Happy Friday!

What happened during Scotland’s rent freeze? Landlords fought back My sympathy for ‘good’ landlords is at rock bottom right now. Rent controls and assured tenancies are the least renters need.

I know the inhumanity of prepayment meters. Forget reform – they should be abolished

My generation is sucking Britain’s young people dry. Why are politicians too scared to admit it? Because it’s not all boomers. It’s class, all those things happened as my parents grew up but they didn’t get to do A levels and go to University and for my Mum that was because my Grandma died young and my Grandad with children who were 17 and 14 years old, lost my Grandma’s pay AND was taxed as a single man, and in 1962 there was no allowance for being a widower as there was for being a widow. Ma is ok now because she does have a good pension, (it’s not loads but it’s still above the tax allowance and she pays tax) and lives in social housing with a more stable rent. From the age of 24 to 66 she lived in private rented accommodation). Yes, she is lucky but there is no generational wealth for her to pass onto my brother and me. My Dad died at 53, the state doesn’t have to pay him a pension but again no generational wealth to pass on. Housing for people of my class, has been in crisis since I was in my 20’s (certainly, I’ve been banging on about it for that long) and the middle and upper classes have been fine with that, now it’s affecting them and all of sudden it’s an outrage and older people are the problem. No. It’s not about generations, it’s about class. The way you solve for this is to tax wealth, not income. 

People often ask me, what do you like so much about plants?

The work from home revolution is here to stay – if you’re rich, white and live in London. I’m two of those things, and honestly, I thought we already knew this. In a one bedroom flat, I’ve had to re-arrange my flat so I have a space to work, and I’ve also noticed that I spend less time in my living room for leisure because I work there. Taking all of that, Mum had to work some Saturday’s when I was a child and I chose to work in an office so I wouldn’t have to work on weekends or Bank Holidays. I guess the issue, as ever, is choice, pay and other working conditions. Yet again, the problem is work…

‘Every day is doomsday’: how a food bank is struggling to keep up