How ever since Labour came to power, the British media has started to notice a whole series of problems they spent the previous 14 years completely ignoring www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-great-...

This Labour government is tackling England’s housing crisis by delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. Today we’re launching the full details of our new £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme 👇🏻 www.gov.uk/government/p...

A freeze to Local Housing Allowance is hard to reconcile with a child poverty strategy (especially if the government is prioritising the After Housing Costs income measure, as it was last I heard).

big, multicultural cities - they're good!

With typical clarity and insight, @richardbrown.bsky.social reports on the government's recently released new Index of Multiple Deprivation: www.onlondon.co.uk/richard-brow... For proof that "north-south divide" populism does nobody any good. #london #truelondon @queensparkkaren.bsky.social

PSA.

November is #MensMentalHealthMonth 💙 Just 1 in 3 NHS talking therapy referrals are for men, and too many only reach out in crisis. At @npfoodbank & The Exchange, we’re helping men connect & take that first step. Let’s break the silence. #Movember #NPFB

Setting aside that Westminster already redistributes over £2bn a year in business rates and other income to the rest of the country as ever external commentators forget (or don't bother to learn) that Westminster combines both v wealthy and v poor areas (my own ward being in the 4% most deprived)

Won’t bang on about this indefinitely but let’s have a quick look at inner London deprivation in this fab tool. Here’s Church St, Westminster (just outside) 5% most deprived in the country. Westbourne/Queen’s Park not far behind. Then there’s Silchester in K+C, White City, Somers Town, Vauxhall..

Latest on ‘London’s streets are crusted with diamonds’: London councils face a £4.7 billion gap in funding for homelessness costs

Surely the task is to tackle inequality, low productivity and deprivation wherever they occur: north or south? London is a city of extremes: great wealth alongside extreme deprivation (come and visit Church Street for eg) and exceptional challenges. Making London worse off is in no one’s interests.

Elon Musk continues to try to socialise civil war, political & inter-ethnic violence in Britain. He combines an argument that violence is inevitable with his call at the Tommy Robinson rally for pre-emptive violence, on grounds of an existential threat & the inevitability of violence

I'm on holiday but so good to see this is finally The Law. For too long landlords have had too much power over tenants, leading to poor quality accommodation, excessive rent increases and undue stress every time your tenancy comes up for renewal. These reforms are a huge step forward for renters

Not unconnected with previous post- I’d love to show colleagues some of the grinding (often housing related) poverty in Harrow Road and on the Mozart estate, the high levels of mental ill health, the homelessness-and then be told inner London councils could afford to lose shed loads of grant.

Every word of this.

Criminally unappreciated factor in underwhelming growth for the UK (but England in particular) - the swallowing up of disposable income as housing costs outstrip wage increases.

Yeah. Outrageous. MPs and their staff should sit on the floor or old boxes. Or just stand. What’s wrong with standing?

Chicago now. This is extraordinary.

🚨New research 🚨 🏠Our latest Housing Outlook finds that the affordability gap between Local Housing Allowance and local rents set to reach record level next year🏠 Read now➡️https://buff.ly/iZ80qbA

Park Royal: London’s Kitchen The West London area Park Royal is the city's kitchen — a place that clatters and steams long before the rest of the city wakes. It’s not a beauty spot or a brunch destination; it’s the vast backstage where the capital’s appetite is prepared. Every city needs somewhere…

Labour continues to do some of its best work in housing policy. www.bigissue.com/news/housing...

So much worth celebrating! Huge thanks to @matthewpennycookmp.bsky.social for steering this through Parliament. And well done to @generationrent.bsky.social team and all those who’ve campaigned so hard for this over many years.

Exactly this.

The key question for broadcast interviews is Has any government done anything like this since Idi Amin? [No] Has any democratic government ever done this? [No] bsky.app/profile/sund...

A bleak dystopia where Sharia law predominates, while economic and cultural divisions mean that the different communities live parallel, segregated lives. Oh, wait, that’s Dubai …

Another reason the government must unfreeze Local Housing Allowance and create a reliable link with rents. We really don’t want to see these numbers continuing to climb.

This is such a welcome summary of where we are. There is a huge job to do tackling poverty and worklessness, but the big picture is that this is all *manageable* and that context matters.

It's Renters' Rights Awareness Week! Every day we have a webinar, covering topics like upcoming changes to evictions, disrepair, deposits and even how you claim back rent. We're also running a prize draw to win some amazing books about housing - don't miss out! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/rentersrig...

Pleased @trusselluk.bsky.social is joining our friends across so many housing and poverty orgs to call on UK government to unfreeze local housing allowance. When it was last frozen we saw how it drove up homelessness, hunger and hardship. UK gov must not repeat such a negative spiral.

15 years of running down local government finances brought us to this. But I don’t believe @johnharris1969.bsky.social is right that no-one cares. And I’m delighted that Labour controlled Westminster Council @adamhug.bsky.social made funding youth services an immediate priority.

Great to work with BBC Verify to evidence how the 90 day rule for short-term lets in London is being routinely broken. Mandatory registration with 90 night tracking underpinned by the use of Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) to stop bogus listings can't come soon enough.

Great to hear @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social @generationrent.bsky.social on the Today programme making sure the voices of tenants and those shut out of the housing market are heard in the debate about property taxation

This is a really important point from @robfordmancs.bsky.social. Local government should be a source of and focus for local pride. It should be doing bold, visible stuff that enhances and reflects community. Instead, currently, it is almost literally reduced to ambulance work.

🧵This is not just an issue for specialists. Official data which is not fit for purpose is feeding a crisis narrative on benefit claims that is for the most part accepted uncritically by political elites and the media.

I did. I do.

Epic; no notes

RIP JILLY COOPER! A queen who wrote THE most readable books in existence. People saw my thread of epic Jilly quotes and decided I was saying the books are shite. You COULDN'T be more wrong. Go and watch Rivals today.

As part of Renters’ Rights Awareness Week, we’re giving away copies of acclaimed books with a housing connection! 📚🏡 Support our work and try your luck by entering our prize draw! 👇 www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/rentersrig...

*gasp*

Listening to Mel Stride on Today, I can’t help thinking what a shame the Conservatives weren’t in government between 2010 and 2024 in order to test their ideas in practice- perhaps through waves of welfare reform, the introduction of PIP and Universal Credit and a multi year benefit freeze

“When I approach the pearly gates, I'd like to hear a champagne cork popping, an orchestra tuning up, and the sound of my mother laughing” Patricia Routledge 17th Feb 1929 - 3rd October 2025 May your wishes come true, you wonderful woman and thank you x

The Home Sec is entirely right. The *vast* majority of the British public will agree with her that this weekend is not a weekend for a march like this. And it will have an impact on what they think of the marchers and their cause.

No question that children’s services in other parts of the country need more support. Equally, London’s children don’t need less.

It’s been a pretty depressing day with antisemitic terrorism in Manchester and Islamophobia, misogyny and abuse of power here in the West End. Let’s see if we can do better as a country tomorrow, because we have a lot to do to help make things better.

My thoughts are with everyone affected by the attack in Greater Manchester today.

Some good news. London is meeting legal limits for toxic NO2 pollution for the first time – almost 200 years earlier than predicted – following the Mayor’s "world leading air pollution policies," City Hall announces. The Ultra Low Emissions Zone - and similar policies - really do work.

I'm getting really really fed up at constant reassertion that welfare spending is "out of control" when it is the same as the average for the past few decades. One reason disability benefit costs have risen is because core support has fallen.

“Providing for every child due to its existence” = clear “Providing only for children who are one of 4 (instead of 2)” = confusing Financial difference = modest www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Snowflake. Farage doesn’t like to be held to account for his racist policies, his divisive rhetoric and his grifter politics - well bad luck because there is lots more to come www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Sad news about Terry Farrell- not only a huge figure in architecture but someone genuinely interested in his local (Church Street) community.