Category Archives: Communities

Littler India: why Britain’s south Asian garment stores are struggling

Posted on by

They have been resilient amid wider high street decline – but units are now emptying in areas such as Southall, west London

The south Asian high street is facing a fight for its future in Britain as customers scale back wedding celebrations because of the cost of living crisis and young people’s changing preferences.

Businesses in London and Manchester have said they have witnessed a huge decline in customers after the pandemic with the cost of living crisis prompting many to decide against the traditional big south Asian wedding and to seek out cheaper products online.

Continue reading...

Forced home moves cost renters over half a billion pounds a year

Posted on by

There were 830,000 unwanted moves in England over the past 12 months, meaning 40% have been forced to relocate

Unwanted home moves cost renters more than half a billion pounds a year, with tenants coughing up an average of £669 every time they are forced by landlords to leave their home, a survey has revealed.

Analysis by the homelessness charity Shelter estimated that there had been 830,000 unwanted moves in England over the past 12 months, meaning 40% of renters who move house are doing so because they have been compelled to look for other accommodation.

Continue reading...

Squatters take over Gordon Ramsay hotel and pub in London

Posted on by

At least six people lock themselves in Grade II-listed York and Albany next to Regent’s Park and post notice

Squatters have taken over a pub in London leased by Gordon Ramsay that is up for sale with a guide price of £13m.

A group of at least six people locked themselves inside the Grade II-listed York and Albany hotel and gastropub, next to Regent’s Park, boarding up the windows and putting up a “legal warning” defending their takeover, the Sun reported.

Continue reading...

Outrage as residents in England’s ‘affordable’ housing forced to pay thousands of pounds extra in service charge

Posted on by

Pressure on Michael Gove to act as householders see bills rise 40%, with many saying that they cannot afford to pay

Some of the UK’s largest housing providers have dramatically increased annual service charges by thousands of pounds, plunging residents into financial crisis, an Observer investigation has found.

Many residents who bought shared-ownership properties built as affordable homes have been sent bills in recent weeks with increases of more than 40%. Some say they are unable to sell the properties having now been lumbered with “extortionate” charges and no cap on future increases. More than 1,000 people across the country are now threatening to refuse to pay.

Continue reading...

‘The privatisation of our local park’: calls to save Glasgow’s ‘second Hampden’ for the public

Posted on by

Campaigners launch legal challenge as children and mixed-gender football team kept out by fence built by local sports academy

In Mount Florida, a south Glasgow neighbourhood, Scotland’s national football stadium, Hampden Park, looms large. But just half a mile north are the relics of another, with terraces and crush barriers surrounding a pitch that was once the heart of a 50,000-seat stadium known as “the second Hampden”.

At one time home to local teams Queen’s Park and Third Lanark – as well as hosting Scottish Cup finals in the late 19th century – the pitch is now part of Cathkin Park, a council-maintained public space enjoyed by local families, community football teams and urban wildlife alike. Leased since 2022 by the Jimmy Johnstone Academy, a charity set up in memory of the late Celtic player, it is also the home ground of two youth teams.

Continue reading...

ONS scraps plans to stop reporting the deaths of homeless people

Posted on by

U-turn comes after campaigners attacked proposal by data body for England and Wales as ‘callous’

The Office for National Statistics has scrapped plans to no longer report the deaths of homeless people after an outcry.

The data body for England and Wales proposed cutting the release of the figures to help increase the efficiency of health data. But the idea was attacked as “callous” by campaigners.

Continue reading...

Over a third of first time buyers relying on ‘bank of mum and dad’

Posted on by

Tories accused of deserting those without financial support, as proportion relying on help with deposits rises from 27% to 37% in a year

Rishi Sunak has been accused of “locking the door on home ownership” and entrenching inequality, amid evidence that tens of thousands more young house buyers have been forced to turn to the “bank of mum and dad” to secure a new home.

A crisis in housing affordability is again set to be a major election flashpoint, with the prime minister already admitting in recent months that the Conservatives needed to do more to address falling home ownership rates among the young. The party has failed in its manifesto pledge to build 300,000 houses a year.

Continue reading...

British Muslims believe more should be done to improve interfaith relations

Posted on by

Majority think Britain is a good place for opportunities and freedom to practise their faith, poll finds

Most British Muslims believe more should be done to improve relations between the UK’s different religious communities, according to a research forum on faith.

The Institute for the Impact of Faith in Life (IIFL) looked at the attitudes and social contributions of British Muslims living in the UK. The survey found 71% of British Muslim respondents believed more work should be done to improve relations between different faith groups, and just 22% believed the right amount was being done.

Continue reading...

‘I don’t want to tell him scary things’: a mother’s tale after fleeing Kyiv

Posted on by

On 25 February 2022, Viktoria, 35, gave birth to her son in a bunker beneath the Ukrainian capital just as the Russian bombing started. Two years on, she speaks about her family’s experience of being displaced and seeking safety abroad

The day after I gave birth to Fedir, the shelling started very hard around Kyiv. We lived near Irpin and Bucha. After I saw a falling shell from my apartment window, we decided to leave. My husband and I packed up without knowing where we were going. We had spent so long getting the place ready for the baby, but Fedir only got to sleep in his bed for four nights.

The drive to Lviv took 17 hours. My first experience of motherhood, as we couldn’t stop, was learning to feed and change Fedir in the back seat of the car. On the journey, we saw military checkpoints, tanks. It felt unreal. Arriving in Lviv, it was hard to find an apartment to rent. The city was full of displaced people. As my husband was born in the Russian federation, the landlord we eventually did find demanded a double deposit. We paid it – it was better than going back.

Continue reading...

Private tenants in Scotland face ‘big rent rises and mass evictions’ from April

Posted on by

Campaigners say renters served notices of increases of 30% to 60% in advance of cap and other emergency protections ending

Private tenants in Scotland are facing big rent rises and mass evictions as emergency protections expire at the end of next month, campaigners have warned.

The Scottish government has “in effect rubber-stamped rent increases from April”, says Ruth Gilbert, the national campaigns chair of the Scotland-wide tenants’ union Living Rent, while transitional measures are inadequate and confusing, leaving many unaware what their legal rights are.

Continue reading...

Call for UK utility firms to face higher fines for ‘street scars’ on pavements

Posted on by

Government adviser says water and telecoms privatisation is to blame for disfiguring streets with concrete slabs

The government must increase fines on utility companies that dig up pavements for roadworks, then pour in concrete rather than fixing the mess, a government adviser has said.

Telecoms and water companies are creating “street scars” in a “wasteful process” that is marring British high streets, Nicholas Boys Smith, who chairs the Office for Place in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has said in a report.

Continue reading...

Voters think Labour would be better than Conservatives on housing and house prices

Posted on by

Opposition would do better on issues including the economy, health, education, the environment, immigration and crime, public says

More than twice as many voters believe a Labour government would be better for housing than the Tories, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.

The survey shows Labour is well ahead of the Conservatives on most issues including the economy, health, education, the environment, immigration and crime, and level pegging on ones it has traditionally lagged way behind on, including defence.

Continue reading...

Hampshire allotment holders ‘appalled’ over eviction notices

Posted on by

Villagers in King’s Somborne angry over letters from landowner, the diocese of Winchester, sent over festive period

For more than a century villagers have grown fruit and veg on allotments at King’s Somborne, a picture postcard village in the Test valley, Hampshire.

But plot holders are up in arms after being served eviction notices from the owner of the land, the diocese of Winchester, to make way for housing.

Continue reading...

‘I had no idea’: the new wave of fans attracted to darts by Luke Littler

Posted on by

The teenage sensation may have lost his world final showdown but has helped bring a fresh audience to the sport

When Eilidh Milne was visited by her dad and brother on Tuesday, she initially protested against their insistence on watching the darts world championship on television.

But Milne soon found herself on the edge of her seat, yelling at the TV and leaping into the air when the 16-year-old Luke Littler, who had taken the tournament by storm, defeated the 2018 world champion Rob Cross in the semi-finals.

Continue reading...

England has ‘twice as many empty homes as families stuck in B&Bs’

Posted on by

There are 121,327 in short-term housing, while 261,189 homes are empty long-term, say Lib Dems

England has more than twice as many long-term empty homes this Christmas as there are children living in temporary accommodation, the Liberal Democrats have said, calling this a stark indication of a “broken” housing market.

The numbers of families without a permanent home and in short-term housing, whether hotels and B&Bs or temporary rental properties, has hit a record high this year, with the latest statistics showing it now affects 121,327 children, according to data collated by the House of Commons library.

Continue reading...

Plato, pilates and pubs: has an Irish town found the secret to the good life?

Posted on by

Book claims it is ‘hard to find another currently existing society’ better than that in Skerries, near Dublin

Philosophers have long debated the concept of the good life and whether such an exalted state exists but the reality turns out to be not so elusive: you drive north from Dublin on the M1, turn right onto the R132, take another right at Blake’s Cross and keep going until you reach the sea. Then, if you have any sense, you stay put for ever because you are in Skerries.

This town of 11,000 people on Ireland’s east coast does not look remarkable. There is a high street, a harbour, a library, a community centre, a SuperValu supermarket, cafes, pubs, sports pitches. Residents walk their dogs, play bingo, sit on benches. Yet amid the ordinariness there is, apparently, an answer to a riddle pondered by Aristotle, Kant and Hegel: the good life? It’s right here. Or at least the good enough life.

Continue reading...

Campaigner for council housing in London fights on after leaving her home

Posted on by

Aysen Dennis, who accused Southwark council of ‘social cleansing’, continues court challenge over Aylesbury estate plans

The bulldozers will soon be out for the south London council flat that was Aysen Dennis’s home for 30 years. After leading a fierce battle against the council and developers, claiming their plans to fill much of her estate with private homes amounted to “social cleansing”, she has finally moved.

Dennis, 65, has been relocated to a swanky new flat in a development bought back by Southwark council. She claims it paid £690,000 for her ninth-floor flat with panoramic views of the park – and is convinced it was an attempt to shut her up before a legal challenge.

Continue reading...

Barton House: what happened and what is Bristol council doing about it?

Posted on by

After the building was evacuated, leaving hundreds temporarily homeless, we look at what happens next for residents and the council

What has happened at Barton House tower block in Bristol?

Barton House, a 65-year-old 15-storey tower block, was built in the late 1950s using reinforced concrete cross walls, pre-cast concrete floors and reinforced concrete external walls.

Continue reading...

Labour promises rapid housing action after ‘years of Tory paper promises’

Posted on by

Angela Rayner says party’s housing recovery plan will enact reforms delayed by Tories since 2019 manifesto commitments

Labour will deliver more action on housing in the first six months of office than the Conservatives have delivered in the past six years, Angela Rayner has pledged.

Downing Street has confirmed the renters reform bill will be in the king’s speech, allowing it to continue its passage through parliament when the next session opens on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Tenant killed himself after landlord failed to resolve repeated noise complaints

Posted on by

Ombudsman orders UK housing association Clarion to apologise to family in ‘deeply distressing’ case

A tenant killed himself after his landlord dismissed his pleas for help with a noisy neighbour as “whining” and told him he could not expect silence if he lived in London.

Clarion, the UK’s largest housing association, had been warned by the vulnerable resident’s doctor that the effect of noise from the upstairs flat on the tenant’s mental health was such that he had already attempted suicide twice.

Continue reading...