38 m. ago Record January spike in house prices after 'Boxing Day bounce'

Average house prices have jumped nearly £10,000 in the past month but sellers also warned number of homes for sale at 12-year high

Politics

5 h. ago Chris Packham warns of massive change we must make to save UK's garden birds

The BBC star says people won't want to do it, but they might have to, and he hopes to show what's needed using scientific proof

Events

32 h. ago The UK councils that have requested delays to local elections for 2026

Check if your council has requested to delay May’s local elections

Politics

38 h. ago Rents for council housing to go up significantly in one area of Wales

Vale of Glamorgan Council homes will see a rental increase of more than 4% in 2026/2027

Politics

38 h. ago ‘There is a moment of clarity that life would be better without alcohol’: what we can learn from addiction memoirs

After losing her father to alcohol addiction, author Sophie Calon turned to writing – and found clarity, connection and hope in other stories of relapse and recoveryOn the night of Boxing Day 2021, my dad’s body was found near a Cardiff hostel. His death, at 55, was as sudden as it was not. For years, alcoholism had been changing the shape of his heart.He died less than a mile from his old office; top law firm, equity partner. Four miles from our once tight-knit home in a leafy neighbourhood. He had lost both his family and his job in 2019. Raised in Barry, working class, he had been proud of the beautiful life he had built for us. Others thought he “had it all”. He was widely adored, but drinking made him volatile. He was homeless and often behind bars in his final two years. Continue reading...

Politics

60 h. ago Council budget deficit reduced to half a million in one Welsh county

The current gap in Merthyr Tydfil is now £509,000 with cost reductions of £3.58m being planned

Economics

2 d. ago Labour will keep control of at least NINE councils it was set to lose by cancelling local elections

Around 30 councils - serving between four and five million voters - are set to be given permission to postpone ballots, set for May, to help a wider reorganisation of local government.

Politics

3 d. ago Firefighters form guard of honour at funeral service of Andy Leyland

He died aged 51 on Boxing Day

Events

3 d. ago Plans for West Lothian Council to have its own traffic wardens pounding the streets

It will be 2028 - and a new council administration - before the council takes control of parking enforcement to end the current “free-for-all” faced in towns and villages .

Events

4 d. ago Scots braced for council tax hikes as local government set for 'largest' cut

Kate Forbes, the Deputy First Minister, insisted there is “no need” for substantial council tax rises

Politics

4 d. ago West Lothian Council gets more than 10,000 responses on budget cuts

It is the highest response the council has ever achieved and also outstrips the feedback neighbouring authorities have had over their own budget plans.

Politics

4 d. ago Scots face huge council tax rises as SNP Budget 'does not deliver' for local authorities

Cash-strapped councils are already closing community centres, swimming pools and other local services in a desperate bid to balance their books.

Economics

5 d. ago BBC Winterwatch presenters say doing this once a day will make a massive difference

Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams know the absolute power of taking time out for nature

Politics

5 d. ago Thirty years of devastation on Britain's most eroded coastline: Dramatic aerial footage shows how much of a clifftop Norfolk village has been lost to the North Sea over three decades

Footage taken in 1998 and again this weekend showing the devastation cliff falls have caused, just as the local council demolishes more houses before they plummet over the precipice.

Events

6 d. ago Cops probe online abuse after MP visits Scots mosque following 'meat cleaver incident'

Labour MP Melanie Ward faced racist and threatening online comments after visiting Kirkcaldy Islamic Centre following a Boxing Day disturbance.

Events

6 d. ago Mum and two children's cause of death confirmed after Boxing Day house fire

The family were asleep when the fire tore through the cottage

Events

6 d. ago Wife and two children of police officer killed in Boxing Day blaze died from 'exposure' to fire, inquest told

Fionnghuala Shearman, 38, and her children Eve, seven, and four-year-old Ohner were killed when the fire destroyed their home in Brimscombe, Gloucestershire.

Events

6 d. ago Children killed in Boxing Day fire alongside mum identified by DNA as inquests open

Fionnghuala Shearman, 38, known as Nu, and her children, Eve, seven, and four-year-old Ohner, were all killed in a house fire in Brimscombe, near Stroud, Gloucestershire on Boxing Day

Events

6 d. ago Final moments of mum and kids killed in Boxing Day fire as dad 'tried to save family'

Fionnghuala Shearman, 38, known as Nu, and her children, Eve, seven, and four-year-old Ohner, were all killed in a house fire in Brimscombe, near Stroud, Gloucestershire on Boxing Day

Events

6 d. ago West Lothian Council house rent arrears top £5m with hardest hit areas named

Among the hardest wards include Whitburn and Blackburn, where arrears debt is over £1m, but this is down on the same position in January last year.

Society