Two ideas for how communities could give themselves permission to develop. — Tucked into the middle of the much-anticipated Levelling-Up Bill, published this week, was a small but radical idea called ‘street votes’. Contrary to what some sections of the media humorously imagined, ‘street votes’ are not a proposal to allow your neighbours to collectively hold a referendum on whether they like…

A thought experiment A few years ago, a paper by the Government Office for Science brilliantly described the UK housing debate as one “bedevilled by rival simplifications”. Of no aspect is this more true than the ‘supply and demand’ debate. The question at its core is: are inflated house prices the result of…

Why Open Systems Lab exists, and what we’re trying to do. — To live at the beginning of 2021 is to live with a constant feeling of powerlessness in the face of huge challenges and weird contradictions. As a society, we have the technology — and the will — to avert climate catastrophe and transition to a zero carbon, zero-waste economy. And…

A response to the Government’s planning White Paper — In August 2020, the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) published a White Paper called ‘Planning for the Future’ which sets out the most ambitious reforms to the planning system in England since the system was first created in 1948. It is a matter of almost universal agreement…

This is a written version of a talk given for Civic Square’s ‘Department of Dreams’ event on Friday 19th June, 2020. I heard a line recently by an American poet called Theodore Roethke, and it has kept coming back to me ever since. “In a dark time, the eye begins…

Yesterday, Jeremy Till (who I’m proud to say was at one point my university tutor) shared with me a link to this extraordinary interview by Matthew Taylor with Audrey Tang 唐鳳, the digital minister of Taiwan. If you haven’t listened to it, do. It’s utterly fascinating. Tang is next-level…

In the coming months there will be many conversations about what governments everywhere can learn from COVID-19, and what they can do in future to be better prepared for crises. The list will — I hope — include very wide questions about social resilience, health infrastructure, internet infrastructure, monetary policy…

‘A new social contract’ — Part 4 “People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it’s the other way around.” – Terry Pratchett A diagram can be a dangerous thing. The moment we see the world differently, we have a new tool to engage with it differently. And…

‘A New Social Contract’ Part 3 At any given time in history, the leading edge of technology is surrounded by a noisy crowd of startups and salespeople, whose salary essentially relies on giving you the impression that they know something that you don’t. Like a flock of seagulls in the…