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Benedikt Straňák

@benediktstranak.bsky.social

360 followers 1.5K following 29 posts

Researcher interested in rent, finance and political economy of land. Numerate, immigrant and queer. 🇵🇸🇺🇦🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Views my own. 👨🏻‍💻 Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), previously New Economics Foundation.

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Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · Nov 18

A new @neweconomics.bsky.social report by me and Emmet Kiberd is out today, showing that in the midst of climate and nature emergencies when we urgently need to prioritise public transport and active travel, new builds lock England into car dependency. 1/3 neweconomics.org/2024/11/trap...

Trapped behind the wheel

How England's new builds lock us into car dependency

neweconomics.org

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Reposted by Benedikt Straňák

Stephen Frost @sfrost.bsky.social · May 30

Good read this, particularly if you are interested in knowing how much public transport investment could be needed to deliver tram networks in more cities (including Bristol), better buses, safer streets for active travel and roads with fewer potholes👇

Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · May 30

Rachel Reeves is preparing to announce billions in capital spending outside the south-east. This is good news! But the scale of the challenge is massive: re-sharing here our recent localised estimates of the unmet public investment need. @neweconomics.bsky.social @clesthinkdo.bsky.social 1/5

Solid foundations

Local investment need for a decade of renewal

neweconomics.org

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Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · May 30

Today's news: www.theguardian.com/politics/202... 5/5

Rachel Reeves to announce billions in regional spending after Treasury rule changes

Extra investment lined up for schemes such as energy projects, roads and rails outside London and south-east

www.theguardian.com

Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · May 30

Curious to see any details of the investment plans: how much, what in, where, and how. More public investment outside of London is a a good start, but by no means a guarantee of a meaningful, positive difference to people's lives (read the report!). 4/5

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Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · May 30

The report includes figures for every local authority, so you can look up your area! There’s also a detailed methodology if you want to understand how we got to these numbers. 3/5

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Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · May 30

With Emmet Kiberd, we estimate that outside of London, England faces an annual public investment gap of £15.6bn in transport and active travel infrastructure. £11.8bn in social housing. £3.4bn in housing retrofit. £1.4bn in local energy. East Midlands needs the most investment. 2/5

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Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · May 30

Solid foundations

Local investment need for a decade of renewal

neweconomics.org

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Reposted by Benedikt Straňák

Research & Degrowth International @r-degrowth.bsky.social · May 15

📘We present to you our first policy brief “Degrowth for cities” writen by R&Di’s dear member Mike Duff. Our series of policy briefs - which will be coming out during this year - challenge conventional growth-centric policies by presenting alternatives.

Read it here:
degrowth.org/blog/2025/05...

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Reposted by Benedikt Straňák

Feral Millennial Communists of Late Stage Capitalism @feralcommie.bsky.social · May 4

There is one point on Google Earth at the moment where the map images shift from October 2023 and December 2024 in Gaza. You can clearly see the line between the two, written in destruction

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Reposted by Benedikt Straňák

Scottish Trans @scottishtrans.bsky.social · Apr 16

We'd urge people not to panic - there will be lots of commentary coming out quickly that is likely to deliberately overstate the impact that this decision is going to have on all trans people's lives. We'll say more as soon as we're able to. Please look out for yourselves and each other today 💗🏳️‍⚧️

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Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · Apr 16

So BBC News just gave 15min unchallenged time to TERF campaigners celebrating the idiotic Supreme Court ruling without hearing from a single trans person.

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Reposted by Benedikt Straňák

The Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) @clesthinkdo.bsky.social · Apr 7

🎟️ Tickets now on sale for CWB Summit 2025!
📅 3 July | 📍Manchester

Join changemakers, grassroots leaders and policymakers to explore how local democracy and community wealth building can shape fairer economies.

🎤 Andy Burnham, Grace Blakeley + more
🔗 cles.org.uk/events/cwb-s...

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Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · Dec 6

@redpeppermag.bsky.social #246 is out and in it my review of 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Who Is Afraid of Degrowth? 🌶️🌶️🌶️ by @celine.bsky.social Can’t wait to read the whole issue!

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Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · Dec 5

Super excited. I have followed CLES for s while, so this is a (not so) little dream come true.

The Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) @clesthinkdo.bsky.social · Dec 5

Welcome, welcome, welcome!

We're very happy to welcome another new member of the CLES team this week - @benediktstranak.bsky.social brings with him a a passion for spatial data and a wealth of thinking work on local government and the national policy context. 😍

🔗 cles.org.uk/about-cles/p...

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Reposted by Benedikt Straňák

New Economics Foundation @neweconomics.bsky.social · Nov 29

New housing developments are locking more and more people into car dependency.

NEF research by Emmet Kiberd and @benediktstranak.bsky.social shows over the last 15 years, homes have increasingly been built in places where people rely on cars.

This is bad for the environment and bad for our health.

Bar graph showing how car dependency has increased in every region of the UK from 2009 onwards.

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Reposted by Benedikt Straňák

Tom Pollard @pollardtom.bsky.social · Nov 20

New @neweconomics.bsky.social research out today shows that removing 'hope value' from the price councils have to pay for land could reduce the cost of building the 90,000 new social homes we need each year by a quarter, saving £4.5bn www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/scrappi...

Scrapping hope value would slash cost of building 90,000 social homes a year by £4.5bn, new report finds

A new report has found that scrapping hope value for landowners would slash the cost of building 90,000 social homes a year by £4.5bn.

www.insidehousing.co.uk

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Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · Nov 19

The data on travel times is particularly interesting, published by @ubdc.bsky.social at University of Glasgow. And all of the data we used is freely accessible, including the map layers (OS Open Zoomstack) 4/4 data.ubdc.ac.uk/datasets/acc...

Great Britain Accessibility Indicators 2023 (AI23) - UBDC Data Catalogue

Accessibility indicators measure the ease of reaching valuable destinations (Levinson and Wu 2020). The current dataset, Great Britain Accessibility Indicators 2023 (AI23), provides small-area...

data.ubdc.ac.uk

Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · Nov 19

For car dependency, we construct a detailed spatial index from data on travel times (by car and public transport) to schools, supermarkets, hospitals, town centres and employment, and Census data on density, car ownership, and transport mode used to travel to work. 3/4

Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · Nov 19

For locations of new homes, we use data from the open EPC register. Each new home in England gets an EPC rating which is logged in a public register. The register contains Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) that can be used to geolocate the new dwellings. 2/4 epc.opendatacommunities.org

Energy Performance of Buildings Data England and Wales

epc.opendatacommunities.org

Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · Nov 19

A short thread on the data used in the NEF report on car dependency by me and Emmet Kiberd, released yesterday. The report looks at the exact locations of all new homes in England, and shows that they are being built in increasingly car dependent areas. 1/4

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Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · Nov 18

Indeed, but sadly not unique in that respect. This is how the Northern Conurbation compares to Midlands, and to London and its surrounds ...

Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · Nov 18

Here! Stockport, and most of Greater Manchester in the zoomed out map

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Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · Nov 18

Indeed! en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_Pa...

Beam Park railway station - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · Nov 18

Hi! There were two parts to the research: the first part was data-intensive: we assessed car dependency of all places (LSOAs, small statistical areas) and looked at where exactly new homes are being build, across England. But to understand why this happens, we then spoke to planners, developers …

Benedikt Straňák @benediktstranak.bsky.social · Nov 18

Hi! There isn’t - it would be great, just don’t have the time and means at the moment. Happy to share exports for any places of interest.

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Reposted by Benedikt Straňák

Jim Gleeson @geographyjim.bsky.social · Nov 18

Very cool analysis by @benediktstranak.bsky.social and Emmet Kiberd for NEF of changing patterns of car-dependency in new homes, including this historical view. Full report here neweconomics.org/2024/11/trap...

Chart from NEF showing the distribution of their car-dependency index for all housing stock in England by period of completion, from homes built pre-1918 to those complete in 2021-2023. From the NEF report 'Trapped behind the wheel: How England's new builds lock us into car dependency'

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