Jamie Ratcliff

Well done Harry Kane. A deserved winner of the Balloon d'Or.

I don’t think: ‘we are bound by our current manifesto so things are going to be tough for a few years but don’t worry, if you vote for us again things will get better but also taxes will rise’ is a good political strategy.

Undercover footage verified by Channel 4 News reveals a secret plot by senior Reform UK figures to break the law on party donations. A leading legal expert is now calling for a criminal investigation. 🔗 Read the exclusive story on Substack:

🚨🚨🚨 Episode 180 of 50 Shades of Planning is available now via this link or from the usual podcast platforms. Viable Options. pod.co/50-shades-of...

It would be a terrible shame if this resource was lost for want of an archive - this stuff is still of major interest to policymakers today and is a crucial part of the social history that made the Britain of today (HT @municipaldreams.bsky.social )

Being able to write this is one of the coolest things I’ve got to do in a long time! There may even be some free clicks left on this link - indulge your inner dodgy shop owner.

Dining across the housing divide with Jamie Ratcliff - We debate housing supply, rent control, building safety and more: peteapps.substack.com/p/dining-acr...

Recommend this thoughtful and informed discussion between Pete and @jamrat.co.uk, my only criticism being a regrettable lack of detailed descriptions of food.

The impact of the alphabet on electoral performance is real (data from 2023 locals): ⬇️Every position lower on the ballot within your party costs ~1.2 percentage points of vote share. ⬆️Being an incumbent is worth ~1.7 percentage points so being 2nd wipes out 70% of the incumbency advantage.

If Andy Burnham fights a by-election, what is the message on his leaflets? Vote Labour to get rid of the Prime Minister??

The real takeaway from this is just what a disaster statutory obligations are for democracy. An attempt to hide where the costs go that has screwed over all the most visible bits of government and has empowered popularism by forcing councils to make choices no one in their right mind would vote for.

The housing statutory obligation is the same. Councils paying through the eyes to out people in temporary accommodation and the costs starved out any ability to make the changes that might slowly be able to solve the underlying problems.

Second staircases in buildings under 30m height will save one life every 6,153 years, but this requirement is reducing housebuilding, so 90,000 fewer homes built over 5 years. Meanwhile 74 children have died from poor conditions temporary accommodation in 5 years. www.thetimes.com/business/com...

The Times have covered our first published research on the impact on supply and safety of second staircases in buildings 18-50metres in height www.thetimes.com/business/com...

You can read the full research here placebase.co.uk/research#116...

Planning approvals in England are reaching record lows. We’ve just published the latest Housing Pipeline report, which serves as a vital barometer for permissions granted and strongly indicate what we can expect for future housing supply. 🧵👇

What about biggest success? Here it’s not a particularly cheery verdict from the public. Asked in their own words, nothing dominates the word cloud, followed by the NHS.

And lastly, here is our timeline of all the key events in the Starmer government's first year in office.

Good piece here by Nick Robinson but am I the only one who can't imagine Keir Starmer saying this?! ⬇️ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

#NoFilter

I’m looking forward to publication of the list of projects* which under the current Green Book the answer is no but under the new revised Green Book the answer is yes. * BTW I don’t expect this to happen. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Early start on my way to Leeds... #UKREiiF #Ukhousing

I just opened my second bottle of the Thompson Bros mystery malt in a blind tasting and guessed it correctly! youtube.com/shorts/0rCuy...

There’s one war No 10 is ready to fight: against the OBR, impact assessments, the civil service fast stream… Starmer’s strategists now claim to want a government so small they can drown it in the bathtub Column in today’s Times: www.thetimes.com/article/4665...

everything, absolutely everything in your life, is ultimately decided by a group chat and some emojis www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

What a hammering! We're all Scots now... #WalEng #SixNations

It's likely the OBR informed the Chancellor that she is on track to miss her target of covering day-to-day spending with taxation in five years’ time. How might Rachel Reeves respond on March 26th? @ruthcurtice.bsky.social discusses the tricky choices facing the Chancellor 👇 buff.ly/rW7Iv33

Thoughtful research from Public First. Housebuilding is the only domain where the areas with the least need said it was a bigger issue. And the decline of the high streets and the lack of parking are great levellers - keenly felt regardless of need:

I’ve written to the Chair of HM Land Registry to set out the government’s priorities for the organisation over the coming year. These include opening up existing data and widening and deepening transparency of land ownership and control. www.gov.uk/government/p...

Huge win! Government announces plans to open up the Land Registry. If delivered, will finally reveal more about who owns land in England and Wales. Read my blog post for more details & how you can write to the Minister to make sure this now happens: whoownsengland.org/2025/03/06/h... 🧵1/

This is very funny.

From YouGov: European favourability towards the USA falls following the return of Donald Trump “In Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Spain and Italy, these are the lowest figures for USA favourability since we began tracking this question.”

I see Greenpeace is opposing… (checks notes)… solar energy. www.rechargenews.com/energy-trans...

Here's how to visualise the PM's claim that taking defence spending to 2.5% of GDP in 2027 means an annual increase of £13.4bn. It relies on the counterfactual that defence spending would have been flat in cash terms over the preceding three years...

good afternoon, HS2

Column. On the mad right-wing ARC conference, and how peculiarly frightened they all seem to be of completely made up things, while somehow never really mentioning real things at all. www.thetimes.com/article/25dc...

What needs to happen to avoid this all-too-likely disaster? My hope lies with Europe, with the appearance of a leader with Churchill’s resolve, the spirit to say we will never surrender, we will defend all of Europe, from Ukraine to Portugal.🧵15/17

I'm a traditionalist (and I can't find my Italian whisky) so here's my five nations whisky line up.

Sensational, spiky and doomed: we’re at Minster Court. On @grindrod.bsky.social’s podcast, Monstrosities Mon Amour, I talk about Minster Court and PoMo. Grim plans are afoot to destroy this gem and build new offices in the International Monied Wherever style. www.johngrindrod.co.uk/podcast

The transformation of Basingstoke’s iconic "Hanging Gardens" into Plant shows why our town is the place to invest. A 70s landmark, reimagined for the future - where sustainability and innovation come together to create a state-of-the-art workspace. Economic growth 🤝 climate responsibility

I somehow missed this. It will of course be booted into the considered-to-be-Tory bucket labelled 'Deregulation' and scoffed at, but I think that's a mistake. It has become impossible to build anything big in this country unless there's firm political will behind it. That has to change.

10/ Yet what we can say is that decisions regarding housing consumption are motivated by more than finances. And (ironically for Monbiot), they are heavily constrained by a lack of supply, in particular supply that improves affordability and wellbeing. housingevidence.ac.uk/moving-house...

Here's an example of a station 54 minutes by train from London. Fields within 2 minutes walk. Anyone living here could be in the heart of the city an hour after leaving home.