Category Archives: UK news

UK high street faces post-Christmas ‘flurry of failure’

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Lacklustre festive sales leaving retailers low on funds needed to cope when shoppers traditionally tighten belts in new year

The high street could face a “flurry of business failures” in the new year, as a lacklustre Christmas sales period is leaving retailers low on the funds needed to cope when households tighten their belts after the festive season.

“We can expect more consolidation and high street casualties as we head into the new year. It will be yet another tough year for retail and a case of survival of the fittest,” said Paul Martin, UK head of retail at KPMG.

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Police name woman and two children in Kettering murder case

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Nurse Anju Asok, 35, and her young children Jeeva and Janvi Saju were found with fatal injuries on Thursday

A woman and two children who died in a suspected murder in Kettering have been named as Anju Asok, a 35-year-old nurse, and her children, Jeeva Saju, six, and Janvi Saju, four.

Northamptonshire police said a 52-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of murder and was in police custody being questioned by detectives.

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Amazon agrees deal with Games Workshop to create Warhammer TV series

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Former Superman star Henry Cavill linked to project, and agreement includes film and merchandise plans

Amazon has struck a deal with the high street games chain Games Workshop to create a series based on its hit franchise Warhammer, the science-fiction fantasy miniature war game, potentially featuring the former Superman star Henry Cavill.

The London-listed Games Workshop, which has a £2.7bn market value and runs about 530 stores, has struck a deal with Amazon to develop the company’s intellectual property into film and TV productions as well as sell merchandise.

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MoD to revive Belfast shipbuilding with contract for three naval vessels

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Rishi Sunak announces £1.6bn contract led by shipyard Harland and Wolff that will create 900 jobs in Belfast

Shipbuilding is to be revived in Belfast after 20 years as part of a £1.6bn Ministry of Defence contract for three new naval vessels, Rishi Sunak has announced.

A consortium led by the shipyard Harland and Wolff has secured the preferred bidder status which will create 1,200 jobs across three companies, 900 of which will be in Belfast.

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Nurses strike live: Labour MPs join nurses on picket lines after second Tory MP publicly calls for government to increase pay offer

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Multiple Labour MPs join picket lines after Tory MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich urges government to improve offer

On the picket line outside St Thomas’ hospital in Westminster, Linda Tovey, a critical care nurse, said: “It’s increasingly difficult to come to work and go home and think: ‘Actually I don’t think I can turn the heating on.’

“My wages aren’t bad for a nurse but I still have to think about what I’m doing with my money every month and that is not the position I imagined myself being in.
“People do a huge amount of extra work, in terms of studying and all that kind of stuff, and you don’t get the recognition in terms of wages.

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Bank of England raises interest rates to 3.5% in ninth increase in a year

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Majority of MPC rate-setters back hike of 0.5 percentage points despite fears UK is entering a long recession

Mortgage payers are braced for higher borrowing costs, after the Bank of England pushed up its base rate by 0.5 percentage points to 3.5% despite saying inflation has peaked and Britain is about to enter “a prolonged recession”.

The Bank hiked interest rates on Thursday for the ninth time in a year, to the highest level in 14 years, but told borrowers to prepare for fresh increases in the new year.

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Third of staff allege bullying in Raab’s private office team

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Exclusive: Leaked annual survey shows fourfold rise in harassment claims in justice ministers’ office

A third of the staff in Dominic Raab’s private office at the Ministry of Justice have claimed to have been bullied or harassed while working in their current team in the past year, according to an internal Whitehall survey.

The results of the civil service survey from this week, which have been leaked to the Guardian, show that 10 of the 33 people who worked most closely with the justice secretary said they had been a victim of bad behaviour.

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Scotland to spend extra £1bn on health by raising taxes on higher earners

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Scottish government promises to tackle health and social care crisis to protect weakest and poorest

The Scottish government has promised to spend another £1bn on tackling the crisis in health and social care by raising taxes on higher earners and holiday homes.

John Swinney, Scotland’s acting finance secretary, said the burden of increasing NHS funding would fall heavily on everyone earning more than £43,663 in Scotland as part of a “social contract” to protect the weakest and poorest.

The abolition of a cap on council tax increases next year, alongside £550m extra for councils.

The uprating of all Scottish welfare benefits by 10%, increasing welfare spending by £433m.

£222m on school support for the poorest and extra free school meals in primaries.

£15m for a pilot project to scrap peak-time rail fares.

£336m on home energy efficiency and reducing fuel poverty.

The abolition of non-domestic rates for 100,000 smaller shops and businesses and a freeze in business rates charges, which would cost £356m.

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One in four private rentals in England fail to meet decent home standards

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Data suggests private tenants almost three times as likely to be exposed to damp as social housing tenants

Almost a quarter of private rentals in England fail to meet the decent home standards, government figures have revealed, meaning they pose a risk to health, are in disrepair, have poor facilities, or are poorly insulated.

Data from the English Housing Survey, released on Thursday, highlights the poor state of the country’s private rental sector, with 23% of private rentals failing to meet the decent homes standard in 2021-22. That compares with just 13% of owner-occupied homes, and 10% of social housing.

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Hot drinks and public sympathy for nurses on the picket lines

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For many striking in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, staff shortages are a bigger issue than pay

In many professions, working a 14-hour day with no break would be unthinkable, but for many nurses on freezing picket lines across the country on Thursday it is increasingly becoming the norm.

“It’s tough at the moment,” said Ella Savage, a children’s specialist nurse at Leeds General Infirmary, where about 200 nurses were gathered at one of 125 Royal College of Nursing (RCN) pickets across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

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Ministers accused of unlawfully denying Afghan journalists UK visas

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Ben Wallace and Suella Braverman ‘turned their back’ on former BBC journalists who are in danger, high court told

Ministers have unlawfully “turned their back” on former BBC journalists whose lives are at risk from the Taliban by refusing to relocate them from Afghanistan to the UK, the high court has heard.

Eight Afghan journalists, who worked in high-profile roles for the BBC and other media agencies in the country from which British troops withdrew last year, are challenging the decision to deny them UK visas.

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Inquiry launched into claims SAS soldiers killed Afghan civilians

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MoD concedes to longstanding demands for statutory inquiry into allegations dating back to 2010

Ministers have announced a statutory judge-led inquiry into allegations of more than 50 summary killings by SAS soldiers in Afghanistan, a decision made after years of reports that elite British troops killed civilians in cold blood.

In a statement to the House of Commons, Andrew Murrison, the minister for defence people, said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would concede to longstanding demands for an “independent statutory inquiry” after years of dismissing the idea. The inquiry will cover the period from mid-2010 to mid-2013.

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Scathing report condemns UK police for ‘victim blaming’ in rape cases

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Examination exposes failure to track repeat suspects and botched investigations by struggling forces

A damning official examination into how police forces tackle rape has exposed persistent failings in the criminal justice system, including a failure to track repeat suspects, “explicit victim-blaming” and botched investigations.

The long-awaited independent report into the first year of Operation Soteria Bluestone – launched by the government after a catastrophic fall in rape prosecutions – also paints a picture of a over-worked, traumatised and inexperienced police workforce in England and Wales, which is struggling to cope with an increase in rape reports after years of austerity.

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Rules on liquids and laptops to be eased at UK airports from June 2024

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Passengers at most airports to be allowed two-litre containers of liquid, in major relaxation of 2006 rules

Rules around taking liquids and laptops through airport security will be eased from June 2024, the government has said.

The announcement of the biggest relaxation of aviation security regulations in decades confirms reports last month that the change would come in the year after next.

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Citizens Advice says record number sought energy help in November

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Number of people unable to afford prepayment meter top-up is higher this year than in past six years combined

The monthly number of people that Citizens Advice helped with energy-related problems and issues rose to a record high in November, underlining the scale of the struggle with soaring costs of gas and electricity.

The charity said it was continuing to exceed its forecasts for the numbers of cash-strapped households turning to it for help because they cannot afford to top up their energy prepayment meter and therefore cannot perform basic tasks such as heating food.

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Higher education regulator to make freedom of speech priority next year

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OfS expected to gain new powers to regulate freedom of speech issues in England

The Office for Students will make freedom of speech and “off-limits” subjects on university campuses one of its top priorities for next year, despite the regulator receiving only around 60 complaints over the last four years.

Susan Lapworth, the OfS’s chief regulator, said students’ experience of higher education in England was “not just measured through statistics,” and could be affected by the attitudes towards issues such as freedom of speech at the institutions they attend.

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Two in five people experienced parcel delivery issues last Christmas

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Consumer group Which? said many packages were thrown in ponds, arrived late or were left in the rain

Parcels chucked over fences into ponds, packages hidden in bins and laptops left out in the pouring rain – these are just some of the Christmas parcel delivery failures reported by consumers.

A delivery of pet tarantulas delayed overnight in transit was one of the strangest parcel problems reported to consumer group Which? in a survey of festive delivery difficulties.

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Job discrimination faced by ethnic minorities convinces public about racism

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Study finds exposing inequalities in applications for employment ‘catches racism red-handed’

Researchers believe they may have found the best way to convince the public that racism is a real problem and requires major change: tell them about an Oxford University study exposing discrimination faced by job applicants.

A groundbreaking project exploring how better to boost public support for action against systemic racism tested which messages best move people towards a more anti-racist position.

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Russia faces ‘critical shortage’ of artillery shells, says UK defence chief

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Tony Radakin said Moscow’s ability to conduct ground operations in Ukraine is ‘rapidly diminishing’ as a result

Russia faces a “critical shortage” of artillery shells and Moscow’s ability to conduct ground operations in Ukraine is “rapidly diminishing” as a result, Britain’s armed forces chief has said.

Adm Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of defence staff, told an audience at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) thinktank on Wednesday that the Kremlin had only planned for a short period to subjugate Ukraine, and has instead found itself embroiled in a conflict lasting nearly 10 months.

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Channel deaths: desperate call from boat raised alarm for rescue operation

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Skipper of fishing vessel tells how his crew spent two hours pulling 31 people from the freezing water

Four people died and more than 40 were rescued after a desperate call to a charity warned that a boat carrying asylum seekers including children had capsized in the Channel on Wednesday morning.

An unidentified man on the sinking vessel, in a recording obtained by the Guardian, asked at 2.53am for the alarm to be raised to save his family who were in the icy waters.

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