Natwest hit with £250m lawsuit tied to Thurrock Council scandal Banking Natwest could be on the hook for more than a quarter of a billion pounds for allegedly aiding a businessman in secretly transferring funds from his investment firm. The FTSE 100 giant’s subsidiary – the Royal Bank of Scotland – has been engulfed in the collapse of Rockfire Group, which was triggered by a fraud [...]
Labour’s London wall has fallen. What now? Opinion Labour's London stronghold has finally broken. But what does that mean for the city and the next general election, asks John Dickie.
Local elections 2026: who will win in Haringey Council? London CLICK HERE to view all the latest London election results Labour’s 50-year hold on Haringey appears to be crumbling. The Green Party is surging after a 55 per cent by-election win in St Ann’s, Lib Dems are targeting wealthier wards, and a controversial Finsbury Park events deal, school funding crisis and four years of council [...]
London Local Elections 2026: Who will win in Croydon? May 6, 2026 Voters are heading to the polls in the Labour-Conservative marginal borough of Croydon, following multiple Council bankruptcies, an increasingly split electoral map, and a hike in council tax. In its last set of local elections in 2022, Croydon was a rare London local authority with an almost dead-heat between Labour and Conservatives. Both parties ended [...]
Haringey peddles two-bike model after Richmond Lime snub March 11, 2026 Haringey has handed Forest and Lime a new four-year dockless e-bike contract, doubling down on a two-operator model just as Richmond moves in the opposite direction and edges towards pushing Lime out. The north London borough’s cabinet this week approved the appointment of two operators for an initial two-year term from 1 April 2026, with [...]
High Court to hear Reform’s challenge on cancelled council elections January 21, 2026 Reform UK’s legal challenge against the UK government over plans to delay local elections is set to go to a two-day trial next month. The case focuses on the government’s plan to allow 63 councils to postpone their local elections that were scheduled for May 2026. So far, more than a third of local authorities [...]
Mansion tax is an ‘assault’ on London’s property market November 27, 2025 The UK’s new ‘mansion tax’ is set to hit homeowners in London hard, particularly for middle-class Londoners who have seen the price of their property balloon in the last two decades. Chancellor Rachel Reeves introduced a new high-value council tax surcharge for owners of properties valued at over £2m in her second Budget on Wednesday. [...]
Councils face exodus of planners in threat to housebuilding goals November 18, 2025 One in five UK planners intends to leave the field or retire by 2028, in another significant threat to the government’s housebuilding target, according to new data. Nearly two-thirds of planners said their teams lacked the capacity to meet demand, according to the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). The RTPI has warned that the exodus [...]
Ministers brace for fresh protests and legal battles after asylum hotel ruling August 30, 2025 Keir Starmer has been warned by a Labour grandee that voters will continue to shift to Reform UK unless decisive action is taken to address the migrants crisis. The government won a Court of Appeal challenge against an an injunction which would have seen asylum seekers moved out of the Bell Hotel, Epping, but ministers [...]
Audit costs for English councils soar as bankruptcies mount August 19, 2025 Audit costs for English councils have more than tripled, during a time many councils have fallen into bankruptcy or taken on greater debt.