Artist’s impression of a Forest City

6 min read22 min

“If you want my secret trick,” Shiv Malik teases, “I ask for an impossible task.”

The former journalist, now would-be developer, is trying to build a new city for a million people, and has been working on his skills of persuasion.

Forest City, as Malik and his co-founder Joe Reeve have dubbed the project, is the most ambitious British infrastructure project in a generation. The plan is for the city to be east of Cambridge, and to consist of 400,000 new homes and 18,000 hectares of land developed.

Malik’s stated goal is to combat the housing crisis, which he holds responsible for Britain’s lost growth and pessimistic outlook. Though, as of today, Malik has neither land for the project nor planning permission, and minimal local support. It’s also his first attempt at a development of any kind and the project would require support from Whitehall to stand a chance of success.

The pair are undeterred by their many detractors and present themselves as warriors in the cause of intergenerational fairness. Reeve has said of the naysayers, “The cavalry aren’t coming. We are the cavalry.”

“The journey started for me when I wrote Jilted Generation,” says Malik. “That was in September 2010, and just before the student riots. In that book, what we said [was] if we didn’t sort housing and infrastructure, the country would be much worse-off.

“We were proven right on that – and there was a shrug about it being so. I don’t think people comprehend that in 150 years of economic history this hasn’t happened before. Britain’s lack of housing is an abomination and an existential threat and I got tired of talking about it and wanted to do something.”

The plans are ambitious but lack clarity. Alongside housing, the proposal includes a reservoir and small modular nuclear reactors. In marketing material, luxurious mansion blocks are pictured on empty streets, as are modern timber buildings in pedestrianised areas, intersected by tramways and cycle paths.

He excitedly discusses passenger drones as a possibility for transport, but is less clear on how the project comes about on the ground.

And yet Forest City has some high-profile backers on its advisory board. These include former health secretary Patricia Hewitt, who also happens to be Malik’s mother-in-law. Malik tells The House that the board does not receive any money directly for their work, but will get a “very tiny equity stake” in the project.

He recently managed to persuade Paul Johnson, the former Institute for Fiscal Studies director, to join the advisory board after he completed his impossible task of getting more people with direct experience of development involved. To cajole Jackie Sadek, an influential voice on urban development, he convinced one landowner to support the project. One down, thousands to go.

Despite ticking off some of his impossible tasks already, he has many more ahead of him. Given the project’s 32-year planned timeline, it could well be the 45-year-old’s last too.

The odds seem stacked against success – the project needs to raise £250m in capital from institutional investors in the next two years. Nick Timothy, the local Conservative MP, initially ignored the project, labelling it “ridiculous”, but has begun to organise politically against it.

“Nick Timothy writes about building new towns in the south, but when someone proposes it in his area he says ‘No’,” counters Malik. “Everyone knows a local MP is going to oppose a development in their area, so no one pays attention any more.”

But even former supporters have grown frustrated at the frequent changes to the plan.

“There are definitely not rigid plans – there can’t be,” Malik justifies. “For us, one of the most central things is the cost of a house. Excluding the land costs, where we already have an advantage, can we build a four-bed house for £350,000? The rest of the market is saying, ‘No way’, we think we can. Those things are quite fundamental.”

“Britain’s lack of housing is an abomination and an existential threat”

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While the pure numbers sound like a great investment opportunity, it comes with a very heavy caveat. As part of the agreement to buy, a complex financial structure would mean buyers would not be able to profit from future sales.

Currently, the arrangement would render mortgages far more complex in the million-person city complex. Simon Dudley, the former interim chair of Homes England, and briefly Reform UK’s housing and infrastructure spokesperson until his sacking, labelled the project a “recipe for disaster” and raised questions about the land value structure’s impact on mortgages.

Malik acknowledges the existing problem, but believes it can be overcome. “Nationwide already has a mortgage for community land trust housing, it’s not quite the product we need but we’ll get there.”

In spite of his grand plans to revolutionise mortgages, cities and British development, he says his role currently is more akin to that of a door-to-door salesman, albeit selling the biggest urban development in the UK since the Second World War.

“Most of my job is going house by house in a village, they’ll make cake and we’ll talk for two hours and they say, ‘I get why you’re doing it, I just don’t want it here’ – most private developers don’t do that.”

While his attempts to persuade locals and get answers might be regarded as admirable, he leaves the door open to pressing ahead without agreement.

“It is a bit of a dead end… really, then, it’s about… where do we draw the line on democratic consent?

“If you own the land and everyone has a veto, then everyone vetoes it. People in villages know the extent of their remit, and it is a much larger project. It’s a difficult trade-off and it’s one that should be compensated, and you don’t want to get miserly on,” he says, adding another few columns on an ever-inflating mental spreadsheet of potential costs.

As the project develops, political support becomes more important.

He outlines a thesis of how the development is in tune with the sort of politics Andy Burnham has championed in Manchester.

“If the next prime minister is Andy Burnham, what he’s talking about is what Forest City should deliver – place-based politics, thinking about the fundamentals. How to do this differently in a globalised world in a place owned by distant shareholders.”

“We’re very close at this point to moving to phase two – and we must give investors enough confidence that this is a seriously considered project,” he outlines. “At that stage, we need to raise £250m within two years. We need to demonstrate we’re not just stuck in the planning world and that good enough is good to go.”

If successful, the project will likely take more than 30 years to complete, at which point Malik will be in his late 70s. He hopes to be retired by then and living in Forest City. 

(Alamy)

3 min read46 min

Speaking to Sky News, Jones claimed that he had the backing of enough MPs to run for Labour leader, but had decided not to challenge Burnham after being “reassured” over the former Manchester mayor’s plans for economic policy.

Asked by Sky News if he was going to stand for Labour leader, Jones said: “I’m not”.

PoliticsHome was the first to reveal in May that Jones had sparked suspicion among colleagues that he was quietly sounding out support for a future leadership bid of his own.

When asked this week if he had the 81 nominations necessary to allow him to stand in a contest, Jones said: “Well, there were definitely upwards of 100 MPs who have expressed concern, either around contest, or economic policy, or who were just feeling pretty depressed off the back of Keir Starmer resigning.”

“Andy Burnham is going to be the next prime minister. And if there was a contest of Labour Party members, he would win. So the question for me is, well, what would the benefit be to the country and to the party of a leadership contest?”

Starmer announced on Monday that he would resign as PM this summer, triggering the process to replace him as leader, which could conclude as early as next month.

After winning a resounding victory in the Makerfield by-election last week, Burnham was sworn in as an MP on Monday and has confirmed his intention to stand as leader to replace Starmer. 

PoliticsHome reported last week that Burnham would use his first day in Westminster to meet with Labour MPs with whom he does not have strong relationships, like those elected at the 2024 general election.

On Monday, former health secretary Wes Streeting, who had been expected to stand in any leadership contest, announced his support for Burnham. In a post on X, Streeting said: “We could spend the summer exaggerating small differences, or we can roll up our sleeves and help him to deliver the change our Party and our country needs. That is the choice that I am making and I hope that everyone else will back Andy, too.”

Jones, who is a key Starmer ally, told Sky News that he felt “disappointed” about the way the PM had been treated.

“I felt, in many ways, I felt a bit disappointed in the way that Keir has been treated,” he said.

“But look, if you were to ask Keir that question, he’s pretty pragmatic, too.

“He recognises this as the cut and thrust of politics. There’s been no wrongdoing here.”  

For years, Greece’s international reputation rested on an image of its recognisable coastlines and ancient ruins – a place people associated with escapism and holidays. Today, it is carving out a new image as a place of opportunity.

The numbers tell one part of the story. According to the Bank of Greece, the country welcomed 40.7 million inbound travellers in 2024 and generated €21.59 billion in travel receipts. Those figures confirm Greece’s position as one of Europe’s tourism powerhouses. Yet today, that is just one part of Greece’s story.

A decade ago, professionals largely followed jobs. Today, many jobs follow professionals. Technology has untethered millions of workers from a fixed location, creating a new class of internationally mobile talent with genuine freedom over where they base themselves. For these individuals, Greece has become an increasingly attractive proposition.

Its appeal is not difficult to understand. It combines a high quality of life with strong international connectivity, access to the Schengen Area, a favourable climate and a cost base that remains competitive compared with many Western European cities. For someone able to work from anywhere, those factors carry real weight.

The introduction of Greece’s Digital Nomad Visa in 2021 was an early recognition of this trend. More importantly, it signalled that policymakers understood a larger reality: attracting talent is becoming just as important as attracting tourists.

Recent decisions also demonstrate how seriously Greece takes its tourism sector. In response to concerns that the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System could create lengthy queues and disruption for travellers, Greek authorities moved to simplify arrival procedures for British visitors, one of the country’s most important tourism markets. The move reflected a broader willingness to prioritise visitor experience and maintain Greece’s competitiveness in an increasingly crowded international travel market.

Meanwhile, digital nomads are often dismissed as little more than holidaymakers with laptops. In reality, they can be something much more valuable. They rent apartments, support local businesses, build professional networks, and, in many cases, stay far longer than traditional visitors. Some eventually establish companies. Others invest in property. Many become repeat residents. In that sense, digital nomads sit at the intersection of tourism and investment. They are often the bridge between the two.

The same logic can be seen in Greece’s approach to investment migration. The country’s restructured Golden Visa programme, with investment thresholds of €800,000, €400,000 and targeted €250,000 options, reflects a shift away from volume and towards longer-term contribution. The objective is not simply to attract capital, but to attract people with a stake in Greece’s future.

What makes Greece particularly well-positioned is that these trends reinforce one another. Tourism creates familiarity. Familiarity encourages longer stays. Longer stays lead to investment and, in some cases, relocation. Few countries possess such a strong tourism brand while simultaneously offering pathways for residence, investment and remote work.

The relationship between tourism and mobility is becoming increasingly important. Millions of British travellers visit Greece every year, and policymakers understand that today’s visitor can become tomorrow’s remote worker, investor or resident. Measures designed to make travel smoother and more accessible help strengthen that pipeline, turning short-term tourism flows into longer-term economic participation.

Spain has built an impressive ecosystem for digital nomads. Portugal has long been a leader in international mobility. Italy continues to benefit from its cultural prestige and global appeal. Greece does not necessarily dominate any one category. Its advantage is that it performs strongly across all of them.

For decades, Greece’s reputation was built on what people came to see. Its future may depend just as much on the people who decide to stay.

Katie Lam is a shadow Home Office minister and MP for Weald of Kent.

In his farewell speech to the nation, Keir Starmer talked of “what [he’d] achieved in just two years”. You’d be forgiven for thinking that this was a bad attempt at a joke – but the outgoing Prime Minister seemed to be completely serious.

After nearly two years of Starmer, we’ve made little-to-no progress on the major problems facing our country. In fact, he’s made a lot of our existing issues worse, and created a whole host of new ones.

Take his talk of “an economy that is stronger, growing faster than our peers”. The British economy has in fact grown by just 1.1 percent a year since Labour came into Government – less than half of what the US has achieved. The latest quarterly national accounts data says that, on a per person basis, our economy is actually shrinking.

The Prime Minister says that we should be grateful for, “wages rising faster than inflation”. In July 2024, wages were growing at more than 5 percent a year, while inflation was at 2.2 percent (2.8 percentage points less). By this April, inflation was up to 2.8 percent, while wage growth was down to 3.4 percent — so the gap has shrunk to about half a percentage point. In short, it’s becoming more difficult for people to afford the essentials, just as their wages aren’t growing as fast as they were.

Starmer spoke of “investment secured, infrastructure being built”. That’s despite the fact that, in the first quarter of 2026, business investment was nearly 2 percent lower than a year before. Meanwhile, more than half of new infrastructure projects signed off by this Government have been delayed. The Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Plant was delayed by six months before being cancelled – but not before £80 million of taxpayer money was spent on planning.

Next came his appeals to the Labour left – “an end to austerity”. If by “an end to austerity”, he meant “putting up taxes, despite promising not to, to pay for more welfare”, he was right – thanks to Starmer, we’re spending billions more on people who don’t work.

Then he claimed to have overseen “the biggest improvement in rights for workers and renters in a generation” – but making it harder for people to get a job, or to find somewhere to rent, isn’t an “improvement” in anybody’s rights. Thanks to Labour’s changes, the number of job opportunities is at the lowest level since the pandemic, and rents continue to rise.

“The biggest uplift in defence spending since the Cold War” – despite the fact that his own Defence Secretary resigned just last week, saying that Starmer was “unwilling to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country”.

“Small boat crossings falling” – despite the fact that crossings have actually increased by nearly 10,000 people a year since he came into office.

“Asylum hotels closing” – but only because the Government is now pushing illegal migrants directly into our communities.

And then there are the things that Starmer didn’t mention. Scrapping jury trials, enabling vexatious prosecutions against Northern Ireland veterans, letting tens of thousands of criminals a year avoid prison, and taking the disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador. He let Bridget Phillipson wreck the curriculum, let David Lammy continue to inject group-based grievance politics into our judiciary, and let Ed Miliband blow up our homegrown oil and gas industry.

His record speaks for itself. Keir Starmer was a complete failure.

If there was a silver lining to Starmer’s tenure as Prime Minister, it was his weakness – which made it possible for Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives to force him into u-turn after u-turn. He was dragged into holding a national inquiry into the grooming gangs, into watering down his family farm tax, and into scrapping his plans for digital ID.

Of course, Keir Starmer didn’t act alone. He was supported along the way by more than 400 Labour MPs, almost all of whom supported these changes. When they pushed back, it wasn’t because they recognised how terrible Starmer’s instincts were – it’s because they wanted him to double down. They rebelled when he tried to reduce the growth of the welfare bill – not the total amount, just the growth. As Labour’s own Welfare Secretary said, the first question raised by Labour MPs is always “who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?”.

And so, while Starmer might be going away, the Labour Party isn’t. Their MPs will remain the same, and so will the challenges facing the country. Though much-touted as a fresh face, Andy Burnham is an establishment Labour man, through and through. He was first elected as a Labour MP in 2001, while I was still at primary school; he served in Gordon Brown’s Cabinet.

Regardless of the churn at the top, the fundamentals remain the same. Labour will not secure our borders, they will not cut our ballooning welfare bill, and they will not do what’s necessary to keep our country safe. They are simply not dispositionally or ideologically capable of making the trade-offs that we need to make in order to fix any of these problems.

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Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS), the world’s leading nuclear transport specialists, has successfully evolved its shipping capability to transport a new nuclear flask, ensuring the safe and secure transportation of spent Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel.

A new package was required to transport this material, and one of NTS’s specialist ships, Pacific Grebe, was the first in the fleet to be adapted to accommodate the new flask.

The engineering challenge of fitting the package, which is the largest ever transported by NTS, was undertaken by the organisation’s transport experts and specialist engineers.

An adapter plate was produced to ensure the cargo would securely fit within the ship’s hold. This required millimetre precision, along with the manufacture of a specialist tool to ensure the ship’s removable decks aligned perfectly with the new TN Eagle flask, which would carry the material.

Following initial trials at Barrow Marine Terminal, a full-scale test fitting took place in Cherbourg, France, using the specialist vessel operated by Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited (PNTL), NTS’s specialist shipping division.

The 150-tonne flask was successfully placed in the ship’s various holds to check compatibility, and the exercise proved an outstanding success.

Conner Love, NTS Director of Shipping, said: “This has been a fantastic collaborative effort between NTS and PNTL. It demonstrates the world-leading expertise we possess in nuclear shipping and engineering.

“We are proud to have worked on the successful completion of this project, but this is just the beginning as we embark on a series of vital spent fuel movements around the globe.”

Another of PNTL’s ships, Pacific Egret, will be adapted in the near future to transport the new flask.

Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS) has successfully completed a major international shipment of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel, supporting the safe, secure and reliable transfer of the material from Japan to the United States.

The operation was conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Japan Atomic Energy Agency and the Japanese government – with 1.7 metric tons of HALEU transported, the largest single international shipment of uranium in NNSA’s history.

It demonstrates NTS’s unique expertise and capability in the transport of HALEU fuel, a material that is central to the deployment of advanced nuclear technologies and next-generation reactors.

The achievement also marks a significant step in NTS’s role in spearheading the UK’s HALEU transport capability, following its £10.5 million funding award from the UK government in 2024.  By developing and delivering the specialist expertise required for HALEU movements, NTS is helping to position the UK as a critical international partner in enabling secure and resilient advanced nuclear fuel supply chains.

Ben Whittard, co‑CEO of Nuclear Transport Solutions, said:

“This operation clearly demonstrates NTS’s unique capability in the transport of HALEU fuel.  We’ve brought together deep technical expertise, operational excellence and decades of global experience to deliver a highly complex shipment safely, securely and successfully.

“As HALEU becomes increasingly important to advanced nuclear programmes worldwide, NTS is proud to be at the forefront of providing the transport solutions that make this possible.”

Ciara Middlehurst, co‑CEO of Nuclear Transport Solutions, added:

“This is a powerful example of what can be achieved through strong international partnership.  Working closely with our colleagues and partners in the United States and Japan, we’ve shown how trusted collaboration, shared standards and alignment of purpose can enable critical nuclear activities while upholding the highest security and non‑proliferation commitments.”

NTS’s growing collaboration and reputation across the international nuclear sector was highlighted earlier this year following the signing of a landmark Heads of Terms agreement with Westinghouse, at the British Embassy in Washington DC – reinforcing shared ambitions to support the emerging HALEU supply chain.