Working grandparents would be entitled to two weeks of ‘granny leave’ after the birth of a grandchild, and entitled to tax credits, if the charity Grandparents Plus have their way. It is calling for the government to give grandparents an entitlement of two weeks’ leave, to be taken atRead More →
Residents will have to pay extra for some local services after a London council voted to adopt a radical ‘easyJet model’ to deliver public services. Under the so-called ‘easyCouncil model’ scheme, seen by many as a blueprint for a possible future Tory government, householders in theRead More →
A detailed and startling analysis of how unequal Britain has become offers a snapshot of an increasingly divided nation where the richest 10 per cent of the population are more than 100 times as wealthy as the poorest 10 per cent of society. The report, An Anatomy of EconomicRead More →
Research out today has found first-time buyers are taking out loans to afford the deposit. Thirteen per cent of 18- to 34-year-olds are considering buying a property for the first time in the next year, but of those, 16 per cent say they will consider taking out a loanRead More →
Papers including the Daily Mail cover research from the Halifax showing average house prices are now more than £100,000 even in the cheapest towns in England. The Mail also reports a forecast from the respected Ernst & Young Item Club that interest rates will stay ‘painfully high’ untilRead More →
Tenants of landlords who bought properties during the buy-to-let boom are losing their homes in growing numbers, as exclusively revealed in the January/February issue of LPW. Now the scale of the crisis is becoming clear as landlords find increasingly difficult to find mortgage payments. Buy-to-let properties are three timesRead More →
TRUST KEN LOACH to inject a bit of politics into the Cathy Come Home anniversary. Interviewed on the Today Programme this morning, the director took issue with the idea that governments only have limited influence. ‘We’ve chosen to have a market economy that produces homelessness,’ he told John Humphrys.Read More →
England is receiving a disproportionately high number of immigrants to the UK a cross party group of MPs has found. Between 1991 and 2014, 2.15 million immigrants arrived in England, compared to 105,000 in Scotland, 56,000 for Wales and 27,000 to Northern Ireland. England’s population could increase by nearlyRead More →
The government has announced that local councils will be required to meet local targets on child poverty. Under the proposals local authorities will have to set a target for the percentage of children in their area living in low-income families. Other plans to end child poverty by 2020 includeRead More →
Consumers who switch energy and phone suppliers have been getting a very poor deal since the government abolished price controls, a report by MPs says today. The Commons public accounts committee concludes that a quarter of all people who switched electricity suppliers ended up paying higher bills. TheRead More →