Mark Provan

@s8mb Most white collar work is already the product of dividing up tasks. You can have a job thinking about markets and trading potato futures because you can do that task better than a million individual farmers, and they can concentrate on farming and not economics.

@s8mb The story of washing machines is that we break down tasks so that they become dead simple. Cheap and reliable >>> "smart". Just buy two dishwashers and alternate rather than micro optimising with AI and robotics.

The logic of “augmentation, not automation”, if applied historically, would have us using high powered scrubbing boards instead of washing machines to clean our clothes and digital abacuses instead of computers to do sums. People are currently far too eager to jump to the limit scenario where literally anything can be automated, and trying to plan for that, instead of considering all the scenarios where that doesn’t happen and trying to make sure those go as well as they can. update.news/p/why-we-shoul…

@GarethDennis A Victorian can-do attitude to infrastructure necessarily means a can-do attitude to housing: build lots and knock down lots. If a 10 year old house is in the way of a new line upgrade, then knock it down as readily as you'd do a 50 or 500 year old house.

@GarethDennis It's easy to fund new/upgraded metro lines if you can CPO, demolish and densify existing housing near the stations. The same is true of transformer upgrades, or combined heat and power plants. But knocking down relatively crappy private housing is politically unpopular.

One serious benefit to the fact that it's impossible to electrify these things (the whole operational model, not just the HGV) is that logistics in rural areas might scale back down to fit the infrastructure.

@GarethDennis In extremis you burn the diesel in static generators, and still end up with an overall efficiency improvement. The inability of the UK to build new electricity infrastructure hurts trains as well because it wipes out energy cost savings from electrification.

That's enough extra electricity infrastructure to power 4 million new homes. That's two thirds of a Hinkley C, just for HGV motorway charging. The UK government currently has an ambitious* target to hit... 300000 new homes a year to 2029.

@defossardf @gonzondeck @LoftusSteve All buildings are a snapshot of the society that built them. Most buildings from 1840 are no longer fit for purpose because society has moved on. Unlike most though we don't want to demolish and rebuild the PoW as a cheaper way to match modern requirements.

@defossardf @gonzondeck @LoftusSteve Accessibility rules have generally worked because lifts and ramps make operations easier as well, e.g. not having to carry heavy objects up stairs. Housekeeping and security robots are now a thing to keep labour costs down but they need lifts and ramps too.

The people who put these plans together should never work again. They were told time and time again by the last government that the costs and timescales were unviable and would never gain public support. They were told repeatedly that the restoration of Parliament should focus on fire safety and boilers, not redesigning the palace and putting in new tunnelling systems for traffic, glass atriums and making every since room on every single floor disabled accessible. They were told that MPs would not vote for such plans and would not vote for Parliament to be out of action for multiple electoral cycles. Instead, the consultants continued their surveys, the lawyers billed their hours, and a whole clique of professional infrastructure failures continued to take taxpayers money to come up with these plans, and they waited for the Government to change. The Government has now changed and they are presenting the same insane plans to Parliament for approval. The Restoration and Renewal lobbying arm will spread lies about falling masonry (it's actually portcullis house which is falling down), they will lie about fires and they will demand every room be accessible despite no likelihood of that ever being required. Do not believe their numbers, do not believe their reasoning. This is a farce and it is public sector procurement at its absolute worst: vanity, delays, refusal to listen, and the taxpayer loses every time.

@kitchentowel @thomasforth @GarethDennis Between *English* cities. HS2 couldn't be honest about the true design goal of enabling faster-than-flying journeys to Glasgow & Edinburgh. HSR lines have to be designed for the future even when extensions aren't designed or funded, as you can't revisit them later.

@thomasforth This is nonsense "this process is now widely seen as excessive: the fastest conventional-tracked railway in the western world, with a speed of 400kph, one-third above the European high-speed standard even though distances between English cities are short" @GarethDennis

Beautifully clear demonstration of the very high cost of HS2, amid unusually easy terrain and with proven technology. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/ac…

@JordanEVGuy @OctopusEnergy There has to be a reason for a new build house developer to put in a 3ph supply. Cheaper, faster charging for your 2-3 big EVs is a good one. Otherwise nothing gets better. 7kW is still more than enough when people plug in nightly anyway, unless you're doing a lot of miles.

@JordanEVGuy @OctopusEnergy 7kW is only normal because we haven't had 3ph supplies. In Germany you'd have 11kW or 22kW. Octopus want and need to incentivise people to have faster chargers and supply upgrades as that maximises the flexibility to operate on spot prices. Big EVs kinda need it now too.

@JordanEVGuy @OctopusEnergy Octopus aren't responsible for funding what kit you have behind the meter. They can offer financing like anyone else, but it's your responsibility. Why should the people who did shell out £1k on a charger not yet some payback from that investment?

@MarkProvanP @OctopusEnergy You’re absolutely right, but that isn’t supporting the transition with accessible charging. We ate saying one thing and doing another. It’s no wonder people won’t go EV.

@JordanEVGuy @OctopusEnergy If the market spot price will be low between 01:00 and 07:00 then that's when they schedule the rates. They can't equalise the cost so you can charge at spot peaks (e.g. 19:00) just because you haven't spent £1k on the right kit. The grid wants you to have a 7kW charger.

@JordanEVGuy @OctopusEnergy Octopus is offering low rates because most EV drivers can soak up electricity when it is cheap, thereby reducing their consumption when it's expensive. Granny charging physically can't do the same task, so they can't make it as cheap. This is fundamental.

@rcolvile @thetimes The private sector has correctly determined that both of these people are unemployable. If we want a dynamic, efficient private sector we have to provide the unemployable with some sort of subsistence. Bloating out the public/third sector is hardly any better than welfare.

If anyone wants to understand why the welfare bill is going up, read this from a GP in @thetimes... thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/…

@scmurphy @MattLismore @lbbdcouncil Large commercial developments often include CHP plants but under single ownership, the regulations/complexities are reduced. How easy is it to build a grid-supplying gas power station in a city today? How do generation/supply regs e.g. the price cap affect the economics?

@MarkProvanP @MattLismore @lbbdcouncil That makes sense intuitively. Scale should reduce costs per flat. Flat gas boiler = expensive, estate scale power and heating network = cheaper per flat cos economies of scale How about estate or building scale electric heating networks using air source heat pumps?

Heat networks are a disaster that leaseholders are powerless to challenge. When I was a leasehold with @lbbdcouncil as my freeholder; I had to use their wholly owned provider BD Energy. The monthly cost of heating & powering my 2 bed new build flat was £240 per month. In my Victorian terraced house, I now pay £115 per month. Heat networks are a con job.

@stellastafford @jo3hill No, make the regulations apply to existing housing as well. If you don't have a second staircase then you must demolish your building, right now. This is what we did with internal toilets. If you're not willing to demolish noncompliant buildings, the regs are meaningless.

@jo3hill Sorry, you are saying "Let's build DANGEROUS HOUSING with NO REGULATIONS"? Who needs second staircases etc. when you can squeeze a teeny weeny studio flat in on every floor at luxury housing prices no one homeless can possibly afford? NB UNaffordable ISN'T affordable either.

We can’t go on like this, allowing zero-tolerance approaches to risk to affect the worst off in society by denying them affordable housing.

@HelenX678 @LostInSW19 @SteveReedMP Yes. But if existing buildings get a free pass, then nothing gets better. We only got rid of houses without internal toilets by knocking them down or forcibly upgrading them. If a house is unsafe it doesn't matter if it is or was built in 2026, 1926 or 1826.

They managed to get Angela Rayner to delay the Building Safety Levy for a full year, so now Housebuilders want it scrapped. It's on their very long Xmas wishlist Let's see if @SteveReedMP is as serious about building safety as he claims to be.