#TreasuryBrain
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jamesomalley.co.uk
Unbelievable. Treasurybrain is at it again. Time to split the Treasury in two.
noahvickers.bsky.social Noah Vickers @noahvickers.bsky.social · Apr 8
EXCLUSIVE: @thehousemag.bsky.social has obtained the confidential government report which delayed West Yorkshire's planned tram network.

It warned the scheme was working to "unrealistic milestones" and there was a "high" risk of public money being wasted:

www.politicshome.com/news/article...
Leeds Tram Plan Was Working To 'Unrealistic Milestones', Secret Government Report Warned
Exclusive: Tracy Brabin’s attempts to start construction on a Leeds tram network before her next re-election campaign were blocked after a confiden...
www.politicshome.com
April 8, 2026 at 8:52 AM
jamesomalley.co.uk
Maddening story as:
(a) Literally everyone could see we'd have to further increase defence spending when the initial increase was made
(b) Of course we're going to Treasurybrain ourselves to death to solve the problem, rather than increase taxes

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
February 16, 2026 at 10:43 AM
andydrummond.eurosky.social
I suspect because #TreasuryBrain is just interested in reducing a tax ‘perk’ without considering what tax policy is meant to achieve.
November 13, 2025 at 7:43 AM
rs-glide08.bsky.social
idiots

idiots idiots idiots idiots idiots

literally tuning treasurybrain into grounds for moral grandstanding
September 7, 2025 at 9:50 PM
andydrummond.eurosky.social
#TreasuryBrain strikes - no-one else can possibly be trusted to raise taxes.
November 21, 2025 at 7:16 PM
andydrummond.eurosky.social
The thing is that there’s no money for anything ‘discretionary’.

Other than #TreasuryBrain (and a resulting lack of trust in anyone else to spend money) it’s hard to see why HMG doesn’t see that fixing LG funding would do a lot to make the country *feel* better.
January 11, 2026 at 7:45 PM
samuelstafford.bsky.social
Level 7 town planning apprenticeships to be removed from funding by way of the Apprenticeship Levy for all but the under 21s.

#TreasuryBrain

feweek.co.uk/phillipson-t...
Phillipson to exempt young people from level 7 apprenticeships funding axe
Education secretary makes ‘important concession’ amid backlash from other government departments
feweek.co.uk
May 3, 2025 at 8:39 AM
tacj.bsky.social
This may be broadly true, but it feels like giving in to TreasuryBrain. "We can't do anything anyway so we shouldn't even try".
duncanweldon.bsky.social Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · Feb 3
My one original analogy that I actually like. On why macro policy setting in a small open economy is more like sailing than driving a car.
February 3, 2026 at 10:17 AM
smartgrowthuk.bsky.social
One of the many weaknesses will be targets for raw nos. of houses rather than specifying what type of houses are needed where - i.e. location w/r transit, genuine social-rent, density, elderly/single people, brownfield, etc., etc.. That certainly is #TreasuryBrain at work.
March 17, 2025 at 4:08 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
NHSE chief: Federated data platform will 'not be spectacular' www.hsj.co.uk/technology-a... (reg req)

#NHSdata #healthtech #Palantir #UX #TreasuryBrain
Ms Tang said: "It's really hard convincing Treasury that 30 per cent of your business case should be around deployment. If you did it in industry, it'd probably be around 50 per cent, but just getting 30 per cent of that resource to deployment was really tough. “And [deployment is] the first thing they want to cut because they don't understand that you're not just investing in technology, you're actually investing in the change and the business process to enable people to use and deploy that technology to do their day-to-day job."
September 26, 2024 at 12:17 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
The problem with making public data pay for itself www.mysociety.org/2026/08/27/t... post by @juliacushion.bsky.social of @mysociety.org

UK Government call for evidence www.gov.uk/government/c...

#opendata #FOI #datapolicy #treasurybrain
In our fragmented public data report we recognise that public bodies can already spend considerable time publishing data without seeing much evidence of what happens to it afterwards. Where that data is difficult to find or combine, its potential value isn't realised and the people doing the work have less reason to see publication as worthwhile. Charging offers one answer to this, in that income is easy to demonstrate, but it decreases the overall value and impact of the data. We'd rather see the government get better at making the wider impact of open data visible: who uses it, what they build with it, where it is reused elsewhere in government, and what difference that makes. Better impact tracking would help teams make the case for investing in open data without needing to turn it into a source of income. There's also a longer-term problem with using charging to fund new data services. If a team is encouraged to generate income from its data and does so successfully, that income starts supporting the service. At that point, making the data open means finding the money somewhere else. The Postcode Address File is a longstanding example of how difficult this can be to unwind. Once licensing income becomes part of how a service is funded, opening the data and replacing that income become the same problem.
August 27, 2026 at 8:13 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
The bad news is that – following "Treasury dialogue with stakeholders" – the Data (Use and Access) Bill has been amended to permit fee charging for business data beyond the purpose of meeting expenses, i.e. above marginal cost, and even on commercial terms.

#DUABill #smartdata #TreasuryBrain

2/2
8. The amendments to clause 11(1)(a) and 11(3) and (4)(b) remove the requirement that the purpose of fee charging is for the meeting of expenses. The clauses as amended provide that regulations may enable persons listed in 11(2) to charge fees in connection with activities consisting of the performance of duties or exercise of powers conferred on that person by or under regulations made under Part 1 of the Bill. … 10. These amendments follow from Treasury dialogue with stakeholders in relation to the future open banking scheme which have demonstrated that it may be necessary to enable fee charging beyond the purpose of meeting expenses. For instance, there may be cases in which it is appropriate and necessary for data to be provided on reasonable commercial terms. As "customer" is broadly defined in Part 1, smart data schemes may cover commercial as well as consumer contexts. Regulations can fix a limit to fees that is appropriate to the circumstances of the scheme and fee in question.
May 9, 2025 at 7:25 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Charging for public sector data is likely to cost us more than it raises peterkwells.com/2026/08/21/c... by @peterkwells.com

UK Government call for evidence www.gov.uk/government/c...

#opendata #FOI #datapolicy #treasurybrain
To be clear, the proposed changes would not affect data the government cannot already publish – no, this would not make it possible to sell personal data… – instead it's about charging for things like bus timetables or maps of forests and footpaths. Information the government currently makes available for free. Adding charges will reduce use of public service data, with knock-on effects that make all of our lives a little bit harder. Public sector data is infrastructure. Other services, businesses and decisions are built on top of it. Reducing use of that infrastructure means that we will find it a bit harder to catch the right bus, organisations will find it a bit harder to make decisions that improve the environment, and many other examples.
August 21, 2026 at 3:22 PM
omeraz.bsky.social
הנה בן אדם שאני אוהב כותב דעה שאני לא מסכים איתה שהיא בדיוק ה #TreasuryBrain שאני מדבר עליו
Vision-led planning is appealing, but it might not be the vision we envisaged
I have a confession that might make me unpopular among fellow sustainable transport practitioners.
substack.com
March 25, 2025 at 2:10 PM
niallbrady.bsky.social
British state ownership of strategically important shipyard = bad.
Spanish state ownership of strategically important British shipyard = good.
#TreasuryBrain
ryanmcaleer.bsky.social Ryan McAleer @ryanmcaleer.bsky.social · Dec 19
UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Navantia's deal to buy H&W includes a guarantee for jobs in Belfast for three years after completing the FSS contract for the Royal Navy. The build programme was previously reported to be seven years
www.irishnews.com/news/busines...
Spain’s state-owned shipbuilder Navantia agrees deal to buy Harland & Wolff
UK Government say deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, will secure 1,000 jobs
www.irishnews.com
December 19, 2024 at 5:14 PM
petehusky.bsky.social
Very good piece. WLTS @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social put this to Rory on #TRIP.

If only Rachel Reeves could have been confronted with this flaw in her espoused policy principles on the 'Leading' interview too!

Hope she has some good advisors who are not so prone to #treasurybrain
August 16, 2024 at 12:49 AM