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Lambeth Council leader says borough ‘pushing ahead’ with trial for its employees in London, while other Green councils in London are also looking at the policy

The move by Lambeth Council is understood to be the first of its kind by a local authority in London.

The Green Party mayors of Hackney and Lewisham also said they were looking at the policy, according to the Telegraph.

Martin Abrams, the leader of Lambeth Council, said the local authority was “pushing ahead” with the pilot of a shorter week for its employees.

According to the Telegraph, on the fringes of the Green Party conference in Brighton this weekend, Mr Abrams said he believed the policy would ensure a “better work-life balance” for employees as well as “increased productivity \[and\] better workers’ rights”.

He added: “There’s a real problem in local authorities with staff retention and turnover. It costs local authorities tens of millions of pounds every year in terms of recruitment and those staffing costs. So, if there’s anything that we can do to stem that by being bold and looking at things like a four-day week, we’ll do it."

“I’m really proud that Lambeth is pushing ahead with a trial of the four-day week,” the Lambeth council leader said.

The Telegraph said it understood that Mr Abrams has instructed council officers to look at proposals for a four-day week trial and how it will be implemented. Mr Abrams told Green Party delegates there was so far no date in place for when the trial would take place. The Standard has contacted Lambeth Council for comment.

Lambeth is one of six councils in London controlled by the Green Party after the party’s huge gains in the capital in the May elections.

Christian nationalism in Britain is being driven largely by people who rarely attend church and are more concerned with defending the country’s Christian heritage, according to research.
The report, by the thinktank Theos, identified five different groups within the UK in a survey that looked at their attitudes to Christianity and Britishness.

The group whose views most closely resembled Christian nationalism, termed “identity integrationists” by the researchers, accounted for 11% of respondents, making it the smallest of the five groups.

Although 81% of this group identified as Christian, just 13% attended church weekly, only slightly above the 11% average across the population surveyed. Less than a third (31%) prayed weekly, while 47% expressed an interest in the Bible.

The group was strongly hostile to immigration and Islam. Just 19% agreed that Christian values required welcoming and supporting asylum seekers, while 30% supported the equal treatment of religions in public life.

In contrast, another group in the survey with high levels of Christian affiliation, were considerably more religiously observant and less hostile to immigration and religious diversity. They comprised 13% of respondents.

Among these “belief integrationists”, 31% attended church weekly, 46% prayed weekly and 62% expressed an interest in the Bible.
Almost half (48%) agreed that Christian values required welcoming and supporting asylum seekers, while 63% supported the equal treatment of religions in public life.

Although they are the group containing the highest proportion of practising Christians, only 18% of belief integrationists think that defending Britain’s Christian culture and heritage is important for being Christian, compared with 90% of the Christian nationalist group.

At a time when crosses have been carried at Unite the Kingdom rallies and crowds have chanted “Christ is King” at protests, the research challenges the idea that the growing prominence of Christian nationalism in Britain reflects a revival of Christianity.

Instead, the findings suggest that Christianity is increasingly being invoked as a marker of British identity amid wider anxieties about immigration, Islam and cultural change.

• Sagal Abdi-Wali has hailed her victory in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election as a triumph for diversity, cautioning that social cohesion must not be "casually undone".

• The new Labour MP secured a 3,364-vote majority ahead of second-placed Green Party leader Zack Polanski, expressing her desire for "people like (her)" to feel that they "belong here".

• Tipped as the favourite prior to the vote, the Camden Council leader previously noted how the borough had welcomed her family when they arrived as refugees.

• Ms Abdi-Wali said she wanted to bring Thames Water into “public ownership”, tackle rough sleeping and create more opportunities for young people.

• While speaking of her desire to work with prime minister Andy Burnham to address the wider housing crisis, she said: “Homelessness is the issue that first drove me into politics, and no-one should be sleeping on the streets, and no family should be left without security in the home.”

She succeeds Sir Keir Starmer, who stepped down from the parliamentary seat in September after resigning as prime minister.

She is the area’s first female MP since Lena Jeger, who represented the previous seat of Holborn and St Pancras South from 1964-1979.

Young people would be offered a guaranteed two-year job within four months of leaving education or training, under a new proposal unveiled by the Green Party.

Announcing the policy at the party's conference in Brighton, co-deputy leader Mothin Ali said there were a million "bored, desperate and lost" young people who were out of work, training or education.

Under the proposed scheme, youngsters would be offered posts in the private sector, with the government paying half their salary.

Ali said an initial pilot scheme - rolled out in areas with the fewest job openings for young people - would create 9,000 jobs, at an overall cost of £110m.

The pilot would start in areas such as Rotherham, Ceredigion, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Broxtowe and South Staffordshire, with an ambition to roll it out nationwide.

The party said that a person not in work, education or training would cost the state an estimated £240,000 in benefits over the course of their lifetime.

It argued that its policy would reduce spending on welfare and boost tax receipts from employment.

Employers would be exempt from paying National Insurance contributions, but would have to provide in-job training, the party says.

The party is seeking to pitch the plan as more ambitious than the government's own scheme, which subsidises six-month job placements for benefit claimants who have been looking for work for 18 months.

North-west England has always had a rich and deep connection to Irish heritage, with Manchester, Lancashire - and Liverpool in particular - famed for its historic Irish communities.

Many families settled in the region after mass migration began from the mid-19th century during the Great Famine.

And with the boom of heavy industry - from shipbuilding and canal and road building in Liverpool to the mills of Manchester and Lancashire - by the 20th century, these areas became a heartland of Irish culture, including social clubs, folk music and the influence of the Catholic church.

Still today the link persists, with the region being the most popular choice for Irish university students choosing to study overseas, according to the Department for the Economy.

But while Irish stories are weaved into the tapestry of the North West, some voices are quieter than others - leading two curators to ask: "Who are the women of Ireland in the North?"

"Women don't get the space to have their voices heard," said Rosarie Walsh, a community interest company director, based in Trafford, in Greater Manchester.

Rosarie moved to Manchester 16 years ago to study theatre at university and now runs Emerald LENS - a female-led non-profit organisation dedicated to uncovering and sharing the untold stories of underrepresented communities.

She and Cheshire-based artist Lydia O'Hara have spent the past two years dedicated to uncovering the voices of women across the Irish diaspora.

Now, taking the testimony of dozens of women from the ages of 20 to over 80, Rosarie and Lydia have opened a new exhibition at the University of Liverpool's Victoria Gallery & Museum - shining a spotlight on women of Irish heritage in the north of England.

"Women hold up a lot of the community," Rosarie explained.

"Just like all the men that came over from Ireland who came over to work here to build the roads, women came over for nursing and for all sorts of different reasons. But the women don't always get the profile for doing that, for helping to support their families and communities.

"I suppose we're always kind of in one way in the background.

"This project has been a deeply personal and emotional journey.

"Listening to the stories of other Irish women in the north of England has opened my eyes to the richness, resilience and complexity of our shared experience.

"It has reinforced how important it is to create space for these voices to be heard, celebrated and preserved."

The project brought together a range of women from across the region - of all ages and backgrounds - to reflect on their Irish identity, through folklore, art, personal objects and family history.

From first-generation migrants to fifth-generation descendants, the women told their stories and explored their heritage and belonging - asking questions about their mixed-heritage, identity outside of Ireland and the influence of their Irish culture.

Now the creations and oral testimonies brought forward by the project have been shared at an exhibition - the St Brigid's Arms - an interactive walk-through set in a fictional pub, named after the lesser-known female patron saint of Ireland.

The free-to-visit exhibition opened on Saturday at at the University of Liverpool's Victoria Gallery & Museum and continues until 17 April 2027.

Andy Burnham’s personal preference to rejoin the European Union after the next election is supported by almost half of all voters, a new megapoll has found, although cabinet ministers concerned about reopening Brexit divides are privately urging him to proceed with caution.

The poll by the Messina Group (TMG) found that renegotiating the UK’s relationship with the EU could boost Labour’s vote share by as much as seven points, if the prime minister offered a fresh referendum in which he campaigned to re-enter the bloc.

Almost a third of voters said an in-out referendum would be needed first, while more than one in six felt that a general election mandate would be sufficient, and the same proportion thought parliament could make the decision.

The overall findings will bolster the case of those inside Downing Street who want to promise at the next election that Labour would at least negotiate over re-entry, which the prime minister has said he wants to see “in his lifetime”.

The government is rolling out a Healthy Babies programme to every local authority in England, as part of its efforts to expand a Sure Start-type system of help for deprived children and families.

It aims to support parents with infant feeding, their mental health and building strong bonds with their babies, alongside health visits, midwifery care and wider services.

The scheme seeks to follow the principles of Sure Start, a network of centres offering integrated services for the under-fives and their families, launched in 1998 under a Labour government.

Sure Start was seen as one of that government’s major successes, with one study saying it generated longer-term savings worth twice the system’s cost.

But much of that scheme was dismantled amid massive spending cuts by the Conservatives. The new policy of family hubs will commit £500m to opening 1,000 centres from April 2027.

Announcing the expansion of the Healthy Babies programme at the Labour conference in Liverpool, Yvette Cooper, the Health and Social Care secretary, is expected to say that the programme will reach up to 1,000 family hubs over the next two years.

Since the election the Labour government has opened new family hubs across England, but more than half of local authorities have hubs without Healthy Babies services.

“Something is missing in half of communities … the Healthy Babies services – mental health support for mums and dad, the feeding and bonding support for your new baby. That changes now,” Cooper will say.

For an increasing number of young women, having children is no longer the expectation, but a decision they are actively questioning, postponing or rejecting. As things stand, the UK’s fertility rate has fallen to 1.39 children per woman, its lowest recorded level since 1938.

This is a concern because 2.1 children are needed to prevent a population dip in a developed nation like Britain. 

But behind these statistics, personal, environmental, financial and social reasons underpin the decision to delay or dismiss motherhood. To better understand this shift, I’ve asked women to tell me their side of the story.

A Conscious Choice

As geopolitical tensions run high and living costs keep rising, many young women are all too conscious of the economic and social consequences of having a child.

Though once considered taboo, choosing not to have children and reclaiming one’s reproductive agency is now increasingly acceptable and even seen as brave and empowering. Women who can choose when and if to have children are also more free to choose other things, such as pursuing their dreams and personal goals.

Women Speak

For 29-year-old Umi, from London, she is certain that she doesn’t want to have children. Having helped raise her two younger sisters, she says: ‘I don’t feel like I would like to devote my life to building families again.’

Having a child can become an enormous pressure, notes Umi, especially when a woman also has to be a source of income:
‘You have to work and support your family, but also you have to be a full-time mum as well. That’s two jobs for women.’

But Umi remains excited and optimistic about the future. She wants to give back to society through her career as a humanitarian aid worker.

‘I work especially in the field of education,’ she tells me, ‘because [though] I chose not to have kids, I have a huge respect for those who did, and I would like to be there for the children and women going through a really difficult time now.’

Emily, 32, from Oxford, cites climate changeas the biggest factor in changing her perspective towards having children. She says:

‘Bringing kids into a world that seems to be a less and less liveable place just doesn’t seem to be a thing you would do for someone you love.’

Reflecting on that decision, she explains that it has been ‘really empowering,’ opening up all kinds of alternative life paths for her that she might otherwise not have been able to pursue — like returning to university at 32.

However, she also highlights the inescapability of those awkward exchanges with family members and friends, revealing:
‘… having all of these conversations [about kids] is really emotionally exhausting, and I kind of want to get away from it.’

Laughing, she recalls a book she recently picked up about gardening which ‘turned out to actually be about whether or not the author wanted a child.’

Rebecca, 22, from Manchester, also raised concerns over personal safety and the wider sociopolitical climate. She tells me: ‘In my opinion, the world currently is not a safe place for children and vulnerable people.’

After falling victim to a violent crime at just 18, Rebecca’s perspective on personal safety drastically changed, and she argues that ‘the world is not a safe place and there is not enough support available to support those in need.’

As a medical student with hopes of becoming a surgeon, Rebecca has spent several years being told that she may have to choose between her career and having children.

‘As a woman in the medical field, you are told that a family should not be a priority if you want to progress with your career,’ she notes frankly.
But Rebecca doesn’t see that as the end of the story. One day, she hopes to foster once her finances are more stable:

‘I have a strong maternal instinct and would love to express that to other children to best support them,’ she says.

Social & Political Costs

Falling fertility rates are increasingly becoming a political and economic concern. A House of Lords meeting earlier this summer to discuss the society-wide effect of declining birth rates noted that when paired with an ageing population and longer life expectancy, the economic effect could be significant by 2100.

Political commentator Martin Beck, chief economist at WPI Strategy, raised legitimate concerns, saying: ‘fewer births today mean a smaller pool of workers in future.’ Adding that this ‘risks labour shortages and exacerbat[es] the dilemma faced by governments in weighing the economic benefits of more immigration versus the social and political costs.’

Though some young women don’t want children, many still do. The issue is the socioeconomic circumstances that make having children increasingly unfavourable. For my generation, a generation struggling to find permanent work or get on the housing ladder, when all things are considered, having a family feels like an impossible task.

Councils are to get new powers to take over empty and derelict homes by reducing the period a property must be empty before it becomes eligible for an Empty Dwelling Management Order (EDMO) from two years to six months.

The changes aim to make it simpler for councils to bring some of the more than 300,000 empty dwellings in England into use by ensuring existing housing stock is used more effectively and preventing properties from falling into serious disrepair.

EDMOs allow councils to take over the management of long-term empty homes and return them to occupation for up to seven years while ownership remains with the property owner.

Streamline

The reforms will also streamline the application process by removing evidential requirements relating to issues such as anti-social behaviour or community support for intervention, making it simpler for local authorities to seek an EDMO through the property tribunal. Ministers have also vowed to explore further changes to protect local authorities from absorbing the costs they face managing homes subject to EDMOs.

The latest statistics show 303,185 dwellings in England were classed as ‘long-term’ empty (more than six months) in 2025.

However, drawing on Freedom of Information responses from 226 local authorities, Propertymark has found that only 38% of councils have an empty homes strategy in place, and only 25% operate with a dedicated budget for empty homes work.

No applications have been made for an EDMO since 2021, according to ITV News.

In an important shift for public transport, the Liverpool City Region has begun the process of bringing its buses under public control, starting in St Helens.

This marks the beginning of a phased transformation intended to enhance service quality across the region.The transition commenced on 6th September, representing a significant change in the structure and operation of the bus network.

Behind the scenes, preparations are in full swing to introduce hundreds of state-of-the-art vehicles and modernise depots as part of this initiative.

Officials have assured passengers that their current bus services and stops will continue to function as normal during the transition.

This move is aimed at delivering a more unified and efficient public transport system, where services are improved and expanded gradually across different local areas.

This phased approach ensures that passengers in St Helens are the first to witness these developments, while efforts are underway to extend enhancements to the rest of the Liverpool City Region.

Cumbria’s mayoral candidates have weighed in on new powers that allow mayors to introduce a tourist tax.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has handed England’s mayors, which will include the mayor for Cumbria to be elected in May 2027, the power to introduce an uncapped tourist tax on overnight stays.

The idea was first raised under former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in November.

The measures were officially announced yesterday, Thursday 10 September, as ministers met with mayors at No 10 North in Manchester.
The government said a bill will be introduced in due course to bring in the levy.

Mayors will be allowed to choose to set a levy on a percentage of the cost of accommodation to overnight visitors rather than a flat fee.
The government said this aims to protect budget holidays and shield families from disproportionate costs for cheaper holidays.

The levy would apply to hotels, guesthouses, B&Bs, hostels, campsites, self-catering properties and short-term lets. It will also have the flexibility to offer exemptions, such as for campsites, so mayors can tailor the levy to the specific needs of their area.

No upper limit is in place for any levies introduced and it would be able to be applied to the whole area for which a mayor is responsible.
In Cumbria, this could apply to the entire county, or a particular area such as the Lake District National Park.

The government said the new powers are part of a devolution drive to shift power out of Westminster.

We asked Cumbria’s mayoral candidates their thoughts and stance on the new tourist tax powers.

Mike Starkie, Conservative Party

He said: “Whether the Government sets a cap or leaves it to mayors is irrelevant to me. My cap will be zero.

“If I’m elected Mayor next year, there will be no holiday tax in Cumbria. Full stop.

“The latest research published by Cumbria Tourism should be a warning to anyone who thinks now is the time to make staying in Cumbria more expensive.

“Tourism generated £4.7 billion for our economy last year and supports more than 41,000 full-time equivalent jobs — but more than 2,000 of those jobs were lost in 2025 and visitor numbers are now 15 per cent lower than in 2019.

“These aren’t just statistics. They are jobs, careers and opportunities for Cumbrians. 
“And the impact of a holiday tax would go far beyond hotels and B&Bs. Visitors spend more than £1 billion a year in Cumbria’s food and drink businesses alone. If people decide to stay for one night less, come less often or holiday somewhere else, that means another blow to our our pubs, restaurants, cafés, shops, attractions and other local businesses.

“And let’s be clear who this holiday tax could hit. It could be a family staying in a local B&B while they visit parents or grandparents in Cumbria, people renting a room for a night, and thousands of large and small accommodation businesses across the county.

“This Government has already hit tourism and hospitality with higher taxes and higher costs. Now it wants another tax on overnight stays, with businesses expected to collect it and a new bureaucracy needed to register, administer and police it.

“Cumbria needs more visitors, more jobs and more opportunities for people – not a holiday tax that makes it more expensive to come and stay here.

“My approach is simple: bring investment into Cumbria, not new taxes onto Cumbrians and Cumbrian jobs. Protect tourism and hospitality jobs – don’t tax holidays.”

Libby Bateman, Liberal Democrats

She said: “20 million people visit Cumbria every year, but our local services are not funded properly anywhere near enough to account for this.

“And we now have a Labour Government who are drastically cutting funding for services across Cumbria. The time for doing nothing is over.

“A tourist tax isn’t a black or white issue – it’s a highly nuanced conversation and there must be opportunity to do things on a valley by valley/town by town basis.

“Any intervention must be brought in with full consultation with our county’s vital tourism industry.

“Previously, I’ve been an assistant manager of two pubs in Cumbria and so I know how important it is that we take businesses with us to make sure we get this right.

“Local businesses should be given the tools to design the most fair and effective way that this would work, so that our world class hospitality and tourism sector can continue to thrive and that we raise the funds that our communities are crying out for.”

David Allen, Labour

He said: “I will always welcome more devolution. This Prime Minister is driving power out of London and into communities like Cumbria.

“The opportunity to invest more in our high streets and our public transport is crucial to our region’s success, and this levy can be a real boost to Cumbria’s economy.

“I’ve said that if a levy was brought in, it would not apply to any Cumbrians and only to visitors. I am also committed to working with the tourism sector on this who are key to Cumbria’s economy.”

For decades, pay and employment conditions in adult social care have been determined largely by individual employers, creating significant variation across the sector.

Organisations providing social care are crucial to the health and care system, but staff are often faced with low pay, insecure employment and inferior terms and conditions.

The introduction of a Fair Pay Agreement (FPA) in England aims to change that by establishing a new national framework for collective bargaining in adult social care.

Here, we explain how the new system will work, who it will cover, and what it could mean for nursing staff working in adult social care.

What is a Fair Pay Agreement?

An FPA is a legally binding agreement that sets minimum standards for pay, terms and conditions across the adult social care sector, rather than leaving each employer to decide these individually.

For adult social care in England, it will be negotiated by a new body called the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body (ASCNB), bringing trade unions and employers together to agree pay, terms and conditions, training and career progression for care workers.

This is the first time adult social care workers in England will have this kind of sector-wide collective bargaining.

Once employers and trade unions reach an agreement through the ASCNB, the agreed pay and conditions are added to every covered worker's contract.

If an employee's existing contract already provides more favourable terms, those terms will remain in place.

What does collective bargaining mean?+

Collective bargaining is a system where trade unions and employers negotiate pay, terms and conditions for workers across a sector. The RCN, and other trade unions, have long been calling for sectoral collective bargaining for social care as a way of ensuring the nursing workforce is effectively represented in negotiations over their pay, terms and conditions.
In adult social care, this means unions, such as the RCN, would negotiate with employers on behalf of social care staff to create a sector-wide agreement that establishes minimum standards for pay, hours and working conditions.
This would create a baseline for all workers, rather than setting them entirely independently, while allowing employers to provide pay and conditions above those minimum standards.

Why is it being introduced?

Adult social care is one of the lowest-paid, highest-turnover sectors in the country. As of December 2025, the median hourly rate for care workers was just 39p above the National Living Wage, and roughly a quarter of the workforce was being paid on or within 10p of the legal minimum.

Unlike the NHS or local government, the sector has never had a national pay-bargaining structure. Pay has largely been set employer-by-employer, shaped by what local authorities can pay in fees.

The Westminster government says the aim is to break this cycle: better pay and conditions should improve recruitment and retention, build a more stable domestic workforce (reducing reliance on overseas recruitment, which has recently been restricted), and ultimately improve the consistency and quality of care.

The FPA is introduced through the Employment Rights Act 2025, as part of the wider Make Work Pay agenda, and is described by government as a building block towards a longer-term National Care Service.

Miriam spent years living in the shadows as a woman with no recourse to public funds. Without acknowledging the link between homelessness, immigration status and gender inequality, no government will ever succeed in ending rough sleeping

Miriam is a Slovakian national, aged 69, who fell into homelessness around two decades ago, when she was struggling to find work and could not find a secure place to rent. When the UK left the EU in 2020, Miriam was still rough sleeping. Isolated from services that could provide her with advice, she did not know that she could apply for status under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS).

Without immigration status in the UK, and therefore no recourse to public funds, Miriam became even more isolated from services that could support her. Shelters and refuges for rough sleepers often have no beds, or a very limited number of beds, for people without immigration status or recourse to public funds. She was not eligible to apply for any housing or support from the council.

As a 69-year-old single woman, Miriam avoided sleeping on the street at night for her own safety. Instead, she often spent nights staying inside places such as local libraries when she was allowed, and sofa surfing with people that she met. Therefore, she was isolated from outreach homelessness support.

When Miriam did sleep directly on the streets, she experienced people approaching her throughout the night, making her feel threatened and vulnerable. She described joining queues for hot food during the day and at night, where there were not enough staff or security for the number of people queuing and no CCTV. While queuing, she was regularly approached by opportunists she believed were coercing her into sex work.

Miriam also described being witness to the treatment of other women on the street: young women being harassed, intimidated, and forced into begging or other ways to make money. On one occasion, she was extremely distressed when she witnessed police approaching a visibly vulnerable young woman on the street for disorderly behaviour but failing to take any steps to help her.

These incidences made Miriam fearful of the outreach teams that approached her in the middle of the night. She did not know who she could trust, or whether approaching a service would put herself further at risk. As a result, Miriam became increasingly isolated from anyone that could support her.

We know that there are brilliant services in the UK for women rough sleepers, including those from migrant backgrounds, but many women do not know these services exist or, like Miriam, are deeply fearful of accessing them.

This week, organisations across the UK are coming together to take part in the annual women’s rough sleeping census. Women’s rough sleeping is under-recorded, as women are far more likely than men to be ‘hidden homeless’. Women are more likely to sofa-surf, or stay in 24-hour restaurants overnight, or in libraries like Miriam, because it is just too dangerous for them to be bedded up on the street. This can make women less visible to the outreach teams and less likely to access services where they do not feel safe.

For women like Miriam, who lack immigration status and recourse to public funds, the marginalisation is intensified. They often fear being turned away by services due to their lack of status, and as a result, are more likely to be forced into alternative ways of finding places to sleep or making a bit of money to survive.

The aim of the women's rough sleeping census is to gather information from all who identify as women and are rough sleeping about their experiences. The official government snapshot reported that in 2025, only 15% of those rough sleeping were women. We do not think this can be true; women are just far less visible to services, because of exclusion, fear and isolation.

Miriam was fortunately assisted by her local council, but only after she found herself in hospital and after years living in the shadows. RMJ supported Miriam to make an application for settled status in the UK, which was granted. With status and recourse to public funds, Miriam has just been able to move into her new accommodation. She is relieved and happy to build her life back, away from the streets.

Though Miriam’s story has a happy ending, there are many other women in her position who can’t access the support they need. Miriam’s experience shows why we need to look beyond the people we can see when we talk about rough sleeping. If women are forced to hide in order to stay safe, they are also more likely to be hidden from the services designed to support them.

The census is an important opportunity to better understand these experiences and work towards a homelessness services sector that properly serves the needs of women, including migrant women. Moving forward, the government must acknowledge the intersection between homelessness, immigration status and gender inequality.

Without such a holistic approach, no government will ever succeed in ending rough sleeping.

Employees grieving a loss during early pregnancy or the death of a relative are set to gain statutory time off under expanded rules outlined by the government.

Beginning in April next year, the statutory bereavement right will cover staff who lose a spouse, partner, parent, adult child or sibling.

Step and half relatives will also be included, alongside foster, kinship care and adoptive relationships, which currently hold no statutory protection in terms of workplace leave.

Women and their partners who suffer a pregnancy loss prior to 24 weeks, including a miscarriage, a termination and an unsuccessful IVF embryo transfer, will be entitled to up to two weeks of unpaid leave.

There is an existing right to leave for parents who experience a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy, or the death of a child under 18.

Employment Rights Act 2025 established this new statutory right to unpaid leave for employees who suffer the loss of a relative.

County Durham will get a second Young Futures Hub after securing more government funding following the success of its pilot scheme.

Durham County Council will develop the new hub after its Newton Aycliffe pilot succeeded.

The hubs will offer youth activities, wellbeing support, skills training, jobs and wider services while helping steer young people away from crime.

Councillor Cathy Hunt, cabinet member for children and young people’s services at Durham County Council, said: "This is fantastic news for the county’s young people.

"Young Futures Hubs are about creating positive opportunities and making it easier for young people to access the support they need, when they need it.

"It’s a project that aligns closely with our wider ambitions through Durham Cares and Families First to provide the right help, at the right time, in the right place.

Being selected for a second hub is a strong endorsement of the partnership work already taking place and our shared commitment to helping children and young people thrive.

We look forward to working alongside young people, families and partners over the coming months to shape a second hub that reflects local needs and builds on the strengths already present within our communities."

The council will work with young people and partner organisations to choose the most effective location for the new hub.

The hub will support the council’s aim to give young people “somewhere to go, something to do, and someone who cares.”

Services will include youth activities, wellbeing support, skills training, jobs and access to wider services.

They will help young people aged up to 18 with employment advice, health and wellbeing, and are also aimed at preventing them from falling into a life of crime

Two new Young Futures Hubs are set to open in Lancashire as part of a major expansion of youth services across the country.

The Government has announced plans for 42 new hubs in England, with thousands more young people expected to have access to support as part of the programme. The new hubs in Blackpool and Lancashire will provide young people with help and advice on employment, health and wellbeing, while also aiming to prevent them from becoming involved in crime.

They offer a range of support including physical activity, informal information, mental health services, enterprise schemes and social activities across a network of local venues.

Young people aged between 10 and 18 will be able to access the services, while those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will be eligible up to the age of 25.

The first wave of hubs targeted areas with high levels of anti-social behaviour. The programme will now be expanded, with 42 new hubs being established by local authorities in England.
Each area will also receive support through the Local Youth Transformation programme to strengthen leadership, train the workforce and build long-term partnerships to provide youth services.

The expansion forms part of the Government's National Youth Strategy, Youth Matters, which was launched by Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in December 2025.

The strategy was co-produced with 14,000 young people through a 'State of the Nation' survey.

Young people in Rotherham face the toughest competition for entry-level jobs in Britain, with just one suitable vacancy for every 22 young adults, new research suggests.

The IPPR (the Institute for Public Policy Research) found that there were just 46 suitable online vacancies for every 1000 18-24 year olds in Rotherham, compared with 288 per 1,000 in the Cotswolds, meaning young people there have six times more opportunities than in Rotheham.
The think tank says the difference shows that where a young person lives can have a major impact on their chances of getting a foot on the employment ladder.

Lord Jim Knight, former minister for employment and minister for schools, said: “Young people in Rotherham are not six times less talented than those in the Cotswolds; they face six times fewer suitable vacancies.”

The research analysed online job adverts between July 2025 and June 2026, and focused on entry level opportunities.

Almost one million 16 to 24 across the UK are not in employment, education or training, prompting wider concerns about young people struggling to make the transition from education into work.

The IPPR argues that simply focusing on young people’s skills or encouraging them to apply for more jobs will not solve the problem if those jobs do not exist locally.

Rotherham was already struggling to keep pace with the rest of the country before the latest findings.

The number of jobs in the borough grew by just 2.7 per cent over the last five years, compared with 4.3 per cent nationally, while Rotherham has around a third fewer businesses per head than England as a whole.

Doubled over a Heathrow baggage trolley, the former British business director is sobbing uncontrollably, exhausted emotionally and physically after being deported from Sweden.

Hours earlier the 65-year-old had been marched on to a plane in Stockholm, separated from his home and his Swedish wife after a five-year battle to stay in the country after Brexit came to an end.

An only child with no children and no property in the UK, Charles has effectively been made homeless. He was last in the UK in 2022 for one week, and before that not since 2017 when he emigrated.

“I have nothing, nothing in the UK at all,” says Charles as he shows a text from the British consulate explaining where in Heathrow the suddenly homeless can get help.

“All I want is to return to my wife, my home and my friends in Sweden and to live a quiet, peaceful life,” adds Charles, who does not want to publicly share his full identity.

His forced flight on Tuesday shows that deportations of British citizens who lived in Sweden before Brexit are continuing. Stockholm has already deported 458 British people after rejected residency applications, a higher proportion in terms of its population than any EU member state.

The situation persists despite promises from opposition parties now on track to form a government that they will introduce urgent laws to give Britons a second chance to apply for residency.

“I’ve done nothing wrong but feel I’ve been treated like a criminal,” Charles says.
“Since arriving in Sweden nearly nine years ago, I’ve done everything I can to integrate myself into Swedish society. I’ve learned some basic Swedish, contributed to Swedish society and the Swedish economy, and for that, I’m being punished. Why are they doing this to good, honest, hard-working people like me and my wife?”

Shortly after disembarking in London, he is sitting down in an airport cafe processing what has just happened.

Pointing to a small holdall and a large reusable shopping bag, he says: “All I have is what my wife packed in my bag here with clothes and my little bag” in which he has belongings handed back to him by the captain as he got off the plane.
The bag includes a plastic envelope sealed and emblazoned with the words Kriminalvården, the Swedish Prison and Probation Service, containing meagre belongings.

There is also a bright yellow envelope handed to him by the captain before disembarking which he opens for the first time.

One is a police document saying he does not need to be “escorted”. The other says he is being deported over a failed residency application under the Aliens Act – his latest legal attempt to stay in Sweden after a pre-Brexit residency application, made on time, was rejected.

Charles’s plight started just over two weeks ago when he and his wife received a text requesting that they come to their local police station to discuss their migration case.

They thought it was to discuss their five-year battle to persuade authorities they were in the country lawfully before Brexit. But he was immediately detained and told he would be deported.

“It was an incredible shock. I was distraught. This is not about leaving Sweden, this is about me being forced to leave my wife and my house. They are separating me from my wife,” he said.

“They said we think that if we don’t detain you you will abscond from Sweden because you are not co-operating.

“For the last nine years, all we’ve done is cooperate with them.” He said he begged authorities not to detain him, telling them he would go of his own accord but they said no.
He asked if he could drive back to the UK “so at least I could take some belongings with me because I have nothing in the UK, and they said ‘no, the decision has been made’”.

Before Brexit, British citizens could live, work, study or retire in any other member state.

The government has announced the 26 local authorities that will be opening 37 Young Futures hubs offering enhanced access to mental health support, employment opportunities and crime prevention services for 10- to 18-year-olds.

The 26 authorities will establish one or more Young Futures hubs over the next three years through the £70 million programme, a key Labour election manifesto pledge.

The 37 new hubs will join those established by the eight early adopter councils – in Nottingham, Tower Hamlets, Durham, Manchester, Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Bristol and Leeds – which began operating this year. 
A further five new hubs will be created in the eight early adopter areas bringing the total up to 50 across the 34 councils covered. 

Alongside providing open access to sports, creative activities and trusted youth workers, each hub will bring together mental health support, skills and training, routes into employment, and crime prevention.

The government says they will ensure that young people aged 10 to 18 (up to 25 for those with special educational needs and disabilities) can receive seamless, holistic support without having to repeat their story to a different service every time they visit. 

(The 26 locations listed in the article)