests and you can't replicate the Duchy of Cornwall role elsewhere
2. A Legally-Binding Vision Statement for every new town A new Vision Statement document should be produced at the early stages of every new town venture clearly articulating its aesthetic and placemaking principles as well as setting minimum standards and specifications in areas like placemkaing, green space and building materials. The document will ensure that the public, stakeholders, authorities and residents will have a clear indication of what the new town will look like and the visual narrative that will underpin its streets, spaces and character. All new consultants, investors, designers, landowners and stakeholders who become part of the new town delivery mechanism, whether this be a development corporation or other means, will be legally required to sign up to the statement upon appointment.
Can you have a legally binding vision? Doesn't making it a statutory thing and JR-able undermine the whole thing about a vision?
