Andrew Sissons

Deputy Director for Sustainable Future @nesta_uk. Cover a mix of climate, economics, energy, heating. Ex civil servant, chief economist. Personal account.

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

Very excited to publish this: an essay from @antonhowes on energy transitions of the past, with an intro by me.

It gives a great insight into how economies can create energy abundance, how it changes lives and how it can be squandered

https://t.co/FaktLhyMkV

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

New personal post - should we give every 18 year old their own plot of land?

https://t.co/8Fk4HKPEQn

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

I’m over here now if anyone still wants a random mix of climate, energy and economics stuff.
Will also try to post a bit more work stuff on LinkedIn…

https://t.co/HiOEJ3YNsI

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

@GandonAmy BSky seems to have taken off in the last two days (certainly among UK policy wonks).
Would def recommend - pretty easy to get going now, should be many familiar faces!

[James O'Malley @Psythor]

Update: I have written up the full case for Manchester bidding for the 2036 Games for the @ManchesterMill! Go check it out!

https://t.co/q7fvUajlMP

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

I know this is all contentious, but having one of your biggest airports surrounded by car-choked countryside, having one of your more successful cities constrained to stay fairly small…seems worth fixing to me

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

Bristol Airport is the 8th busiest in the UK, but has no train or tram link. The parking situation there is mad - the whole area is a giant car park.
The Bristol area also needs a lot more homes. If only there was a way to ease both pressures at once…

https://t.co/aLQLP0DlXY

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

But there are also bad reasons it is difficult.
The Green Belt is one formidable, entirely man-made barrier.
The other is that Bristol airport - and almost all of this scheme - is in North Somerset, not Bristol. Which makes everything much more fraught.

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

@Samfr Their coverage of the big sports is often pretty bad as well - much better to do a wider range of sports than doing second-rate coverage of a few

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

@Guy_Stallard @Samfr Already got the local BBC radio work to build on for the county champ, would be easy to slightly improve on the current streaming

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

@Chris_Carus Oh wow that is good

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

Here’s the original piece btw

And a clarification: Baumol doesn’t just apply to public services, but to any with low productivity growth.
“Public services” - like health & education - can be private sector, but still tend to have low productivity growth

https://t.co/EbyqUhZP85

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

One of the responses to my piece on the Baumol effect was: it means spending more on public services, and therefore higher taxes over time.

I think that’s broadly right, but: as our incomes rise, we seem to want more of the types of services often provided by the state

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

So I think rather than treating taxes as a necessary evil, we should pitch them as a route to get people more of what they want. While focusing relentlessly on public sector productivity, of course.

It turns out to be one of the logical conclusions of Baumol for me…

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

@RichardALJones Thanks Richard!

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

@aveek18 The fact that demand for those services seems to increase as people get richer also seems important!
But it’s a fair point, and I think makes productivity growth in those services more important imo

[Andrew Sissons @ACJSissons]

Final plug for my new personal blog.

The Baumol effect is one of the most powerful forces in the economy,raising wages for everyone. And yet it is normally described as a “cost disease”, wrongly imo.
I think we should embrace the Baumol effect more

https://t.co/EbyqUhZP85