YIMBY Pod – formerly The Abundance Agenda

Martin digs into the NIMBY drama at Bristol Zoo… and then enters the lion’s den himself, and attends a meeting of his Parish Council. James goes full neoliberal shill talking about Darren Jones’ proposals for fixing the Civil Service. And we speak to policy guru Tim Leunig, Chief Economist at NESTA, to learn how he thinks about policymaking, and why we should build a massive electricity cable from Texas to the UK.Martin’s latest video, on the Badger Road, is here.Darren Jones’s speech is here.An explanation of the Postcode Address File issue is here.James’s newsletter is here.Martin’s newsletter is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

James argues the digital ID U-turn doesn’t deserve the hysterical coverage that Westminster lobby journalists have been giving it. Martin concludes the incredible story of a 17th century engineering project – and how it is weirdly similar to HS2 today. And we speak to transport guru Michael Dnes to break down the news that Northern Powerhouse Rail is back – and that there’s going to be a strangely familiar new railway line built between Birmingham and Manchester.Our original Britcard interview is here.The Stepchange podcast on the history of coal, which James mentions, is here.James’s newsletter is here.Martin’s newsletter is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

We explain why The Abundance Agenda has a new name! James digs into a crazy story about how about how one village was almost cut off from civilisation for an entire year by… badgers. And the reason why is more infuriating than you think. And Martin tells the story of the biggest infrastructure project you’ve never heard of.* Plus we speak to Michael Hill from Britain Remade, about how to reconcile the need for Net Zero with the reality that China manufactures almost all of our renewable energy technology.Michael has written five pieces on China and energy – the first one is here. (Then check out parts two, three, four and five!)James’s post on how he rebooted his social life is here.Martin’s newsletter is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

On The Abundance Agenda this week, a special look back at four of our favourite segments from the show in 2025.James’s newsletter is here. (He wrote last week about why it’s time to reboot Back to The Future…)You can find Martin’s newsletter here, and his YouTube channel here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

This week, we’re hosting a Christmas Quiz – all about transport, infrastructure, urbanism… and all the stuff we usually talk about, basically.The quiz master is Only Connect question-writer Stephen Jorgenson-Murray.On James’s team we have the excellent YouTuber CityEd! (We particularly love his video about Manchester.)And Martin is joined by comedian, author, and QI Elf Andrew Hunter Murray! His most recent book is A Beginner’s Guide To Breaking And Entering.James’s newsletter is here. (He wrote about how Labour should reach out to gamers this week…)You can find Martin’s newsletter here, and his YouTube channel here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

James explains why the National Grid’s queuing system is maddeningly broken – and how the government is trying to fix it. Martin takes us back to World War II to tell the story of an extraordinary railway bridge in Weston-super-Mare. And we speak London Assembly Member James Small-Edwards to dig into his new report, Gridlocked, which explains why data centres and new homes are forced to fight for a constrained electricity supply in London.James’s newsletter is here, and his post about tech that annoys him is here.You can find Martin’s newsletter here, and his YouTube channel here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

The London Assembly has called for the Mayor to restart HS2 planning, so we dig into Crossrail 2 – and how construction has already (sort of) started. Martin has been down in the dumps, literally, and has been figuring out why Oxfordshire has an enormous pile of rubbish dumped just off the A34. We have a very quick chat with Chris Curtis MP, who has been down to Ebbsfleet to see where the ‘jumping spiders’ have thwarted building a major new town centre. And we speak to Laura Ryan from the Tony Blair Institute about her important new paper, proposing new national laboratories designed to create new ‘disruptive’ technologies.James’s piece on how he uses AI (and why the haters are wrong) is here.You can find Martin’s newsletter here, and his YouTube channel here.Our episode where we have a big fight about AI is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

We dig into the findings from the Independent Nuclear Taskforce led by John Fingleton, on why Britain is so bad at building nuclear energy, and what we can do to fix it. And we speak to Shadow Secretary of State For Energy Security and Net Zero, Claire Coutinho, about why she has taken the abundance pill, why she advocates making energy cheap – and why she wants to repeal the Climate Change Act.You can find Martin’s newsletter here, and his YouTube channel here.James’s piece on why everyone is getting the new Twitter geolocation feature wrong is here, and what he liked – and loathed – about the Budget here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

Martin digs into fascinating new public opinion research from CaSE about attitudes towards research and development. James looks at newly announced planning changes to make it easier to build near train stations – and why the government wants to stop theatres from vetoing development. And we speak to Fabian Chessell from the DATA Alliance about why the government needs to get better at sharing data… with itself.Martin’s fantastic video on the HS2 ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ is here, and his newsletter is here.James’s piece on why he’s worried about who follows Starmer is here.Tym’s piece on self-driving cars is here.Morgan Wild on municipal bond markets is here.Relevant previous episodes:* Our interview with CaSE’s Alicia Greated – which also features a section on the Cambridge Sewage Works we mentioned.* Why Fabian made a deep-cut reference to Old Bridge Way.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

James explains why Manchester should bid for the Olympics as an insurance policy for Northern Powerhouse Rail. And we speak to architect Ivan Jordan about why the way we protect historic buildings is broken – and why the listed system needs replacing.James’s newsletter is here.Martin’s newsletter is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

Martin makes the surprisingly persuasive case for building a tunnel to the Isle of Wight. And we speak to Ed Jennings, founder and editor of Kent Current about the maddening story of how NIMBY concerns killed a significant battery storage facility, and just how much worse Reform is making things in Kent, now that the party is in charge of Kent County Council. The answer might surprise you!You can find James’s newsletter here, and Martin’s newsletter here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

Martin tells us the jaw-dropping story of a bridge built for HS2 which is even more egregious than the infamous bat tunnel. This is seriously not to be missed. James explains how a clever new database could make driving much less annoying. And we speak to Lord Ben Gascoigne, Chairman of the Built Environment Select Committee in the House of Lords, about the findings from the first module of the inquiry into New Towns.You can find Martin’s newsletter, which includes his post on the Bridge to Nowhere – and many pictures – here.James’s newsletter and post on digital traffic orders is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

We make the case for new build houses, explaining why they’re so much better than people think, and why you can save frankly an astonishing amount of money on energy bills. Then, relatedly, we speak to Barratt Redrow CEO David Thomas about how volume house-builders navigate Britain’s notorious planning laws, and his pitch for how building on existing carparks could unlock over 700,000 new homes.You can find James’s newsletter, and piece on digital traffic orders here.Martin’s newsletter is here, and he’ll be posting his piece on boomers this week.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

Martin describes how NIMBY activists in Cambridgeshire have destroyed a popular ‘cow experience’ – and what it says about our relationship with the countryside. James looks at the potential for chaos following the introduction of the European Entry/Exit System, and explains why the way we handle cross-channel freight traffic is broken – and how to fix it. Plus we speak to Tym Syrytczyk from Paradigm Junction about whether Britain is ready for the imminent self-driving car revolutionJames’s piece explaining why a wealth tax isn’t credible is here.James also wrote-up his take on cross-channel freight here (free to read!).Martin’s piece on national service for boomers will be here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

Martin tells the extraordinary story of how Natural England appears to have assumed absolute power to stop all development in West Sussex… because of some pesky snails. James looks at shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho’s conference speech, and is pleasantly surprised. And we speak to Praful Nargund from the Good Growth Foundation about how four rapid reforms that can unblock house building, and the case for re-opening cross-channel rail services in Kent.Michael Dnes’s incredible/maddening post about snails in Sussex is here.The excellent blog Simonicity, which Martin mentions is here.You can watch Claire Coutinho’s Tory conference speech here.James’s newsletter is here.Martin’s newsletter is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

We dig into the recommendations of the government’s New Town taskforce – and explore the twelve locations that have been selected for a new generation of New Towns. Martin takes the Guardian’s NIMBY nonsense to task – and wonders if nature activists actually know what nature is. Plus we speak to Kane Emerson about the plan for the new town of Tempsford – and how it could be under construction by the end of this Parliament.The New Town Taskforce’s full report is here.Kane’s paper on the case of Tempsford is here.The maddening Guardian ‘Green to Grey’ piece is here.James’s piece on the ‘NIMBY charter’ is here (and the short piece on HIGNFY is here).Martin’s newsletter is here – he’ll be dropping something later this week.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

We get mad about a new document published by the government that seems like a beginners guide to jamming up the build-out of new energy infrastructure. And we speak to the amazing YouTuber CityEd, all about architecture, urban design, and how to build liveable cities.James has written an accompanying piece about the NIMBY charter here.James’s piece about Liam Byrne – and whether he’s had his Weetabix is here.Martin’s newsletter is here.You can read the CIA field manual here.Our previous episode mentioned by Ed, featuring Sally Gimson talking HS2 is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

James looks at the big US-UK nuclear agreement, and explores some of the exciting nuclear projects that might happen here because of it. Martin explains the 18 year long redevelopment sage playing out in Bristol, where plans have been consistently derailed by a single barge. And then we speak to Michael Jenner, CEO of Last Energy UK, the nuclear firm building a nuclear reactor at the London Gateway port.Our episode with former nuclear minister Lord Hunt can be heard here.James’s piece on racism and the anti-asylum protests is here.Martin’s newsletter is here.Pre-order Hayley Gullen’s book, This Might Surprise You, here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

Martin tells us about his trip to see one of HS2’s ‘green tunnels’ under construction – and why digging a cut-and-cover tunnel is so much more complex than it sounds. James explains why the Sunday trading laws might be about to change – and why he’s going to unjustifiably take credit for it, if it happens.And we speak to Simon Dudley, chair of the Representative Planning Group about how the new group is hoping to bring better data to planning fights. (Plus a little about his former roles, as Chair of Homes England and Ebbsfleet Development Corporation.)James’s piece on the Cambridge sewage works is here.Martin’s newsletter is here.The Grocer’s reporting on Sunday trading is here. (James’s piece on Sunday trading is here.)Note: The interview at the end was recorded before Angela Rayner resigned, so just mentally substitute every mention of “Angela Rayner” with “Steve Reed”, and it still makes total sense.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

How Angela Rayner’s department killed a major new brownfield housing development in Cambridge – and how her replacement Steve Reed might be able to undo this terrible mistake. Plus Martin discovers that Reform in Lincolnshire is building its own bat tunnel.And we speak to Dr Alicia Greated, executive director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering about industrial policy and how even Reform voters might support immigration for R&D jobs.Check out CaSE’s immigration and industrial strategy papers.James’s piece on the Cambridge sewage works and how Steve Reed could reverse Angela Rayner’s worst decision is here.Martin’s piece on the Lincolnshire bat tunnel will be here.James’s piece on why a ‘Fare Free London’ is basically unworkable is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com