Stephen King

Works on regenerate and the interface between business and London’s local authorities. Always up for a chat & sometimes a retweet is just a retweet

[Tom Bridges @bridges_tom]

@thomasforth @timleunig @CentreforCities Even pedestrianising a small side street requires the local authority to seek permission from the Secretary of State for Transport. And altering pedestrianised hours requires an extensive consultation and stakeholder engagement process, and very often an inquiry.

[Tim Leunig @timleunig]

Irrespective of whether it is a good idea or not, it seems nuts that the Mayor of London can't even pedestrianise a street without permission from the Deputy Prime Minister. Let's make devolution substantive! @CentreforCities
https://t.co/TjQlEicTuN

[Ian L Richardson @ianrich15813274]

Radio 4 just did an excellent report on the wealth inequality between the Boomer generation (mine) & the twenty somethings (2 of my kids.) These really are staggering. This is a key point & it explains so much about what is going wrong in the UK. 40 years ago, when I bought my first house, on average it cost 4 × your annual salary to get on the property ladder, now it's 8 x! Despite having good jobs, it means my 26 & 23 year olds have no chance of buying a home in the near future. BTW, whatever has caused this huge problem, it isn't migration, but how do we tackle it & bring back some inter-generational fairness?

[Stephen King @StephenXKing]

@rcolvile Ancient Bakerloo line trains have no CCTV. Basically TfL version of slam door carriages. New carriages = no problem

[Stephen King @StephenXKing]

@Otto_English Bakerloo Lines ancient and without CCTV , which is why they look like this. Once we replaces these decades old trains (TfL version of slam door carriages) problem will go away.

[BusinessLDN @_BusinessLDN]

“The acid test for this Spending Review is whether the Government’s rhetoric on growth is matched with the investment needed to kickstart the economy.

“The Chancellor has delivered some welcome additional spending on infrastructure, transport and skills. But it looks like London has been left short-changed.

“The Government’s growth mission can only be achieved by unlocking the full potential of London. As a UK-wide engine of growth, the capital accounts for a quarter of the country’s economy. Its substantial net contribution to the public coffers rightly supports spending in other parts of the country but must also enable London to grow.

“While the certainty provided by a four-year funding deal for Transport for London is welcome, the lack of certainty around delivering shovel-ready projects like the DLR to Thamesmead and Bakerloo line extension that could accelerate growth, create new jobs and open up sites for tens of thousands of new homes is baffling.

“The significant boost to investment in affordable housing and a long-term rent settlement will go some way towards tackling the housing crisis. But it remains to be seen how much of that money will flow to London where the housing crisis is most acute – poverty in London after housing costs remains the highest in the country.

“The onus is now on the upcoming 10-year infrastructure strategy and the industrial strategy to fill in the blanks as well as ensuring that London has the tools it needs to play its full part in the growth mission through further devolution.”

Our Chief Executive John Dickie on today's Spending Review: https://t.co/RtL2cY0vXy

[Murky Depths @TheMurkyDepths]

Guardian reports Khan sought tourist tax and rebuffed by Treasury

Crazy. 1) Just about every developed nation and cities/towns around the world have it. Minimal impact on visitors

2) Mad centralisation of power in Whitehall that a Mayor can't do it. A common local power abroad

[Nicholas Boys Smith @boys_nicholas]

Where to begin?

[Stephen King @StephenXKing]

@FranklinVH2 May be we need better east west rail links outside London?

[Adam James Pollock @AdamPollock]

Opportunity is all around you

Unless you live in the UK, where a Head of Finance job at the Cabinet Office earns you the equivalent salary of a Panda Express store manager

[BusinessLDN @_BusinessLDN]

Huge thanks to everyone who joined our packed @UKREiiF programme this week, and special thanks to our sponsors @BarrattHomes, Kanda Consulting and @ArcadisUK.

Great to be joined by @JulesPipe and @clairekholland to hear about how all levels of London government are working together to tackle the city's housing crisis.

Exciting to bring industry leaders together as we announce the finalists for this year's Building London Planning Awards - see who's in the running here 🏆⬇

https://t.co/a1OLDpPSL9

#BLPA25

[Ant Breach @AntBreach]

Our latest report looks at five 'anti-supply measures' that are a major bottleneck on urban housebuilding and the 1.5m new home target - a quick thread below on what they are, why they're a problem, and how to fix them:

[Bob From Accounts 🚲 @BobFromAccounts]

Contrary to popular belief, London has fewer than 200 kilometres of separated cycle lanes amongst approximately 15,000 kilometres of road. That's only 1.3%.

Contrary to popular belief, it's not cyclists or cycle lanes holding you up; it's other drivers.

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

The latest ONS housing data came out today. It showed that rents in London continued to soar. They're now roughly 40% higher than pre-pandemic. For young people in the capital, this is a nightmare. https://t.co/67wCq071wc

[John Stepek @John_Stepek]

The fact that Londoners have less money than average after housing costs is intuitive, obvious even. But it explains much of the rage at quality of life. The UK's most vocal area is full of folk who are "well off" pre-tax, but find they can barely get by. https://t.co/HoZmK9RCho

[Stephen King @StephenXKing]

@dc_lawrence Basically planning policy

[Stephen King @StephenXKing]

@SebastianEPayne People in Tooting getting the Northern Line be like 🤔

[Stephen King @StephenXKing]

@rcolvile Does central government really think local councillors inboxes are not full of people complaining about pot holes? Every year a small pot of one year funding with no idea of what next year’s funding looks like. Perhaps HMT needs to treat local government like grownups?

[Tom Forth @thomasforth]

Housing fact! Dublin (which in this definition has a population of 1.5m) builds 30% more homes per year than Greater Manchester (which in this definition has a population of 2.9m).

[Stephen King @StephenXKing]

@thomasforth Are we able to unpick local authorities and just look at them? Given the scale of job losses in this sector compared to NHS