Martin Wheatley

The Commons Library is recruiting a housing policy researcher!

As ever: highly recommended workplace, great people, interesting work, etc etc. Apply!

housesofparliament.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

Nearly 350k migrant families could get extra welfare handouts thanks to Reeves NEARLY 350,000 foreign-born families could get extra welfare handouts because of Rachel Reeves’ Budget, analysis shows. And almost 200,000 of them are from just ten countries. Big immigrant familie…

The ‘could’ is doing a lot of work. Data refers to ALL foreign born parents NOT those on UC. Article admits as much but 34 paras in so 0% chance a reader will reach the admission: “It is impossible to say how many immigrant families will benefit from lifting the cap www.thesun.co.uk/news/3755544...

Particularly worried about young people living with some combination of homelessness, traumatic past and support needs. Skilled, kind and sensitive support staff must be able to support progress towards work without being derailed by computer-says-no DWP processes.

I agree, in its own terms, and subject to the points you make. But he needs to pick a side. He can't simultaneously argue humanely and inclusively as he does in the Substack and allow this kind of thing to appear on social media?

Council's legal bill over The Bell Hotel in Epping revealed Epping Forest District Council is attempting to prevent asylum seekers staying at the hotel.

Nearly £300,000 spent on trying to prevent people seeking safety from having accommodation. That's money which could have been used to help homeless individuals or support the community. You know, things those protesting hotels complain don't get funded because of them.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This letter from former Cabinet Secretaries and others is straightforwardly wrong regarding the constitutional role of the House of Lords relative to the role of the Commons. /1

May I also put on a word for cavolo nero? First encountered in Italy but happily in recent years easy to get hold of here.

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.

‘Even Dickens would be lost for words’: inside the supported housing scandal | The Observer

'The whole system is near-criminal in its ability to harvest public money so that exploitative providers can provide inadequate housing and support to vulnerable people'

Observer story on supported exempt accommodation in Birmingham

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

*Shocked face*

Chart showing families impacted by the two-child limit, by work status and specified characteristics: UK 2023-24 Most households subject to the two-child limit (59 per cent) already have at least one adult in work. Of the minority of households that are not in work, more than nine-in-ten (91 per cent) either have a child under three or a disabled family member with additional care needs, making any return to the labour market additionally challenging. Overall, that leaves over 95% of families benefiting from the two-child limit either working, with a child under three, or with a disabled family member.

Most households subject to the two-child limit already have at least one adult in work.

Of the minority of households that are not in work, more than nine-in-ten have a child under three or a disabled family member with additional care needs, making any return to the labour market challenging.

Over half a million children to be lifted out of poverty as government unveils historic child poverty strategy Around 550,000 children will be lifted out of poverty by 2030 – the biggest reduction in a single parliament since records began – as the Government launches its Child Poverty Strategy today (Friday 5...

Govt to end unlawful use of bed and breakfast (beyond six week) for families with children under child poverty strategy and invest in better quality temporary accommodation. Good but why not a more ambitious target for cutting number of kids growing up in TA?

www.gov.uk/government/n...

Also that it was an "immigration special", as if the programme doesn't every week provide a platform for toxic views on immigration.

Reform Leicestershire council leader claims Tory threatened him - BBC News Reform's Dan Harrison alleges that Tory councillor Craig Smith threatened to "knock my block off".

Don't they think the police shouldn't be spending time on "hurty words"? share.google/fizqn8SrnqRX...

As one-time temp resident impressed by a city and community which (by US standards) was inclusive and safe, desperately worried by escalating situation in Minneapolis share.google/vzwoRvu6u15W...

@gavinfreeguard.bsky.social

The Office for Value for Money has been a success | Institute for Government In its short lifetime the OfVM made valuable proposals for change.

A slice of positive budget news last week was some important improvements to the spending framework
I've written about how the Office for Value for Money helped drive this, and why I think others in government could learn from its unusual set-up
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/offi...

I agree on benefit of one-year task force approach and good things in Budget package. However, big shift in professionalism and culture needed in HMT & depts, not sure where leadership and governance of that is coming from.

In tomorrow's paper: "Rachel Reeves pulled my hair when we were in Year 3 at primary". Time to restart my subscription not

Enormous pile of harvested sugar beet maybe 200m long and 15m high alongside a country road in Cambridgeshire

The Great Wall of Swaffham Bulbeck

Appalling cynicism...😉

One would hope more PPSs would help government understand backbench views better and be smarter at finessing tricky policy and legislation. Only time will tell...

London council to draw up plan for repurposing closed schools into temporary accommodation The borough of Hackney in east London is working on a proposal to repurpose primary schools shut due to falling pupil numbers into temporary accommodation.

A grim logic to this. Unaffordable housing means not enough families with children means school closures means temporary accommodaton for familes with children who are homeless

www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/london-...

Part of the BBC's problem is that it interprets "inform, educate and entertain" as needing to be done simultaneously rather than in different ways across its programming.

Hence its political coverage and rubbish like the latest civilisations series. It's ok for stuff to be factual and niche.

MP bemused by lack of Ely North rail junction upgrade After 25 years, campaigners are still hoping for an upgrade to Ely Junction, where five lines meet.

Tale of two Cambridgeshire transport schemes
🛣️A14 2016-22 upgrade: cost £1.5bn, BCR 1.7
🛤️Ely junction scheme, repeatedly postponed, now in long grass: cost £0.5bn, BCR nearly 5
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
@charlotte-cane-mp.bsky.social @cambstravelall.bsky.social

15 years ago or so inner London boroughs had some premium location Georgian/Victorian properties. At a stretch a handful might touch £2m now. But even then there were active disposal programmes on the basis they needed £££s to maintain and selling one could fund 15 new properties!

Together Declaration Background  The Together Association is a right-wing campaign group in the UK initially founded by businessman Alan D. Miller in August 2021 as a platform to oppose COVID-19 vaccine measures. […]

Not sure about the branding www.desmog.com/together-dec...

The Covid Inquiry has missed vital lessons on how to make better decisions | Institute for Government We have not learnt much that is new from the inquiry’s Module Two report.

Here’s a new piece from @rebeccamckee.bsky.social and me on how the Covid Inquiry’s second module missed the opportunity to really dig into how decisions were made in the heart of government

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/covi...

Think this is exactly right - political journalism that is completely abstracted from policy, which was not the norm before 2017, has become the default. Impossible to have a serious attempt to either shrink what the state does or widen the tax base (have to do at least one) on that basis.

Meanwhile, James Cleverly apparently thinks no one living in social housing works (false), and social tenants "live off the taxpayers' dime" (also false, rent covers economic cost including debt service) (3/3)