James Howat

@theobertram @LabourTogether @SMFthinktank @theobertram you're right! You've done great work in this area and our chats have been very helpful for this report. We're putting in an acknowledgement now.

Great to see @LabourTogether doing more in this area. (But as regards ivory tower thinktanker etiquette, I was a little surprised there was no mention of the @SMFthinktank in the report especially after briefing them about our idea & work in this area over the last year).

Much more from my colleague Dan in here: labourtogether.uk/all-reports/bi…

If a council wants to raise taxes to fund more bins or playgrounds, it can do it without £ going into ASC that most people don't see. If it redevelops an area and grow its tax base, it keeps the £ it creates. This is how we improve the retail end of the state 5/n

When that bloke from the Inbetweeners goes viral complaining about council tax, you know something has gone badly wrong with the contract between councils and their residents. Labour Together's NEW PAPER is about how to fix it. 1/n youtube.com/shorts/Byz9cK6…

For a practical guide to how a swift administration for Thames might look, read the report labourtogether.uk/all-reports/le…

Allowing Thames to go into administration may need some temporary £ from HMT. But it will be the senior creditor and can charge a premium rate of interest. So the taxpayer is almost guaranteed to be made whole, or better. God made fiscal headroom for moments like this

Thames Water should be allowed to go down the drain. Labour Together's new paper argues this will show voters that Labour is taking on a rigged system in which 'heads', investors win, 'tails', billpayers lose. It is also crucial for suring up investor confidence. 🧵

NEW PAPER: Why does British infrastructure cost so much and take so long? Our new paper by @dsquareddigest argues the problem isn't just the fault of regulation, NIMBYs, JR, or risk-averse civil servants – it's an adversarial planning system that manufactures objections 🧵

Times coverage - thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar… Our paper - labourtogether.uk/all-reports/pr…

It would also just be cool to build new towns in a place at the technological frontier 7/n

The story for the frontier of the UK economy should be that we are tripling GDP in the Ox-Cam Corridor by 2050. Its already one of the most innovative stretches of land on the planet. 1/n