My colleague @hannahalothman.bsky.social is in Belfast tonight. This is what she’s seen. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Drawing on qualitative interviews with middle-class households aged 30 to 39 in Paris, this paper examines how parental financial support is negotiated among homebuyers and renters and how it affects family relationships. #EarlyView in #BJS ➡️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

You’ve probably heard of Henry – the High Earner, Not Rich Yet. But what about his nemesis, Richard – who Retired In a Comfortable House And Refuses to Downsize? There are quite a lot of Richards out there. They’re the subject of my column for today’s Observer. observer.co.uk/news/busines...

I wrote a few unworthy words on Marjane Satrapi. Who was a great artist, but, also, an incredible *character*. Blazed up the room. www.irishtimes.com/culture/film...

💭 🎬 L'artiste franco-iranienne Marjane Satrapi, qui s'est fait mondialement connaître avec la bande dessinée et le film "Persepolis", est décédée à l'âge de 56 ans, a annoncé son entourage jeudi à l'AFP.

The High Cost of Free Parking, Dulwich edition.

New research studying the intergenerational transmission of housing wealth in the US finds that (a) it's more persistent across generations than the earnings gap, (b) it widens White-Black disparities and (c) it's exacerbated by local supply inelasticity www.nber.org/papers/w35256

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

Our "London Cool Spaces" map is (unsurprisingly) quite popular today... apps.london.gov.uk/cool-spaces/

1. London Underground station flooding has reportedly been reduced by around 90% thanks to a group of engineers: beavers. After conservationists reintroduced a family of beavers into a nearby city park, the animals built dams and restored wetlands that now absorb and slow floodwater naturally.

My Scottish example of a moving chain from 2015. (I found out a lot more about the people and properties involved than I could share!)

youtu.be/QQYMUMTI7fk?... Economic research shows that building new market-rate homes can start chains of moves that ultimately free up much cheaper ones. Here, Pew trace a real-life chain starting with a luxury building and ending with a low-income family being able to reunite in a home of their own

Interesting post on the plotlands - thousands of self-built shacks, chalets, recycled buses and railway carriages erected on mall plots across the country ... www.culturematters.org.uk/the-plotland...

New #opendata: Output Area counts for licensed vehicles in the UK at the end of 2025, released by DfT following FOI request www.owenboswarva.com/blog/post-ve... This is the most granular dataset available to the public for mapping and analysis of where vehicles are registered #FOI #transportdata

What an absolute gift from @chittimarco.bsky.social Go read it now: tpa.transitcosts.com/journey/speed

I don't believe that. I believe some people of my acquaintance do

Just as a side point to this discussion on housebuilding economics, I'm fascinated by the phenomenon of smart people such as Giles believing that the government has only one housing policy and that is planning reform. The Renters' Rights Act only came into effect a few days ago!

Very good piece by Ben. Another way of looking at trends in wealth inequality is to think about what would happen if we built a lot of social housing. This would have huge benefits for households in need (& wider social benefits), but would probably increase measured wealth inequality, because...

The clearest evidence yet of cyber criminals harnessing powerful AI tools in their nefarious work 😂 (Courtesy of Ciaran Meers on X)

Late to this tomforth.co.uk/densityisdone/, which as always from @tomforth.co.uk is well worth reading, but I'm not sure about the comparison made in the highlighted paragraph, given all of the European cities mentioned are adjacent to large bodies of water but neither of the English ones are.

I am similarly puzzled by the disconnect between Tiny Window Discourse and the reality of what actually gets built nowadays. My own flat has floor to ceiling windows that the 2004 guidance cited here supposedly rules out.

A lovely review of the Farmstead Road housing scheme on the Bellingham Estate in Lewisham for #PhoenixCommunityHousing by #Metropolitanworkshop which won our award for Healthy Homes last week www.ribaj.com/buildings/fa...

📊 Five #ggplot2 functions I wish I'd known about earlier 📊 I've written a short blog (with examples) of some of the lesser-known {ggplot2} functions and arguments that make it easier to create better charts! Link: nrennie.rbind.io/blog/five-gg... #RStats #DataViz

Giles co-authored the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act with Justin, and I was delighted to work with him on other projects too. I was, frankly, terrified of Giles’ razor-sharp intelligence but soothed by his kindness and great good humour. God, we will miss him.

When I first started looking into the epidemic of e-bike fires that's killing Londoners I had no idea what I was getting in for. Check out my @londonermag.bsky.social story, featuring some insane footage of an ebike explosion in Catford that destroyed a house.

New #ONS estimates of #families and #households in the #UK, up to 2025, were released today (www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...). The most eye-catching finding is the trend towards living with parents, especially so for young men. Here’s a thread with some key takeaways 🧵:

Having a lot of older people living in homes with stairs and driving everywhere leads to more people dying in accidents www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Skyscrapers bring about difficult trade-offs between the cost and benefits of density, say Gabriel Ahlfeldt (Humboldt & CEP), Nathaniel Baum-Snow (Toronto) and Remi Jedwab (George Washington). https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/tall-buildings-lead-more-compact-and-productive-cities

i feel bad for our country but this is tremendous content

I’ve been asked to deliver the annual lecture for the Planning Officers’ Society in a couple of days’ time, so if you want to learn more about our research into suburban intensification and the strategic potential of small site housing, see here 👇🏻 www.planningofficers.org.uk/events/pos-a...

Seems a good day to remember that, in his book An Intelligent Person's Guide To Modern Culture, Hungary's favourite right-wing thinker Roger Scruton implied that the Pet Shop Boys made a 'minimal contribution' to their own records. They successfully sued him for libel. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/enterta...

BREAKING: Free parking advocate concedes defeat.🧵

12½ years ago, I made a map of all the buildings in the Netherlands. Unexpectedly, people loved it! Ever since, I have been wanting to make an updated version of the map. Newer data, higher resolution, more interactive! I never got around to it, until last week: bertspaan.nl/buildings

One of the country's finest libraries of books on town planning and housing policy - the Harry Simpson Memorial Library, currently located in Wisbech - is at risk of being pulped. Please publicise and support the campaign to save it. davemnt.wordpress.com/2026/03/26/a...

This might be the most interesting real estate project in North America right now when it comes to the debate over how to build more housing and bring down the cost of rent. Today: The story of a place called Sen̓áḵw and the skyscrapers NIMBYs couldn’t stop. buff.ly/FM2xPrJ

In most regions, starter home deposits have more than doubled relative to the typical salary over time. Read 'Credit where it's due' here ⤵️ buff.ly/0OaFqsX

I defended my PhD 10 years ago today. That was the least remarkable thing that happened that day. Sharing something I wrote about it last year. Since then "the horrors persist but so do we." And with dignity.

We know that homelessness and precarious housing are closely connected to early, preventable deaths, but are we learning lessons to seek to prevent future deaths? That is what research published today examines: homelessinquests.blogs.bristol.ac.uk

What lessons should government learn from the cost-of-living shock that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine for how to support households in the face of the current energy price spike? open.substack.com/pub/rodhick/...

Sorry to rain on the parade a bit, but “doing a Paris” on cycling is quite hard, as the parallels with other places don’t fully hold https://jonworth.eu/why-berlin-cant-just-do-as-paris-does-on-cycling-and-parking-policy/

Interesting today programme piece on regional inequality - but I worry we are still fighting old battles Spatial inequality basically flatlining, the problem is growth - still talking about London as some sort of high growth city makes us complacent

NEW: Young people leaving care who were given a one-off £2,000 cash payment, with no strings attached, were more likely to be in stable housing and less likely to be sofa-surfing – and showed a range of positive health, wellbeing and criminal justice outcomes, our landmark trial finds ⬇️ 🧵

In 1972, the US had more metro lines per capita than Canada, France, or Germany. Now, it's below all of them. It only has 50% of Canada's per-capita metros. In 1990, 4 of the world’s 14 longest metros were in the US. Today, not a single US network sits on that list. www.urban.org/urban-wire/r...

Are you Deaf or Disabled in London and a keen campaigner? You have less than 1 week left to apply to join our team! You'll work either on Housing or on Poverty, in our amazing campaigns team. Find out more: www.inclusionlondon.org.uk/about-us/wor...

Ships are manipulating their GPS signals to misdirect guided weapons. These vessels are showing up on shipping data platforms as clustered on top of one another, noted TankerTrackers.com, a research agency.  Read @nassosstylianou.bsky.social and Malcolm Moore's report www.ft.com/content/eaec...

And now the third crane is almost deconstructed, phase 1 of Sen̓áḵw is nearing completion.

Part of the issue is a lack of growth. A recent study showed that cohorts who experience more GDP growth in their lifetimes are more likely to trust the government and have positive perceptions of their living standards. academic.oup.com/qje/advance-... In Britain, such voters are dying out