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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 1d

Our minerals strategy involves waiting so long to make decisions that coal will become diamonds

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 1d

I’m sure Jenrick knows that the Balti was invented in Birmingham and therefore is British food, that we are rightly proud of.

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 1d

Well said the Bishop of Birmingham - we are a proudly diverse city and many communities work hard to unite, not divide.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d

The Bishop of Birmingham has written to the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick about his comments about Handsworth

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Reposted by Mike Best

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 1d

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

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Reposted by Mike Best

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 2d

If he wants truly integrated places, why doesn’t he start with letting poor people live alongside rich people. Or maybe his view is entirely about non-white people and not really about integration at all.

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Chris Grey @chrisgrey.bsky.social · 1d

This really needs to be said and understood. What makes it worse, if possible, is that it is not coming out of any genuine crisis or emergency. It is a deliberate attempt to whip up anger and grievance in order to capitalise upon it & in Jenrick's case purely to advance his leadership ambitions.

Tanja Bueltmann @tanjabueltmann.net · 2d

I say this with the bluntness it requires: they will get people murdered if this continues. This is not just populism anymore either: it’s completely unhinged and a deliberate choice that does endanger lives. I am not saying this lightly at all.

Screenshot of an Express article; it says: Robert Jenrick lists 30 'activist judges' he vows to axe in war on UK's open border

In a bold move, Robert Jenrick is set to unveil a controversial plan targeting what he calls 'activist' judges, at the Conservative Party conference.

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 2d

If he wants truly integrated places, why doesn’t he start with letting poor people live alongside rich people. Or maybe his view is entirely about non-white people and not really about integration at all.

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 8d

There’s a crisis in the acquisition of completed affordable homes

Which means there’s a crisis in the delivery of affordable homes

Which means there’s a false promise in promoting affordable homes

This needs swift action otherwise the government’s laudable affordable housing programme will fail

Home Builders Federation @homebuildersfed.bsky.social · 8d

Just how much impact is the lack of bids from Registered Providers having on housing delivery nationally?

With anecdotal reports from members that the issue shows little sign of abating, we undertook an FOI exercise to determine if any progress has been made.

Here’s what we found 👇

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Reposted by Mike Best

Ruth Watson @ruthwatson.bsky.social · 9d

This.

JazzReads📚 @jazzreads.bsky.social · 10d

So exhausting..

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 9d

Proactive and often area-based planning, site assembly, remediation, public sector intervention (i.e. funding), creating markets where there are none, accepting affordable housing will be negligible - one site at a time. Look at places like Port Loop in Birmingham - 25 yrs in the making

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 9d

It’s brownfield Groundhog Day again.

I’ve been in this game almost 40 years and if any government had genuinely set out to develop every possible brownfield site “first” it would have dwarfed the cost of HS2 ten or twenty times over. It would bankrupt us as a country

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 10d

"There are other questions the CPRE does not ask. Chief among them: if there is so much brownfield land available in the middle of a housing crisis, then why on Earth aren’t we already building on it?" Everything continues to be awful so I've returned to my comfort zone.

No, brownfield land won’t solve the housing crisis

Brownfield building sounds too good to be true – and it is

www.newstatesman.com

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 11d

Don’t start me on ‘grey’. There’s @50shadesofplanning.bsky.social grey!

The report talks about potential for additional homes. It’s allocated for 10k in the local plan which is about to be adopted. It’s currently just a parkway station.

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 11d

As per the brief. It’s incredibly difficult to establish entirely new towns so maybe this is the right way. And Worcestershire Parkway (which I’m working on) is standalone too, so 4 out of 12.

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 11d

Maybe it’s time for

youtu.be/kZssy0IiyMA?...

A New Career in a New Town (2017 Remaster)

YouTube video by David Bowie - Topic

youtu.be

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Reposted by Mike Best

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 11d

Plan to build 12 new towns in England to be unveiled at Labour conference

Housing secretary is set to announce initiative modelled on Clement Attlee’s postwar ‘housing boom’ The government is expected to announce on Sunday a programme to build 12 new towns across England in a bid to address the country’s housing crisis. The housing secretary, Steve Reed, will unveil the initiative at Labour’s annual conference as it begins in Liverpool. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, described the proposals as “national renewal in action”. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 11d

Add that to his other crimes against humanity

The White House Rose Garden

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 11d

That would be a nightmare anyway!

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 11d

OoO!

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 11d

I attended a big local authority conference on Midland Main Line electrification on my first ever day at work in 1986. I retired this year before it has been delivered.

Remind me what makes Britain Great?

Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 11d

Spending a decade watching a dedicated high speed railway between several of the UK's largest cities get repeatedly downgraded to what can now be described as an "electrified link" (currently being delivered on the existing line and delayed since the early 1990s) is radicalising.

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 13d

“Where we propagate confusion.”

Said this last week but there is not a bad track on Document

And the lyrics are purposeful

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 13d

a man with a mustache is wearing a white shirt and a blue sweater .

ALT: a man with a mustache is wearing a white shirt and a blue sweater .

media.tenor.com

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 14d

And there I was thinking you were making sense of things that make no sense. And you were….

The power of art

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Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 15d

BBC news starts by saying BBC Verify will be fact-checking Trump’s UN speech. Seriously?

Seven wars ended apparently including one which was a dispute over a parking ticket.

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Reposted by Mike Best

Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 15d

simpsons "hottest summer" meme: https://imgflip.com/i/6k7hyi

it reads "This is the lowest point in American diplomacy of my life" - Bart, sad

"the lowest point in American diplomacy of my life so far" - homer

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The Onion @theonion.com · 16d

Newborn Loses Faith In Humanity After Record 6 Days https://theonion.com/newborn-loses-faith-in-humanity-after-record-6-days-1819573929/

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