'Why Britain’s towns and cities are going bust' > an excellent, if miserable, piece on today's local elections in England and Wales. edition.cnn.com/interactive/20…

Agree with Philip on this. Both Houchen and Street have run ‘vote for me’ campaigns rather than ‘vote for the party’ campaigns - different to London for example. Even if they both lose they will very likely poll much higher than National Conservative

Mayoral elections are funny things: Labour seem to be losing in the Tees Valley but (as per this poll by Labour Together) winning in Rishi Sunak's backyard in York and North Yorkshire

Local activists say the race will be 'really tight': my preview here

examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-new…

Labour's announcement on levelling-up yesterday is a good example of Stian's point.

NEW 🗳️YouGov polling 🗳️

West Midlands Mayoral Election
Andy Street, Conservative41%
Richard Parker, Labour39%
Elaine Williams, Reform UK9%
Siobhan Harper-Nunes, Green6%
Akhmed Yakoob, Independent3%
Sunny Virk, Liberal Democrat2%
YouGov say this makes it too close to call

Tees…

Our new polling of 4 of next week’s mayoral races is featured in today’s The Times and The Sunday Times by caroline wheeler Starting with the West Midlands where we find incumbent Conservative Andy Street leading Labour’s Richard Parker by 2 points making the race a statistical tie.

Very useful and interesting thread here...

This is an important report from Institute for Fiscal Studies There is an urgent need to restore and reinvigorate community policing. Community teams can work out of specialist hubs or co-locate with other public services which are accessible to the public. Above all they should be on the streets.

it’s wild that coastal cities have spent years debating if YIMBY policies will lower rents, and Austin just… did it

they streamlined permitting, upzoned most of the city, and eliminated parking mandates. Tons of housing is going up and rents are plummeting.

YIMBY policies work

Astonishing chart from John Burn-Murdoch- on.ft.com/49OMvdz The UK is brilliant at handling immigration, relatively.

Could be a huge strength in the decades ahead

An in-depth attempt to explain nearly five years of levelling up funds: what they are, why they are, and why people have been so unhappy with them

With ⁦Amy Borrett⁩ and ⁦Anna Gross⁩

(The first in a 4-part series about levelling up)
on.ft.com/3Ux0AYE