Great profile of Kate Barker in today’s Times Property Home section by Martina Lees. Includes sobering statistics around how the housing crisis has worsened over 20 years, but also signs of hope… The woman tasked with fixing Britain’s housing crisis thetimes.com/article/4bddbb…

I have 6 qualification in economics, including a PhD. What more would I have to do for you to think of me as an economist, rather than a pseudo-economist, Norman Bagley?!

Interesting post from Tim Leunig on the driving test backlog in the South East as yet another thing that may be explained by housing. £££ housing in SE > nationally set driving examiner salary is relatively low in SE > not enough people want to be examiners > shortage of tests.

Very few small firms are fast growing start ups, and if we take the VAT exemption, very few start ups will have revenue below £80k for long. So that small biz tax break goes overwhelming to small biz that stay small. Not sensible!

Imagine living in one of these US cities vs London #guncontrolworks

Too many people wait too long for a driving test. That stops them getting jobs either because the job involves driving, or because they can't get to the job. It's much worse in the South East, where the waiting lists are longest. I have a solution: timleunig.substack.com/p/how-to-solve….

What evidence is there that this tax break - which costs the rest of us money - sends a positive signal to start ups at a pivotal point?

I'm sorry but if your average meal lasts about 20 minutes then your food just can't be that good

Context below. I agree that GDP per capita is a better measure of economic virility. However the idea UK has been anything other than middle of the pack since net migration picked up is erroneous. Also longitudinal impact of net migration better than point-in-time.

Most countries have a much lower VAT threshold than us. They seem to manage. Would be less distortionary by size if we did.

Wasn't this the department for education, once upon a time?

bsky.app/profile/timleu… :-)

No government since 1997 has allowed enough houses to be built.

Does the substantial variation in births within France suggest otherwise?

The best things schools can do to promote positive mental health, and reduce the factors that exacerbate poor mental health, is to create an environment that is: 1. SAFE- no one should feel threatened by violence or chaos 2. CALM- everyone knows how everyone should be behaving;

Dan Clemens Being successful at something is one of the most powerful and addictive factors for wellbeing there is. Working with purpose.

It says something very Tony Blair about Tony Blair that digital ID cards get five mentions in the index of his new book and housing/housebuilding/infrastructure get zero between them.

Two facts re winter fuel allowance: 1) At £200 it's same in cash terms as in 2000 - a real terms cut of 45%. Slow drift into irrelevance. 2) Pensioners much better off than they were then - poverty rate down from 26% to 16%, median income up 38% (only up 19% for non-pensioners)