And, just like pubs, it’s down to the consumer if they survive.
PS. I do try to mix it up on where I spend, like buying all Christmas presents in actual ✨shops✨.
PPS. I love the pub and if wasn’t for those pesky kids would go more often (and also use Vinted less).
Bye
As I collect my latest Vinted parcel, reflecting on how the digital world has come for all that remains of most British high streets: the charity shop.
Great article from @julesbirch.bsky.social on housing announcements “removing obstacles to development & giving owners & tenants more control & better living conditions.” Still missing, though, is the overall housing strategy promised “in the coming weeks”. www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/catc...
Nice to see the launch of this website from Big Local www.learningfrombiglocal.org.uk - I still think about some of the areas I visited when doing research on this resident-led neighbourhood renewal programme www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/afte...
Completely! Could be in so many different places. But I do like that it’s all on one website.
Will also add the amount of press releases recently announcing something as happening when it's just a consultation. And then the detail of whatever is in the morning press release not being available until around 4pm.
Our new report on Universal Credit is out today. We worked with participants from @changingrealities.bsky.social to develop 16 recommendations for how outcomes for and experiences of UC claimants can be improved.
This thread has the details!
The cost of making homes decent will increase from £3.6 billion (old DHS) to £11.3 billion (new DHS). Rent convergence at +£2 estimated to raise an additional £6.0bn income. So still a large funding hole. What will this mean for disposals?
Good points because govt delivering on commitments and a lot of wins from long-term social landlord campaigns, particularly rent convergence (though will increase rents for tenants)
Wow, almost dizzy at pace of change on housing this week. Commonhold draft Bill, confirmation on rent convergence (+£1 from April 2027, +£2 from April 2028), DHS (no mandatory floor coverings but a working group/pilot), MEES, S106 roadmap, and funding and increased HRA threshold for councils.
Busy housing day - BSR no longer part of HSE, draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill published, and Richard Blakeway stepping down as the Housing Ombudsman. With the Regulator also looking for a new CEO, could be interesting times ahead in relation to consumer standards.
I wonder whether studying Shakespeare changes for each generation? That is like another language - can’t say I appreciated it at school and only later felt excited by his importance to English as a language.
Oh, and perhaps Victorians expected more from kids - Beatrix Potter’s use of soporific when talking about the effect of eating lettuce, for example. I don’t think I learnt that word until my 20s!
My 6yo loves Tintin but the stereotyping and language in that takes some explaining. Tried Peter Pan and that was too too much - long sentences with near obsolete words. Interesting to think that oral storytelling never suffered from this dilemma as language evolved alongside the retelling.
Choice based lettings, Anna, so much choice. Joking aside, yes, true. The whole survey is hypothetical as it’s about factors people in the 2k sample would consider if moving. And if condition was all it was then that would make rightsizing easier.
"a third (33%) of those in social housing said a property’s condition would be a key factor they’d look for when house hunting - more than any other feature listed in the study." press.gocompare.com/news/conditi...
I thought this was good - Trump isn't making much legislation, just making "deals", which are short-term, though also playing with the military and economic power of the US and postWW2 world order: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJHP...
“She’s hurting herself rather than studying, because our lives are so disrupted. She deserves a safe, stable home life"
Incredible grateful to the five mothers who spoke to me about how temporary accommodation is affecting their neurodivergent child
www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/temp...
Five days until end of January - will we be seeing rent convergence details published this month??
📅 Join us online on Thursday 19 February 10-11am GMT as we introduce the Non-Decent Index (NDI), a free tool that identifies hotspots of Decent Homes failure in England.
📝 Sign up here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rolling-ou...
For nearly five years this recipe was on my fridge, unused. In the act of taking it off, decided it was time to make it. And it is good. Never give up, team! The right time for your idea or interest will one day come. 😁
Well, there is always the question of what the true picture is like as figures differ between different sources (due to what is counted, time period?). And then there is the question of whether DHS meets what a reasonable person would consider decent, so we await the 2025 consultation outcome!
That’s interesting, so not as much developed then because of DHS? Would love a deep dive into historic estimates of HAs development plans and how compares to reality of what was delivered in face of whatever funding/reprioritisation crisis. And shambolic housing policy, I don’t believe it.
Yes, believe local authorities could only access funding if they transferred stock to an ALMO and PRPs could only access if they received stock transferred from a local authority.
Global Accounts 2025 show record £1.3bn surplus from social rent housing sales, driven by strategic disposals under financial pressure. But with greater proportion from open market sales, how can the sector balance viability with protecting local social housing supply? www.gov.uk/government/p...
In other words, we can build the homes but do we know the actual costs of maintaining them and are rents sufficient for this.
The last big government investment was the Decent Homes Programme, nearly 20 years ago (and not all social landlords could access that) which had no proper estimate of what it would cost to make homes decent, no record on how much was spent or no. homes made decent, and whether best value achieved.
Oh thanks! I’ll have to do my LI post here (got a bit lazy). Having done a bit of a dive into historic housing law, seems that big drivers of change has been trying to shift the (always underfunded) cost burden of repairs and maintenance.
