Foreign secretary David Lammy is in Singapore today announcing a new UK-Singapore Green Energy collaboration. As part of the deal, he’s pledged £70 million of UK taxpayers’ money to support Singapore’s “clean energy transition”. Clearly this was part of the foreign aid budget that couldn’t be cut…
Singapore is hardly short of cash – it ranks 4th globally in GDP per capita, according to the IMF. It also contributes just 0.15% of global carbon emissions as of 2022. The country already has a well-developed green agenda through its Green Plan 2030, having doubled its solar capacity since 2020 and frozen growth in vehicle numbers. For £70 million, you could:
Singaporeans certainly feel much better off than Brits. The taxpayer may have a view on which should be prioritised. UK DOGE recommends costs are cut here…
The government is currently pushing through legislation that edges uncomfortably close to land socialism. Angela Rayner presented the ‘English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill’, currently at its second reading. Nestled within the bill is Schedule 27, a provision giving local authorities the power to create a list of so-called ‘Community Assets’. Once a property is on this list, it can only be sold to a “preferred community buyer”…
Crucially, the value of the asset is set by the local authority, with powers granted to lower it below market value by regulation. The ‘preferred buyer’ is then able to purchase the property at the council-determined price. These powers can be activated up to five years before any potential development, effectively placing long-term restrictions on private landowners. The definition of a ‘community asset’ is notably vague:
“Land… is land of community value if… there was a time in the past when an actual use of the building… furthered the economic or social wellbeing… of the local community”.
So land or buildings that once served a public or community purpose – even decades ago – could fall under these restrictions, even if someone currently owns it. Maxwell Marlow of the Adam Smith Institute told Guido:
“Schedule 27 is a return to Land Communism but with a few more steps. The Government must immediately strip this schedule from the Bill – communities can already purchase assets through the open market, by placing new regulations there, it creates huge problems for investments, ownership, and trust in local authorities. If this Bill did pass in its current form, it is likely that the Competitions and Markets Authority would need to publicly intervene, signalling that the government is not backing the builders, but instead those who want to frustrate markets.”
One for the Tories to jump on…
As speculation of a raft of tax hikes sends millionaires fleeing and businesses freezing their hiring plans, Rachel Reeves is doing little to calm any nerves. Speaking to reporters this afternoon she trotted out Labour’s ever-shifting definition of ‘working people’. The undefined ‘modest income’ was thrown into the mix yesterday…
Pressed on what tax hikes – including a wealth tax – could be in the Autumn Budget, Reeves said:
“We haven’t even set the date for the budget yet. I’m not going to speculate about what might happen at an event that we haven’t even decided a date on yet. But we’ve been really clear in our manifesto about the taxes that we won’t increase. And we’re not going to increase the taxes that working people pay, their income tax, their national insurance, and their VAT. I’m not going to start speculating or or setting out plans.”
Again, not ruling out a wealth tax. If only a minister could actually define who ‘working people’ are…
Last month Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden announced with much fanfare that 400,000 civil servants would be trained to use the government’s AI tool ‘Humphrey’ this year. McFadden informed all civil servants in England and Wales that the training would begin in Autumn. Just seven weeks away…
Guido’s FOI Unit thought to check in on how the development of the training programme for hundreds of thousands of mandarins was getting along. It appears the training launch might be delayed…
The Cabinet Office said it was still “co-designing with departments the AI training that will be rolled out to civil servants later this year”, adding that “final costs are unknown as the course is still under development, and will depend on the resources used.” The Cabinet office also “did not hold” information on how much time civil servants will spend on the training programme. Shame the government doesn’t have its ‘progress dashboards’ up and running to track this…
The BBC ‘s documentary ‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’ – which was narrated by the son of a Hamas official – breached the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, according to a report by the BBC’s Director of Editorial Complaints and Reviews Peter Johnston. The report found £795 was paid for the narrator…
BBC Director-General Tim Davie says:
“Peter Johnston’s report identifies a significant failing in relation to accuracy in this documentary. I thank him for his thorough work and I am sorry for this failing. We will now take action on two fronts – fair, clear and appropriate actions to ensure proper accountability and the immediate implementation of steps to prevent such errors being repeated.”
The report said: “Regardless of how the significance or otherwise of the Narrator’s father’s position was judged, the audience should have been informed about this.” A bad day for the broadcaster..
It’s meltdown mode in Parliament. Broken fridges in PCH and a leak in the Principal Floor kitchen have thrown parliamentary catering into disarray for the next few days. If you can’t handle the heat…
Over in The Debate, there’s no hot breakfast and a stripped-back lunch menu on offer. Full service might return tomorrow if the fridges are fixed. The Adjournment is shut today, running a skeleton menu tomorrow. And there’s no bookings at all for the Strangers’ Dining Room today. How will our politicians cope…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”