Month: July 2013

The need for “grown up” policy

[Originally posted at Social Liberal Forum blog, 29/07/13] It’s being billed as a set piece set-to. The rapidly approaching Autumn Conference in Glasgow is of great significance. Discussions that shape the content of the next General Election manifesto will be at the core of the agenda. It would […]

Regulatory possibilities for private renting

Last Thursday I went up to That London to take part in a seminar on Alternatives to regulation. I made a brief, somewhat speculative, presentation around the regulation of private renting, in the light of current debates about behaviour change and behavioural economics. Some of the ideas need […]

Free to schmooze

I was intrigued yesterday when a tweet with the hashtag #freedomweek crossed my Twitter timeline. I was even more intrigued when I had a look at the hashtag itself. You may all know all about this already, but it turns out Freedom Week is a type of summer […]

Can we, should we, de-residualise social housing?

At the ISA RC43 Conference in Amsterdam last week I took part in a Roundtable discussion convened by Ken Gibb (Glasgow) on the possibilities of deresidualising social housing. I participated alongside Professors Ed Goetz (Minnesota), Rachel Bratt (Tufts) and Mike Darcy (Western Sydney). This is what we were […]

Why is Owen Jones so annoying?

The Independent columnist Owen Jones occupies a slightly strange position in the political landscape. He has been ranked in various lists as one of the most influential thinkers on the left. He has a reasonably high profile in the broadcast and print media. He’s quite active on social […]

The Q#2 quintet

Here are the five posts published on this blog between April and June 2013 that recorded the most hits: Curbing the welfare hate (6th April) Who is social housing for, and who should it be for? (10th April) Uncertain terrain: issues and challenges facing housing associations (11th May) […]