Islander

[Sam Bowman @s8mb]

My view is that Brexit was a somewhat costly mistake (and I opposed it at the time as well) but I am unsettled when I speak to "elites" in Britain who are totally fixated on it as the source of our problems, and reversing/undoing it as the solution.

I've had more than one experience over the past few weeks that has given me the impression that many people who run the country or influence those who do believe that Brexit is the silver bullet. I think that's totally wrong – the country's inability to build housing, infrastructure, or cheap energy supply, along with the country's now very high levels of tax and govt spending, are much bigger problems for growth.

If anything, AI may mean being outside the EU ends up being quite a good thing, despite the costs so far. Avoiding the EU's AI and data regulations is valuable, and these will probably only get worse. And Britain now has a greater possibility of getting inside the American "tent" and get preferential access to frontier models that most countries cannot get, if that ends up being important.

[Julian Jessop @julianHjessop]

"Burnham set to revive Help to Buy scheme in bid to boost housebuilding"

Here we go again… 🙄

1⃣ Help to Buy (HTB) is a gimmick that helps only a small number of people onto the housing ladder while driving up house prices for everyone else.

2⃣ HTB is intended to boost housing supply by giving developers greater confidence that homes will sell. However, any benefit is likely to be swamped by rising construction and borrowing costs, planning constraints, and broader economic uncertainty.

3⃣ Independent evaluations of previous HTB schemes found substantial deadweight: half of participants said they could have bought a home without support. The schemes also had little impact on home ownership in areas that were already relatively unaffordable.

4⃣ "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results..."

[Albert Edwards @albertedwards99]

I've said before, Help-To-Buy is one of the most stupid policies a gov can adopt. House prices are falling in real terms anyway and this will just pump them back up and push people into higher debt. Official review saying "very high value for money" is just cynical propaganda.

[Islander @PropertySpot]

This is clearly just designed to help developers sell houses at high prices by loading more debt onto young people.

It's a repetition of the mistake made by George Osborne with Help to Buy.

[Andy Burnham @andyburnham]

Let's be honest.

A lot of young people have stopped believing they'll ever own their own home.

That's what happens when rents are high, house prices are high, and saving for a deposit feels impossible.

My Labour government is stepping in to help.

With Your First Home, first-time buyers will be able to buy a new-build home with a deposit of just 2.5%.

Because hard work and saving should count for something.

And because the dream of owning your own home shouldn't belong only to those with help from the bank of Mum and Dad.

[Islander @PropertySpot]

@i_loathe_tweets @izakaminska Have you heard the expression “NIMBY”?

[Islander @PropertySpot]

@i_loathe_tweets @izakaminska Not all immigration is equivalent.

[Islander @PropertySpot]

@marc_cart @carlgomb Do you have citizenship or not? Are you arguing that residence should be equivalent to citizenship?

[Islander @PropertySpot]

@MilanBrahmbha11 How would you define the West?

[Islander @PropertySpot]

@Maltby523 @GayTory Fair enough. I think whether or not a tax based on a percentage of the house value is a good idea is a separate issue.

[Islander @PropertySpot]

@Maltby523 @GayTory The question is why? The reason there is generational property inequality isn’t fundamentally because of the tax or pension systems.

[Islander @PropertySpot]

@Maltby523 @GayTory This isn’t a simple generational question because of the role of immigration in the last couple of decades.

[Islander @PropertySpot]

We live in 'interesting times'.

[Department of State @StateDept]

We are rejecting the outdated model of multilateralism that treats the American taxpayer as the world's underwriter for a sprawling architecture of global governance.

President Trump's withdrawal shows that the era of writing blank checks to international bureaucracies is over.

https://t.co/jWG5FNGbGE

[Sylvain Catherine @sc_cath]

Around the introduction of GDPR: US investors stopped investing in Europe, but increased their investment in the US. European investors stopped funding startups both in Europe and in the US.

[Islander @PropertySpot]

Belated recognition that creating a category called “affordable housing” is counterproductive?

[Sam Coates Sky @SamCoatesSky]

EXC:

Steve Reed and Sadiq Khan tell me why the “crisis” in London housebuilding justifies slashing affordable homes targets

I challenge the Mayor over claims of amount of housebuidling “started”

Produced by @JoeCookJ

[Islander @PropertySpot]

This Select Committee evidence from the “Big Six” energy companies gives the impression that we've been making some huge policy mistakes.
https://t.co/zyHxq4Mqg2

[Samuel Hughes @SCP_Hughes]

In the 1700s and 1800s, English and Irish developers laid out hundreds of garden squares, though there was no planning requirement that they do this, and though they never made any money on them. Why?

[Kallum Pickering @KallumPickering]

We begin our analysis with a simple observation - that the decline in UK electricity availability, which started in 2006, coincided with the start of structural weakness in UK productivity growth (2/16) #productivitypuzzle #ukeconomy

[Islander @PropertySpot]

@samofsamshire A lot depends on the build quality. If it’s just brick cladding then they will look terrible before long.

[Islander @PropertySpot]

This map is very revealing for what it says about how the US sees Europe.

[Henry Zeffman @hzeffman]

One of the most striking themes in Keir Starmer’s speech today — his frustration with Whitehall

For weeks I’ve been asking Labour people what they make of their time in government and one sentiment comes up again and again:

“Dominic Cummings was right”