On Friday, Chobham Common in Surrey burst into flames, with fire spreading over 140 hectares of countryside. Residents were evacuated from their homes and roads were closed. The fire reached Wentworth Golf Club. This heatwave has brought record high temperatures to Italy and Spain. Southern France and California are ablaze. …

For a Green Recovery, we need attractive well-remunerated jobs in the caring sector, in the retrofit of homes, in agriculture and in nature restoration. What Covid19 has taught us is that a lot of unpleasant unrewarding jobs are unnecessary. It has shown us who the true heroes are! It has…

The climate emergency has not gone away. The Coronavirus emergency is now heaped up on top of it. To survive both, we must create resilience against the virus with real mitigatory effect on the climate crisis. Five things should happen urgently: 1. A Universal Basic Income. The UK Government’s measures…

Do we really need to build 300,000 homes in the UK per year, as the government is pushing us to to do? I have been working with Oxfordshire Green Party to establish the true situation with housing in the UK — (which I have written about extensively on Medium, previously). We have uncovered six pernicious myths about housing, and six imperatives to resolve the crisis. Six Pernicious Myths

South Oxfordshire District Council is one of 5 that makes up Oxfordshire. It is pushing through an undemocratic Growth Plan, for the building of 30,000 homes by 2034. It has chosen to ignore the National Planning Policy Framework which shows South Oxfordshire needs only 10,000 homes, and instead to push…

Oxfordshire is groaning under the weight of new housing, and the indignities of having developments thrust upon it. Until recently, strong planning laws and fully funded local governance protected our greenbelt, our Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, our special places of high biodiversity and abundance of wildlife. …

Oxfordshire’s leaders — businessmen, landowners and our beleagured councils — have signed a ‘deal’ with the Government to build 6500 homes every year in Oxfordshire for 13 years. That’s 17 towns the size of Henley; more than one a year (4 Henley’s every 3 years). As population growth in Oxfordshire…

67,000 HOMES TO BE BUILT AND LEFT EMPTY Mismatch of population size with house-building Oxfordshire is attempting to build 100,000 homes over 20 years from 2011–2031 following a Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) which allows for economic growth over and above natural growth. …

Dominic Raab, Housing Minister rejoices that Oxfordshire is planning 100,000 homes “well in excess” of the number that it needs. “Well in excess” indeed! That number of homes would push Oxfordshire’s population up to 900,000. But such a number is not likely. …