Oh no, I just listened to the audio clip 😐
I’m not sure if tax credits are the answer but they do have the merit of being *an* idea. Much of the crisis of 2026 can be dated back directly to the thatcher government, and the 1988 housing act. Inside Housing’s news editor Stephen Delahunty did a terrific archive story on this last year
Spending on housing is currently caught in a trap, with a huge (ballooning) housing benefit bill and temporary accommodation bill. Building many more social rent homes would drastically cut both these bills. This idea is to forgo future tax income to inject more money to development now
Some in the social housing sector are lobbying for government to import the idea of tax credits from the US, in a bid to close the gap (chasm) between how much Treasury will spend on new affordable homes, and actual need/demand. Gavriel Hollander explains >> www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/tax-...
"I don't know about it"
On a less positive note, I’m not sure that the artistic value really justifies still displaying this awful Victorian painting (see explanation)
A Jacob Esptein!
They also have this wonderful Paula Rega, standing out on this wall of largely portraits of women as being I think the only one actually painted by a woman
Took a brief break from talking about councils building housing (they want to; can they afford to?), and stepped into Leeds Art Gallery’s touchable sculpture display. Feels deeply weird to touch art in a museum, including this lovely Henry Moore (right)
Absolutely shocking detail in this: electrical safety certificates issues by an electrician that has gone out of business, tenants say no-one visited their flats on the date of the inspection on the certificate.
Come and say hi!
I’m in Leeds for the council housing summit, to meet those council housing people not in Cannes today
The website form of doom
I’ve been reading Nancy Mitford’s translation of the Princess de Clèves, which is worth getting through the boring beginning www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
I think this might be the first time I’ve seen an Abbie Hoffman reference this century
The absolute douchebags. Someone could do a deep dive on how these comments reveal their misogyny (internalised or otherwise) but they are not worth the time spent tbh.
Shhh we are in denial here
Great post! I have to say I'm glad Dulwich Park did survive
That was probably a bit flippant, but the disconnect between the party's beliefs (which I often have a lot of sympathy with) and any sort of workable plan, and sometimes reality itself, grates on my inner Flora Poste
surprise!
Oh this is fantastic. Elegantly brutal and funny. Cor.
A 7am fox trotting up to Sydenham high street
Taking after grandma: my daughter has designed a park. It has an outdoor cinema, a shoe shop, and a mountain region
Another fire has struck the heart of Glasgow – this time at the Union Corner building.
It adds to a string of recent losses: the Mackintosh, the O2 ABC, Victoria’s nightclub. Why do the city’s historic buildings keep burning down? Special report👇
www.thenational.scot/news/2592143...
It was painful to cover austerity at the time. Government of “let’s save money by putting a bucket under the leak not fixing the roof”
Yes that was the worst of the four I have unfortunately read 🤷♀️
I am afraid the works of Thomas Hardy fall into this category for me
Oh same
In the year 2026 there is no take on IWD being insufficient that someone hasn’t written before a hundred times, and it’s not that they don’t have a point, but I find myself having swung around the other way to like people’s sincere posts about their mum or colleagues or Amelia Earhart, or whoever
I have no idea who any of the people are, but I enjoyed this 1970s scene which has “living room” written on the slide
