Antony Carpen

OBR now expecting 190,000 fewer new homes over next five years than it did in March. Blames rising interest rates, regulation and tax. Says Your First Home will have 'marginal impact'

Some big new English devolution announcements in the Budget today Govt has set out "the aim of achieving full devolution coverage by the end of 2028" and launched fiscal devo plans

MP for Peterborough.

HM Treasury Green Book for big investments now updated www.gov.uk/government/p... "The Green Book is the UK government’s guidance on appraisal, the process of assessing the costs, benefits and risks of different options for achieving government objectives."

Plus removal of VAT for social housing land (which was expected, had been consulted on), and removal of BNG for more brownfield sites (medium sized ones?)

Housing headlines in Budget: - Extra £430m to tackle rough sleeping - Extra £1.5bn for Social and Affordable Homes Programme - £4.7bn of govt-backed loans for Your First Home scheme for first-time buyers - No more changes to building regs in this parliament except for building safety

"High Value Council Tax Surcharge: Summary of Responses and Government response" www.gov.uk/government/c...

NEW PLANNING DOC: "Strategic data centres should agree a Local Benefit Plan that commits to substantial investment, developed with the local community and linked to the development’s size. This can be spent on local priorities, like transport, parks and town centres." www.gov.uk/government/p...

NEW PAPERS: "This is the full Budget 2026 with supporting and related documents." www.gov.uk/government/c... Enjoy

Background to today's fiscal devo announcements. Thatcher thought local govt was driving business into the ground and protected it by centralising business rates... Now being returned - but not with control over rate @instituteforgovernment.org.uk instituteforgov.substack.com/p/fiscal-dev...

Grim.

Chancellor John Healey confirms 'New access to borrowing for the Cambridge Development Corporation'. This is to pay for the infrastructure up front. Will be interesting to see the detail and how it ensures the developers pay for it via taxation on the land value uplift. #Budget26

I was asked to react to the budget last year & I fear my reaction will remain the same today: “This govt is clutching at straws b/c it lacks the courage to tax the wealthiest & the conviction to support the millions struggling to pay their rent & bills” shorturl.at/Srdl7

They can’t have it both ways - saying the output from Jackdaw & Rosebank is for U.K. consumers, then trying to justify it saying emissions from exports won’t count. Can they be sure importing countries will count emissions? Only the planet doesn’t care which country does the burning. It all counts.

For anyone interested in what Stern & team concluded, see www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminst...

The BBC really needs to be called out for its double standards. Think of the fuss it made when Gary Lineker - a sports presenter - expressed a political opinion. Yet the BBC is happy for one of its main news presenters to peddle this right-wing nonsense in a highly partisan right-wing newspaper.

Re budget leaks, Attlee’s Chancellor Hugh Dalton had to resign after inadvertently leaking market-sensitive info in 1947 IIRC. His early party political experiences for Labour were here in Cambridge lostcambridge.wordpress.com/2018/03/31/r... #BecauseLocalNewsHistoryAngle

Budget secrecy is extremely important and must absolutely be maintained other than when it shouldn’t be because the government doesn’t want it to be

Times Higher Education (THE) journalist @jgro-the.bsky.social, who investigated PhD thesis of late Cambridge professor Jason Arday, is in the running in Specialist Journalism category in the British Journalism Awards 2026 #PressGazette #BJA2026 https://ow.ly/aZBC5101pG7

From time to time, severe weather can affect everyday services such as power, water and communications. The Priority Services Register offers free additional support to eligible households during utility outages. Find out how to be prepared and check if you qualify at: GOV.UK/BeReady.

'Built on sand'. An MP's description of the use of an international study levy to fund maintenance grants in an era in which international student numbers are being shrunk by government policy.

Read the full research here: buff.ly/sdGG9Ps

These rules let developers convert offices and shops into housing without full planning permission. New research from The Bartlett School of Planning UCL, in collaboration with the TCPA, shows the consequences: thousands of families and vulnerable individuals in unsafe and poorly insulated flats

New research: Turning offices and shops into homes without full planning permission is damaging people’s health and wellbeing More than a quarter of a million people across England now live in homes created through permitted development rights.

🔴 Today from 12.30pm the Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Healey MP will deliver the Budget Statement. Watch live from 12 midday ➡️ www.youtube.com/live/o5xt5nG... Watch live in BSL ➡️ www.youtube.com/live/bKqGrzq...

The Speaker’s language re the Jackdaw decision being pre-briefed last week was particularly angry so am interested to see what he goes with today

The court cases stemming from this. Showing extraordinary ruthlessness in their dash for power while showing extraordinary incompetence having got there.

Oops, that was the 2025 data. Here is the top five for 2026. Hillingdon tops the charts as most of those homes went straight back to social rent (194). Leicester is 2nd, and about half those homes are temporary accommodation.

Interesting topic. They are doing this already in relatively big numbers - sometimes street properties and other homes, not just homes that were formerly sold under the right to buy. These are the biggest five in the UK:

NEW BLOGPOST: Picking out some ideas from some Royal Society of Arts reports using FBook data. cambridgetownowl.com/2026/10/27/b... ...and applying them to South Cambridge.

Fleetwood 1-0 Arsenal 25 mins gone www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba... 👀

"Anti-social behaviour injunctions under Part 1 of the Antisocial Behaviour Crime & Policy Act 2014 have been replaced by: - Respect Orders - youth injunctions - housing injunctions" www.gov.uk/government/n... (How long before Hugh Dennis records a sketch: "Iz you disrespectin' my respect order?")

Will we see some new settlements getting their own coat of arms? Eg Northstowe and Cambourne in Cambridgeshire?

#LostCambridge 1907 and all things patriotism were discussed at the Cambridge Education Committee at The Guildhall. Turns out we had peace campaigners before WWI. Rev Charles Joseph, minister of St Andrew’s Street Baptist Church objecting. (Haldane is Lord RB Haldane, Secretary of State for War)

Going into action quickly is crucial

Putting a name on a building is an admission the architecture is so unremarkable nobody remembers who occupies it.

😱 @ the boxy buildings.

🔎The discussion focused on how to measure creative health’s value in ways the health system can act on, and how to link that evidence across NHS, public health and social care. 🔗 Watch the recording, read the recommendations and download both briefings: ncch.org.uk/news/all-par...

💡 The evidence base for creative health continues to grow. The next step is translating it into the economic case that commissioners need. 🧵

Universities are switching to oracy assessments for AI reasons, which is an interesting parallel shift to what’s happening in schools. However it means they’re running into issues around speech impediments more quickly too. A very interesting read…

Buying back ex-private rentals is often cheaper and faster for councils than building homes from scratch. Acquiring these homes is part of how we solve the housing crisis and councils need funding to do it. @helendennis.bsky.social explains in a new blog

We've now added guidance on using AI to compose #FOI requests on WhatDoTheyKnow: www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/request.... Long story short, if you do it, there are a few things to look out for, and we've listed them here.