The council has agreed an extra £1.2m in professional fees — largely for architect Levitt Bernstein — blaming a two‑year delay, the Building Safety Act 2022 and its new Retrofit First policy for redesign work; opposition councillors say the rise highlights over‑reliance on expensive consultants. Westminster City Council has agreed…

The council is funding short breaks to Eastbourne for older residents living on the Carnival route — a long‑running wellbeing scheme defended as support for vulnerable people but questioned over per‑head costs as concerns about policing and safety at the festival intensify. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is…

After Shaun Thompson’s stop in London — triggered by a live facial recognition alert — campaign groups and lawyers say a government plan to roll out LFR vans across several forces highlights unresolved legal, technical and racial‑bias risks that could embed discriminatory policing without stronger statutory safeguards and independent oversight.…

More than 60 people are to be charged after weekend mass arrests linked to a proscribed group, as scores detained since the July ban raise questions about policing tactics, civil liberties and the Crown Prosecution Service’s role in forthcoming cases. London is braced for a new wave of prosecutions after…

The government is rapidly expanding its Rise programme to export the methods behind London’s school turnaround to hundreds of struggling schools across England after A‑level results exposed growing gaps between the capital and parts of the north and Midlands. Ministers promise more advisers, partner trusts and targeted funding of up…

A council report reveals 76% of 2024/25 home STI kit users in Havering were repeat callers, driving more than 10,000 orders as the borough considers adding PrEP and online contraception amid rising costs and national funding pressures. The borough of Havering has seen a marked rise in people repeatedly requesting…

Havering Council projects a £1m overspend after quarter one, with mounting pressures in housing and adult social care and the possibility of drawing on an £88m capitalisation direction and an £18m worst‑case contingency to remain solvent.Cash‑strapped Havering Council is already forecasting a budget overspend for the current financial year, projecting…

A new central spiral staircase by Michaelis Boyd reorganises a narrow, wedge‑shaped Georgian townhouse in west London, creating light-filled, multifunctional rooms across five floors while keeping the historic façade intact for chef Andrew Wong and his family. A sweeping spiral staircase now threads through a reconfigured Georgian townhouse in west…

Berkeley has lodged pre‑application designs by KPF to retain and refurbish the 21‑storey 1960s tower at 33 Cavendish Square while replacing the Oxford Street podium with a seven‑storey block, delivering a large mixed‑use scheme that combines Grade A offices with a cultural and creative hub and refreshed high‑street retail. Berkeley…

The Liberal Democrats’ 2010 reversal on scrapping tuition fees — paving the way for £9,000 tariffs — reshaped university funding, fuelled soaring loan balances and, amid falling international recruitment and rising rents, made higher education a more financially fraught and unequal choice for many students. For a generation of students…

TfL has proposed ending the 100% Cleaner Vehicle Discount on 25 December 2025, raising the daily Congestion Charge to £18 from 2 January 2026 and replacing the blanket EV exemption with phased discounts — 50% for eligible vans/HGVs and 25% for cars (falling further in 2030) — a move framed…

Wates Residential’s regional development director Leigh Johnson will become managing director of Barking Riverside Limited in November 2025 as the 443‑acre east London scheme prepares for a refreshed masterplan, a £124m Homes England funding package and a push on planning, infrastructure and housebuilding aimed at delivering up to 20,000 homes.…