They're going with 'ended Tory austerity'? For whom?

Like the whole world, I have a lot of opinions about #Starmer & his tenure as Prime Minister… so apologies in advance. My top headline: no-one is perfect. You need other people. So the way you choose to lead, involve others, bring them with you, communicate, listen - is critical. 1/ #Resignation

One of the few places to take the time to get the details right about Carer's Allowance and related issues, and so one less place to challenge to confected ideas peddled by Government and the DWP about it, and the people carers look after.

The modern day equivalent of Lord Haw Haw broadcasting from afar. What's different this time though is the British government broadcasts on the same frequency.

Maybe this time cutting capital spending on the long term infrastructure the country desperately needs to maintain its competitiveness and prosperity will work out well.

The main problem with complaining about Tory housing policies is that most of them are still in place and being operated by his government. I have other issues with this reheated pap, but perhaps I'm just grumpy. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

New Reform councillors off to a great start by refusing to vote on anything because they haven't a clue what anything means, how anything works or what the fuck they are doing. Vote Reform, get lazy, incompetent, ignorant morons.

Tory Jesus Born Again www.independent.co.uk/voices/fit-n...

Decisions in an age of leadership challenges and Leadership Challenges - @simplicitly.bsky.social casts his eye over the 'excitement' of the supposed Labour leadership challenge hqnetwork.co.uk/news/opinion... #ukhousing

Our statement following the publication of the Grenfell criminal investigation timeline today 💚

Full-Time care provides a lot of support to the economy. Much more than the jobs carers are expected to do in order to be deemed worthy by dint of 'economic activity'. Continuing to frame carers who are so busy they can't also do a second job as a drain on society is a big problem.

Maybe now is a good time to publish the long-term plan for housing.

Like many others I was not close to Giles @nearlylegal.co.uk but he supported me and my family more than once, when he didn't need to, and I can't believe he's gone. hqnetwork.co.uk/news/farewel...

So weird seeing this again today. The government's own evaluation of Help To Buy in 2017 said more than half the people who took the handouts could have bought a home without it.

Government spending on housing is billions and billions more per year than it needs to be because losers like George Robertson never built social housing when he was in government.

BBC News leading all its bulletins on demands by former Government advisor Lord Robertson for more defence spending, without at any point mentioning his current paid senior role for US defence lobbyists

well I've scanned through the references cited in & funnily enough the 2015 SHOUT Report does not feature @sheltercharity.bsky.social - our report modelled the savings to #HMTreasury of building at #SocialRent which outweighed the rising costs of PRS #HousingBenefit www.almos.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was @alisoninman.bsky.social @bushbell.bsky.social @tomemurtha.bsky.social @stevehilditch.bsky.social @simplicitly.bsky.social @lucyferman.bsky.social

“That the universal credit cut will affect new claimants says the quiet part out loud: anyone can become disabled or ill. And every time governments slash the safety net, we can’t know if it’ll be us, a loved one or stranger who will fall through it.” Today’s col www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

In my speech on the need to challenge reform at the Northern Housing Festival I questioned how his right wing views influenced his time at HE.

In case anyone was wondering why so many homes in England are built to such low quality, this guy was head of govt department Homes England. No way does Farage not agree with his policy ideas.

As a member of a 'most vulnerable' household at the time, our main reaction to the buffoon Johnson and his lectern sycophants was to ignore him and stay.. more isolated.. than usual. The inability of mostly healthy people to give up a little bit of 'freedom' to protect others is my main memory.

It is striking how little media appetite or interest there has been for the Covid inquiry's conclusions

Government: we're very worried about the negative effect on young people of spending too much time indoors online. Police: if you go outdoors with your mates to celebrate spring and being off school for a couple of week you risk arrest and never getting a job.

In this article, @simplicitly.bsky.social issues a call to action for social housing residents who would like to be involved in the formation of a new national tenant body hqnetwork.co.uk/news/opinion... #ukhousing

Opinion: Don’t miss this chance to get involved in a new national tenant body for social housing << important from @simplicitly.bsky.social hqnetwork.co.uk/news/opinion...

Kicking the resolution of serious issues far into the future is not new, but why have the Ministry of Housing given social (and private) landlords another 10 years on top of the 8 years they've already had to make homes 'decent'?

In this article, @simplicitly.bsky.social contrasts the prescience of a 60s' sci-fi rock classic with the fortunes Decent Homes Standard. Honestly, he does. hqnetwork.co.uk/news/opinion... #ukhousing

Another promise delivered.

Hard Agree*

In his latest article for HQN, @simplicitly.bsky.social looks at self-regulation in the housing sector asks: will it work to build homes? hqnetwork.co.uk/news/opinion... #ukhousing

Southampton man "faintly miffed" at social landlords lobbying to omit decent flooring from decent homes. (me for @hqnmedia.bsky.social) hqnetwork.co.uk/news/opinion...

Ah, a world in which you stealth-cut child benefit and heavily subsidise pet ownership. The British people demand it

I am intending to make it to the end of my life without ever personally using AI tools.

Poverty is deepening. 🔎 Our #UKPoverty2026 report was launched this morning. People in very deep poverty now make up the biggest group of people in poverty, at 6.8 million people. This is unacceptable for the fifth richest country in the world, and it has consequences.

The inevitable outcome of the Camron/Clegg Osborne/Alexander project on poverty and productivity. Many of the policies that cause this are still being operated by our current government, too.

Like every MP who believes that 'claiming benefits' is easy or generous, Farage would not last two minutes down at the jobcentre. They assume everyone else is as corrupt and incompetent as they are.

anyway, I must get back to the long email my council landlord sent me about how most damp and mould is down to lifestyle, actually.

And well worth remembering, as Neil has, that a great deal of the 'regulation' isn't just about building safety, it's specifically about how people are treated, their health and indeed their safety from their landlords. A landscape that is not resolved yet and blatantly cannot rely on good actors.

It is bold of the Tories, which oversaw one of the darkest periods in social housing policy to come out swinging on, of all things, regulation of the sector. Disrespectful attitude towards private renters & RRA not surprising given the Tories torpedoed their own manifesto pledge to improve things.

Initially started to get annoyed at how wrong he is about all the detail of... everything, but what's the point? The long and short of it is he's prepared to see more people die for housebuilder profits.

Unless it actually happens.

**** christmas

@simplicitly.bsky.social's Social Housing Alphabetical Advent Calendar 2025 is now up to 'R' – which could stand for 'Read it now'. Here it is hqnetwork.co.uk/news/robs-so... #ukhousing Warning: the man's sheer enthusiasm for Christmas may overwhelm you

For some reason I have decided to make a Social Housing Advent Calendar on LinkedIn for the main tidbits from the year, and even more foolishly I've decided to do it in alphabetical order. Thankfully @hqnmedia.bsky.social are making a compendium of the daily entries, so i don't have to.

I don't generally watch daytime TV but channel-hopped between the phone-in shows yesterday. The Cameron-era avarice was in full swing from most callers, incandescent with rage that some children's families might be able to afford to feed them now.

The UK, where the day after a decision to take half a million children out of poverty, the media & political world has been full of sneering at those same children & their families, labelling them as ‘Benefits Street’, while the same people are moaning about a tax on £2m mansions. Shameful stuff.