Bad regulations that require us to build bat sheds and produce 80,000 page EIAs clearly make infrastructure more expensive than necessary. But are theu really enough to explain why HS2 and Hinkley are so expensive? Here's my answer. www.samdumitriu.com/p/how-bad-regulations-make-infrastructure

Nuclear works. It’s safe, clean and reliable. In other countries, it’s affordable too. Here's how Britain can lead again in nuclear by fixing bad safety rules, streamlining planning, and creating new routes to market.

Will Labour deliver its 1.5 million home target? New Britain Remade analysis of planning application data finds Labour are on track to be almost 500,000 homes short by the end of Parliament. www.samdumitriu.com/p/labours-15...

On Thursday night, we heard that government was making big concessions on its planning bill, putting lots more controls on its nature recovery plans. I find this disappointing. And to explain why, I have to tell a story I’ve been holding off from sharing.

NEW: Britain Remade's judgment on Labour's amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Plus: What they need to do to salvage their planning reform agenda. www.samdumitriu.com/p/what-happe...

It's very hot today so I wrote about the UK's anti-air conditioning policies and why getting rid of them could be the secret to getting us to install heat pump. samdumitriu.substack.com/p/legalise-ac

☀️A strong front of warming to the idea of new nuclear power is spreading across Europe ☀️ ____________________________________________ 🌧️There's a high chance that Scotland misses out by continuing to ban it 🌧️

Make it easier for cities to build trams... regenerate post-war housing estates... build new towns (in the right places) Here are 10 ways to revive the UK economy, writes @britainremade.bsky.social's Head of Policy @samdumitriu.bsky.social

Britain’s planning system is broken, and working people are paying the price. High bills. Low wages. Sky-high house prices and rents. A system built for blockers, not builders. It doesn’t have to be this way. 🧵

Coventry is doing something that many thought impossible: building a tram line in Britain quickly and cheaply. Read David Milner of @createstreets.bsky.social on how they've done it and what we can learn from it. capx.co/coventrys-tr...

The Government are abolishing the legal requirment to consult the public before submitting a planning application for major infrastructure. Here's why they are right to do so. www.samdumitriu.com/p/britain-is...

NEW: The Planning and Infrastructure bill will abolish the legal requirement to consult before submitting a planning application for major infrastructure projects. Consultation is good in theory, but it has become a box-ticking exercise. This reform will slash years off planning tables.

"This state of affairs is not inevitable or necessary. It is a political choice. Politicians are choosing a system that will, on occasion, put protecting specific species and environmental features ahead of jobs, growth, and energy security." www.samdumitriu.com/p/the-planni...

London has seen a large decrease in fires (~-30%) and fire deaths (~-50%) since 2009. Very much calls into question the value of the new single-stair rules @samdumitriu.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

You can hear me (plus Rosie Pearson and Andrew Boswell) on the @tortoisemedia.bsky.social Slow Newscast discussing NIMBYism, the Lower Thames Crossing, legal challenges and much more. www.tortoisemedia.com/listen/the-s...

They can’t keep getting away with this.

💫 We’re launching the Centre for British Progress Our founding essay: Rediscovering British Progress is a case for growth that drives shared progress, rooted in Britain's values and industrial heritage. It all starts with a postcard from 1870 👇 britishprogress.org/articles/red...

New from me: The OBR estimate that recent planning reforms will boost the UK economy by £7bn a year by the end of the Parliament. Here are 7 thoughts on what this means. www.samdumitriu.com/p/7-thoughts...

My latest on the threat to the Planning and Infrastructure bill from innocous sounding amendments pushed by green groups. www.samdumitriu.com/p/how-to-bre...

New: Has the Government solved the £121m Bat Tunnel problem? My latest looks at the bat tunnel problem and whether or not the new Planning and Infrastructure fixes it. www.samdumitriu.com/p/have-we-so...

Quite like this suggestion from @samdumitriu.bsky.social that regulators set up 'red teams' to argue the best case against a new regulation. This is better than e.g. untransparent corporate lobbying or govt pushes for regulators to maximise growth www.samdumitriu.com/p/why-regula...

We are in the midst of a global nuclear renaissance, but the Climate Change Committee haven't heard. In their new Carbon Budget 7 advice, nuclear will only make up 13% of our grid by 2050. Why does nuclear play such a small role? In short, they assume it doesn't get cheaper.

New from me: How the UK's Climate Change Act and its system of carbon budgets for territorial emissions is flawed. www.samdumitriu.com/p/the-climat...

The largest subsector of the '120bn a year' creative industries is software and computer services. It is dishonest to use this statistic to argue against the text-and-data mining exemption proposed by the Government.

Olaf Scholz mocked British railways over “broken tracks and bad trains”, claiming that "nothing works any more” in the UK. Turns out: Germany rail problems have become so bad that Deutsche Bahn long-distance service is less punctual than even the worst operator in Britain. www.ft.com/content/d3b6...

Excellent demolition by @samdumitriu.bsky.social of the 'pylons are more expensive' nonsense www.samdumitriu.com/p/reforms-ve...

Richard Tice announces Reform will ban grid-scale batteries until they've 'been proven completely safe'. It's mad gone health and safety.

LEEDS UNCONFERENCE: BUILDING THE TRANSPORT OF THE FUTURE Join us and Civic Future in Leeds on 20 February at 6pm. Britain has a transport problem, this unconference will be putting forward new ideas to solve it. Sign up for free here: partiful.com/e/GvihS3C6zt...

We concentrate way too much research funding in universities. That's a problem when universities have become detached from policy debates, detached from large parts of the political spectrum, and detached from modern management practices.

New: The British government is creating a Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce to make it easier to build new nuclear power stations. ☢️

Let’s talk about mirror towns. They're a way to build homes where the transport infrastructure to support them already exists.

Maybe it is a bit pedantic to insist "decimate" is only used when you mean "decrease by one tenth", but it seems absurd to use it to mean "increase by 6,000%".

A few weeks ago I wrote about the potential upsides of a financial bubble, which I've been thinking about a bunch today. Feels like the market today is actually not a bad example of the typology identified in it - there seems to be almost no spillover. www.economist.com/finance-and-...

Interesting paper on the impact of homeownership on education, using the UK's "Right to Buy” which boosted homeownership by 10pp 1980-1999. They find that, for kids of new homeowners, exam performance, degree attainment and earnings all improved - likely due to greater household wealth. #econsky

New: Labour have announced a big push on planning reform slashing green paperwork, cutting down on excessive consultation, and making it easier to build near train stations. In short, this is what going for growth looks like. Here’s the key changes and why they matter. 🧵

@samcoatessky.bsky.social was expressing his astonishment yesterday on Sky News that the PM had singled out one judicial review applicant to blame for the legal challenges bedevilling infrastructure projects. Let’s fix that 😈 Here’s a story that starts with a man shut in his cellar.

No-hope legal challenges are costing the taxpayer a fortune and delaying critical infrastructure projects from wind farms and pylons to roads and railways. It is right then that the Government are prioritising growth and making it harder to sue major projects. 🧵

New: Britain's economic stagnation has gone on for too long. So, Sam Bowman (@sambowman.co) and I have produced a list of 11 policy ideas that would really shift the dial on growth. www.sambowman.co/p/growth-is-...

This is a must-read. A rigorous assessment of the impact of AI on economic growth written by people who actually understand a.) economic theory and b.) the technology itself. Inference is a really exciting publication. inferencemagazine.substack.com/p/how-much-e...

Stricter housing standards (e.g. minimum space, energy efficiency) are not an unalloyed good. There's a trade-off. They make new housing more expensive. This is a very good post on the case of Ireland, but applies to UK. progressireland.substack.com/p/the-price-...

Hard to enforce, but there's a clear rationale to restrict the use of NDAs. Buying silence imposes costs on everyone. Short 🧵 on what research into NDAs restrictions has found.

Pausing housing construction "to stem the tide of gentrification" is like taking up smoking to improve respiratory health. www.governing.com/urban/despit...

The best thing I've read today. How to dramatically cut the cost of getting HS2 to Manchester by building a brand new station to the West of the city centre. fullsteamahead.substack.com/p/revisiting...

NEW STUDY on the impact of YIMBY reforms in New Zealand. Lower Hutt in Wellington made it much easier to get permission to build at higher densities. The result? 🏗️ Housing Starts TRIPLED! 📉 Rents down by 21% www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The FT reports that Sizewell C's price tag is likely to hit £40bn. This would make it the 2nd most expensive nuclear power station in the world. (Hinkley Point C is the most.) It doesn't need to be this way. South Korea builds nuclear plants for one-sixth of the cost.

Is there any evidence that schools employing teachers without formal teaching qualifications are offering a lower-standard of education than other schools? Or is the Government just assuming that 'qualified' equals better?

NEW: British infrastructure projects waste billions on fish discos and bat tunnels because of dumb environmental rules. These rules make it harder to build new infrastructure, but do almost nothing for nature. Here’s how to solve the bat tunnel problem. www.samdumitriu.com/p/how-to-sol...

Brilliant and positive stuff from @samdumitriu.bsky.social on the culture that created the infamous ‘bat tunnel’ and the steps being taken to purge Britain of the bat menace for good.

Column on how means conquered ends www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Researchers looked at 78 election deepfakes. Their conclusion: we should worry less about AI being used to spread political misinformation. aisnakeoil.com/p/we-looked-...