Category: UK News

Poverty campaigners have long believed that cash transfers are the most cost-effective way of helping people, but most studies have examined schemes in developing countries. …reports Asian Lite News

Researchers are conducting the UK’s first major scientific trials to establish whether giving homeless people cash is a more effective way of reducing poverty than traditional forms of help. 

Poverty campaigners have long believed that cash transfers are the most cost-effective way of helping people, but most studies have examined schemes in developing countries. 

The new study, funded by the government and carried out by King’s College London (KCL) and the homelessness charity Greater Change, will recruit 360 people in England and Wales. Half will continue to get help from frontline charities. The other half will get additional help from Greater Change, whose support workers will discuss their financial problems then pay for items such as rent deposits, outstanding debts, work equipment, white goods, furniture or new clothes. They do not make direct transfers to avoid benefits being stopped due to a cash influx. 

Professor Michael Sanders, who runs KCL’s experimental government unit, said: “What we’re trying to understand is the boundary conditions for cash transfers. When does it work? For whom does it work? What are the amounts you need to give people in order to make it work?” 

One of the first cash transfer schemes was in Mexico in 1997 and since then they have been used around the world. But most evidence is from low and middle-income countries, and there has been opposition from politicians and the public, who often believe people will spend the money unwisely. Last year researchers in Canada found that giving CA$7,500 (£4,285) to 50 homeless people in Vancouver was more effective than spending money housing them in shelters, and saved around CA$777 (£443) per person. 

Small-scale studies have taken place in the UK, such as a scheme by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2012 which helped 12 rough sleepers, but Sanders said these are believed to be the first large-scale studies. As well as the trial with Greater Change, KCL researchers are working on four other similar studies. Greater Change has helped around 1,300 rough sleepers and other homeless people in London and Essex over the last six years. 

“On average, every person we help saves around £35,000 [in public spending],” Jonathan Tan, the charity’s co-founder, said. About half of their clients have been involved in the criminal justice system. 

Government figures show 13% of prisoners become homeless after release, putting them at greater risk of reoffending. Some have told the Observer they re-offended in order to return to prison – the reoffending rate in England and Wales was 33.2% in 2022 for offenders released from custody or starting a court order. 

“We know that of our ex-offending cohort, who are prison leavers, fewer than 9% of them have reoffended 12 months on,” Tan said. The charity says 86% of the people it helps out of homelessness are not homeless 12 months later. The KCL study is a way of establishing whether or not that success comes from dealing with easier cases. 

“We don’t think it is because they probably send us the more entrenched cases,” Tan said. “But we won’t know til the randomised control trial finishes.” 

Meanwhile, homelessness among refugees has doubled in the last year to reach record levels as charities hand out tents and sleeping bags to those forced to live on the streets for the first time, according to research. 

The No Accommodation Network (Naccom), an umbrella organisation for 140 frontline organisations working with asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants across the UK, has collated the data and shared it with the Guardian. 

It reveals a 99% increase in refugee homelessness in the last 12 months, with 1,941 refugees finding themselves without accommodation. When including asylum seekers and other migrants, the number regarded as destitute or homeless rises to 4,146. A total of 850 people were recorded as sleeping rough, a 125% increase on last year’s figure. 

According to Naccom these are the highest numbers they have ever dealt with. “There is a refugee homelessness emergency,” their report concludes. It adds that charities are left to fill the gap and provide a vital safety net due to significant gaps in statutory services and a “hostile environment” for refugees and other migrants. 

The rise is put down in part to the large backlog in asylum claims, and the last government’s attempts to clear that. While refugees and charities welcome the speedier processing of protection claims, they say there is not enough affordable housing available in the private rented sector. 

For the first time, members of the Naccom network provided more than half a million nights of accommodation – 501,371 – to those in need, 51% more than in 2021-22. 

Around half of refugees managed to access private rented accommodation. Charities have put in place a range of other options, sometimes working with local authorities. Hosting has become a successful, albeit temporary, option. 

Use of night shelters has risen and 288 properties have been made available by Naccom organisations to accommodate 1,543 people, either for no rent or a peppercorn rent. A new model added to the mix is lodging which, unlike hosting where no money changes hands, asks people to pay an affordable rent from their wages or housing benefit. 

Recommendations for change include extending the Home Office move-on period after someone is evicted from asylum accommodation from 28 to 56 days, and ending “hostile environment” policies more broadly. 

Bridget Young, the director of Naccom, said: “Our research shows that thousands of people each year are needlessly pushed into destitution as they go through the asylum and immigration system. Urgent change is needed to ensure that the system doesn’t keep driving up levels of homelessness.” 

A government spokesperson said: “We have inherited huge pressures in the asylum system, but we are working to make sure individuals have the support they need following an asylum decision and to help local authorities better plan their assistance with homelessness. 

“Support for newly recognised refugees is available through Migrant Help and their partners, which includes advice on how to access universal credit, the labour market and where to get assistance with housing.” 

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Nearly half of Scotland’s local councils are considering a mandatory levy on overnight stays, known as a tourist tax…reports Asian Lite News

Millions of tourists to the UK could soon be asked to pay a local visitor levy as cash-strapped councils try to raise money to fund services. 

Nearly half of Scotland’s local councils are considering a mandatory levy on overnight stays, known as a tourist tax, to help cope with a surge in visitors that has overwhelmed places such as Skye, the Callanish stones on Lewis and Orkney’s neolithic sites. 

Highland council, home to some of the most under-pressure hotspots such as the fairy pools on Skye and Glenfinnan viaduct, has started consulting local businesses and residents about a 5% levy on all overnight stays which could come into effect in late 2026. 

On Monday, the Welsh government will announce proposals for a visitor levy mirroring powers introduced in law by the Scottish parliament this year, and similar taxes in major European cities such as Berlin and Barcelona. 

Ministers in Cardiff say it will raise extra money for councils to invest in tourism and amenities, particularly in the areas most popular with visitors such as Gwynedd in the north, Pembrokeshire in the south-west and Cardiff. 

Edinburgh is due to become the first place in the UK where a mandatory levy is in force, in July 2026, after council leaders rebelled after an upsurge in Airbnb rentals, congested and soiled streets, and with global hotel companies profiting from visitors. 

The city expects to raise up to £50m a year from a 5% surcharge on overnight stays. It will plough that money into improving public parks, funding the city’s festivals and building new social housing to help mitigate surging house prices driven by a boom in short-term lets. 

The costs of over-tourism in Scotland were highlighted this month when the travel guide Fodors added the North Coast 500 road route which circles the west coast and Highlands to its “No list” due to its “untenable popularity”. 

Part of the North Coast 500, a route that is particularly popular with British holidaymakers and has created tensions with local people. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian 

The route’s fame, particularly among British holidaymakers, has led to tensions with local people. Motor homes choke its often narrow single track roads and dump waste on rural verges; sports car drivers have used it for races and campsites have been overwhelmed. 

Highland council expects it could raise £10m a year from the levy, which could be invested in French-style aires, or motorhome camping areas, if locals call for those in a consultation it launched last week. 

Ken Gowans, the council’s economy and infrastructure chair, said: “Right now we don’t have a sustainable tourism offer in the Highlands. The cause of the wear and tear isn’t local people, but they’re having to pay for it through their council tax. 

“If we have this money, not only will we be able to maintain services and infrastructure, we can improve them. We welcome tourists openly but if we want people coming back, we should improve the experience.” 

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The purpose-built hubs will provide a realistic working environment for training for key construction trades…reports Asian Lite News

Five thousand more construction apprenticeship places will be made available per year thanks to £140m industry investment to get Britain building again. 

A total of 32 pioneering new Homebuilding Skills Hubs will deliver fast-track  training to local areas that need more housing, while giving apprentices vital skills to boost housebuilding in the UK and drive forward the government’s growth mission. 

The purpose-built hubs will provide a realistic working environment for training for key construction trades, including bricklayers, roofers, plasterers, scaffolders, electricians, carpenters and more. 

The government is working with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and the National House-Building Council (NHBC) to launch them. 

Working hand in hand with Skills England to identify the areas that need construction workers the most, this will ensure employers and businesses have access to high quality apprenticeship training, kickstarting economic growth and creating jobs across England.  

The fast-track apprenticeships offered by the hubs can be completed in 12-18 months, up to half the time of a traditional 24-30-month construction apprenticeship. This means more construction workers can be trained quickly, unlocking economic growth by getting more people into highly skilled jobs. 

Minister for Skills, Baroness Jacqui Smith, said, “This government is committed to 1.5 million homes being built across this parliament, while breaking down barriers to opportunity by fixing our broken skills system. If we are to meet this ambitious target and fix the foundations of our economy, we need to ensure we have a skilled workforce, and give more apprentices a foot on the career ladder. The need to boost our country’s skills is crucial to our mission-driven government, and I am pleased that this initiative will give apprentices skills to seize opportunity.” 

Earlier this week, Minister for Skills Jacqui Smith hosted a roundtable with MHCLG’s Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook MP, DBT’s Minister for Industry Sarah Jones MP, and Social Security and Disability Minister Stephen Timms MP from DWP to discuss how government departments can work together with industry to reach our shared goals of more good-quality homes being built. 

Today, the Skills Minister will visit students at Oldham College to find out how these hubs will help them to develop their skills. 

Minister of State for Housing and Planning Matthew Pennycook said, “A skilled and efficient construction sector is essential to building 1.5 million new homes in this parliament. This new funding will help to grow, upskill and diversify the housing workforce and deliver the government’s housebuilding target.” 

Roger Morton, Director of Business Change and NHBC’s Training Hubs, commented, “Our £100 million investment in a national network of 12 NHBC Multi-Skills Training Hubs will train quality apprentices and help shape the future of UK house building. Our expert facilities will shake-up the industry starting with training in critical areas including bricklaying, groundwork and site carpentry. NHBC’s hubs are designed to be flexible, adapting to local housing needs and regulatory changes. Our intensive training will produce skilled tradespeople faster, equipping them to hit the ground running from day one. At NHBC, our mission is to ensure every apprentice meets our high standards, delivering quality new homes the UK urgently needs.” 

With funding support through the Apprenticeship Levy and generous grants, I’d say to builders and contractors, there’s never been a better time to invest in apprentices. It’s an opportunity to grow your workforce while offering talented people a rewarding and well-paid career in this essential industry. 

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Work and pensions secretary says she will transform opportunities as Starmer bemoans ‘bulging benefits bill’…reports Asian Lite News

Young people who refuse to take up jobs or training will lose their benefits in the government’s crackdown on worklessness, Liz Kendall has said. The work and pensions secretary said, “If people repeatedly refuse to take up the training or work responsibilities, there will be sanctions on their benefits.” 

Asked if this meant losing those benefits, Kendall replied: “Yes.” Ministers are preparing to announce sweeping changes to the welfare system and out-of-work support next week. It forms part of a drive to get more people into work and cut the government’s welfare bill, which has ballooned since the Covid crisis. 

“The reason why we believe this so strongly is that we believe in our responsibility to provide those new opportunities, which is what we will do. We will transform those opportunities, but young people will be required to take them up, just as they did in the late 1990s with the new deal for young people, and the late noughties with the future jobs fund, because it is so damaging for young people not to have skills or not to be in work,” Kendall said. 

Kendall added: “I do not want an ever-increasing benefits bill spent on the cost of failure, people trapped out of work, terrible for their life chances, and paid for by the taxpayer.” She said there were nearly a million young people – one in eight – who were not in education, employment or training. 

Asked whether there were people who could work but did not work, Kendall said: “Yes.” She said: “I know from speaking to our job coaches, our fantastic job coaches in jobcentres, that there are people who could work, who aren’t. But I think they are in the minority.” 

Kendall said some people who were out of work had “self-diagnosed” mental health problems, though she stressed there was a “genuine problem with mental health in this country”.  She set out plans to overhaul apprenticeships and jobcentres in an attempt to reduce the number of people who are out of work. 

In an interview Kendall said jobcentres had become a hollowed-out “benefit administration service” that was no longer “fit for purpose” and was being shunned by employers and jobseekers alike.  

“Employers are desperate to recruit,” she told the Observer. “People are desperate to earn money and get on in their jobs. So we need big change. We need to see change in our jobcentres from a one-size-fits-all benefit administration service to a genuine public employment service.” In an article in the Mail on Sunday, Keir Starmer vowed to “get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society” in “the biggest overhaul of employment support in memory”. 

But he promised not to “call people shirkers or go down the road of division” and said that instead ministers would “treat people with dignity and respect”. 

“Next week, my government will set out radical reforms to get Britain working. No more business as usual,” the prime minister wrote. “And don’t get me wrong, we will crack down hard on anyone who tries to game the system, to tackle fraud so we can take cash straight from the banks of fraudsters. There will be a zero-tolerance approach to these criminals.” 

Poll reveals need to reduce pay gap between bosses, employees   

Chief executives should have their pay capped to maintain a fair balance between workers and bosses, according to a survey that found a majority of respondents in favour of restricting top salaries. 

A poll by the High Pay Centre thinktank of more than 2,000 people found that 55% agreed that chief executive pay should be set as a multiple of workers’ low or average earnings “so that pay differences between the high  and low or middle earners don’t grow too wide”. Only 15% objected. 

Against a backdrop of rows over bosses’ pay and bonuses in the water industry and calls by the head of the London Stock Exchange for chief executives to be paid more to retain “top talent”, the thinktank said the survey showed that there was a growing appetite for a rethink about the relationship between the boardroom and workers on the shop floor. 

The thinktank, which said its survey was funded by the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust and conducted independently by the polling firm Survation, called on ministers to consider handing workers the right to be on company boards and to publish more information about top pay. 

Asked if they supported the idea of voting for two workers on a board, 51% said yes and only 11% opposed. Enhanced transparency over the pay for top earners was supported by 70% of respondents, “meaning companies would publish more information on employees making over £150,000”. 

The High Pay Centre will publish “A Charter for Fair Pay” this week ahead of the forthcoming Employment Rights Bill. It will argue that the UK needs to reset the relationship between workers and top executives to foster a more collaborative way of working and stronger economic growth. 

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has made it her central mission for the UK to become the fastest-growing economy in the G7 group of rich nations. In recent months the UK’s growth rate has slipped back to near the bottom of the G7, just ahead of Italy. 

On Friday a survey of UK companies showed the first contraction in activity for a year as firms gave the government’s budget plans, which included extra costs on businesses to pay for enhanced public services, the “thumbs down”. 

Reeves is also under pressure to tackle the UK’s income inequality, which the thinktank said was a “defining characteristic of the UK economy”. The OECD, which includes Germany, Mexico, the US, Costa Rica and Slovenia among its 38 members, ranks Britain as the eighth worst in terms of income inequality. Figures show that among EU member states, only Bulgaria and Lithuania are more unequal than the UK. 

In 2022, income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient (a measure of inequality) grew by 1.3%. The thinktank said the majority of the widening income gap was caused by a reduction in the disposable incomes of the UK’s poorest 20% of households by 3.4%, while the disposable incomes of the richest 20% of households grew by 3.3%. 

Director of the High Pay Centre, Luke Hildyard, said there was an opportunity to use the new government’s legislative agenda “to strengthen worker voice and bridge the pay gap between top executives and the wider workforce.” 

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