Cost today of charging a Kia EV3 at home: 6p per mile (21p/kWh, without a time-of-day tariff) Cost for a petrol Kia Sportage: 19p per mile (156p/L) With average 7,100 mileage: EV saves £900/year

Some UK government/parliamentary bodies are on Bluesky, like @electoralcommission.org.uk @ofgem.gov.uk @ofcom.bsky.social @thecccuk.bsky.social @ukspaceagency.bsky.social @ukhsa.bsky.social @ukri.org @metoffice.gov.uk @ukparliament.parliament.uk

It's astonishing how much cheaper a daily energy price tracker has been compared to the price cap, so far octopriceuk.app/tracker

An easy step people could think about is reducing warming aviation contrail effects above the Atlantic / Greenland, which we know can be done at very low cost by just tweaking a minority of flight paths

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 4mo ago

Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought

Worrying armchair learning about Gulf LNG production: there's almost nowhere to store it; it's hard to turn off; and it's slow to turn back on

Here is the Government's new animal welfare strategy: www.gov.uk/government/p...

Animal welfare strategy for England

gov.uk

It's been a busy season of budget analysis for me. I will now be a lot quieter for a while: listening, reading, fact-finding, pondering. Happy holidays!

Don't Panic: Britain is not broken. The UK can do better, but we shouldn't be too gloomy about things. If you look at the stats, there's a lot to be happy with (including how happy we are): adamcorlett.com/2025/11/30/d...

There is almost no trace of the Budget on bbc.co.uk/news – presumably HMT will count that as a win

The number of children in poverty has probably hit new record highs this year, but will be significantly cut in 2026-27. New government projections: www.gov.uk/government/p...

Hopefully a 1p Fuel Duty rise in September is a good way to break the taboo, and there's no Budget before then. It is less of a fiscal fiction than it has been, but we'll see... And maybe the approach of small, quarterly, automatic increases could be continued beyond 2026-27, instead of annual jumps

The 'High Value Council Tax Surcharge' is a big step to making annual property tax more proportional to value. Most homes already pay higher rates than mansions will. Unlike Council Tax it will be based on recent values, with five-yearly revaluation(?), and will be paid by owners not occupiers.

Big news on Fuel Duty - the 5p cut will be removed gradually from September. A good way to end this giveaway without pushing up inflation

💥 Govt says fuel duty to *go up* from next September. In the past the OBR has assumed that fuel duty would start to rise after a one-year freeze. This time, the govt has said explicitly that it will only be frozen for five months, and will start increasing it after that.

It sounds like this Budget won't cut VAT on public EV charging, but will launch a review that might lead to doing it in Budget 2026

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 9mo ago

Reeves to announce £1.5bn boost in EV subsidies amid pay-per-mile concerns

Today I learned that NOx pollution from vehicles (esp. old diesels) and boilers interferes with insect scent. Yet another reason to electrify everything.

Jonathan Birch@birchlse.bsky.social · 9mo ago

66% decline in five years. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Everybody loves brownfield-first. But where exactly should we densify our cities? And how? Our new report shows Britain's density gap is wider in the biggest cities outside London than in the capital - and the inner city 'urban cores' up to 5km out from the centre are to blame.

Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Britain is missing 2.3m urban homes. Our new report shows cities like Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds are far less dense than peers in France and Japan — holding back growth 👇 buff.ly/fkqDTjU

It's *possible* the Budget could be very green: 🟢 Focus all price cuts on electricity, not gas 🟢 Don't cancel Fuel Duty rises 🟢 Cushion future EV VED rise with public charger VAT cut & other support 🟢 Expand emissions pricing to long-haul flights & international shipping 🟢 Help lower interest rates

It's *possible* the Budget could be very green: 🟢 Focus all price cuts on electricity, not gas 🟢 Don't cancel Fuel Duty rises 🟢 Cushion future EV VED rise with public charger VAT cut & other support 🟢 Expand emissions pricing to long-haul flights & international shipping 🟢 Help lower interest rates

A very worthwhile use of AI would be to work out when something on video footage was worth notifying the police (and owners). In future, 30 seconds into this, the police could already be aware, drones dispatched, number plates flagged and maybe even the car bricked. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Keyless car theft devices selling online for £20,000, BBC finds

It is not illegal currently to own the gadgets but the government has promised to ban them.

bbc.co.uk

This is a common take, but I think it rather depends on whether the changes are adding new unevenness to the tax system OR smoothing over existing unevenness

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The United Kingdom really does have an unnecessarily complex tax system and adding c£20bn of fun little revenue raisers will not help. Today's newsletter:

One likely extra reason for this £50k bump is that the basic rate of dividend tax is only 8.75% – 25 points lower than the higher rate of 33.75% – so company owner-managers will plan their finances around that.

Dan Neidle@danneidle.bsky.social · 9mo ago

NEW - we've data showing huge numbers of people reducing their income to avoid high marginal income tax rates. Not just at the £100k point (as previously reported). But at the £50k point:

I'm proud to have received the innovation prize at last night's @smartthinking.bsky.social awards – for my and my colleagues' work producing an alternative to Labour Force Survey stats www.resolutionfoundation.org/our-work/est...

This is rhetorically the most pro-building govt ever, but housebuilding has ground to a halt and Heathrow still expect their planning app to cost £800m to produce. The problem is there's a massive gap between what Labour say they want and what they're doing. www.samdumitriu.com/p/rhetoric-v...

Rhetoric vs. Reality

Slogans won’t get Britain building again

samdumitriu.com

Clearly tax rises and May elections will be hard for Labour, but don't be 100% gloomy: there is also very likely voter-friendly news ahead on falling inflation, price caps, immigration and interest rates - and a fair chance that the 2026 budget could show 'our plan is working, here are some rewards'

Clear conclusion from a new Animal Welfare Committee report about the main way pigs are killed: "Exposure to high concentrations of CO2 in commercial systems causes pigs to suffer pain, respiratory distress and fear... its use should be prohibited." www.gov.uk/government/p...

Opinion on the welfare impacts on pigs of high concentration CO2 gas stunning and of potential alternative stunning methods

gov.uk

Two reasons to focus Budget tax rises on non-wage income. 1. Tax rates on wages have long been higher than for other income. 2. The employer NI rise was a big tax wedge rise for most employees: even if non-wage taxes go up by 2p in April, wages would have had the biggest 2024-2026 effective tax rise

Two reasons to focus Budget tax rises on non-wage income. 1. Tax rates on wages have long been higher than for other income. 2. The employer NI rise was a big tax wedge rise for most employees: even if non-wage taxes go up by 2p in April, wages would have had the biggest 2024-2026 effective tax rise

Combining a couple of thoughts from this, perhaps a good way to do electoral reform (and what LDs should have demanded in 2010) is an (Irish-style) two-stage process where an independent Citizens' Assembly ponders the best system and then their choice is put to the rest of the public in a referendum

It is surely much easier to make this change now – while most voters are not directly affected – than in 5 or 10 years' time. Majority support on both the left and right.

YouGov@yougov.co.uk · 9mo ago

By 43% to 34%, Britons support requiring electric vehicle drivers to pay a 'road use tax' yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...