Tessera

I don't think @martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com should be encouraging people to open Lifetime ISAs before they are reformed - they're a flawed product and too many people can end to losing money on them. Savers race to open £4k bonus Isa before Labour scraps it www.telegraph.co.uk/money/invest...

telegraph.co.uk

New rules to speed to planning for major infrastructure projects come into effect today. www.gov.uk/government/n...

Fastest infrastructure building in a generation as planning rules overhauled

New reforms confirmed today to speed up the approval process for major infrastructure projects.

gov.uk

The Housing Forum@housingforum.org.uk · last mo.

It bewilders me how one bit of government can spend years finessing a new policy (mandating solar on newbuild homes), whilst another bit is busy on its own - TOTALLY CONTRADICTORY policy (effectively banning solar on small roofs, and significantly reducing it on all roofs) 🤷

There is clearly a policy clash between these proposed fire regulations for solar panels and the Future Homes Standard - which expects the large majority of newbuild homes to have solar equivalent to 40% of their footprint.

The Housing Forum @housingforum.org.uk · last mo.

The Housing Forum has raised concerns that new fire safety regulations could make it impossible to fit solar panels on smaller roofs. Increasing distances from roof edges, features and neighbouring properties will reduce the number of solar panels that can fit housingforum.org.uk/the-housing-...

The Housing Forum raises concerns that new fire safety regulations could make it impossible to fit solar panels on smaller roofs : The Housing Forum

The Housing Forum has responded to the Health and Safety Executive’s review of fire safety raising concerns about the impact that the proposed changes to fire safety rules on solar PV could have on fi...

housingforum.org.uk

Full Fact@fullfact.org · last mo.

Was at a great session on the topic of misinformation in social housing allocations yesterday. Key takeaways were that - misinformation is rife - frontline staff do not always know how to combat it -BME staff feel their organisation isn't doing enough to support them. White staff seem oblivious.

Graph shows large majority of BME housing association staff think their organisation isn't doing enough to support BME staff in the last year, but less than a quarter of white British staff thinking this.

Posts shared thousands of times online claim that a local housing provider in Grimsby has bought £23 million worth of new houses exclusively for immigrants. But this simply isn’t true.

Oh dear. Andy Burhnam is going to be on a steep learning curve if he thinks the existing £39bn Government funding could be rediverted to fund "the biggest programme of council housebuilding since the Second World War”. - The £39bn (over 10y) would fund around 20,000/yr - In 1954, we built 198,210.

In his campaign launch speech, Burnham said he wanted "the biggest programme of council house building since the Second World War".

He suggested this could be funded by rediverting the existing £39bn affordable housing programme entirely to social rent homes.

The Housing Forum@housingforum.org.uk · 2mo ago

Why does it cost more for councils and housing associations to build new homes than it does the private sector? www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/why-is-...

Why is development more expensive for social landlords?

Ahead of her session at Housing 2026, Anna Clarke, director of policy and public affairs at The Housing Forum, discusses a new report it has released.

insidehousing.co.uk

Why do councils and housing associations end up paying more than private developers to build new homes? Our new report argues that procurement processes as one of the most significant drivers of development costs within the public sector. housingforum.org.uk/reports/key-...

The Housing Forum @housingforum.org.uk · 2mo ago

A bit of context on Reform's proposals to evict social housing tenants: - 15% of social housing tenants were born abroad (compared with 17% of all households) - Just 7% of social housing tenants had a non-UK passport (compared with 10% of all households) migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/br...

Migrants and Housing in the UK - Migration Observatory

This briefing reviews the evidence on migration and housing in the UK, and deals with migrants' use of social housing, private rentals and home ownership.

migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk

Procurement – the price we pay….. and the path to improvement : The Housing Forum

Our new report – Procurement – the Price we pay, and the path to improvement – sets out how councils and housing associations are paying more than private developers to build new homes due to slow and...

housingforum.org.uk

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan@london.gov.uk · 2mo ago

Strong words from @london.gov.uk here - directly linking the violence in Belfast to normalisation of violence in political rhetoric, including online.

We must take on the hateful forces that seek to divide us. My statement on recent events in Belfast.

The knife attack in Belfast on Monday was truly horrific. My thoughts are with Stephen Ogilvy and his family, who deserve justice.

Targeting and terrorising innocent people because of the colour of their skin, including setting fire to their homes, has nothing to do with justice or a desire to keep communities safe, however. It is racist mob violence, which has been organised, enabled and whipped up by those seeking to profit politically and financially from hatred, fear and disorder.

Social media platforms who give money and reach to these individuals to promote their hate need to be held to account. They cannot be allowed to continue pouring petrol on the flames.

The disgraceful violence is a direct consequence of the normalisation of vile, racist rhetoric across the UK, which needs to be challenged far more robustly in our political discourse.

I welcome the steps the Prime Minister has taken to work with police and the First Minister of Northern Ireland. We must stand together to prevent further disorder, and to take on the hateful forces that seek to divide us.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan

Neal Hudson@resi-analyst.bsky.social · 2mo ago

With demographic change, concerns about the value of going to university and tighter rules for foreign students, I suspect we'll see more of these applications to convert student housing to other uses.

More student housing getting converted into other uses due to low occupancy, this time in Leeds (hoping to in this case). www.placeyorkshire.co.uk/pbsa-threadw...

House of Commons Committees@hoccommittees.parliament.uk · 2mo ago

Very interested to see that the Government is looking at stamp duty reform. But abolishing it completely could mean Government loses one of the few levers it has to try to stablise the housing market. 🧵

Home ownership in England has fallen from 71% to 62.5% in just two decades. The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has published its report on how the government can help first-time buyers get on the property ladder. Read our report: committees.parliament.uk/committee/17...

Home ownership in England has fallen from 71% in 2003 to 62.5% in 2021. The decline has been particularly stark among young adults. Read our report.

The Housing Forum @housingforum.org.uk · 2mo ago

At an event today with a speaker on business's growing use of AI. They get to a slide comparing household saving levels in 2025 & 2026. Speaker "Er...actually AI made these slides and it's got the 2025 and 2026 labels swapped round.." Not filling me with confidence on the growing AI revolution....

With the Future Homes Standard now launched more people will be living in homes with advanced technologies such as heat pumps, mechanical ventilation systems, and solar PV. How do we build and manage these homes so they work for the people who live in them? housingforum.org.uk/events/susta...

High Tech Homes - Sustainable Asset Management Series : The Housing Forum

For the first instalment of our newly launched Sustainable Asset Management Series, we are exploring the theme of “high-tech homes”. With the Future Homes Standard now launched more people will be liv...

housingforum.org.uk

Emma Monk @monkemma.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Here are the figures comparing UK and non-EU nationals in Jan 2020 and in Dec 2025 In 2025, it was 3.85 million vs 0.37 million So there are actually 10 times as many UK U25s in paid employment as there are non-EU U25s And the VAST MAJORITY were hired after Jan 2020 8/

Bar graphs show UK nationals employed under 25 rising from 3.84M to 3.85M, while non-EU nationals increased from 81.5K to 370.9K.

Henry Mance@henrymance.ft.com · 2mo ago

Despite all its craziness, "Forest City" does seem to be gaining some momentum.

‘Bonkers’: the audacious plan to create a 1 million-person city near Cambridge as.ft.com/r/dbdd2e1b-c...

Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Government's new towns programme is looking vulnerable to political flux: "Enfield Council has formally withdrawn from the government’s New Town programme, following the election of Cllr Alessandro Georgiou as Leader of the Council" www.enfield.gov.uk/news-and-eve...

enfield.gov.uk

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.

slate.com

'Cause nothing says how special England is like copying a slogan from America 🤨

Alison Bennett@alisonebennett.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Persuading local authorities to take "someone else's" housing requirements has never been easy. One of the benefits of the local government reorganisation is that in many areas, small authorities will be merged with their neighbours, which should give much less of an "us and them" mentality.

Mid Sussex is being asked to take 50% of Crawley’s unmet housing need plus additional need from Brighton & Hove. This isn’t about local failure — it’s a broken system. Read my letter to the SoS.

Dear Secretary of State,
I am writing to express my deep dismay at the position that my constituents find themselves in following the Government’s changes to the planning framework and the subsequent intervention of the Planning Inspectorate in the Mid Sussex District Plan process.
Today, proposed additional development sites are being published after the Planning Inspectorate demanded that Mid Sussex accommodate 50% of Crawley’s unmet housing need, alongside unmet need arising from Brighton and Hove.
Communities across Mid Sussex are today seeing additional sites imposed upon our towns and villages with insufficient regard to local views, local infrastructure constraints, or democratic consent.
For the avoidance of doubt, Mid Sussex is not a place that is shirking its responsibilities to provide housing. Mid Sussex District Council has a strong and consistent record of meeting the targets it has been set with more than 1,000 homes built annually in recent years.

Renters' Reform Coalition@rentersreformco.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Fundamental problem here is that even if you could do this without causing landlords to sell up (unlikely), there wouldn't be any more housing to go around. Where would the renters who've been forced out by the high rents be living?

Powerful new research from @jrf-uk.bsky.social demonstrates how a rent cap could save renters over a grand a year (and the government £600m). Unchecked rents are driving renters out of their homes. These are serious proposals - the government should pay attention. inews.co.uk/news/how-ren...