Andrew Fisher

How myth of shared ownership has made housing crisis worse Six years ago, one of Inside Croydon’s loyal readers reported on the sheer unaffordability of the shared ownership homes being built in the borough by Brick by Brick. Now, as ANDREW FISHER ex…

I wrote a piece last year about leasehold ground rent costs in Croydon for those buying through shared ownership ...

Ironically, the MP for Streatham & North Croydon, Steve Reed, is now the Secretary of State for Housing

insidecroydon.com/2024/04/04/h...

Treasury trying to block Labour pledge on £250 ground rent cap Angela Rayner leads backbench demands for ministers to keep their promise to reform leasehold system and save homeowners thousands of pounds

This would be a massive betrayal of leaseholders and Labour's manifesto pledge to them ...
inews.co.uk/news/treasur...

Wes Streeting orders review of mental health diagnoses as benefit claims soar Health secretary has asked experts to investigate whether normal feelings have become ‘over-pathologised’

According to @rethinkcharity.bsky.social "eight times as many people are still waiting for mental health treatment after 18 months compared to physical health care"

But yeah, let's pretend the problem is *over*diagnosis ...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Ever get the feeling you're being ripped off?

Ever get the feeling you're being ripped off?

Angela Grant says DWP members will be balloted for strike action over low pay, because it's not right that Government employees are on the national living wage

Angela Grant, PCS DWP President, says she claims PIP to be able to work in DWP, and was worried that if PIP cuts went ahead she would not have been able to carry on working.

Motability users are no fraudsters - Labour will pay for hurting disabled people The Motability reforms sum up everything that is wrong with Keir Starmer's Government

John also raises his concerns about cuts to Motability announced in #Budget2025 ...
inews.co.uk/opinion/mota...

. @johnmcdonnellmp.bsky.social says there is no case for raising the state pension age further

Life expectancy has stagnated, and McDonnell points out that even living longer doesn't necessarily mean being able to work longer

£2 billion cut from Universal Credit health element which the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says will drive 50,000 disabled people into poverty.

Ellen Clifford from @dis-ppl-protest.bsky.social says despite the "massive" reversal PIP, huge cuts to the health element of Universal Credit still went through ...

Fran Heathcote also points out the social security is not ballooning.

This @resolutionfoundation.org chart shows welfare spending has been broadly flat for 15 years (and OBR projects it will remain so until at least 2031)

PCS general secretary says thousands of the DWP's own staff have to claim Universal Credit from the DWP because pay in the DWP is so low

At the launch of new @pcsunion.bsky.social Social Security: There is Alternative pamphlet

Read online at: mypcs.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/#1t000...

Motability users are no fraudsters - Labour will pay for hurting disabled people The Motability reforms sum up everything that is wrong with Keir Starmer's Government

"It’s a vital part of social inclusion, in a world that excludes people with disabilities and costs them more to do the things that many of the rest of us take for granted."

My column on Motability in @theipaper.com today
inews.co.uk/opinion/mota...

Yeah it's a reasonable analogy, but I bet she and the midwife weren't tweeting legal threats at each other for the rest of us to watch

Motability users are no fraudsters - Labour will pay for hurting disabled people The Motability reforms sum up everything that is wrong with Keir Starmer's Government

"It’s a vital part of social inclusion, in a world that excludes people with disabilities and costs them more to do the things that many of the rest of us take for granted."

My column on Motability in @theipaper.com today
inews.co.uk/opinion/mota...

My contribution to @theipaper.com on mental health and social security...

Read in full at inews.co.uk/opinion/ment...

My contribution to @theipaper.com on mental health and social security...

Read in full at inews.co.uk/opinion/ment...

12,500 Croydon children lifted out of poverty by scrapping the two-child benefit cap. But what about homelessness? ANDREW FISHER pores over the fine detail in the Budget, including more income tax, lower energy bills and frozen rail fares, and highlights some of the important areas that were not addressed by Ch…

My analysis of #Budget2025 with a Croydon focus* for @insidecroydon.bsky.social

*but with much that applies generally!
insidecroydon.com/2025/11/28/1...

Badenoch falls down on the last two

12,500 Croydon children lifted out of poverty by scrapping the two-child benefit cap. But what about homelessness? ANDREW FISHER pores over the fine detail in the Budget, including more income tax, lower energy bills and frozen rail fares, and highlights some of the important areas that were not addressed by Ch…

My analysis of #Budget2025 with a Croydon focus* for @insidecroydon.bsky.social

*but with much that applies generally!
insidecroydon.com/2025/11/28/1...

The welfare bill has been steady for the last 15 years, and will be for the foreseeable future ...

Spain has a smaller economy and lower levels of super-rich than the UK.

It still raises decent amounts.

🤞

Will be on #r4today shortly discussing the state of the left in politics.

Tune in if you can ...

Black Friday An inews subscription unlocks full access to inews.co.uk, inews app, subscriber-only newsletters, i puzzles as well as options to subscribe to our award-winning newspaper

Also, @theipaper.com has a great deal on at the moment - allowing you to read this article, and more like it, for just £20 a year.

That’s just 38p a week for a whole year of intelligent comment and journalism.
theipaper.com/blackfriday

Who will pay the price for this Budget? The i Paper's experts give their verdicts The Chancellor said she made these choices for a fairer, stronger, and more secure Britain

My quick take on yesterday's #Budget2025 as part of a panel in @theipaper.com today

"There is still much more to do. But scrapping the two-child limit is an unmitigated good thing."

inews.co.uk/opinion/budg...

Shop a tax dodger and earn some money!

"Rat on a rat"
#Budget2025

One thing I don't get with the cash ISA annual allowance (reducing from £20k to £12k - which won't affect vast majority of people who can't save anywhere near that a year)

What is the rationale for keeping £20k limit for over-65s? Why would you incentivise rich pensioners to save more?
#Budget2025

Distributional analysis #Budget2025

But action needed on rents, mortgages and more on bills too to tackle cost-of-living crisis