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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Great piece by @jrf-uk.bsky.social on the intersection of Local Housing Allowance & rent controls LHA has been frozen since 2024, leaving households with shortfalls - these govt savings have come at the expense of those households Rent controls mean LHA goes further www.jrf.org.uk/housing/how-...

jrf.org.uk

How rent controls reduce the cost of Local Housing Allowance uprating

Repeated freezes have left Local Housing Allowance rates trailing far behind real rents. Rent controls would cut the cost of restoring the link by slowing rent growth.

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James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Fascinating report on how the clean energy transition is accelerating and fossil fuel demand and emissions will be slashed by 2050, but we're currently on track to only reach net zero by the 2090s, meaning temperatures are set to increase by well over 2C. www.businessgreen.com/news/4536880...

businessgreen.com

Study: World is on track to reach net zero - but not until the 2090s

DNV forecasts energy-related emissions will fall sharply by mid-century, but a two-paced clean energy transition means global economy remains on track for well over 2C of warming

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Also - even without the environmental impact of this - it completely ignores the reason for lots of the local resistance to housebuilding! There is obviously some resistance no matter what, but often people are genuinely concerned about public services & new housing not meeting local need...

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

To address those criticisms, we recommend: Making rent policies universal to prevent pushing rents up in non-controlled properties Exemptions for new builds Exemptions for landlords who carry out significant work on the property (& coupled with the Decent Homes Standard this is less of a risk)

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This doesn't appear to account for the range of different rent controls out there (or the fact that some countries have had them in place for decades with limited issues) Our proposal earlier this year accounted for these 3 points (and other common criticisms) through careful design!

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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Latest announcement from Tory shadow chancellor strongly suggests a party stuck in an idealogical rut, unable to learn 1. Scrapping regulations on low carbon home building - was done in 2015 by Tory govt, ended up costing UK many ££ billions in fuel & retrofit www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.com

Tories to pledge to scrap Environment Agency and Natural England

Shadow chancellor will also promise to scrap affordable homes regulations as part of strategy to refocus on growth

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Zia Weise @ziaweise.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

A climate nightmare lurks in the Atlantic. Europe is starting to pay attention. Just out — my long read on European governments waking up to the threat of a possible collapse of the AMOC, the ocean currents that keep our continent's climate mild: www.politico.eu/article/clim...

politico.eu

A climate nightmare lurks in the Atlantic. Europe is starting to pay attention.

A slowdown of ocean currents that would disrupt life on the continent on an unthinkable scale.

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Beth Stratford @bethstratford.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Well, I for one am an economist who supports rent controls! Here’s why 🧵: Markets only work well if: -buyers & sellers have roughly equal power -producers respond to price signals & expand supply in response to scarcity -buyers can walk away if prices get too high

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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

They quoted me in this New Yorker piece about AI today. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

“Let’s say there’s a world or time line I exist in where A.I. has been subject to regulation. It is ethical. It has no footprint environmentally,” the novelist Jeff VanderMeer, a prominent critic of A.I., told me over the phone. “With those guardrails in place, would I read an A.I. book? All I can say is no. And the reason is, in part, because I want to read something coming from a particular mind.” Using A.I., he said, “feels like a betrayal of the whole point of why you’re a writer.”

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

We looked at the barriers to implementing a housing-led approach, and it's great to see govt listening to us (and plenty others in the sector!) outlining how to make a success of their pledge! www.ippr.org/articles/hom...

ippr.org

Home truths: Housing-led approaches to homelessness | IPPR

The most meaningful progress has instead come from places where local leaders have made homelessness a priority, driving improvements in both the provision

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

We called for Housing Associations to have a duty to house homeless tenants, and for councils to make better use of empty homes, in our paper earlier this year These announcements will make it easier to adopt a truly housing-led approach to tackling homelessness www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

theguardian.com

Councils to get new homelessness powers in Rayner drive on social housing

Charities hail new powers as gamechanger ahead of housing secretary’s speech to Labour conference

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Applies to Labour as well "Trans rights are polling poorly, and so the effective political strategy is to distance yourself ... If I’m being honest I find this type of calculus mildly repulsive. I don’t think that fundamental rights should be haphazardly sacrificed at the altar of polling."

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

ONS rent data today: rent inflation is at 3.8% - higher than the 3.1% CPI rate In our paper earlier this year we called for rent stabilisation to protect tenants from exactly this sort of scenario, where rents rise above inflation & hurt renters ability to pay: www.ippr.org/articles/hou...

ippr.org

High housing costs in the private rental sector: The case for action | IPPR

In the UK today, 2.4 million households renting privately have unaffordable rents, an additional 250,000 since 2023. This is 45 per cent of all private ren

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Very nice to hear a sane voice from Piddington. Serious respect to this woman, who is apparently already being othered by more bigoted villagers.

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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 16/09/2026

I don't think we should be giving the racist village all that attention, I think they deserve to be ignored

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Oh interesting that the original was completely off balance sheet - I wonder if the way they made that work could still be applied under PSNFL? I'm reaching the limits of my (already limited) fiscal rules knowledge here...

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I think that even if before PSNFL govt did have to cover the difference, it was offset by the fact that: (1) interest rates were low (so difference was much lower), and (2) house price growth was more reliable (so govt could guarantee a healthy return on the 20% equity loans through HtB)

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I *think* (but pls don't quote me!) that switching to PSNFL does change things e.g. my understanding is that with the low interest loans for housing associations, the borrowing itself sits off balance sheet, but govt (National Housing Bank) covers the difference in borrowing rates

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Genuine Q - why does HTB not count against public spending and borrowing? Doesn't govt have to cover the difference in interest rates between HtB loans and the actual cost of borrowing?

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Damian Carrington @dpcarrington.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Climate ‘feedback loops’ could worsen global warming by 30%, study finds - Emissions of planet-heating methane and CO2 from natural sources are worsening the #climatecrisis Story by @olliemilman.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

Climate ‘feedback loops’ could worsen global warming by 30%, study finds

Emissions of planet-heating methane and CO2 from natural sources are worsening the climate crisis, paper says

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 07/09/2026

This is one of the objections I have when people talk about how useful LLMs can be for literature searches or for any kind of search, really. Even beyond the biases that inevitably (and, in some cases, intentionally) show up, part of a good literature search is seeing information *in context.*

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Erin Sikorsky @erinsikorsky.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

1/ My latest newsletter covers the security implications of the climate overshoot report released by UNEP yesterday. The bottom line? Plan for 3 degrees, work like hell for 1.5. Five more takeaways threaded below....

securityinaclimatechangedworld.substack.com

Security Takeaways from the UNEP Overshoot Report

Plan for Three, Fight for 1.5

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

How about ‘but what are they protesting? The idea that the RNLI should not rescue people in trouble in the sea is abhorrent and inhuman and we should be utterly repelled by it.’

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Stephanie Lamy @stephlamy.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

People comparing the Arday and James Orr situation. Arday, whatever you think of him, was never was filmed conspiring and committing (what very much seems to be) a crime. At an individual level, there is no comparison. What can be compared is how institutions handle this (Cambridge, media etc)

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HK @hkesvani.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Are we going to get the 200 articles on James Orr then? Maybe read and interrogate the footnotes of his doctoral thesis? Is Cambridge going to have to issue out statements about its hiring standards?

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Tadzio Mueller @tadziomueller.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

#climatecollapse: "Global heating will reach at least 1.8C under even the most optimistic future. Overshooting the 1.5C goal inscribed in the landmark Paris agreement of 2015 was now 'unavoidable' and... likely in the next few years. UNEP said: 'There are no good outcomes above 1.5C'."

theguardian.com

Global heating will hit at least 1.8C, UN warns, and there are ‘no good outcomes’

But scientists say the world could get back to 1.5C through deep, rapid emissions cuts and removing carbon from the atmosphere

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Simon Oldridge @sioldridge.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Fed up with people shirking responsibility by arguing that the UK causes just 1% of emissions? Here are two fantastic analogies from a primary school teacher, Mark in Coventry, who called Sheila Fogerty on @lbc.co.uk - one involving dog poo 😆 Other arguments here: www.nebriefing.org/mp-dialogue

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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

ULEZ was exactly like when they brought in the seatbelt requirement for car users. People screaming about personal inconvenience or change, while there on the page was clear evidence that this would save lives. it was delivering the biggest improvement in London's health since the smog ban.

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Or, in fact, not really a news story at all. I don’t believe at all that this was nationally important and certainly not “third on the BBC 6 o’clock news” important as a story. Cofnas started all of this because he’s a racist and the media ran with it.

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cultauthor.bsky.social @cultauthor.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The British media will monster, bully and hound people to death because there’s money in it. They will then play shocked as they make more money covering the death they have caused. They do not reflect. They do not care. They look for the next victim. Do not claim to be surprised. You know this.

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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 09/08/2026

Chris Hohn, billionaire hedge fund manager: ‘All these people who say we can't afford net zero - they're completely misunderstanding the gravity of the situation.' www.thetimes.com/article/de38...

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Instead of adopting a discriminatory solution to a housing supply problem and penalising those who have already met the stringent criteria for social housing, the focus should be on building new social homes New govt has made welcome signs - but the scale of change needed is big! 3/🧵

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

The real issue here is successive governments not prioritising social house building & hugely compounded by right-to-buy - which has seen councils selling off homes at huge discounts, crippling their ability to rebuild and replace those homes 2/🧵

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

This policy is capitalising on a sense of unfairness around housing (which colleagues of mine have found in their research) BUT, it's directing that anger at the wrong people. Britain’s housing shortage isn’t caused by migrants in social housing 1/🧵

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Aurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.com · 07/08/2026

This violence is not exceptional or limited to the actions of extreme individuals It's the direct result of years of mainstreaming led by mainstream media and politicians who have legitimised racism and other forms of exclusion Arrests will not stop this spiral www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

theguardian.com

Norfolk police arrest two men after officers injured during unrest over asylum plans

Homes of people believed to be asylum seekers attacked during two nights of violence in Thetford

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

What is so frustrating about this silence is that there's plenty of evidence that talking about this is raises the salience & means progressives can set the terms of the debate My colleagues did some brilliant work earlier this year which goes into more detail: www.ippr.org/articles/apa...

ippr.org

Apathy and opposition: Understanding the real threats to net zero | IPPR

Watering down ambition offers no electoral advantage; a strong, progressive agenda on climate action remains broadly popular with the public.Elite opinion

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

This thread from my colleague Will is exactly why we called for rent stabilisation earlier this year Renters are vulnerable to shocks - there's nothing stopping landlords passing on increases in mortgage costs. We argue these risks should be shouldered more fairly: www.ippr.org/articles/hou...

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ECIU @eciu.net · 30/07/2026

"But we're only 1% of emissions": media in countries collectively emitting 20% of global CO₂ In 200+ national newspapers in 27 countries made claims that because that country accounts for only approx 1% of global emissions, progress in cutting that country’s emissions should be slowed

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

This is a great piece - avoids the hysteria that rent controls often seem to induce & takes a more balanced look at critiques & solutions. Points out that 23 of the 38 OECD nations have some form of rent controls Was a pleasure to talk to the FT about our work on this: www.ippr.org/articles/hou...

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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I know it's not the biggest news of the day, but I just spotted this... One of Keir Starmer's last acts in Govt is this: Laying legislation that will legalise 'plug-in solar' (aka balcony solar) panels in Britain It means plug-in solar panels do not (legally) have to be wired in by an electrician.

statutoryinstruments.parliament.uk

Timeline - SI 2026/848 - Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994 and Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002 (Amendment) Regulations 2026 - Statutory Instruments - UK Parl...

Timeline for Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994 and Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002 (Amendment) Regulations 2026

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

It's obvs early day(s), but zooming out a bit to look at housing policy more widely, acting on homelessness on day 1 suggests that his understanding of the housing crisis goes beyond "build, baby, build" & has more nuance on the problems he's trying to solve, & how he plans to go about it. end/🧵

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

He also signaled that he sees council housebuilding as a way of reducing the welfare bill Analysis by us from last year found that shifting people from the private rented sector into social homes could save £billions 4/🧵 www.ippr.org/articles/hom...

ippr.org

The homes that children deserve: Housing policy to support families | IPPR

Children need a firm foundation on which to build their lives, namely a secure and warm home which meets their needs and those of their family. But it must

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

One of the other major barriers we identified was a lack of council/social housing - so v good to hear him reiterate his commitment (although detail needed on exactly how he plans to do this...) 3/🧵

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Not only did he make a commitment to ending rough sleeping, but it is clear that he has adopted the housing-led approach we (& others!) have called for: "everyone having the security of a roof over their head" "accommodation and wrap-around support for those who need it" 2/🧵

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

In our paper, published last week, we identified a lack of political will as one of the biggest barriers to tackling homelessness and implementing a housing-led approach Today, Burnham made his 1st priority as PM ending rough sleeping 1/🧵 www.ippr.org/articles/hom...

ippr.org

Home truths: Housing-led approaches to homelessness | IPPR

The most meaningful progress has instead come from places where local leaders have made homelessness a priority, driving improvements in both the provision

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

When the BNP won a single council seat in 1993 it was a national news story for days. Horror. Condemnation. Now an even more far right party is getting 11% across a whole county and it's just normal.

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Maya SH @msingerhobbs.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

They make the case that the policies of the first 100 days should be about signaling intent, showing the govt is serious about change, and should pave the way for more ambitious changes down the line end/🧵 www.ippr.org/articles/the...

ippr.org

The first 100 days: A blueprint for renewal | IPPR

A crisis of trust and purposeOur new prime minister, Andy Burnham, faces a burning platform: people are turning away from mainstream politics in record num

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