Jamie Ratcliff

Independent consultant #ukhousing, whisky coinnoisseur, @NorwichCityFC fan & proud father of two mischievous children.

[Jamie Ratcliff @Jamrat_]

On 13 October 2024 with friends including @luke_cross1 & @petegladwell I'm running @RoyalParksHalf to raise funding and awareness for @BrainTumourOrg

If you want to sponsor us or find out more please click -
https://t.co/xS2Ndx87EH

Pls RT.

[Ben Hopkinson @Ben_A_Hopkinson]

Government imposed policy costs make up 57% of the clearing price of a new flat in London and 42% of a new home in the Home Counties.

Despite a big housing shortage and positive planning reforms, new home starts in England are declining from 182,000 in 2022 to under 125,000 last year.

While the macroeconomic context has worsened with build cost inflation and high interest rates, the Government is imposing more burdens on new homes, not fewer.

Taxes, levies, planning, and mandates add over £440,000 to the cost of delivering a home in London and nearly £225,000 nearby, with several of these imposed recently like the Second Staircase, Future Homes Standard, Building Safety Levy, Biodiversity Net Gain and Residential Property Developer Tax.

Individually these may be justified, but together they are making new homes unviable.

As a result, large developers are buying less land and small builders are going out of business; nearly 4,000 construction firms went bust just last year.

If we want to build more homes, we should be easing the burdens on them, not adding more.

Making housebuilding viable again is the most important issue in housing policy and my co-author, Edward Donovan, has completed excellent modelling showing how big the challenge is.

Read the full report: https://t.co/NWS58oqbTx

And simulate what changing the policies does with Edward's modelling here: https://t.co/IVrLBax2pz

[Jamie Ratcliff @Jamrat_]

626 leaflets/newsletters delivered in Devizes this morning.

[Luke Tryl @LukeTryl]

After a downer last week, party leader approvals are up. Burnham is up 2 to +10. Badenoch jumps even more to +8 her highest net approval we’ve recorded. Davey is up 1 to -11, Lowe up 2 to -16, Farage up 2 to -26 and Polanski up 2 to -34.

[Sam Bowman @s8mb]

Tenants used to be able to challenge rent rises. If they succeeded, the landlords could evict them. This obviously meant that the rulings weren’t binding and couldn’t set rents below the market rate.

Now you can’t evict the tenant, no matter how low the tribunal sets the rent. And tribunals can reduce the rents agreed to at the start of the tenancy, not just rent increases at the end of a fixed term.

This is *obviously* rent control by anyone’s definition of the term. This is what they wanted to happen!

[Jamie Ratcliff @Jamrat_]

Great to be out in Devizes this morning with @yourwiltshire campaigning to get Laura Ayling elected to the Town Council. Thanks to my son for taking the picture and delivering so many leaflets.

[Mario Creatura @MarioCreatura]

Utterly heartbreaking.

A must watch.

[Ant Breach @AntBreach]

Quick thoughts on today's fiscal devolution roadmap, building off our four tests:

1. This is the end of the beginning for fiscal devolution. Government now accepts fiscal centralisation is a national economic problem - and over the longer term there is more fiscal devo to come

[James Cartlidge MP 🇬🇧 🇺🇦 @jcartlidgemp]

BREAKING: after Healey’s Budget today, MoD spending will be £1bn per year lower than in the Defence Investment Plan he resigned over👇

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

Arguing that the private sector is what drives growth isn't a matter of ideology. It's a matter of maths. As beautifully illustrated by this story in the Mirror today. (1/?)

[Jamie Ratcliff @Jamrat_]

"I worry that Burnham has yet to grasp quite how serious the job he has taken on really is. The public should be worried too." Well said @KemiBadenoch - me too! https://t.co/DB87ZkvdjX

[James Cartlidge MP 🇬🇧 🇺🇦 @jcartlidgemp]

Confirmation from @benrileysmith in today’s Sunday Times that Chancellor John Healey will top up the National Wealth Fund (NWF) & use this to divert extra cash to Defence.

This is the policy I suggested last December when Healey was Defence Secretary, as part of our plan for a Sovereign Defence Fund. We explicitly suggested ring-fencing £11bn in the NWF for defence. But…

Using the NWF in our plan was specifically to fire up private sector investment & boost the industrial base - esp supporting start ups & drone tech. Above all, it’s just one part of our fully funded plan to get to 3% - not a substitute for one.

The NWF cannot fund training & troops; day to day procurement; forces’ housing; stockpiles. Only cutting day to day spending like welfare can properly fund those priorities. So I sincerely hope this will be part of a plan for 3% by 2030 in Wednesday’s Budget - nothing less will suffice from a Chancellor who resigned from government demanding just that.

[Sam Bowman @s8mb]

A friend of mine had to do a 15 minute interview about his job, income, previous rental history, etc, in order to *view* a flat. Luckily for him, he has a well-paid job, has lived in England all his life, and an impeccable rental history. I feel bad for people who don't.

[Conservatives @Conservatives]

It’s time for @AndyBurnham to do the right thing, and Axe the Family Farm Tax. 🚜

[Kevin Hollinrake MP @kevinhollinrake]

Who should run the countryside: the people you elect or agencies nobody voted for?

Natural England and the Environment Agency answer to no minister. Homes are blocked and farmers are buried in red tape.

Conservatives will scrap them.

[James Cartlidge MP 🇬🇧 🇺🇦 @jcartlidgemp]

Brilliant to stand with our veterans alongside @KemiBadenoch in Parliament Square against the Government’s Northern Ireland Troubles Bill. With two days of debate ahead of us, we will keep opposing Labour’s damaging lawfare. We will defend those who defended us.

[Conservatives @Conservatives]

We are proud of our Country. 🇬🇧

We will not let Reform take us backwards.

[Sam Coates Sky @SamCoatesSky]

YouGov - Sky - Times voting intention

LAB 24%(-3)
CON 23%(+3)
RefUK 21%(-1)
LDEM 12%(+1)
GRN 11%(nc)

Oct 11-12

Pollster note: The changes are within the margin of error, so it's difficult to distinguish signal from noise, but I suspect there is some degree of "conference bounce" there, with the Tories getting a boost from their coverage, and Labour declining again as the temporary impact of their own conference fades.

It may well be a temporary Tory boost, but for the record it means this is the first time that we have had Reform back in third place since 2024 (it’s technically the first time since early 2024 – but we didn’t poll between the election and January 2025 while we were reviewing methods, so we don’t know exactly when Reform overtook the Tories).

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

I am optimistic because The Conservatives have learnt from our mistakes. We are going the right way.

We are ready to fight for our values. Ready to win the argument. Ready to govern.

Ready to get Britain working again.

Thank you #CPC26.

[Katherine Forster @forster_k]

NEW: The Birmingham tapestry merch is finally on sale at #CPC26 from 9am. Mugs £15, tote bags featuring “Healey’s Comet”, having arrived yesterday lunchtime and been missing in building. Tea towels haven’t made it here in time, but will be sold online with different sections of the tapestry….

[Sophy Ridge @SophyRidgeSky]

The strongest section of Kemi Badenoch's speech so far:

"To those who say “unite the right”... we are not uniting with THAT. I don’t want to live in a country run by people who threaten journalists, call veterans traitors and debate whether my mixed-race children are English.

"I don’t want to explain to my son, when we’re watching our brilliant England team play football, that some people don’t think our black players are English.

"I remember back in the day when Ian Wright and John Barnes were playing - nobody was questioning whether they were English. We certainly didn’t have sitting MPs questioning whether they were English.

"We must not let these people take us backwards. That is not the country we are. I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, but I am black. I am British. I’m proud of my country, I’m proud of our history."