Will
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Will
@will-owen.bsky.social
Reposted by Will
Housing Europe sees the EU Affordable Housing Plan as a 1st step to build a framework allowing Europe to join forces. Success will depend on local capacity to meet diverse housing needs, and public, cooperative, and social housing should remain central.

housingeurope.eu/new-era-for-...
New era for housing policy in Europe has begun - Housing Europe
Today, the EU’s first-ever European Affordable Housing Plan, the European Commission is taking a historic step in redefining the relationship between housing policies and the European Union. As the Pl...
housingeurope.eu
December 16, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Will
This is true. A related rule is the journey time elasticity: a 10% improvement in journey time will lead to about a 6% increase in demand on average. Obviously there are detailed subtleties to these concepts. www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/the...
The 1.3-hour rule: Why quicker trains encourage longer-distance commutes
Regardless of how people get to work or where they live, it turns out that most of us tend to spend the same amount of time commuting to work.
www.ianvisits.co.uk
December 16, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Will
Anyway, enjoy this old guy telling a funny story.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=nxpI...
We Are Here On Earth To Fart Around, Kurt Vonnegut (2004)
YouTube video by Ben Frawley
m.youtube.com
December 16, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Reposted by Will
I suspect you’ll find a lot pin this you agree with @daveproudlove.bsky.social , including the references to toxic landlords and market manipulation. Like the idea of a Troubled Buildings Programme (probably spend the entire budget in Stoke 😬) open.substack.com/pub/howtorun...
How do you solve a problem like the high street?
Time for a Troubled Buildings Programme
open.substack.com
December 15, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Reposted by Will
I went to a dinner with the AI Minister and I read a paper on Lovelace Institue --- a proposal from Tony Blair's Institute on how we could fund breakthrough science better. And I wrote that all up into one incoherent mess for you to enjoy. tomforth.co.uk/nationalpurp...
National purpose on AI.
Lovelace Institutes, why I like the idea, and how I think they could work.
tomforth.co.uk
December 12, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Reposted by Will
Christmas, innit. How about we get some things for women and children with nothing who are escaping domestic violence? You can do that, as ever, via the brilliant Refuge. Check this out: donate.refuge.org.uk/page/180196/...
Buy a parcel and help give mums and their children in our refuges their first Christmas of freedom.
When a child arrives at a refuge in the countdown to Christmas, they’re withdrawn and in shock.
donate.refuge.org.uk
December 14, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Will
This is great - Adam Scovell wanders Kings Cross to find the locations used in The Ladykillers, one of of the greatest films ever made. Sadly aside from the bricks now being much cleaner, the area looks pretty bland compared to 70 years ago

www.bfi.org.uk/features/70-...
70 years of The Ladykillers: how the locations look today
As the classic Ealing comedy turns 70, we went walking around King’s Cross to see whether Alec Guinness and his motley band of robbers would recognise it today.
www.bfi.org.uk
December 12, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Reposted by Will
7. It's Big Bobby C time! Bob Chilcott, crown prince of carols, wrote this terrific sleighride of a setting for that old classic 'Adam Lay Ybounden'. I do love a bit of Chilcott. His command of rhythm always makes his stuff so much fun to sing, let alone listen to. youtu.be/bgKWZwuNEk0?...
On Christmas Night: Adam lay ybounden
YouTube video by Release - Topic
youtu.be
December 7, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Will
pca.st/episode/9344...

Enjoy these Henry Oliver podcasts with a sort of pleasurable bewilderment
Rhodri Lewis: Shakespearean Tragedy
pca.st
December 2, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Will
70% of the additional spending from removing the two-child limit will go to families who are in work. This is targeting support for low-income working households who are being priced out of a decent standard of living despite doing everything asked of them.
November 27, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Will
This is terrific - by-election politics (the worst form of electoral politics), regional development, big political personalities ⤵️
‘Rather than an important component in a long-term regional plan, it was now clear that the Humber Bridge was the only component in that plan. For much of the 1980s, it was seen by critics as a white elephant.’

Tom White on how the Humber Bridge was built:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Tom White · Short Cuts: A Bridge across the Humber
In 1966, as election day approached, Labour dispatched MPs and ministers to Hull, including Tony Benn, Tony Crosland,...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Will
This piece is as good as people say it is. A fierce critique of zoning, by the former executive director of the zoning office in Baltimore.
November 25, 2025 at 4:23 AM
Reposted by Will
This is really important to understand the future of affordable housing in England. The top for-profit registered provider developed more than 3,500 homes in the last financial year. The top housing association, L&Q, built about 2,300.
November 24, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Reposted by Will
Just realised why I'm working with people called Jack all of a sudden:
www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society...
Parents warned to stop calling their children Lily or Jack
BRITISH parents' desire to give all children the name Jack or Lily could have sociological repercussions, experts have warned.
www.thedailymash.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Reposted by Will
Mike Green is writing some amazing stuff at the moment. It's not in the delta, it's in the level and the cost structure. Read this and you will understand Angrynomics on a new level: www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-...
Part 1: My Life Is a Lie
How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America
www.yesigiveafig.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Reposted by Will
How do we define success in housing?

Some reflections on LHG's policy day, this week's planning announcements, and how we ensure that Labour's housing successes turn into human outcomes.

open.substack.com/pub/housinga...
How do we define success in housing?
How do we turn the physical outputs of our housing solutions into human outcomes?
open.substack.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by Will
I really cannot recommend this excellent piece on Hammersmith Bridge highly enough
Hammersmith Bridge
Where did 25,000 vehicles go?
nickmaini.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Will
Very balanced evaluation of London estate regeneration by Pete Apps peteapps.substack.com/p/the-limits...
The limits of estate 'regeneration' in London
PLUS: thoughts on homes near stations, and the first instalment in a new book club series looks at the privatisation of public land
peteapps.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:58 AM
Reposted by Will
#MorningVibe

Chemists in England have created a gel that can repair and regenerate tooth enamel, opening up new possibilities for effective and long-lasting dental treatment.

Funding science is a wonderful thing. www.goodnewsnetwork.org/new-gel-regr...
New Gel Regrows Dental Enamel–Which Humans Cannot Do–and Could Revolutionize Tooth Care
Enamel does not regenerate; once you lose it it's gone forever. There is currently no solution available that can effectively regrow it.
www.goodnewsnetwork.org
November 20, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Reposted by Will
This does feel like a major crossing of the Rubicon – the world's best-funded and in many ways most powerful public health agency is now actively pushing disinformation.

I know there's a *lot* going on to care about at the moment, but this one really is significant, and matters well beyond the US.
The CDC website now disseminates disinformation about vaccines, claiming erroneously that infant vaccines might cause autism, when we know conclusively that they do not. It is difficult to overstate just how dangerous this is. www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safe...
November 20, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Will
I often struggle to come up with tangible examples of English devolution but this is one. Greater Manchester is doing its own £1bn regeneration investment fund

on.ft.com/43InqRk
Greater Manchester to launch £1bn public investment fund
[FREE TO READ] City region aims to capitalise on sustained economic growth with first fund of its kind
on.ft.com
November 19, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Reposted by Will
A post I wrote a few months ago on what it means for urban policy that housing is largely homothetic (inspired by an @arpitrage.bsky.social tweet, which became the Substack preview of the post): gregshill.substack.com/p/mistaking-...
November 19, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Will
This is great - comprehensive, well researched, and a genuine eye-opener on a subject that I thought I knew about:

youtu.be/pRPduRHBhHI?...
This is Why Cycling is Dangerous in America
YouTube video by Not Just Bikes
youtu.be
November 17, 2025 at 6:38 PM