Thom Lavery
@thomlavery.bsky.social
Welsh Politics, Policy and Public Affairs. Housing and Homelessness. Lots of other interests too.
Pinned
Thom Lavery
@thomlavery.bsky.social
· Nov 14
Hiya Blueskyers!
Longtime twitter lurker, here to see all your interesting research and hot takes on social policy, particularly focused on housing in Wales, but all sorts of other things too.
Failing that, send bad jokes, horticultural tips, and cat pics.
🏠🌲🐈
Longtime twitter lurker, here to see all your interesting research and hot takes on social policy, particularly focused on housing in Wales, but all sorts of other things too.
Failing that, send bad jokes, horticultural tips, and cat pics.
🏠🌲🐈
Reposted by Thom Lavery
Reposted by Thom Lavery
When someone is recognised as a refugee but only offered a short-term status, what follows isn’t safety: it’s limbo.
Read our full statement to hear why the UK Government's proposals will lead to insecurity without solving any of the real issues ⬇️
wrc.wales/our-response...
Read our full statement to hear why the UK Government's proposals will lead to insecurity without solving any of the real issues ⬇️
wrc.wales/our-response...
Our response to the proposed asylum reforms - Welsh Refugee Council
In Wales, our Nation of Sanctuary vision starts from a simple truth: people begin rebuilding their lives the moment they feel safe.
wrc.wales
November 18, 2025 at 2:44 PM
When someone is recognised as a refugee but only offered a short-term status, what follows isn’t safety: it’s limbo.
Read our full statement to hear why the UK Government's proposals will lead to insecurity without solving any of the real issues ⬇️
wrc.wales/our-response...
Read our full statement to hear why the UK Government's proposals will lead to insecurity without solving any of the real issues ⬇️
wrc.wales/our-response...
Reposted by Thom Lavery
Tl;dr - if Labour want to combat racism, they should say racism is wrong, over and over, and act on that belief (e.g. by leaving certain social media sites owned by racists). That would do more to promote anti-racist norms, and protect the interests of Britain's minorities than immigration controls.
November 18, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Tl;dr - if Labour want to combat racism, they should say racism is wrong, over and over, and act on that belief (e.g. by leaving certain social media sites owned by racists). That would do more to promote anti-racist norms, and protect the interests of Britain's minorities than immigration controls.
Another great LGH Committee meeting this morning. Lee Waters continuing to ask the key question: why is Welsh Government so reluctant to mandate local authorities to adopt good practice?
So frustrating to see great initiatives repeatedly shelved and forgotten!
www.senedd.tv/Meeting/Arch...
So frustrating to see great initiatives repeatedly shelved and forgotten!
www.senedd.tv/Meeting/Arch...
Local Government and Housing Committee - 05/11/2025
The Senedd is the democratically elected body that represents the interests of Wales and its people, makes laws for Wales, agrees Welsh taxes and holds the Welsh Government to account.
www.senedd.tv
November 5, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Another great LGH Committee meeting this morning. Lee Waters continuing to ask the key question: why is Welsh Government so reluctant to mandate local authorities to adopt good practice?
So frustrating to see great initiatives repeatedly shelved and forgotten!
www.senedd.tv/Meeting/Arch...
So frustrating to see great initiatives repeatedly shelved and forgotten!
www.senedd.tv/Meeting/Arch...
Reposted by Thom Lavery
Dick Cheney won’t see your jokes, but your friends who orchestrated a destructive and illegal war based on lies and also shot a guy in the face will.
November 4, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Dick Cheney won’t see your jokes, but your friends who orchestrated a destructive and illegal war based on lies and also shot a guy in the face will.
Reposted by Thom Lavery
There is something magnificent about Nigel Farage, who has lost two of the five MPs he was elected with *last year*, explaining that HR departments don't matter.
November 3, 2025 at 11:28 AM
There is something magnificent about Nigel Farage, who has lost two of the five MPs he was elected with *last year*, explaining that HR departments don't matter.
Reposted by Thom Lavery
We’re proud to have joined with over 40 organisations including campaigners for tenants, homelessness and debt advice charities, landlord organisations and others in calling on the UK government to unfreeze local housing allowance at the upcoming budget.
🧵(1/2)
#UnfreezeLHA
🧵(1/2)
#UnfreezeLHA
October 13, 2025 at 8:05 AM
We’re proud to have joined with over 40 organisations including campaigners for tenants, homelessness and debt advice charities, landlord organisations and others in calling on the UK government to unfreeze local housing allowance at the upcoming budget.
🧵(1/2)
#UnfreezeLHA
🧵(1/2)
#UnfreezeLHA
Reposted by Thom Lavery
Today we release the 2024 findings for the Dying Homeless Project. It’s something I work on year round with an amazing team.
This year we saw a 9% increase but so much more than nos. These are human stories that never be forgotten 💔
museumofhomelessness.org/news/new-res...
This year we saw a 9% increase but so much more than nos. These are human stories that never be forgotten 💔
museumofhomelessness.org/news/new-res...
Our investigation finds that 1611 people experiencing homelessness died in 2024 - a 9% increase on the previous year. — Museum of Homelessness
We are devastated to share our latest research into the deaths of those who die. It has revealed the continued impact at the sharpest edge of the homelessness crisis, as the Labour Government has fail...
museumofhomelessness.org
October 8, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Today we release the 2024 findings for the Dying Homeless Project. It’s something I work on year round with an amazing team.
This year we saw a 9% increase but so much more than nos. These are human stories that never be forgotten 💔
museumofhomelessness.org/news/new-res...
This year we saw a 9% increase but so much more than nos. These are human stories that never be forgotten 💔
museumofhomelessness.org/news/new-res...
Reposted by Thom Lavery
Autism 2
September 22, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Autism 2
Reposted by Thom Lavery
How did we let Jimmy Savile get away with it? Perhaps we’ll never really understand. Now, over to Windsor Castle where police arrested four people for protesting a state visit by a self-confessed abuser and possible paedophile
September 18, 2025 at 11:28 AM
How did we let Jimmy Savile get away with it? Perhaps we’ll never really understand. Now, over to Windsor Castle where police arrested four people for protesting a state visit by a self-confessed abuser and possible paedophile
Every time the UK Government celebrates this scheme and others like it, we should remember that they are locking up and deporting people who have experienced torture and enslavement.
The Home Office should be dismantled and the Hostile Environment consigned to the dustbin of history.
The Home Office should be dismantled and the Hostile Environment consigned to the dustbin of history.
What this piece shows is that the scheme is already a mess. The Home Office is deporting people entirely at random. Those in detention don't have legal representation. Ten children have been erroneously detained and released. Legal challenges will follow.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
‘We can’t eat. We can’t sleep. It’s a disaster’: the small boat detainees waiting to be sent back to France
This week the first migrants could be flown out of Britain under the ‘one in, one out’ deportation scheme. They talk about their fears and incomprehension
www.theguardian.com
September 15, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Every time the UK Government celebrates this scheme and others like it, we should remember that they are locking up and deporting people who have experienced torture and enslavement.
The Home Office should be dismantled and the Hostile Environment consigned to the dustbin of history.
The Home Office should be dismantled and the Hostile Environment consigned to the dustbin of history.
Reposted by Thom Lavery
📈📉New official statistics are out tracking homelessness in Wales.
Figures from April 24 to March 25 show that numbers needing support are still far too high.
www.gov.wales/homelessness...
Figures from April 24 to March 25 show that numbers needing support are still far too high.
www.gov.wales/homelessness...
Homelessness: April 2024 to March 2025 [HTML] | GOV.WALES
The number of households in temporary accommodation or applying for housing assistance for April 2024 to March 2025.
www.gov.wales
September 10, 2025 at 11:39 AM
📈📉New official statistics are out tracking homelessness in Wales.
Figures from April 24 to March 25 show that numbers needing support are still far too high.
www.gov.wales/homelessness...
Figures from April 24 to March 25 show that numbers needing support are still far too high.
www.gov.wales/homelessness...
Reposted by Thom Lavery
While Shabana Mahmood has been a largely weak and ineffectual Justice Secretary - more concerned with rising to Jenrick’s clickbait than fixing justice - it is absurd that the Ministry of Justice now has its 11th Justice Secretary in 10 years.
No wonder the system is on fire.
No wonder the system is on fire.
Now confirmed
Cooper to FCDO
Mahmood to Home
Lammy to Justice
Cooper to FCDO
Mahmood to Home
Lammy to Justice
September 5, 2025 at 3:05 PM
While Shabana Mahmood has been a largely weak and ineffectual Justice Secretary - more concerned with rising to Jenrick’s clickbait than fixing justice - it is absurd that the Ministry of Justice now has its 11th Justice Secretary in 10 years.
No wonder the system is on fire.
No wonder the system is on fire.
Damn its gonna hurt so much when he eventually triangulates on something (he's a politician), but this is funnier than most SNL skits
I am once again asking you to stop sending us money.
But we do need your time. ⏰
zohranfornyc.com/events
But we do need your time. ⏰
zohranfornyc.com/events
September 5, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Damn its gonna hurt so much when he eventually triangulates on something (he's a politician), but this is funnier than most SNL skits
Reposted by Thom Lavery
🚨New Research 🚨
Ahead of the release of Wave 30 of the BES Internet Panel, the team has examined Labour's decline since the 2024 GE.
Labour's support has splintered into mostly indecision or left-liberal parties, but they've also lost their few right-wing voters.
🧵⬇️
tinyurl.com/3m62exph
Ahead of the release of Wave 30 of the BES Internet Panel, the team has examined Labour's decline since the 2024 GE.
Labour's support has splintered into mostly indecision or left-liberal parties, but they've also lost their few right-wing voters.
🧵⬇️
tinyurl.com/3m62exph
Looking for Labour’s lost voters - The British Election Study
www.britishelectionstudy.com
September 3, 2025 at 10:15 AM
🚨New Research 🚨
Ahead of the release of Wave 30 of the BES Internet Panel, the team has examined Labour's decline since the 2024 GE.
Labour's support has splintered into mostly indecision or left-liberal parties, but they've also lost their few right-wing voters.
🧵⬇️
tinyurl.com/3m62exph
Ahead of the release of Wave 30 of the BES Internet Panel, the team has examined Labour's decline since the 2024 GE.
Labour's support has splintered into mostly indecision or left-liberal parties, but they've also lost their few right-wing voters.
🧵⬇️
tinyurl.com/3m62exph
@stephenkb.bsky.social Doechii joke at IFG event!! 🔥🔥🔥
I laughed at home even if no one in the room did
I laughed at home even if no one in the room did
July 15, 2025 at 10:34 AM
@stephenkb.bsky.social Doechii joke at IFG event!! 🔥🔥🔥
I laughed at home even if no one in the room did
I laughed at home even if no one in the room did
Obsessed with this JJ dismantling of Ed Sheeran. An artist that is scared of paint.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...
Ed Sheeran’s Pollock homage has energy but no feeling or truth
Abstract art like this gives all abstract art a bad name, just meaningless concoctions that avoid proper scrutiny
www.theguardian.com
July 9, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Obsessed with this JJ dismantling of Ed Sheeran. An artist that is scared of paint.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...
Really good scrutiny session today of the Local Government and Housing Committee, examining the Homelessness and Social Housing Allocations (Wales) Bill.
Broad consensus right across the sector in favour of this important legislation.
business.senedd.wales/ieListDocume...
Broad consensus right across the sector in favour of this important legislation.
business.senedd.wales/ieListDocume...
Agenda for Local Government and Housing Committee on Thursday, 19 June 2025, 09.00 | Senedd
Senedd
business.senedd.wales
June 19, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Really good scrutiny session today of the Local Government and Housing Committee, examining the Homelessness and Social Housing Allocations (Wales) Bill.
Broad consensus right across the sector in favour of this important legislation.
business.senedd.wales/ieListDocume...
Broad consensus right across the sector in favour of this important legislation.
business.senedd.wales/ieListDocume...
Vaughan Gething talk in the Senedd about anything other than Cardiff Parkway Challenge (Impossible)
June 3, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Vaughan Gething talk in the Senedd about anything other than Cardiff Parkway Challenge (Impossible)
Cautiously pleased that there seems to be broad cross-party support for the draft homelessness bill.
Hopefully one upside of having consulted everyone over and over again is that the final bill is something everyone can get behind.
Next stop LGH committee scrutiny!
Hopefully one upside of having consulted everyone over and over again is that the final bill is something everyone can get behind.
Next stop LGH committee scrutiny!
May 20, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Cautiously pleased that there seems to be broad cross-party support for the draft homelessness bill.
Hopefully one upside of having consulted everyone over and over again is that the final bill is something everyone can get behind.
Next stop LGH committee scrutiny!
Hopefully one upside of having consulted everyone over and over again is that the final bill is something everyone can get behind.
Next stop LGH committee scrutiny!
This draft bill has been a long time coming, so really hope we can get it passed and implemented as quickly as possible.
It is based on the recommendations of over 350 experts with experience of homelessness, people who really know how the clunky, impersonal system needs to change.
It is based on the recommendations of over 350 experts with experience of homelessness, people who really know how the clunky, impersonal system needs to change.
⚖️ New Homelessness Bill in Wales: what you need to know...
The @welshgovernment.bsky.social Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill represents a radical departure from some of the old ways of working.
@senedd.wales will now scrutinise the details.
The @welshgovernment.bsky.social Homelessness and Social Housing Allocation (Wales) Bill represents a radical departure from some of the old ways of working.
@senedd.wales will now scrutinise the details.
May 19, 2025 at 3:52 PM
This draft bill has been a long time coming, so really hope we can get it passed and implemented as quickly as possible.
It is based on the recommendations of over 350 experts with experience of homelessness, people who really know how the clunky, impersonal system needs to change.
It is based on the recommendations of over 350 experts with experience of homelessness, people who really know how the clunky, impersonal system needs to change.
I had such low expectations about a new Labour gov last summer, but the one thing I thought would surely improve after 14 years of Tory bullshit would be the end of the hostile environment. I couldn't believe that Labour would honestly look into the pit and say, "yes, this is good, more of this". 🙃
If you thought the PM’s speech was punchy, his foreword to the immigration white paper says high net migration has done “incalculable damage” to the country.
That is a serious shift in tone for a Labour government/party.
That is a serious shift in tone for a Labour government/party.
May 12, 2025 at 11:03 AM
I had such low expectations about a new Labour gov last summer, but the one thing I thought would surely improve after 14 years of Tory bullshit would be the end of the hostile environment. I couldn't believe that Labour would honestly look into the pit and say, "yes, this is good, more of this". 🙃
Reposted by Thom Lavery
Over last year I've been building a Senedd Election Simulator tool. It gives a useful (I hope!) visual explainer of how the new election system turns votes into seats.
🧵 on some of what it can do below:
jaclarner.github.io/senedd_ethol...
🧵 on some of what it can do below:
jaclarner.github.io/senedd_ethol...
Senedd Election Simulator
Senedd Election Simulator - Visualize Welsh election results
jaclarner.github.io
May 7, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Over last year I've been building a Senedd Election Simulator tool. It gives a useful (I hope!) visual explainer of how the new election system turns votes into seats.
🧵 on some of what it can do below:
jaclarner.github.io/senedd_ethol...
🧵 on some of what it can do below:
jaclarner.github.io/senedd_ethol...
Sad to hear of the death of Dafydd Elis-Thomas. He was the only member of the House of Lords I would regularly see on a Cardiff Bus.
February 7, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Sad to hear of the death of Dafydd Elis-Thomas. He was the only member of the House of Lords I would regularly see on a Cardiff Bus.
Reposted by Thom Lavery
Remarkable how many people instinctively see return to office work as a conspiracy to bail out commercial landlords, while work from home is much less frequently described as a mechanism to cut down on staff costs (both in terms of office overheads, & by hiring people in low cost areas far from HQ).
January 30, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Remarkable how many people instinctively see return to office work as a conspiracy to bail out commercial landlords, while work from home is much less frequently described as a mechanism to cut down on staff costs (both in terms of office overheads, & by hiring people in low cost areas far from HQ).