Ben Southwood
@bswud
Founder & editor, http://worksinprogress.co @stripe. Fellow, @createstreets.
867 new homes to replace a car park and shopping arcade in Peckham. Rejected by the council (and opposed by the local MP, Labour environment minister @Miatsf). standard.co.uk/news/london/pe…
I would quite like to buy an end-of-tenancy-style clean for my house, but the companies I’ve called up to ask to do it have all told me that they only clean empty homes. Does anyone know if I can buy this service?
The Ministry of Power speaking in Parliament in 1959. "No one disputes that, within the measurable future, generation by nuclear energy will become substantially cheaper than by coal."
Two tables from a 1966 paper on the economics of nuclear power. A mill is a tenth of a cent: $0.001. So large nuclear power plants entering service before 1970 were producing power for 0.37¢/kWh, or about 3¢/kWh in today's money. Coal was about a quarter more expensive.
The US nuclear boom started to show cracks between 1967 and 1969. Here's a funny quotation to read: US utilities responded to these first overruns by ordering more expensive but quicker gas and coal power plants.
☀️🇬🇧🥵 NEW RESEARCH from @BritishProgress on the true impact of Britain’s air conditioning ban. As covered by @Victoria_Spratt @theipaper today, this has real consequences for the elderly, vulnerable and pregnant. 🧵
This is $500,000 per hectare (but the upfront cost is actually zero: they are paying contractors in land). Could the UK government give anyone who raises Doggerland 10% of the land if they give the country 90%? Would be a good site for a detention centre.
The Maldives is extremely land constrained. It is currently reclaiming 1,280 hectares from Fushidhiggaru lagoon. The expected cost is about $650m, but the government is footing none of it. Instead the contractor will get 4% of the new land. 10ha were completed in the first week.
New from me @WorksInProgMag about a great idea to improve transit all around the world (but especially in Britain) – the tram-train. By running trams onto suburban railway lines, cities can get big transit networks at comparatively little cost. worksinprogress.news/p/tram-trains
Come and work with me!
Stripe Press and Works in Progress are looking for someone to grow our audience, plus sell books and magazine subscriptions. We want to do everything we can to reach millions more readers. If that might be you, please apply. stripe.com/jobs/listing/g…
1. Wind and solar both keep me up at night, but for opposite reasons. Solar works and is winning the global race, Britain simply sits too far north to benefit. Britain is betting on wind instead, yet wind lacks the very traits that makes solar work.
The High Court concluded that being on the leaked Afghani dataset would not actually lead a person or their family to be targeted by the Taliban. So even on the govt's own terms, it was a mistake to bring them here on the basis of the leak (let alone ban it from being reported).
People say there's no state capacity any more, but here the government pulled off a multi-billion pound relocation of tens of thousands of people with all the planning, execution and spending kept completely secret from the country
UK set up secret £7bn Afghan immigration scheme after data leak and gagged media ft.com/content/f6b411… via @ft @LOS_Fisher
Canary Wharf. The commercial buildings are much the same as ever, but some of the residential architecture is improving dramatically. In this new apartment building, notice, e.g.: - Setting back of the windows from the wall plane to give a sense of 'body' to the piers; - Facing…
Fantastic design on this new Australian magazine: absolutely love it. Also love their mission as described by their about page. I will be subscribing and following them!
🚨We’re launching the FIRST issue of Inflection Points 🚨 - Michael Brennan & Dan Andrews - Katie Roberts-Hull - Jonathan O’Brien - Andrew Leigh
new from me: the Alan Turing Institute has been instructed by government to undergo radical reform – I tell the story of how its leadership is doing everything it can to ignore this and plough on as usual 🧵
Mission‑driven government needs more than ambition: we must rewrite the rules of the game. Today for @britishprogress, @pdmsero and I show how mechanism design (‘ reverse game theory’) can help the Government shape markets, crowd in investment and deliver radical reform.
36 degrees indoors! Have a look at the temperatures our supporters recorded at home with no air con (post a pic in the replies if you can beat them!) Only 5% of British households have air con due to anti-air con rules. It's time to change them and COOL BRITANNIA.
