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Smart Growth UK

@smartgrowthuk

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Latest posts by Smart Growth UK @smartgrowthuk

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Facing the climate and nature crisis head on is the first step in rising to the challenge. It's time to restore hope.

More testimonials here: www.nebriefing.org/testimonials

#NEB2025 #TimeToStepUp #NationalEmergencyBriefing

07.03.2026 09:28 👍 8 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0

A possilbly hypothetical question: If, for any reason, it became evident it would be impossible to secure economic growth in the foreseable future, would it be more damaging to continue with policies to boost growth than with alternatives?
Eh @economist.com ?

06.03.2026 13:33 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Forget oil – the real threat from a Hormuz closure is a global food crisis

The global food system has far thinner buffers than energy markets.
buff.ly/L03iYVV

06.03.2026 13:15 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

The Government New Towns Taskforce recommended 12 sites for new towns.
- Six would be blobs of greenfield sprawl on farmland
- One would be a huge urban extension on farmland
- Five are urban regeneration schemes which wouldn't be "new towns"
Read our new report.
tinyurl.com/mvtn94va

06.03.2026 09:19 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Graphic with a circular white frame over a background photo of a multi-level building covered in dense green vegetation and trees. Inside the circle is a quotation in green text about biodiversity stewardship being central to managing economic and societal risk. Attribution below reads “Professor Stephen Polasky, Co-chair of the IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment.” The IPBES logo with the text “Science and Policy for People and Nature” appears in the top-right corner.

Graphic with a circular white frame over a background photo of a multi-level building covered in dense green vegetation and trees. Inside the circle is a quotation in green text about biodiversity stewardship being central to managing economic and societal risk. Attribution below reads “Professor Stephen Polasky, Co-chair of the IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment.” The IPBES logo with the text “Science and Policy for People and Nature” appears in the top-right corner.

The 🏡 IPBES #BizBiodiversity Assessment is approved!

As Stephen Polasky, Co-Chair, notes, a key focus of the Report is on accelerating collaborative action across governments, financial actors, business, civil society, and IPLCs. 🌍

🧪 Full Media kit: https://bit.ly/IPBES12Media

06.03.2026 09:00 👍 9 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
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Portugal fined £8.7m by EU court for failing to protect biodiversity The court of justice said Portugal had committed serious infringements of EU environmental law

The Office for Environmental Protection is not an adequate substitute for this approach, is it. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

05.03.2026 20:58 👍 13 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Will transport scupper new climate ambition? The Government is required by 30 June 2026 to set the level of climate ambition for 2038 to 2042, a process known as the seventh carbon budget. The Climate Change Committee recommended an 87% cut of G...

The Labour government has not published any long-term transport strategies nearly two years after being elected.

Radical ambition is now needed to turn around what has become the biggest source of UK emissions.

transportactionnetwork.org.uk/will-transpo...

05.03.2026 13:06 👍 10 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
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There’s a nature-loving majority in this country.

Those in power must listen and stop trashing our environment.

There are far more of us than there are developer lobbyists.

They have the millionaires. We are the millions.

We need a bold campaign to get our nature back.

04.03.2026 11:07 👍 25 🔁 6 💬 1 📌 1
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National Emergency Briefing A 45-min film centred around the National Emergency Briefing. The frank facts, but also the huge opportunity if Government steps up and leads a WW2-scale response. Designed to be watched by communitie...

23 town and parish councils have already registered to host screenings of the People's Emergency Briefing - the new film featuring footage from the National Emergency Briefing along with reactions from the public.

To register interest in a hosting a screening and find out more...

04.03.2026 13:15 👍 14 🔁 9 💬 0 📌 0
A headline from GB News stating: Motorists switch to using public transport to avoid paying £5 daily congestion charge

A headline from GB News stating: Motorists switch to using public transport to avoid paying £5 daily congestion charge

In shock news, motorists have switched to public transport to avoid paying the Oxford Congestion Charge.
A spokesperson* said: "This is exactly what was meant to happen, and it did."

03.03.2026 12:51 👍 1046 🔁 246 💬 27 📌 52
We uncovered the redacted climate report the government didn’t want you to see
We uncovered the redacted climate report the government didn’t want you to see YouTube video by ITV News

ITV News report on the UK governments 'secret' report about the Climate Emergency.

Frankly, it just says the obvious if you have half a brain in your skull. But at least it's in writing.

youtu.be/59DZiPdsOc8?...

28.02.2026 09:16 👍 7 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
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Government accused of caving in to building lobby amid plans to shake up housing sector in England New changes to planning rules would limit scope of English councils and prevent them pursuing improvements to low-carbon homes

#BuildBabyBuild
tinyurl.com/mps7et5e

25.02.2026 09:09 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Is spring in the last week of February necessarily a good sign?

24.02.2026 19:57 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

We definitely need that, but political action is being rapidly undermined by a flood of climate-change denial, mostly on X, by people claiming to be climate scientists (who often don't have a clue). And it's working. Two of our political parties are now opposing even net-zero.

23.02.2026 09:23 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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While human capital has increased, natural capital has declined. All businesses depend on and impact nature, and can be positive agents of change.

Find out more in the new IPBES #BizBiodiversity Assessment Report: https://bit.ly/IPBES12Media

23.02.2026 09:15 👍 10 🔁 10 💬 0 📌 0
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Flawed economic models mean climate crisis could crash global economy, experts warn States and financial bodies using modelling that ignores shocks from extreme weather and climate tipping points

“The climate scientists we surveyed were unambiguous: current economic models can’t capture what matters most – the cascading failures and compounding shocks that define climate risk in a warmer world – and could undermine the very foundations of economic growth.”

Should be the top story everyday.

23.02.2026 06:55 👍 520 🔁 276 💬 11 📌 17
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Why don't we see more people cycling in new housing developments? When we visit new housing estates something is usually missing.

NEW BLOG POST: Why don't we see more cyclists on our visits to new housing estates?

www.transportfornewhomes.org.uk/why-dont-we-...

23.02.2026 07:10 👍 13 🔁 9 💬 3 📌 1
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"We are asking for a WW2 level of leadership".

Professor @mikebernerslee.bsky.social at the National Emergency Briefing in Westminster.

Has your MP joined the Parliamentary Call for Gov to make a televised emergency briefing to the nation?

Check here: www.nebriefing.org/parliamentar...
#NEB2025

21.02.2026 15:38 👍 28 🔁 18 💬 1 📌 0

If it puts your area at the heart of the disastrously unsustainable #OxCamArc then it's very clearly the wrong move.

20.02.2026 09:09 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Our Director Kat Jones has written an analysis of the Edinburgh hyperscale data centre decision for Bella Caledonia. She explains how the result will have ripples far beyond the city as other data centes make it through the planning system.

bellacaledonia.org.u...

19.02.2026 16:15 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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The cost of money: New College’s economic aspirations threaten ethical standards  - The Oxford Blue By engaging with the development, New College would be complicit in supporting this regime’s conduct and politics.

Modern times.
tinyurl.com/2rsmjmwa

19.02.2026 10:46 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Developers will only bring us more car-dependent sprawl | Letters Letters: Jon Reeds on low-density developments, plus a letter from Richard Eltringham

Jon Reeds' letter about "Gilston New Town".
tinyurl.com/5x3c9tzd

18.02.2026 09:56 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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One in nine new homes in England built in areas of flood risk, study shows Figures from Aviva also show number of homes being built in risky areas is on the rise

#BuildBabyBuild
tinyurl.com/mte6wdha

18.02.2026 09:50 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Clayton Heights site may be built on after green belt status lost The land is now classified as

Cities like Bradford have thousands of run down homes and huge mills ripe for conversion. Yet building is still being focused on green fields in the suburbs. When did Labour stop believing in urban renewal and start backing wealthy building developers?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

17.02.2026 07:56 👍 69 🔁 28 💬 11 📌 1
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In the 53rd of this long-running (over 2 years) series of blogs Nick MacKinnon leads further technical criticism of this windfarm proposal now on its 3rd (hopeless) iteration markavery.info/2026/02/16/g...

#wind #turbine #peat #SAC/SPA #wildlife

16.02.2026 12:15 👍 13 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
Collapse of this Atlantic current could change Europe's climate forever
Collapse of this Atlantic current could change Europe's climate forever YouTube video by Channel 4 News

Great Channel 4 News report on the latest #AMOC monitoring.
"Trouble is: there is now growing scientific consensus that the AMOC is weakening."
@noc.ac.uk
youtu.be/JpOpsMOBsL4?...

17.02.2026 08:57 👍 303 🔁 169 💬 6 📌 14
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This is why electrification means more energy security:

In 2024, ~81% of EU electricity came from locally sourced fuels (57% excluding nuclear). Just 19% relied on imported fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels are mostly imported.

Source @ember-energy.org

15.02.2026 15:37 👍 1553 🔁 437 💬 41 📌 14

Having spent most of my working life in transport policy, this is the essential truth that so many people - including politicians with responsibility for transport decisions - don’t or won’t get.

To reduce congestion, you reduce capacity and reduce speed. The empirical evidence is overwhelming.

10.02.2026 08:11 👍 161 🔁 59 💬 5 📌 4

Look at the long running assault on planning (+, more recently, environmental regulation) pushed by a range of international vested interests including big oil, property & the whole dark empire of neoliberal influencing.

13.02.2026 22:08 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Point of no return: a hellish ‘hothouse Earth’ getting closer, scientists say Continued global heating could set irreversible course by triggering climate tipping points, but most people unaware

Meanwhile we're beating ourselves up over low growth rates at a time we need alternatives to traditional neoliberal economics.
Why is anyone still listening to those "lobbying for greed"?
tinyurl.com/2akmfmc9

12.02.2026 09:19 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0