Devolution should mean regions competing for investment August 13, 2026 The next phase of devolution should focus less on how funding is distributed and more on how growth is rewarded, says Gus Wiseman For more than 30 years, governments have tried to rebalance England’s economy by directing funding towards regions outside London and the South East. Many of those programmes have delivered worthwhile projects, but [...]
Vibes matter with tax, so here’s how Healey can deliver a feel-good Budget August 13, 2026 We may think it is easy to try to predict how a major tax announcement may impact sentiment based on whether it’s a give or a take. but the evidence shows, there’s no clear correlation between tax cuts and positive reaction, or tax rises and negativity, says Tim Sarson I’ve just come back from a [...]
Britain needs to start designing for drought August 13, 2026 The cultural assumption that Britain will always have enough water belongs to a different climate. This summer should be the catalyst for designing around the one we now face, says Alastair Chisholm More than two thirds of England is now in drought. Hosepipe bans are widespread and, should they prove insufficient, drought orders may follow. [...]
Ten bold ideas to fire up the British economy August 13, 2026 City AM is about to take its traditional two-week break from printing the newspaper. Very French of us, I know. Don’t worry – the team’s not going anywhere and the website, app, newsletters and studios will continue to fire on all cylinders. But since this is the last Editor’s Letter I’ll pen before we fire [...]
Let’s go to the wall to stop graffiti August 13, 2026 They say what gets measured gets managed, but no one is documenting the volume of graffiti blighting our streets and degrading civilised society.. until now, writes Neil O’Brien I hate graffiti. I hate the way it makes places ugly and unsafe. I hate the middle class morons who think it is “creative” – but know [...]
Banning vape shops won’t fix scuzzy high streets August 13, 2026 Andy Burnham’s plans to revamp high streets by cutting down on vape shops aren’t ambitious enough, says Joseph Dinnage Andy Burnham is taking his hand to cleaning up Britain’s high streets. Commenting on the degradation of our urban centres, Burnham said that many areas have been “hollowed out”, and that the high streets we grew [...]
Corgi Cafe: My day at London’s 24/7 hub for tech bros August 13, 2026 San Francisco startup Corgi is offering hustling Londoners a place to grind 24/7. Anna Moloney dares to go inside.
Beware the AI holiday let August 12, 2026 AI is increasingly being used to manipulate adverts for holiday lets. It’s not just horrible for holidaymakers, it could get landlords in trouble with the law, says Alex Poplawska With the summer holidays upon us, many will be heading out on staycations and weekend getaways, but some landlords are taking ‘dream holiday’ too far by [...]
Bring football home: let London host the Super Bowl August 12, 2026 The NFL has been playing matches in London since 1986. If any city outside the USA is ever going to host the Super Bowl, it should be London, says Alex Challoner Last week, new Prime Minister Andy Burnham said it was insane that the UK has not hosted a world cup since 1966. While it [...]
It’s not just Jason Arday, most of sociology is a scam August 12, 2026 Jason Arday is not the only second rate academic working in sociology. His Cambridge colleagues have also published papers that are impossible to read and contain no evidence, says Paul Ormerod The Jason Arday story has been covered intensively from many different angles. But relatively little has been written on the academic discipline in which [...]