NEW: the Elizabeth line has resulted in an increase in new homes and jobs, according to a new Transport for London study. Investing in infrastructure works!

🚨UK gas storage levels are starting the year at the lowest level in a LONG time 👇 NB the UK has long had too little storage, and hence is particularly dependent on imports. Even so, that little storage we have wasn't replenished much in winter. It's now VERY low

Great (and scary) visualization of 2024 daily temperatures compared to prior years by the BBC today. Evocative of the iconic Joy Division album cover from 1979: bbc.com/news/articles/…

A global relationship recession: across the world, the drop in fertility is not due to less children per couple, but to a significant drop in the number of people in relationships. Outstanding data story by John Burn-Murdoch @ft

It's fair to expect that places with more older people need more adult social care services to support them. However, evidence suggests that social care spending on older adults isn’t evenly distributed across the country after accounting for age.

I’ve been a bit absent. And have returned to nothing short of panic about the UK’s fiscal rules and speculation whether they will be “broken” in the Office for Budget Responsibility March forecast They won’t be Here’s why 🧵

Great map of London rents from the GLA. Unfortunately high rents have spread so far that it may be time to re-do the scale:

The electoral damage done to incumbents across the developed world in 2024 was utterly unprecedented. Subscribe here for more from Chartbook Top Links: tinyurl.com/y6p5k3bt

Another fantastic analysis @ft by @jburnmurdochl! Since 2010, young people (specially men!) spend more time alone, less on meaningful activities. This change in time use explains much of their declining life satisfaction. Correlation yes, but ... meaningful.

The UK is ageing 🧓 But while the UK as a whole is getting older, some parts of it are getting younger. So what is driving these changes?

And now it’s official: At 661 TWh (or 57.6% of capacity) European gas inventories are now **below the lowest point of the 2023-24 winter** (it was set on April 1). The depletion in 2024-25 is running ~69 days ahead of 2023-24

Just catching up with this from John Burn-Murdoch. I was struck by the spike in time spent alone, by the youngest cohort, especially men. And possible connection to decrease in mental health for those groups. "Most obvious culprit" is "smartphones" and "hyper-engaging social media".

If we want to grow, we have to build. And with this government the builders are in and the blockers are out. Here’s just one example: after 30yrs of failing to build a single reservoir Rachel Reeves has today confirmed approval for £7.9bn investment into 9 new reservoirs

Why is making Heathrow bigger so screamingly necessary? A few points from my latest for The Economist: Start with a map of where economic output in London happens. After the financial centres, the Heathrow cluster in the west jumps out. 🧵 below ➡️ economist.com/britain/2025/0…

In 2004, Jeff Bezos made one of the boldest decisions in corporate history: He completely banned PowerPoint at Amazon. Everyone thought he'd lost his mind. But this one rule helped build a trillion-dollar empire...

Simply amazing statistics. From Mario Draghi's FT column.

Dani Rodrik has a new 'trilemma' for the world economy. According to Rodrik, we can only achieve two of the following three at the same time: 1) combat climate change 2) boost the middle class in advanced economies 3) reduce global poverty

China dominates many industries. But there is one where China is far, far ahead of the competition: renewable energy manufacturing.

A stunning essay in the FT on the international decline in the ability to read, reason, focus, and learn new things. It began or accelerated in the early 2010s. It's hitting teens AND adults. Self-report and objective scores. by John Burn-Murdoch ft.com/content/a8016c…

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