John Myers

With no new housing supply, we should expect nearly all the benefits of increased productivity to go to landowners. With plentiful housing, instead the change increases workers' wages. A summary by Enrico Moretti. eml.berkeley.edu/~moretti/handb…

@jo3hill Congratulations on doing the important but often neglected work to build cross-party support for reforming this framework!

Successive governments have lost control of regulation. They all say they want to cut the cost of red tape - but most of the time, they end up creating more of it. The Government risks repeating this pattern - their 25% cost reduction target isn’t robust enough, nor are their processes for delivering it. A quarter of the ‘Options Assessments’ that the government does of early regulatory ideas are assessed as either ‘weak’ or ‘very weak’. Over 40% of DEFRAs Impact Assessments since 2020 were deemed ‘not fit for purpose’ There’s good regulation, and bad regulation, but a state that can’t tell the difference is out of control. Over time, the ratchet effect means the volume of regulation always grows. And unlike the way the Treasury and OBR count the cost of fiscal policy, nobody is counting the cost of regulation. Today @restate_thinks have published ‘The law of rule’, calling for an overhaul of the Better Regulation Framework and a strengthening of the role of the Regulatory Policy Committee. It has endorsements from all four major parties: Meg Hillier MP - Labour Mel Stride MP - Conservatives Daisy Cooper MP - Liberal Democrat’s Richard Tice MP - Reform A more dynamic, innovative economy with better regulation is possible. With all the parties getting together behind this, then change is inevitable. re-state.co.uk/publications/t…

🚨OxCam update: At today's Mais Lecture, @RachelReevesMP announced that the Government will consult on a development corporation for Greater Oxford. This news comes one month after the announcement that there will be a new development corporation for Cambridge.

@yimbyalliance @RachelReevesMP This is great news!

Across many countries, land readjustment has proven an incredibly effective way to deliver radical change with the support of existing owners. Another example of smart mechanism design in action.

@PMArslanagic It's surprising how many homes are produced through land readjustment in other countries!

@johnrmyers Thank you John!

Small groups with something to lose are very effective at stopping change. That's one reason why getting necessary homes and infrastructure built can be so difficult. In our new paper, Onward sets out a proposal to introduce land readjustment to the UK, a land assembly mechanism that gives the people most likely to oppose a development, the landowners themselves, excellent reasons to support it. But how does it work? Working with a developer, land readjustment allows landowners to pool their plots into a single scheme so the area can be redeveloped as a whole. After the development, the landowners receive back a piece of land in the area, significantly more valuable than the plot they had before. The scheme can *only* go ahead if a supermajority of landowners who own a supermajority of the land in question support the scheme. This prevents any single or small group of landowners from vetoing a development while also motivating the developer to draw up a scheme that can win the support of most of the landowners, and to return to the drawing board if it doesn't. This democratic element makes land readjustment less fragile than assembling land by negotiating with each landowner, when any single party can refuse to engage or demand an extortionate price. It is also far more democratic than compulsory purchase. To learn more about land readjustment, and its use in other parts of the world, read our paper below. ukonward.com/reports/buildi…

So far as I'm aware the only two countries other than the US which tax their nonresident citizens globally are Eritrea and Myanmar. I hope you will forgive me for being a little sceptical that every other country in the world, including all the ones that tried worldwide taxation and gave it up, are leaving free money on the table. But I'm happy to agree to differ on this. I am also up for a bet on whether, if implemented, it turns out to be fiscally positive and endures.

So with Americans 0.09% of expat base renounce their citizenship per year. Because US only touches high earners. Giving up citizenship when faced with a high exit tax on all your unrealised gains is a major thing in this geopolitical climate as is a big move. And it also means renouncing seamlessly going home. Huge fortunes accept they need politics and renouncing citizenship weakens that. I would expect a higher rate due to Irish potential duals by descent and CTA rules. That’s a vulnerability of a UK scheme. But I would speculate single figure percentage of expats to actually renounce. Only potential exemption I’d want to check out if scheme proved much leakier would be for UK taxes to be raised if the individual went to actually provably live and made a significant investment in an Overseas Territory. This would connect them closer to UK and give an investment benefit.

I strongly believe the time is now to push for Britain to adopt a US-style system. Passport holders and those with Leave To Remain should pay UK taxes on their worldwide income with pound for pound exemption for taxes already paid abroad. Citizenship is rights and obligations.

@b_judah @s8mb @lcthomas1212 No no, I'm not making a claim that it will. I'm merely observing that it is a risk. But we can quantify this. Are you claiming zero UK citizens would give up their passports if we brought in worldwide taxation, or what fraction in your view?

That’s a speculative claim about AI in the future destroying the British economy and making UK citizenship unattractive by the country being transformed for the worse. I agree we should be worrying and reforming but this is very much debatable! Not an arguement to say why a switch to US-style global taxation wouldn’t work now.

@b_judah @s8mb @lcthomas1212 60% of our economy is services. We have among the most expensive energy in the developed world. We have the largest wedge between construction costs and prices in the developed world. Which further numbers would you like?

@johnrmyers @s8mb @lcthomas1212 Those are all problems I agree which need radula measures to address them but I’m not seeing an argument or numbers to back up the claim here.

@b_judah @s8mb @lcthomas1212 All of those are fixable but we need to do so!

@b_judah @s8mb @lcthomas1212 You may not think that is true but plenty of other people do, and the UK faces deep challenges as AI advances: extremely expensive energy, high dependence on services, extremely slow planning system, high regulatory barriers.

@b_judah @s8mb @lcthomas1212 The real challenge for me is that sadly you can't just read across from the US. The US is a vastly more attractive passport to hold. There is a significant risk that a UK measure would be sharply fiscally negative.

@s8mb @lcthomas1212 That’s fair and why this couldn’t sit in isolation but would need to be a wider and more radical agenda.

Nuclear power is essential for energy independence and achieving net zero. The decision from government could not be more timely in these turbulent times.   And the benefits for working people are huge: good union jobs and more secure, affordable energy 👏

@freddie_poser @JohnFingleton1 Yes, I thought that was essentially the point of the review?

@johnrmyers @JohnFingleton1 I really want to do some detailed analysis on this, John, but I expect we could well beat the prices we'll pay for other clean energy projects - nuclear and non.

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

I am pleased to see the government response to Task Force on Nuclear Regulation. First, it has been published on time which sends a positive signal about priorities. Second, the detailed and considered response shows that the Government is serious about reform. Third, almost every recommendation is to be taken forward fully. All of this should help bring about a substantial reduction in cost and delivery schedules for new nuclear. This should spur greater confidence for investors in nuclear in the UK. A few recommendations will be taken forward in a different way that in our report, as we envisaged. The role of the Implementation structure will be critical in continuing to ensure that this is prioritised.

@JohnFingleton1 Congratulations John!

🚨NEW: Almost 60% of all eligible homes in South Tottenham have extended upward and added more bedrooms. The same area can now adequately house over 1,000 more people but without any drastic changes – and all driven by local people! 🏘️ ✍️Our new article ‘Upward extensions: making our cities fit for families’ sets out how this happened. An example before vs after📸

🚨TODAY is the final day to respond to the consultation on the Government’s planning reforms. Please consider emailing a response to PlanningPolicyConsultation@communities.gov.uk in support of the FIVE BIGGEST reforms 📧 And we’ve already picked out the five most important questions so you don’t have to 🤝👇 1. Up to 630,000 new homes to be allowed near railway stations 🚆Plans for new homes within walking distance of railway stations will now have minimum density requirements to make the most of the best-connected places! Building more homes near to stations will boost opportunities for working people, cutting commutes and increasing access to good jobs. The reforms propose a minimum density of 40 dwellings per hectare around all stations, and of 50 dwellings per hectare around well-connected stations 🏘️ ❓Respond to question 40 to support this reform! 2. Measures to intensify urban areas Homeowners will now be enabled to add new buildings on existing plots, so long as they take up no more than twice the footprint of the original house 🏘️ This measure will enable densification in many different ways, such as new mid-rise blocks of flats in back gardens. 📈The reforms will also make it easier for people to build residential annexes, commonly known as ‘granny flats’. Since California implemented a similar policy, a third of all new homes approved in Los Angeles are now residential annexes. ❓Respond to question 117 to support this reform! 3. Local plans to be prevented from gold-plating 👷Local authorities will be prevented from gold-plating building standards rules. This measure will enable the building of many more new homes. ❓Respond to question 18 to support this reform! 4. Small sites will be better supported Small sites will now be exempt from biodiversity net gain requirements. 🌱This is a win for both people and the environment: taking advantage of small sites in areas with good transport links by building more homes is better for the environment than car-dependent development. ❓Respond to question 179 to support this reform! 5. More power for planning reforms 💪Local plans will be overridden if they are inconsistent with the new NPPF rules. This massively boosts the strength of the new NPPF and its pro-housing reforms. ❓Respond to question 11 to support this reform! Please email a response to PlanningPolicyConsultation@communities.gov.uk with your name and address today.

Worth reading from @ArchieHall - underlining the urgent need for more reform to ensure the UK is positioned for the changes to come: notes.archie-hall.com/p/britains-ai-…