Check out the British Academy’s signature small grants funding scheme: up to £10k over two years…

Reply to Comments on the Edges of Owner Occupation versus Rentier Capitalism This piece replies to some fine scholarship from the six commentators who have taken up the pen in response to our focus article. We hope our reply does them justice and invites others to join the ...

More in this reply on some ideas for residential property tax reform that I am working on with Gavin Wood… love it or not, nearly anything is an improvement on the status quo… www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Mary Beard: ‘I’ve annoyed people. It comes with the territory’ Britain’s most famous classicist on retiring from Cambridge, being a hands-off grandmother and why social media would be much better if we all studied the ancient world

Classic! Mary Beard FBA: ‘what a humanities degree teaches you is about arguing with responsibility and sharpness’…

www.thetimes.com/article/d2d8...

The charts that show the tax pain savers are about to suffer As the chancellor prepares to launch more tax raids on savings, we assess the impact of the changes

Raising the marginal tax rate on savings interest is especially unfortunate for renters who can’t hold their assets in owner occupied homes where the return is tax free…

www.thetimes.com/article/ceee...

Mansion tax ‘to affect 165,000 homes in first year’ OBR predicts 45,000 more properties than first estimated will face annual surcharges of up to £7,500 as homes face biggest revaluation for 30 years

The tax homes worth over £5m is less than the council tax surcharge levied by Edinburgh city council on Band F second homes worth about £400k. It would be simpler, fairer and probably easier to reform the whole crazy system.
www.thetimes.com/article/6496...

The reason the whole thing needs a shake-up is here (imo, at least) (though don’t forget that income tax is far less orogressive than it was) www.economicsobservatory.com/what-future-...

Jürgen Habermas: a philosopher whose hopes for a better future are more important than ever Habermas was unshakeable in his conviction that people have minds of their own and are free to hope for a better future.

So many #Habermas obituaries. Maybe one more is in keeping with the legacy he left? theconversation.com/jurgen-haber...

World's longest coastal path opens in England to the public The King Charles coastal path will allow walkers right of access to the entire coast for the first time.

Some good news… www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Upsizing homeowners face biggest financial leap as equity shrinks Getting off the bottom rung of the property ladder may now be too difficult for many aspiring second-steppers

Just wondering how much upsizing is being triggered by the sale of second homes? Perhaps second-steppers who need more space are being crowded out by ‘consolidators’ escaping council tax premiums?

www.thetimes.com/article/0e77...

Which is somewhat intermediate by OECD standards? Maybe focus on the source of the revenue (income not wealth, so missing a trick), and the skew in the tax ‘burden’ (less progressive than it was).

Wondering what the British Academy is and how it makes a difference? Here’s a glimpse! www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/about/how-we...

What future for residential property taxation in Britain? - Economics Observatory Council tax is unpopular, unfair and overdue for reform. An alternative would be to fund statutory services through central government, introduce a modest local service charge, and absorb stamp duty a...

Here’s what needs to come out of the ‘too difficult’ corner… www.economicsobservatory.com/what-future-...

Second-home owners in Scotland hit with quadruple council tax From April there will be no limit to how much Scottish local authorities can charge, with at least five areas set to increase their premium

Sounds bold, but leaves the majority of residential property wealth untaxed and tackles a fraction of under-occupation.

www.thetimes.com/article/6173...

One of my favourite schemes!

A few edge-of-the-seat moments in a lively discussion, with top tips from @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social on how to tell gripping tales about findings that matter…

Thanks - an energising, soul-searching, eye-opening lesson to on how to win (or not) hearts and minds…

They all look fantastic, but I’m delighted to see that the list includes ‘With the law on our side’. A welcome intervention in uncertain times.

This looks quite interesting, but it’s behind a paywall. Might be worth chasing? doi.org/10.1177/2043...

That’s the challenge. But there is a lot going on, on the ground…

Thinking the Fault Lines of Housing Inequality Published in Housing, Theory and Society (Ahead of Print, 2026)

Nice intro to my focus article with Gavin Wood, neat comment on ‘the edges’ of ownership, and a few pointers to some fine commentaries commissioned by the journal www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The British Academy Conferences Bringing together scholars from around the world to consider and evaluate new research in the humanities and social sciences

Breathtaking array of conferences, coming soon, probably near you… Check them out: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/briti...

I don’t draw much comfort from the income tax position (the post-tax income share of the top ten percent is 28%). But the regressive, irrational and unfair structure of council tax certainly takes the biscuit…

Chair's events | Annual International Conference Discover our line up of Chair's events and speakers for this year's Annual International Conference.

Very excited to be part of this inspiring line-up for the Chair’s sessions at the 2026 RGS-IBG conference www.rgs.org/research/ann...

US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson dies aged 84 - live updates Jackson, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr in the 1960s and later ran for president twice, died peacefully on Tuesday morning surrounded by his family.

Poignant moment. ‘Over the course of his career, Jackson built a movement to bring America's increasingly diverse population together’ www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3...

Listen up peeps before we lose a key bridge between ‘the two cultures’…

Spot on. The clue is in the name. ‘Artificial’ intelligence - a product of human ingenuity, not a substitute for life itself…

Great news. Though I guess that if freeholders have a pecuniary interest in the charges levied by management companies, ground rents will be neither here nor there…

Council tax is regressive by income, region, and housing wealth. What’s to like?

Yikes! Something’s got to give…

Well good luck on all this, though it will be interesting to see whether build to rent turns out to be an alternative to ‘over-speculative’ models of #housing production…