There are some good reasons to think the UK has an ill-health problem, but it seems under-acknowledged that a large part of the debate might be based on Labour Force Survey data that's just wrong

If you want to understand why tightening access to benefits or increasing conditionality is unlikely to help disabled people to work, this from Victoria is the best thing I've read to explains it:
wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/what-id-like-t…

Wondered how a centre right guy like Sam had talked himself round to nationalising golf courses. Housing crisis must be bad.

Had completely escaped me that local authorities already owns loads of the land!

Suspect this book is the best thing I'll read all year

I think this makes the argument for local democracy stronger. Give councils the power and responsibility to figure out the trade offs.

You can cut the generational wealth data however you like, you can spend as long as you like arguing about it, but you'll end up in the same place - build more market housing, build more social housing.

I think this was the landlord lobby's main reasonable sounding argument that reasonable people could believe. Making it harder to evict tenants, reducing tax advantages - sounds plausible that landlords might leave in droves.

Turns out to be tosh.

Universal Credit, first announced in 2010, will be fully rolled out by the next Government.

How will it differ from the system it replaced? Who wins and loses from the switch?

Neil Couling | Kayley Hignell | Alex Clegg | Torsten Bell

Book ⤵️ resolutionfoundation.org/events/in-cred…

The crazy thing about the shambolic UK economy is they're at or near the leading edge on stuff like AI and pharmaceutical innovation.

It's an advanced society immiserating itself with bad land use policy and inadequate infrastructure.

Great to see #BuyNowPayLater on the front page today.

It's 3 years since govt said they would regulate 'as a matter of priority' & over a year since new rules were consulted on.

The govt could make this happen tomorrow, protecting millions of people. Here's why they must: 🧵

Policy failure of the week goes to Maddy Rose - like many of the worst benefits system interactions, nobody really intended it. It's just what happens when you have a complex system with so many moving parts that isn't designed with the claimant in mind.

It’s #TransgenderDayOfVisibility !

We’re celebrating the amazing work done by organisations in the UK to support the trans community 💙

Trans Legal Clinic, Gendered Intelligence and Stonewall are there if you need any help.

If you are under 35 and need help to pay your housing costs, the government expects you to live in shared accommodation. But there is a snag...

The benefits system is based on a fiction: it is asking young people to rent homes that literally do not exist citizensadvice.org.uk/policy/publica…

Not sure it’s more widespread, but left/liberal Lafferism is definitely a phenomenon (and has its place more often).

I think best defense against it is asking “would giving (poor) people cash be better than this intervention”?

Well worth your time:

There is a special insolvency procedure under the legislation. If the debts are unsustainable, the investors should hand back the license. Anything else just creates moral hazard. But I am sure Mr Petitgas knows this, having been an investment banker in 2008