China often gets seen as behind in addressing climate change. But having been there recently, this doesn't surprise me - They're really proud of their reforestation efforts, and very much starting to plan for a future beyond coal.

All the main parties have now confirmed they're not standing I believe. So Count Binface could plausibly pick up all the anti-Farage voters....

I don't think @martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com should be encouraging people to open Lifetime ISAs before they are reformed - they're a flawed product and too many people can end to losing money on them. Savers race to open £4k bonus Isa before Labour scraps it www.telegraph.co.uk/money/invest...

New rules to speed to planning for major infrastructure projects come into effect today. www.gov.uk/government/n...

It bewilders me how one bit of government can spend years finessing a new policy (mandating solar on newbuild homes), whilst another bit is busy on its own - TOTALLY CONTRADICTORY policy (effectively banning solar on small roofs, and significantly reducing it on all roofs) 🤷

The Housing Forum has raised concerns that new fire safety regulations could make it impossible to fit solar panels on smaller roofs. Increasing distances from roof edges, features and neighbouring properties will reduce the number of solar panels that can fit housingforum.org.uk/the-housing-...

Was at a great session on the topic of misinformation in social housing allocations yesterday. Key takeaways were that - misinformation is rife - frontline staff do not always know how to combat it -BME staff feel their organisation isn't doing enough to support them. White staff seem oblivious.

Oh dear. Andy Burhnam is going to be on a steep learning curve if he thinks the existing £39bn Government funding could be rediverted to fund "the biggest programme of council housebuilding since the Second World War”. - The £39bn (over 10y) would fund around 20,000/yr - In 1954, we built 198,210.

Why does it cost more for councils and housing associations to build new homes than it does the private sector? www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/why-is-...

A bit of context on Reform's proposals to evict social housing tenants: - 15% of social housing tenants were born abroad (compared with 17% of all households) - Just 7% of social housing tenants had a non-UK passport (compared with 10% of all households) migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/br...

Why do councils and housing associations end up paying more than private developers to build new homes? Our new report argues that procurement processes as one of the most significant drivers of development costs within the public sector. housingforum.org.uk/reports/key-...

Strong words from @london.gov.uk here - directly linking the violence in Belfast to normalisation of violence in political rhetoric, including online.

With demographic change, concerns about the value of going to university and tighter rules for foreign students, I suspect we'll see more of these applications to convert student housing to other uses.

Very interested to see that the Government is looking at stamp duty reform. But abolishing it completely could mean Government loses one of the few levers it has to try to stablise the housing market. 🧵

At an event today with a speaker on business's growing use of AI. They get to a slide comparing household saving levels in 2025 & 2026. Speaker "Er...actually AI made these slides and it's got the 2025 and 2026 labels swapped round.." Not filling me with confidence on the growing AI revolution....

With the Future Homes Standard now launched more people will be living in homes with advanced technologies such as heat pumps, mechanical ventilation systems, and solar PV. How do we build and manage these homes so they work for the people who live in them? housingforum.org.uk/events/susta...

Here are the figures comparing UK and non-EU nationals in Jan 2020 and in Dec 2025 In 2025, it was 3.85 million vs 0.37 million So there are actually 10 times as many UK U25s in paid employment as there are non-EU U25s And the VAST MAJORITY were hired after Jan 2020 8/

Despite all its craziness, "Forest City" does seem to be gaining some momentum.

Government's new towns programme is looking vulnerable to political flux: "Enfield Council has formally withdrawn from the government’s New Town programme, following the election of Cllr Alessandro Georgiou as Leader of the Council" www.enfield.gov.uk/news-and-eve...

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

'Cause nothing says how special England is like copying a slogan from America 🤨

Persuading local authorities to take "someone else's" housing requirements has never been easy. One of the benefits of the local government reorganisation is that in many areas, small authorities will be merged with their neighbours, which should give much less of an "us and them" mentality.

Fundamental problem here is that even if you could do this without causing landlords to sell up (unlikely), there wouldn't be any more housing to go around. Where would the renters who've been forced out by the high rents be living?

Government had, until now, been saying it would bring forward these reforms to the Right to Buy "when parliamentary time allows" - good to see it's risen up the priority list and was included in today's Kings Speech.

We welcome the reforms to the Right to Buy announced today in the Kings Speech. Our recent report called for many of the reforms that the Government has today confirmed it will soon be taking forward in the new Social Housing Renewal Bill. housingforum.org.uk/reports/key-...

A few interesting bits of the Kings Speech for housing: - "Social Housing Renewal Bill" - which includes reforms the Right to Buy. - Leasehold reforms, including capping ground rents - Cladding Remediation Bill assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a0453...

This chart is really worth looking at to understand the difficulties in the housebuilding sector - it costs almost as much to build a house as it sells for. And land prices are no longer that big a proportion of the costs (12.5%).

Cambridge South Station finally has an opening date - 28 June. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Some important concerns with commonhold being flagged here by the G15 - worried that responsibility to comply with regulations will still rest with them as landlords, but they'll lack the level of control they currently enjoy as freeholders to be able to maintain the building & meet requirements.

UK brick deliveries are a useful proxy for new house building starts in the absence of monthly starts data. As expected, in March 2026, deliveries were 26.7% higher than in February but 3.4% lower than a year ago, according to the Department for Business & Trade. (1/n) #ukhousing #ukconstruction

Healthy life expectancy probably doesn't mean what you think it means. Often cited in the State Pension Age debate, recent headlines suggest we’re spending fewer years in good health - but there is a risk of misinterpreting these findings. This @financialtimes.com chart helps explain why.

Enjoying the CIH housing conference in Brighton tonight. But one night in I have pretty much no voice left from shouting over noisy bars. How do people manage multi day conferences without being totally hoarse by a day in?

We're pleased to see that the Government has today confirmed that the Right to Buy will be reformed. We've been calling for these reforms, to reduce the loss of much-needed social homes, and encourage councils to build new homes. - www.gov.uk/government/n...

Freezing rents for one year would do very little to improve affordability (especially if you give notice of your intentions to it, allowing landlords to get in beforehand!) But would cause a lot of jitters amongst landlords, and - importantly - deter investors, collapsing the Built to Rent sector.

This would be a mind-blowingly stupid thing to do at the current point in time, just as the landlords get used to the Renters Rights Act and new EPC requirements. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This is very sad news. I've always enjoyed chatting with @nearlylegal.co.uk on here. He'll be badly missed by the housing world. nearlylegal.co.uk/2026/04/gile...

Rents staying flat very much suggests that any worries about a mass exodus of landlords in advance of the Renter's Rights Act coming in next month were unfounded.

Because GPs spend all their time dealing with the health problems of... houses? 🤔

This is a really good read on the pros and cons of different future energy options. BBC News - Why updating national grid is pushing up energy bills - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It's easier to start wars than to finish them. www.thetimes.com/article/2867...

UK brick deliveries are a useful proxy for new house building starts in the absence of monthly starts data. Deliveries in February 2026 were 0.9% lower than in January & 20.8% lower than a year earlier, according to the Department for Business & Trade. (1/n) #ukhousing #ukconstruction

This was the full quote from Simon Dudley - now sacked as Reform's Housing Spokesperson. Incomprehensibly insensitive.

Unless you're a family with 3+ kids on a low-middle income (getting some UC), in which case your finances are about to get quite a bit better as the two child cap is removed.

"The scheme seen as a testbed for rolling out community-led housing at scale across the south." Hill to build UK’s first large-scale dual cohousing build | Construction Enquirer News share.google/e7GqiwVb1hLO...

The Future Homes Standard (new homes with heat pumps & solar) will add £4,350 to the cost of each new home. For social housing, should we: A) Increase grants by £4,350 per home (which would mean building around 5% fewer new social homes)? B) Allow landlords to increase rents by around £4/week?

"David and Goliath moment" seems an odd way to me of describing well-heeled legal professionals with second homes finding legal technicalities to overturn the policy of a democratically-elected council, which is trying to help local people afford somewhere to live. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Details of this are now out: Looks like Government has learned lessons from the rather slack transitional arrangements for the previous (2013) building standards - *individual dwellings* will have to have started before March 2028 to be allowed to use the old regs this time, not whole sites.

Looks as if the long-awaited Future Home Standard is finally being published today. It will apply to new homes built from 2028 (delayed from 2025 originally envisaged) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

‘The 1.5 million home target. What have you got?’ ‘The NPPF has gone down well, but the market has collapsed. We need that demand-side intervention.’ ‘No money. Just make a new towns announcement.’ ‘They don’t even have planning permission.’ ‘Nobody will notice if we name one after the Queen...’

"What's the point in building housing nobody can afford? We should build only social housing" This question came up just yesterday at a conference I was speaking at. And today @pmsmith.bsky.social explains the answer beautifully here share.google/P8hH0TIv9jWl...