Housing: creative solutions

Climate change affects everyone, but its impacts are far from equal. Across the UK and globally, those living in poor quality housing face the harshest consequences of our changing climate, creating a cruel irony where the people who contributed least to global warming suffer most from its effects. The Heat Island Effect: When Housing Location Becomes Life-Threatening People on low incomes are more likely to live in housing not suited to heat and are twice as likely to live in places that are significantly hotter than neighbouring areas due to the 'urban heat island' effect. This phenomenon means that while affluent neighbourhoods enjoy tree-lined streets and green spaces that naturally cool the air, poorer communities endure concrete jungles that trap and intensify heat. The statistics are stark: around a quarter of the poorest families live in homes that regularly overheat, compared to just one in twenty of the richest households. This isn't simply about comfort—it...

How Orwell’s masterpiece can predict Trumps next steps I decided, with a grim sort of duty, to re-read Orwell. Pulled my old, dog-eared copy of Nineteen Eighty-Four from the shelf, expecting, perhaps, a historical curiosity. A powerful warning, yes, but one whose specific horrors belonged to the mid-20th century, to Stalin and the nascent Cold War fears that birthed it. Instead, I found myself gripped by a chilling, nauseating sense of déjà vu . Page after page wasn't just resonant; it felt like a dispatch from the present. Not the whole terrifying architecture of Airstrip One, not yet. But the tools, the language, the psychological distortions – they leaped off the page, smeared across the news reports from Donald Trump’s second presidency, barely four months old. It’s uncanny, and frankly, terrifying. Orwell wasn't just writing about totalitarianism; he was dissecting the mechanisms by which truth is dismantled and power becomes absolute. And seeing those mechanisms depl...

Khan is right - Tory voter ID plans gag the poorest. But it’s not just in London. Here's what we can do about it ' On New Years’ Eve, Sadiq Kahn warned that a new wave of hard right populism could see Susan Hall in London’s City Hall. And the new requirement for voter identification at the ballot box might accelerate this trend. He’s right, but it’s not just London that is affected.  The voter identification requirements deliberately make it more difficult for those who traditionally support Labour, to vote.  After the 2019 General Election, IPSOS estimated how voters voted. Their results came as no surprise, Labour had a 43 point lead among voters aged 18-24, but the biggest change was among 35-54 year olds, who saw a three point rise in the Conservatives’ vote share and 11 point fall for Labour. There was a gender gap, with the Conservatives ahead of Labour by 15 points among men, and by nine points among women. Among BME voters, Labour led the Conservatives by 64% to 20%...