David Sexton argues this year's Booker Prize winning novel borrows "the whole plot, the entire arc" of Stanley Kubrick's film Barry Lyndon

I'm noticing an interesting trend of councils buying up new-build homes from housebuilders to use for social housing. With demand from first-time buyers so low, it makes sense that councils could get some good deals. They just need the money to buy them! www.mylondon.news/news/north-l...

New homes: even if you build them, there’s no one to buy them on.ft.com/3Levumr | opinion

A tower block completed in 2022 has to undergo a full refurbishment to fix damp, mould and fire safety defects Amid criticism of the Building Safety Regulator holding up development, it's so crucial to remember why we need to drive up building standards www.mylondon.news/news/south-l...

I'm extremely pleased to be shortlisted for a British Journalism Award alongside some truly top-tier talent

The government and Sadiq Khan have announced an emergency package for developers after shockingly low housebuilding figures in London Affordable housing target lowered from 35% to 20%, PLUS government grant for developers More on how we got here: www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/lond...

New research shared with Inside Housing today calls for US-style tax credits to raise £18.83bn a year for social rent homes. That’s the level of public subsidy needed to build 90,000 social rent homes a year and make a huge dent in the housing crisis www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/public-...

“Ever since that [act], both the main parties constantly associated the two: that we can’t progress race equality without then also controlling how many immigrants we have in this country" Fascinating piece in Inside Housing today from @sajeraj.bsky.social www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/60-y...

Exclusive: Investment giant M&G has widened its focus from shared ownership to all affordable housing tenures www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/exclusi...

New: Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party will move towards a pro-social housing agenda because so many social renters are considering voting for them, Sir Keir Starmer’s former economic advisor has said www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/reform-...

Nothing in this acknowledges the economic reality of why many brownfield sites don’t get away as housing: they’re not financially viable unless someone (usually us, in some form) pays for them to be cleaned up and made ready

It's My Party and I'll cry if I want to

Shockingly poor housebuilding figures emerged from London over the summer Just 2,158 private homes were started in the first half of the year according to Molior: the lowest figure since 2009 I spoke to developers and deputy mayor Tom Copley to find out where we go from here 🧵

Does build-to-rent drive up rents in nearby areas? The truth is much more complex, argues Michael Keaveney, director of land and development at Grainger, in Inside Housing today www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/buil...

Exclusive: An £800m government scheme to decarbonise social homes has underperformed with less than a third of targeted retrofits completed www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/just-27...

Definitely a contender for best list of Alternative Names on a Wikipedia page

“For all his reputation as an elder statesman of solid literary fiction, Ian McEwan’s 50-year career has been characterised by eccentricities and surprising left-turns.” Me on McEwan’s strangest novel yet, What We Can Know, about poetry, murder and the long view of human development:

William Boyd’s new spy novel is full of JFK conspiracy theories. Who does he think is the most entertaining culprit for the president’s assassination? Here’s my review for @thetimes.com - link below

I reviewed the first ever Fitzcarraldo novel on the Booker Prize longlist: One Boat by Jonathan Buckley, a tale of guilt and grief on the Greek coast. It’s intermittently absorbing with flourishes of beauty - but it evaporates in the memory. Link to my Sunday Times piece below

We have a really interesting story today by @jamesriding.bsky.social on a modular factory staffed by prisoners on day release. This type of project has good evidence that it reduces reoffending. A portion of wages go to a fund to support victims. www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/a-mo...

As a reporter covering housing I find Manchester fascinating. In just 14 years, the city centre population has almost trebled. Meanwhile the number of people on the waiting list for a social home has gone from 0 to 11,500. My dispatch from the council: www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/skys...

Great to see Ben Markovits longlisted for the Booker Prize for his novel The Rest of Our Lives - a slim study of middle-aged ennui set on the US highway. Here's my review for @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

Loving this month's cover @insidehousing.bsky.social!

A street in Mayfair where William Blake once lived is being refurbished and turned back into housing - including 11 affordable homes. I took a look round and spoke to the developers about the “mind-forged manacles” of conservation policy www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/how-...

The prime minister writes exclusively for Inside Housing today He discusses the new Affordable Homes Programme and warns “if we don’t build more homes, the consequences will be dire” www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/sir-...

We have lift-off. The first Inside Housing Living Bulletin has been sent! To find out why we have widened our gaze to the wider residential market, read my column www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/a-ne...

Great scene from Martin Amis's Money about a one-sided tennis match between overweight alcoholic John Self and lean young Fielding, "raised on steaks and on milk sweetened with iron and zinc"

Big news today at Inside Housing - we are expanding our coverage beyond social housing. My colleague @jamesriding.bsky.social, who is leading on our new patches, explains why we’ve made this decision:

JLL predicts the government's new £39bn Affordable Homes Programme could fund up to 500,000 homes over the next decade or 50,000 a year "at a stretch". Note they would be spread between social rent, affordable rent and shared ownership. And gov target is 1.5 million homes of all tenures-in 5 years!

Now we know what Labour's “biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation” amounts to. I was prepared for the worst, but it's actually very positive news. 🏠£39bn grant funding over 10 years 🏠10-year rent settlement for landlords - with rent convergence

Remember American Dirt? Or more likely, remember the controversy around American Dirt? Five years on from her cancellation, Jeanine Cummins has produced a new novel about an Irish-Puerto Rican family. I liked it a lot: it's summery, romantic and a pleasure to read

"Cummins, who is not Mexican, had committed the grievous sin of imagination."

Remember American Dirt? Or more likely, remember the controversy around American Dirt? Five years on from her cancellation, Jeanine Cummins has produced a new novel about an Irish-Puerto Rican family. I liked it a lot: it's summery, romantic and a pleasure to read

“Sub-editors busied themselves with their humdrum task of reducing to blank nonsense the sheaves of misinformation which whistling urchins piled before them” - Evelyn Waugh, Scoop

Really enjoyed this fresh, smart funny romcom @riversidelondon.bsky.social - Writer/actor Keelan Kember is a winning mix of Hugh Grant and Will from the Inbetweeners

In today’s @thetimes.com I review Ben Markovits’s new novel - the story of a man who escapes his ‘C-minus marriage’ by taking an impromptu road trip across America. It’s also a good excuse to use one of my favourite Peep Show quotes www.thetimes.com/article/93d6...

Incredible story in the new Private Eye about Tesco executives sitting in on the Daily Mirror’s news conference, and stories favourable to Tesco appearing in subsequent issues of the paper:

This is amazing from @londoncentric.media - the councillor who oversaw the sale of London’s most expensive council house in 2013 has now entered a prize draw to win it for himself!

Private capital is pouring into affordable housing — and Inside Housing is stepping up its coverage to match. Today @jennymessenger.bsky.social and I dive into the growth of for-profit housing providers, who collectively own over 40,000 homes. www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/stoc...

Proud of my showing in the April issue of Inside Housing 🏘️I went to Cranbrook, Devon to learn how (and how not) to build a new town 🏘️Investigation into for-profits and how private capital is shaping housing (with @jennymessenger.bsky.social) 🏘️Interviewed Places for People CEO Greg Reed

Exclusive: Capital Letters, the company set up by a group of London boroughs to address homelessness and reduce spending on temporary accommodation, is at risk of closure www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/exclusi...

The Right to Roam campaign is demanding more access to the English countryside in law. But Patrick Galbraith is opposed. I reviewed his curious-minded counterblast for @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

The UK spends a gigantic amount on housing benefit – £29bn in 2022 – to help people on low incomes in the private rented sector. But it’s not working. How did we get into this mess? Let’s take a step back.

Pretty ironic hearing George Osborne narrate an ad for social housing. He oversaw the 2011 cut to grant funding that meant we essentially stopped building social rent homes in favour of more expensive “affordable rent”

New: A shared owner is fearing a £50,000 cladding bill as his building does not fall under protections in the Defective Premises Act www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/gap-in-...

I hadn't appreciated how PIP is a "passport" to other benefits including higher housing allowance. Losing it could be the difference between affording a one-bed and being forced into shared accommodation

MP Andrew Lewin writes for Inside Housing today on how the Planning Bill could help the government replicate the success of the original post-war new towns

How to actually solve a cladding crisis - lessons from Australia peteapps.substack.com/p/how-to-act...

Promise 160 social homes, get planning approval, then switch them to higher "affordable rent" 👀

I spoke to new Homes England boss Eamonn Boylan about how and why the agency needs to evolve www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/new-hom...