Housing: creative solutions

  3 days after the 2024 General Election was called, the Digital Protection and Digital Information Bill failed to proceed before the Parliamentary session ended. This article is left online as a reference point for the future. As the world continues to grapple with the revelations of unscrupulous tax evasion by global billionaires, the UK Government is gearing up to pursue the most vulnerable in society to recover overpaid benefits. In late 2023, the EU Tax Observatory estimated that a modest 2% levy on the world’s 2,756 wealthiest billionaires could generate a staggering £250bn annually . These billionaires collectively hold an estimated wealth of $13tn. The report poignantly highlighted the lack of serious efforts to address this issue, warning that the current situation could potentially undermine the public’s faith in existing tax systems. However, rather than tackling this glaring inequality, the UK government is instead focusing its efforts on the less privileged. It is seeking

  Progress has been a simple equation: economic growth measured by GDP. The endless upward climb promised solutions to everything from poverty to pollution. But the reality hasn't lived up to the promise. It's time to redefine progress before the changing climate becomes irreversible. The Allure of Growth Growth is appealing. We see it in thriving gardens and children reaching their full potential. No wonder we embraced it as the economic ideal, adopting the "more is better" mantra. Yet, nature teaches us that endless growth is unsustainable. Everything eventually reaches maturity, focusing on health and well-being rather than constant expansion. As Janine Benyus, a pioneer in biomimicry , reminds us, trees prioritise distributing resources to their entire being, stopping growth once that function is compromised. The Growth Addiction Cheap fossil fuels in the 20th century fueled rapid growth, which became ingrained in our economic systems. This has led to policies –