Susan J. Smith
@sjs1869.bsky.social
President,The British Academy.
Writes about housing and economic inequality.
Life Fellow at Girton College, Emerita Honorary Professor in the Dept of Geography, Cambridge University, UK.
(Views my own).
Writes about housing and economic inequality.
Life Fellow at Girton College, Emerita Honorary Professor in the Dept of Geography, Cambridge University, UK.
(Views my own).
There is still so much to gain from a comprehensive, joined up, review of higher education funding.
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/british...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/british...
The British Academy's response to the Autumn Budget
The British Academy has responded to the Autumn Budget (26 November 2025)
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
November 26, 2025 at 5:05 PM
There is still so much to gain from a comprehensive, joined up, review of higher education funding.
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/british...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/british...
Also international student fees already work hard for the sector… we need a more sustainable way to square the higher education funding circle www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/respons...
November 24, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Also international student fees already work hard for the sector… we need a more sustainable way to square the higher education funding circle www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/respons...
Hitting the nail on the head…
Universities in England are receiving over £6 billion less each year for teaching students than they did a decade ago, new analysis shows. Helen Packer reports
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/university-teaching-income-ps64-billon-less-10-years-ago
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/university-teaching-income-ps64-billon-less-10-years-ago
November 24, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Hitting the nail on the head…
Less than 10 per cent of properties are in these bands, yet the whole Council Tax system is regressive to incomes, by region and by property value. Surely the time has come?
www.thetimes.com/article/b43b...
www.thetimes.com/article/b43b...
Rachel Reeves to hit 100,000 properties with mansion tax to balance books
Rachel Reeves will attempt to raise £400-£450 million from the mansion tax charge, which will come from revaluing properties across bands F, G and H
www.thetimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Less than 10 per cent of properties are in these bands, yet the whole Council Tax system is regressive to incomes, by region and by property value. Surely the time has come?
www.thetimes.com/article/b43b...
www.thetimes.com/article/b43b...
Finally… www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian view on falling net migration: political debate is now detached from the facts
A fixation on reducing numbers leaves no room for rational discussion of what that means for the economy and society
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Finally… www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The rise and rise of ‘stackable’ ‘micro-credentials’; the decline and fall of… (am I worried or excited?)
Countries face a “growing mismatch” between what education provides and “what the world really needs”, says OECD director
#AcademicSky #EduSky
#AcademicSky #EduSky
Global education ‘not aligned with real needs’ – OECD chief
Students struggling to find good jobs while employers say they cannot address skills shortages, Andreas Schleicher highlights
www.timeshighereducation.com
November 19, 2025 at 2:56 PM
The rise and rise of ‘stackable’ ‘micro-credentials’; the decline and fall of… (am I worried or excited?)
Shocking news from my home town, caught by ongoing disparities in income and wealth, with housing generally, and council tax in particular, adding to the mix. Time to grasp the (tax reform) nettle?
‘I think the city is falling apart’: Leicester braces for a make-or-break budget
‘I think the city is falling apart’: Leicester braces for a make-or-break budget
In the local authority where people have the least spare cash there are hopes the chancellor will instil change
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Shocking news from my home town, caught by ongoing disparities in income and wealth, with housing generally, and council tax in particular, adding to the mix. Time to grasp the (tax reform) nettle?
Excellent result, with a couple of great new pieces by Lucy Pankhurst www.4barsrest.com/news/62974/r...
Result: 2025 Brass in Concert Championship
Katrina Marzella Wheeler inspires the cooperation band a premiere Brass in Concert title success.
www.4barsrest.com
November 15, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Excellent result, with a couple of great new pieces by Lucy Pankhurst www.4barsrest.com/news/62974/r...
Fantastic day at the Glasshouse. Brass (and Youth Brass) in Concert. Sold out. First rate performers, early, mid and late career, challenging classics, impressive new works, the stuff of life itself theglasshouseicm.org/seasons/bras...
Brass in Concert Championships 2025 | The Glasshouse
theglasshouseicm.org
November 15, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Fantastic day at the Glasshouse. Brass (and Youth Brass) in Concert. Sold out. First rate performers, early, mid and late career, challenging classics, impressive new works, the stuff of life itself theglasshouseicm.org/seasons/bras...
If it’s all eyes on property tax, surely the time has come for a thorough overhaul of Council tax, which is grossly unfair. Split out the service charge, fairly tax the value of residential property, the majority win or break even… www.economicsobservatory.com/what-future-...
What future for residential property taxation in Britain? - Economics Observatory
Council tax is unpopular, unfair and overdue for reform. An alternative would be to fund statutory services through central government, introduce a modest local service charge, and absorb stamp duty a...
www.economicsobservatory.com
November 14, 2025 at 3:33 PM
If it’s all eyes on property tax, surely the time has come for a thorough overhaul of Council tax, which is grossly unfair. Split out the service charge, fairly tax the value of residential property, the majority win or break even… www.economicsobservatory.com/what-future-...
The strong spot though is UK success in ‘curiosity’-driven (aka nimble, horizon-scanning, front foot, future-shaping) scholarship. All to play for!
UK weak spots in Horizon Europe ‘likely to feature in FP10 talks’.
Science committee chair Chi Onwurah blames Brexit for underperformance in elements of EU research and innovation programme.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
Science committee chair Chi Onwurah blames Brexit for underperformance in elements of EU research and innovation programme.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
UK weak spots in Horizon Europe ‘likely to feature in FP10 talks’ - Research Professional News
Science committee chair blames Brexit for underperformance in elements of EU research and innovation programme
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:34 PM
The strong spot though is UK success in ‘curiosity’-driven (aka nimble, horizon-scanning, front foot, future-shaping) scholarship. All to play for!
Absolutely going to this! Cutting edge stuff on #housing problems and prospects from Ifigeneia Dimitrakou (University of Zurich) and @timwhite100.bsky.social (Queen Mary University of London, UK)
Join the Society's Economic Geography Research Group for an upcoming webinar:
'Emerging voices in economic geography: housing' will take place on Thursday 20 November.
Register here: https://www.rgs.org/events/upcoming-events/emerging-voices-in-economic-geography-session-one
'Emerging voices in economic geography: housing' will take place on Thursday 20 November.
Register here: https://www.rgs.org/events/upcoming-events/emerging-voices-in-economic-geography-session-one
Emerging voices in economic geography: housing
A new webinar series showcasing fresh perspectives from early career researchers. This webinar's theme: housing.
www.rgs.org
November 14, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Absolutely going to this! Cutting edge stuff on #housing problems and prospects from Ifigeneia Dimitrakou (University of Zurich) and @timwhite100.bsky.social (Queen Mary University of London, UK)
Fantastic programme!
Applications open: New Generation Thinkers 2026
AHRC is partnering with BBC Radio 4 to offer five early-career researchers the opportunity to work with programme makers, appear on air, and gain first-hand experience of how ideas make it to broadcast.
Apply by Jan 2026
AHRC is partnering with BBC Radio 4 to offer five early-career researchers the opportunity to work with programme makers, appear on air, and gain first-hand experience of how ideas make it to broadcast.
Apply by Jan 2026
AHRC and BBC New Generation Thinkers 2026
This scheme offers five early career researchers the opportunity to work with programme makers at BBC Radio 4. They will appear on a number of episodes and shadow the production process to understand ...
www.ukri.org
November 10, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Fantastic programme!
I think the key is in the brackets… (a trend by no means limited to students…)
Not sure I understand how there can be a student housing boom in midst of general higher education gloom (though packing as many rooms as possible into a building and charging the highest rents for them you can is obviously part of it)
www.ft.com/content/8903...
www.ft.com/content/8903...
Real estate developers pile into UK student housing sector
Record number of deals in 2024 comes despite sharp fall in international student numbers
www.ft.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:26 PM
I think the key is in the brackets… (a trend by no means limited to students…)
Good for publishing, good for housing, good for… hang on, perhaps #not-for-profit is good for (nearly) everyone?
'The global scientific community has been urged to adopt and support non-profit scholarly publishing models to help solve the problems caused by today’s predominant systems—described as “arguably the largest science crisis of all time”.' 1/3
‘Embrace non-profit publishing to tackle largest science crisis’.
Stockholm Declaration promotes shift to models encouraging high quality and restoration of trust.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-worl...
Stockholm Declaration promotes shift to models encouraging high quality and restoration of trust.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-worl...
November 10, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Good for publishing, good for housing, good for… hang on, perhaps #not-for-profit is good for (nearly) everyone?
Iconic moment at the start of a long period of middle/ lower income wage stagnation and a marked to to economic inequality… so, an ongoing struggle and a complex story.
Dolly Parton releases “9 to 5” 45 yrs ago today.
“I knew what it was like to be a working woman trying to make a decent living, trying to be taken seriously. .. I wanted a song that sounded playful on the surface but spoke to that frustration .. A song about women .. saying, ‘We deserve better.’”
“I knew what it was like to be a working woman trying to make a decent living, trying to be taken seriously. .. I wanted a song that sounded playful on the surface but spoke to that frustration .. A song about women .. saying, ‘We deserve better.’”
November 3, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Iconic moment at the start of a long period of middle/ lower income wage stagnation and a marked to to economic inequality… so, an ongoing struggle and a complex story.
Thousands of amateur brass enthusiasts have been limbering up for a flurry of local brass band association contests. It’s not about whether you win or lose… but, well, winning is ok! 😎
November 2, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Thousands of amateur brass enthusiasts have been limbering up for a flurry of local brass band association contests. It’s not about whether you win or lose… but, well, winning is ok! 😎
Surely the caché needed to push through a change of this kind would be best spent reforming land/property tax across the board? Hasn’t there been enough tinkering with Council tax to warrant a change of approach?
www.thetimes.com/article/5ac9...
www.thetimes.com/article/5ac9...
Rachel Reeves considers ‘supercharged’ council tax on expensive homes
The chancellor could impose new bands for high-value properties, a possible alternative to a ‘mansion tax’, as she tries to plug a financial hole in her budget
www.thetimes.com
November 1, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Surely the caché needed to push through a change of this kind would be best spent reforming land/property tax across the board? Hasn’t there been enough tinkering with Council tax to warrant a change of approach?
www.thetimes.com/article/5ac9...
www.thetimes.com/article/5ac9...
Excellent. Fitting tribute to a brilliant scholar.
Pull up for a bumper issue, nine articles, from ecologization as a mode of economization to the prompting of generative AI models in UK government, with stops in Brazil, Venezuela, Kenya and the US along the way!
www.tandfonline.com/toc/reso20/c...
www.tandfonline.com/toc/reso20/c...
Economy and Society
Dedicated to Michel Callon, 1945–2025. Volume 54, Issue 3 of Economy and Society
www.tandfonline.com
October 31, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Excellent. Fitting tribute to a brilliant scholar.
Honestly it makes me so cross when you want to download or print out a copy of your own article and find ‘your license does not permit this’. Grrrrr.
October 31, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Honestly it makes me so cross when you want to download or print out a copy of your own article and find ‘your license does not permit this’. Grrrrr.
And still the top 10% take away over a quarter of the total (post tax UK income, according to WID…)
On the one hand: Interesting just how long post-imperial Britain could cling on to its relative economic position. On the other hand: Yikes.
www.ft.com/content/d70c...
www.ft.com/content/d70c...
October 31, 2025 at 10:59 AM
And still the top 10% take away over a quarter of the total (post tax UK income, according to WID…)
On the subject of workable solutions to intractable problems (the chaos of residential property taxation, an increasingly dysfunctional #housing market), check out this unmissable @britishacademy.bsky.social lecture by John Muellbauer (online + in person) www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/lectu...
Land, Housing and the British Economy Lecture
The UK’s housing market suffers from deep structural dysfunction, with the cost of land accounting for a far greater share of house prices than in most other developed economies.
This lecture explore...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
October 31, 2025 at 9:47 AM
On the subject of workable solutions to intractable problems (the chaos of residential property taxation, an increasingly dysfunctional #housing market), check out this unmissable @britishacademy.bsky.social lecture by John Muellbauer (online + in person) www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/lectu...
A lot of us have plenty of evidence-informed ideas around this challenge. Will any of them make the cut?
NEW PODCAST: How to fix property taxes
@helenmiller.bsky.social, Stuart Adam and @benzaranko.bsky.social explore how council tax, stamp duty and other property taxes work in the UK, what’s gone wrong, and how they could be made fairer and more efficient.
🎧 Listen here: ifs.org.uk/articles/how...
@helenmiller.bsky.social, Stuart Adam and @benzaranko.bsky.social explore how council tax, stamp duty and other property taxes work in the UK, what’s gone wrong, and how they could be made fairer and more efficient.
🎧 Listen here: ifs.org.uk/articles/how...
October 30, 2025 at 5:02 PM
A lot of us have plenty of evidence-informed ideas around this challenge. Will any of them make the cut?
Fine opportunity!
ARCHIVAL FUNDING: Ann Ball Bodley Visiting Fellowship in Women’s History, to use Bodleian Libraries collections to advance scholarship in women’s history, of any geographical area and historical period. Deadline 28th Nov. www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csb/fellowsh...
Bodleian Visiting Fellowships in Special Collections
www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
October 30, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Fine opportunity!
Which is why, amid all this talk of economic growth, it is the TYPE of growth - its sustainability, its resilience, and above all its distribution - that matters.
🚨NEW REPORT: The Climate Inequality Report 2025 reveals how wealth inequality and the climate crisis drive each other.
What's new in the report? — A thread🧵
Download the report▶️ wid.world/news-article...
#cop30 #climatejustice #inequality
What's new in the report? — A thread🧵
Download the report▶️ wid.world/news-article...
#cop30 #climatejustice #inequality
Climate inequality report 2025 | Climate Change: A Capital Challenge - Why Climate Policy Must Tackle Ownership - WID - World Inequality Database
This new report reveals how wealth drive the climate crisis, and proposes new policy options to address it.
wid.world
October 29, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Which is why, amid all this talk of economic growth, it is the TYPE of growth - its sustainability, its resilience, and above all its distribution - that matters.