Group, whose constituencies have derelict or at-risk pools, are campaigning to make outdoor swimming available for all
Cooling, blue expanses of water have been a lifesaver for many lucky enough to live near a lido during the recent UK heatwave.
Now, a group of 20 MPs, along with the Fabian Society, are calling for this relief to be made accessible for all by getting water companies to fund the reopening of the country’s lost lidos.
Continue reading...Half of county’s planning infringement notices target caravans in fields, fuelling eviction fears for vulnerable people
People living in caravans and horseboxes on farms in Cornwall because they can’t afford or find a house to rent are facing homelessness after a crackdown by the council.
Cornwall council recently announced that it was one of the top five authorities in England for enforcing infringements of planning regulations. Half of those notices, it said, were served on caravans in agricultural fields.
Continue reading...Ahead of England’s first knockout game of the World Cup, Love Letter to England celebrates what English people have in common
What does it mean to be English? Ahead of England’s first knockout game of the World Cup, Ian McKellen and the award-winning playwright James Graham have released a short film that attempts to answer that deceptively simple question.
The film, Love Letter to England, explores and celebrates what people across the country have in common. It draws on early contributions to the National Conversation, a UK-wide initiative that began last month.
Continue reading...London mayor says Soho Society’s decision to challenge all new licensing applications is ‘bad’ for city
Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, has suggested he will overrule a residents’ society that has vowed to challenge all new applications for pubs and restaurants in Soho.
The Guardian revealed last week that the Soho Society, a residents’ group established in 1972 aimed at “preserving the character of Soho”, voted for a new licensing mandate, meaning it will challenge all new applications for bars and restaurants in the area, including renewals of existing licences.
Continue reading...Supporters of Reza Pahlavi, exiled son of the late shah, are clashing with those who oppose a return of monarchy
Wearing a bucket hat, a blue Adidas hoodie and khaki shorts, Tony Mohraz, also known as 021kid, chest-bumps a friend in front of a memorial wall in Golders Green, in north London.
Photographs can be seen behind him of those who were killed protesting against the Iranian regime. As a large lion and sun flag used in Iran before the Islamic revolution is waved overhead, Mohraz starts to rap.
Continue reading...Ahead of Nakba march, Sara Husseini says many feel they are being treated as suspects rather than victims of mass suffering
British Palestinians feel unable to speak openly about Israel’s war on Gaza, the director of the British Palestinian Committee has said, amid what campaigners believe is a growing climate of hostility around Palestinian identity and activism in the UK.
Some were afraid to wear Palestinian symbols at work or display Arabic jewellery and keffiyehs in public, Sara Husseini said.
Continue reading...Researchers say hardship is a direct legacy of welfare benefit cuts imposed by Tory governments in recent years
More than a fifth of all “austerity generation” British children have been scarred by poverty for at least half their childhood, a direct legacy of the welfare benefit cuts imposed by Conservative governments in recent years, research reveals.
The proportion of children born after 2013 who spent at least six of their first 11 years of life in hardship surged after ministers froze working age benefits levels and imposed policies such as the two-child limit, it found.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Tariq Ahmad says he has raised concerns with party leadership after shadow justice secretary’s remarks
The shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, has been accused by a Conservative peer and former counter-extremism minister of “instilling fear” among Muslims with his comments about public prayer.
British Muslims were openly talking about leaving the Conservative party, added Tariq Ahmad, who said he had raised his concerns with the party leadership and expected action to be taken.
Continue reading...Communities secretary tells MPs that government has to act against record levels of hate crimes
A new definition of anti-Muslim hate will not restrict freedom of speech, the communities secretary has pledged, as he said that “clear expectations” will still be set for new arrivals and existing communities in Britain to learn English.
MPs were told by Steve Reed that the government had a duty to act against record levels of hate crime against Muslims, but that “you can’t tackle a problem if you can’t describe it”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Letter says L&Q appears to have systematically failed in its duty to provide adequate standard of living
UN experts have said that one of England’s biggest social landlords appears to have systematically failed to ensure the habitability of its rental properties.
In a letter to the UK government, they cite the case of a disabled tenant, Sanjay Ramburn, 55, who they say lived with his family of five in an L&Q group property in Forest Gate, east London, for several years with no electricity. They experienced four ceiling collapses, as well as severe damp and mould that affected their health.
Continue reading...Chancellor axes two-child benefit cap and cuts energy bills paid for by mansion tax and freezing tax thresholds
Rachel Reeves targeted Britain’s wealthiest households with a £26bn tax-raising budget to fund scrapping the two-child benefit policy and cutting energy bills.
On a chaotic day that involved key details of her budget accidentally being released early by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the chancellor defended the measures, saying she was “asking everyone to make a contribution to repair the public finances”, but that she wanted the wealthiest to pay the most.
Continue reading...Commons committee report challenges ‘lazy narrative’ used by ministers that scapegoats wildlife and the environment
Nature is not a blocker to housing growth, an inquiry by MPs has found, in direct conflict with claims made by ministers.
Toby Perkins, the Labour chair of the environmental audit committee, said nature was being scapegoated, and that rather than being a block to growth, it was necessary for building resilient towns and neighbourhoods.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Inside a tortuous political saga where fandom and antisemitism once again became a political football
Good morning. In the end, the decision that capped the controversy over the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending their away match against Aston Villa was taken not in Birmingham, or even Westminster – but Tel Aviv. On Monday night, a statement on the team’s website said the club would be declining any allocation even if the ban was reversed. Because of “hate-filled falsehoods”, it added, “a toxic atmosphere has been created, which makes the safety of our fans wishing to attend very much in doubt”.
That means that the government’s efforts to make their attendance possible are now academic. But it also heads off a potential nightmare scenario for those in the UK who have decried the ban: Maccabi fans being allowed to attend, and serious disorder breaking out as a result.
UK news | Family courts will no longer work on the presumption that having contact with both parents is in the best interests of a child, in a landmark change that domestic abuse campaigners have said “will save so many children’s lives”.
Ukraine | Plans to hold a summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Budapest have been put on hold as Ukraine and its European allies rallied in pushing for a ceasefire without territorial concessions from Kyiv. Last night, Russian drones and missiles killed two people in Kyiv and damaged key energy facilities.
Covid inquiry | Boris Johnson has rejected claims that his government failed to prepare for school closures at the outbreak of the pandemic, telling the Covid-19 inquiry that it would be “amazing” if the Department for Education (DfE) had not realised that plans were needed.
Environment | Coal use hit a record high around the world last year despite efforts to switch to clean energy, imperilling the world’s attempts to rein in global heating, according to the annual State of Climate Action report published on Wednesday.
Business | Almost half a million workers are to receive a pay boost after it was announced that the real living wage paid voluntarily by 16,000 UK companies will rise to £13.45 an hour in April.
Continue reading...Collapse in construction activity causing alarm but mayor and Whitehall face pushback over ‘extreme solutions’
Sadiq Khan has known for a while that he has a problem with housebuilding in London. But last week a consultancy published figures about the scale of the problem, which prompted full-scale alarm in City Hall and Whitehall.
The analysis from Molior showed that new housebuilding in the capital had collapsed. Only 40,000 homes are under construction – two-thirds the normal rate – and in the first three months of the year builders started work on just 3,248 private sector units.
Continue reading...A message of neighbourly solidarity is thriving in Birmingham against a backdrop of racist intimidation
When Mus unfurled the leaflet lying on her driveway, she was left shocked, angry and upset. “White Britons are already a minority in London … it is clear that if these trends continue white people will become a minority in Britain,” it read.
The leaflet, written by a far-right group, was distributed along her street three years ago in Moseley, a leafy suburb of Birmingham. It went on to blame NHS waiting lists, a shortage of social housing and even traffic on “the rising population”.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer says £88m package will help tackle trend of young people becoming ‘disconnected from their communities’
Youth clubs and after-school activities in England will receive a funding injection of £88m as ministers try to get more children away from smartphones and computer screens.
The package, which Keir Starmer announced on Tuesday, is intended to give pupils access to sport, outdoor activities, art, music, debating and volunteering.
Continue reading...Research also shows deprived areas have up to 25 times as many bookmakers and pawnbrokers as affluent high streets
The number of vape shops on high streets across England has increased by almost 1,200% over the past decade, while deprived areas have up to 25 times as many bookmakers and pawnbrokers as affluent ones, according to research.
In 2014, only 33.8% of 317 local authorities in England had a vape shop, rising to 97.2% in 2024. Similarly, in 2014 less than 1% of local authorities in England had 10 or more vape shops, rising to 28% in 2024.
Continue reading...Rebekah Shaman, of Protect Brockwell Park, took action against Lambeth council over number of large-scale events
A campaigner who argued that music festivals held in a south London park unfairly cut off large sections of the space and made it a “mud bath” has won a court case that could result in events being banned there this summer.
The Protect Brockwell Park (PBP) group, which includes the actor Mark Rylance, complained about walls being erected in the park, and noise and environmental damage, leading to a tense debate about the use of public space, nimbyism and the importance of summer cultural events.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Henry Dimbleby joins farmers in voicing fears of lower standards and a poor deal for British food producers
Britain’s rural communities could be “destroyed”, the former government food tsar has said, if ministers sign a US trade deal that undercuts British farming standards.
Ministers are working on a new trade deal with the US, after previous post-Brexit attempts stalled. Unpopular agreements signed at the time with Australia and New Zealand featured tariff-free access to beef and lamb and were accused of undercutting UK farmers, who are governed by higher welfare standards than their counterparts. Australia, in a trade deal signed by Liz Truss in late 2021 that came into effect in 2023, was given bespoke sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards aimed to not be more “trade-restrictive than necessary to protect human life and health”.
Continue reading...Five thousand new homes alongside a paradise for newts appears to fly in face of government’s ‘false wedge’
Arriving at the Kidbrooke Village housing development in Greenwich on a morning in early spring, the first thing you notice is the sound of birdsong and the scent of blossom. Geese are gently honking in the distance.
This was once the Ferrier estate, a postwar housing estate that was demolished in 2009 to regenerate the area.
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