Richard Hebditch

@richard

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Richard Hebditch@richard· 24d

Design choice of a sun roof for a London bus seems slightly strange given the summers we now have

Richard Hebditch@richard· 26d

All doom and gloom for European car makers? Maybe a bit more complicated - including they've been riding a massive profit boom in recent years (via adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...)

Graph showing how in 2023 European firms earned 40.6 percent of all profits earned in the global automobile industry, up from a share of 27.9 percent in 2006

Richard Hebditch@richard· 26d

Burnham on forthcoming 10 year plan: - public control - reindustrialisation - council housing & state active in housing market www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Richard Hebditch@richard· 29d

At the Oval for Mumbai Indians London v Sunrisers Leeds (part of Sunrisers Hyderabad) for the brave new world of the Hundred post-sell off.

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jul 18

Orford Ness

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jul 16

Steve Reed yesterday at HCLG Committee on what is happening in housing (Russian invasion of Ukraine was in 2022 so it's not quite the external shock that Labour would have been unable to factor in when coming in to power)

Q8 to Steve Reed at HCLG committee https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/17960/pdf/

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jul 16

ONS stats out today on construction. This is what has happened on building new homes from the general election in 2024 to May 2026. Source: www.ons.gov.uk/businessindu...

Housebuilding since general election
(indexed, 2023=100, source: ONS)

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jul 16

Londoners are more likely to oppose (42%) than support (29%) rolll out of autonomous vehicles in London. data.london.gov.uk/download/29y... Under-50s are more supportive but those opposed still outnumber those supportive. Male supporters just outnumber those men who oppose AVs.

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jul 14

TfL research on oversized cars (ie SUVs) from TfL commissioner's board report. Don't think I've seen this before but should inform policy response in London & (hopefully) central govt. Source: board.tfl.gov.uk/documents/s2...

Oversized cars
We have been undertaking analysis and
expanding our evidence base to understand
the full impact of oversized cars – such
as the largest SUVs – on safety, the
efficient use of our roads and emissions,
and how these affect all road users. This
could inform any future policy proposals
in London or recommendations to
government or the sector.
We are also co-funding a study alongside
four London boroughs, which will look
into the impacts of oversized cars on
the capital’s streets, including their
contribution to road danger and related
issues. We expect outputs from this study
later this year.

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jul 14

Greenhouse gas emissions from transport stats out today. We really should be talking a lot more about the need for action on transport emissions. www.gov.uk/government/s...

Graph showing how transport had been the biggest emitting sector in UK since 2016 with little decline compared to other sectors

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jul 13

Though...

DVLA’s Vehicle Enquiry Screen will indicate if a vehicle is
eligible to pay eVED and will show how much mileage has been paid.
Prospective buyers will be able to compare this with the vehicle’s
odometer reading before buying the vehicle. DVLA is undertaking
user research to ensure the system is easy to use and provides the
information that motorists need.

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jul 13

Some changes - this doesn't seem like a great idea if buyers of second hand EVs face possible higher rates of eVED if original owners under-report their mileage

the government will not proceed with the
proposed requirement for vehicles under three years old2, which are
not currently required to have an annual MOT, to have additional
mileage checks. The system will instead rely on motorists providing
accurate mileage estimates, supported by clear guidance and tools,
with reconciliation taking place against verified mileage data at the
first MOT.

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jul 9

Labour rebellion last night - on the relatively obscure issue of the Government setting rules for what matters local council planning committees can and can't decide on versus officers.

21 Labour MPs who voted against the Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jul 8

Currently we are in a situation where both these things below are true - a perfect situation for speculative planning applications while developers overall plans to deliver new homes is falling. This will result in fewer but worse homes in poor locations.

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jul 3

...and this

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jul 3

Spent day walking section 5 of North Downs Way between Oxted and Otford. Really enjoyable day's walk - very much recommend. Lots of this...

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jul 2

Hoardings finally down on 4 new council houses in our street. Planning permission granted in 2019(!), construction started in 2020(!!) & they were part of Lewisham council claim of 1,200 homes "delivered"in 2022(!!!). Families in temp accomodation for years because of failure to finish the job.

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jul 1

Nine out of 361 local authority areas have over a quarter of short-term guest nights (eg Airbnb). In England, Westminster, Cornwall, North Yorkshire, Kensington&Chelsea, Camden, Westmorland&Furness, and Liverpool. In 2025, N Yorkshire had biggest increase, rising by over 20%.

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jun 30

Transport Action Network on the A48 Newark bypass: transportactionnetwork.org.uk/stopa46-newa...

The scheme would:

Increase carbon emissions. The construction emissions alone are 254,536 tonnes CO2e, all within the critical fourth carbon budget, taking us further away from reaching our 68% cut by 2030 required under the Paris Agreement. The extra traffic the road will generate would make things worse. In the opening year alone it would increase emissions by an extra 10,350 tCO2e, making it harder for us to reduce emissions fast enough in a climate emergency.
increase air and noise pollution, especially in the village of Winthorpe
have a massive adverse visual impact with a 8 metre high flyover at the town's cattle market, right by people's homes. The A1 flyover would be 10.9 metres high and would impact on the setting of this historic town. At Winthorpe there would be ten lanes of traffic by the village
have a huge impact on landscape character where the scheme crosses a rural landscape. Huge borrow pits for flood mitigation outside the route would also have a large impact on the rural landscape.
lead to permanent habitat loss and fragmentation at two wildlife sites, and the loss of veteran trees.

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jun 29

Current council house building rates (the line at the bottom) - from MHCLG stats last week

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jun 29

"working with local areas, No 10 North will oversee the biggest council housebuilding programme since the postwar period" - note "post-war period", by which Burnham presumably means the period of 30 years after WW2 because no way will that we get back to that level anytime soon

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jun 29

I liked this bit from Burnham speech. I expect Starmer feels like this was his approach too, but it really wasn't reflected in reality as his govt's political side seemed to pick unnecessary battles

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jun 27

Watching England on top at the world cup

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jun 24

A question for non-colour blind people - are the on-track and off-track colours different?

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jun 24

From @thecccuk.bsky.social progress report: The ZEV mandate is working for cars. BEV uptake is on track, it's pushing down on BEV prices (which is why car makers don't like it) and it's enabling investment in EV charging. Vans are taking longer but the transition is happening.

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jun 22

Hastings at the weekend: "Why are these homes empty?" "Refurbish empty buildings: save green spaces"

Graffiti on brick wall of block of flats in Hastings saying "why are these homes empty?"

Fly poster on empty office building in Hastings town centre saying "refurbish empty buildings: save green spaces"

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jun 19

A new "golden age for council house buiding" latest. The line at the bottom is council built housing (from stats out today)

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jun 19

Sparks v good in Bristol last night. Russell Mael is a very sprightly 77 year old!

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jun 10

Growth can mean very different things depending on the timeframe
applied. Short-term growth could involve reducing costs of certain goods
and services to stimulate household spend, but long-term growth could
mean high prices to budget for investments that are believed to improve
productivity in the future. The written evidence submitted by the City of
London Corporation called for HM Treasury to issue clearer guidance on
what is meant by “growth” in the context of regulators’ objectives.21
Without clear definitions, including the level of growth targeted and the
timeframe over which it is expected, it will not be possible to determine
whether the Action Plan has been successful.
11. We asked the departments what they meant by growth, and the
intended timeframe, but they were not able to give us a satisfactory
answer.22 DBT told us that growth was “growing GDP”, and HM Treasury said
“growth is the GDP”, but did not specify what this meant or how much GDP
growth was the aim.23 DBT and HM Treasury were unable to explain how this
broke down into growth drivers or productivity improvements, or how the
Action Plan was expected to practically contribute to it.24

Richard Hebditch@richard· Jun 9

See also below from this Times article: www.thetimes.com/money/mortga...