James H S Brown

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James H S Brown

James H S Brown

@JamesHSBrown

Working to decarbonise the rail industry + some everyday complaining.

London Katılım Aralık 2012
612 Takip Edilen409 Takipçiler
James H S Brown
James H S Brown@JamesHSBrown·
@sjoh0050 @DuncanStott In London though the delta between private and social market is so huge I'm not sure that's the case anymore Creates bipolar communities - not mixed ones. Councils/HA should charge a much wider range of subsidised rents (up to just below market) if they truly want mixed
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🔰🇺🇦
Duncan Stott 🏗️🔰🇺🇦@DuncanStott·
We just need a fixed development tax of say 20% to fund social housing and infrastructure, rather than having every project turn into a conflict over 'viability'.
Southwark Lib Dems@swklibdems

Last year, Southwark Labour approved Borough Triangle whilst it offered only 17% genuinely affordable housing. The developer has now announced it'll be even lower - just 10% affordable. Liberal Democrats said it wasn't good enough then, and now it's even worse.

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James H S Brown
James H S Brown@JamesHSBrown·
@TypeForVictory For a new town I don't think any social housing. Huge amount of work to set up a community - there needs to be a big incentive to move there and you need people with strong "skin in the game" to develop it Social housing aim to deliver in phase 2 when the new town is a success
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James 🇬🇧 👑
James 🇬🇧 👑@TypeForVictory·
Unsure what a healthy balance looks like - perhaps: - 15% social housing - 5% assisted* housing - 5% kickstart** housing - 75% market rate The market rate pulls in the income and satisfies most of the demand. Social captures the very lowest earners. Assisted* housing specially designed for the disabled and elderly, perhaps in more community structures, level access, etc. Plus, to give young people something nice for once, Kickstart housing - ensuite rooms with shared kitchen, or little studio flats, at a cheaper rent for 3-5 years. Gives them a chance to move to a new area, take the slightly lower paid job with better prospects, build up some savings, etc. Every community gets a balance of old and young, wealthier and poorer. But the price mechanism fundamentally drives the system, and ghettos hopefully don't form.
Nigel Forrester@NigelForrester9

I don’t know whether this is the same place, but I know lots of these new developments in Cambridgeshire have this 40% affordability requirement and the result has been middle-class homeowners being terrorised by actual criminals, with the leaseholders (for some reason) always siding with the criminals over everyone else.

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James H S Brown
James H S Brown@JamesHSBrown·
@PJTheEconomist Even more depressing is there seems to have been no assessment of whether the previous gigantic (!!) energy subsidy even delivered that much benefit (versus alternative spending) Doing untargetted flat energy subsidies again seems widely inefficient use of public funds
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Paul Johnson
Paul Johnson@PJTheEconomist·
So depressing. Can’t do better because “can’t develop systems in time”. Said back in 2022 it’d be worth spending a great deal developing systems to avoid again wasting billions or being forced into this sort of compromise. 4 years on both govts/Whitehall have failed to do so.
Steven Swinford@Steven_Swinford

Exclusive from @MaxKendix Rachel Reeves is expected to limit an energy bill bailout to people on benefits after warning that giving support to every household because of the Iran war would be irresponsible and unaffordable The Times has been told that the planned support will be directed instead at about six million people who claim benefits such as universal credit and pension credit While Reeves has asked about a potential “income threshold” to support lower-earning households, officials have said they are unlikely to be able to develop the system in time. Treasury sources emphasised that several options were being looked at but that no decisions had been taken Officials have identified several barriers, including the fact that HM Revenue & Customs records the income of individuals, while an energy bailout would have to focus on households. A project to link up the information started in January and was due to take more than a year Reeves will therefore have little choice but to give support to people claiming benefits, using the warm home discount, which reduces electricity bills for poorer households by £150, as the model for the scheme “The methods of targeting are imperfect,” one government source said. But another said there was “a lot of defeatism” about what systems could realistically be introduced in time. thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar…

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James H S Brown
James H S Brown@JamesHSBrown·
@LiberalSimon @DuncanStott I don't believe they do? Believe Essex council used to fund TfL bus services that crossed the boundary, but that stopped quite a while ago
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Simon
Simon@LiberalSimon·
@JamesHSBrown @DuncanStott Essex County Council pay TfL. The old GLC refused to fund the Epping end of the line due to it being outside of London.
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James H S Brown
James H S Brown@JamesHSBrown·
Long thought TfL and other rail operators should stop messing around with local communities like this. Running a tube service to Theydon Bois costs a lot. If the local community won't support it by allowing building around the station then the service should be reduced
Neil Hudson@DrNeilHudson

🌳 A proposal has been submitted for 150 houses in #TheydonBois on #GreenBelt. Green Belt protects the nature of our precious village. I will continue to do everything I can working with community groups & residents to oppose this development & to stand up for our community. 🌳

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James H S Brown
James H S Brown@JamesHSBrown·
@tomhfh So frustrating when the technology to simplify exists. Apps can do ages verification now Let me age verify on the Tesco app. Biometrics required to open clubcard in app Scan my clubcard to age verify for a stupid red bull Don't have to wait 5 min to buy a red bull!
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James H S Brown
James H S Brown@JamesHSBrown·
@RossLydall Look great! Shame still sticking with front basket design - still think the design of Santander bikes front rack with elasticated cord got it perfect
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Ross Lydall
Ross Lydall@RossLydall·
New Lime bike unveiled - smaller and much easier to ride. Some will have rear cargo shelf. Launches today in Oxford and Milton Keynes. About 1,500 due to arrive in London next month.
Ross Lydall tweet mediaRoss Lydall tweet mediaRoss Lydall tweet media
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James H S Brown
James H S Brown@JamesHSBrown·
@Layo_FH Are you describing Edinburgh? (Maybe not the cycling infrastructure) Always an advantage of living in the "biggest fish". But your self contained city would still need it's own hinterland to draw from if it was to be any good
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Leo Gibbons
Leo Gibbons@Layo_FH·
Maybe London is just, fundamentally, too big? It got me thinking.. what if Lewisham (300k) was its own city… I think living here would be dull. Fox & Firkin is the only place to go dancing, and we’d all have to support Millwall. But if Lewisham was self-contained and more detached, there would be a drive for the people who live here, to provide more here. Instead people zoom off elsewhere into the sprawl. I wonder if a self contained city of say 600k, really dense, walkable, great public transport and cycling infrastructure. That would be the dream. Then have that city linked up to other major cities by fast rail links. Great stuff.
Jo P@jo_regular

@Layo_FH Not really. London has one of the most dense and integrated transport systems in the western world.

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James H S Brown
James H S Brown@JamesHSBrown·
@s8mb TfL has a rather unique price structure globally. Single fares are relatively cheap, but weekly/monthly/annual travel cards/caps are very expensive relatively Effectively subsidises tourists at expense of commuters Would be good to rebalance
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Sam Bowman
Sam Bowman@s8mb·
My unpopular opinion is that TfL should raise peak tube fares more. In the mornings, stations and trains are uncomfortably overcrowded and it's often difficult to get a seat. Higher fares would help with that and raise more money to invest in newer rolling stock.
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James H S Brown
James H S Brown@JamesHSBrown·
@s8mb ALARA isn't the same as ALARP (though sometimes incorrectly used interchangeably) The current radiation risk model being wrong, does mean the process for quantifying risks is wrong. Having looked at announcement I don't think they are saying to get rid of ALARP at all...
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Sam Bowman
Sam Bowman@s8mb·
Overall this seems very good to me, with a couple of important exceptions. Good: - Replacing ALARP, the principle of constant reinvestment of cost savings into more and more safety, with a safety threshold. - Introducing one-and-done assessments rather than requiring constant changes throughout the lifetime of a project - Indemnities for developers during Judicial Reviews (so they don't have to stop working while they're ongoing) and caps etc on JRs The two main areas I am concerned about: - The Habitats Regulations will be addressed with guidance rather than legislation. This means it'll be easy to reverse and won't give any certainty to new nuclear projects. - The "community benefit" provision, which would allow the planning system to recognise contributions made by nuclear power projects to local communities, is being dropped entirely. That means we can't get any bargaining between nuclear projects and local authorities. This model could help get data centres built as well. It's not an implementation "in full" as the Prime Minister promised, but it's certainly quite good and better than I expected.
Freddie Poser@freddie_poser

BIG nuclear news: today the Government has released its plans to implement @JohnFingleton1’s landmark nuclear review. The headline: ‘Building our Nuclear Nation’ is very good news for British nuclear, implementing almost all of the transformational recommendations, but not quite everything. The Government has committed to almost every recommendation and outlined a detailed plan to implement them. The Government says it will fix the outdated radiation rules, revise effective ban on SMRs across swathes of the country, set up a nuclear regulatory commission and more! Last year @BritishProgress launched our Nuclear Taskforce Tracker - today is the first HUGE update. nuclear.britishprogress.org/?new=true

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James H S Brown
James H S Brown@JamesHSBrown·
@s8mb I'll have to look at proposal Very nervous of removal of ALARP Theory behind it is sound, and based on hard truths from previous disasters "Safety thresholds" risks goal seeking ALARP should provide £ incentive to better understand risk, which also helps spot unknown dangers
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James H S Brown
James H S Brown@JamesHSBrown·
@s8mb ALARP isn't supposed to be constant reinvestment. It should be quantifying risk and intervention against consistent and agreed value of life Problem is court & regulatory overreach applying "proportionality" tests and safety margins on already conservative values of life
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James H S Brown
James H S Brown@JamesHSBrown·
@thomasforth It's a combination of unions +our more discretionary regulatory system Much harder in UK to show new systems are ALARP, much easier for France to say "complies with standard hence legal" Both drives up CAPEX cost and easier for union to challenge But EL has driverless ops today!
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Tom Forth
Tom Forth@thomasforth·
I don't believe that "the unions" are the main barrier to a driverless tube. France quite famously has powerful unions,... and lost of driverless metros. Copenhagen's metro and soon suburban trains are driverless despite,... unions. I just don't buy the unions are to blame line.
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James H S Brown
James H S Brown@JamesHSBrown·
@huel @Badger_a Wow that's not good And also very bad to make that change without notifying existing subscribers via email first!
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Huel
Huel@huel·
Hey 👋 This is a deliberate change. We’ve recently updated how subscription management works and no longer send reminder emails. Following improvements to the account area, subscription management now sits fully in your Huel account, where you can see and edit your next order date at any time. If anything looks off on your account though, drop us a DM and we’ll take a look.
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Steve
Steve@Badger_a·
Hey @huel I didn't receive any emails giving me the usual 3 day notice that my subscription is about to renew, just an email saying you've already taken the money. Is this a deliberate change or a mistake?
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Tom Harwood
Tom Harwood@tomhfh·
Crashed his way through the tube barriers in front of me this morning without paying. If someone is hiding their face behind a mask you can almost guarantee they are up to no good.
Tom Harwood tweet media
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bernoulli_defect
bernoulli_defect@BernoulliDefect·
@tomhfh Wouldn’t it be good if the 2 or 3 TfL staff that mill around the barriers had transport police training and permissions to apprehended these lowlifes
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Keşfet

@sjoh0050 @DuncanStott @TypeForVictory @PJTheEconomist @LiberalSimon @tomhfh @AvantiWestCoast @ScotRail