11 h. ago A waiting list of thousands, and just five new homes for social rent: this city shows the depth of Britain’s housing crisis | John Harris

Liverpool was once praised for its tolerance, but housing shortages are driving fearful, unsettling behaviours – and people are blaming outsidersHere is the dream, if you can afford it: gleaming apartments, close to Liverpool’s waterfront, complete with penthouse swimming pools with views of the north Wales mountains, and sumptuous rooftop gardens. They are mostly bought by investors who then rent them to local professionals: three years ago, a report on early sales of flats in one development said that 40% of early buyers were from Australia, China or Singapore.Ten minutes’ walk away, you can witness a very different spectacle. Every Monday night, a charity called Liverpool In Arms hands out food in the city centre, to queues of people. Some are homeless; others have a house or flat to live in, but can’t afford to eat. While I was reporting on the city’s housing crisis for the Guardian’s video series Anywhere But Westminster, I watched its volunteers in action for the best part of ...

Society

17 h. ago The return of ‘Tescopoly’? How Britain’s biggest retailer dominates everyday life

Supermarket chain has quietly got its groove back to grab even more of shoppers’ spending this yearReach into your pocket and you will probably find evidence of Tesco. Whether it is a Clubcard, mobile phone or just a receipt from one of its 3,000 stores, the UK’s biggest retailer is engrained in everyday British life.As its chief executive, Ken Murphy, proudly proclaimed this month, the supermarket chain has grabbed even more of our spending this year, landing almost a third of all grocery sales and receiving more than £1 in every £10 spent in UK retail. Data released this week showed Tesco’s sales growth outgunning its traditional rivals. Continue reading...

Politics

58 h. ago This London social housing project has been crowned the best new building in Britain for 2025

This London social housing project has been crowned the best new building in Britain for 2025  Time Out Worldwide

Politics

3 d. ago Riba Stirling Prize 2025: Appleby Blue Almshouse named Britain's best new building

Riba Stirling Prize 2025: Appleby Blue Almshouse named Britain's best new building  BBC

Politics

5 d. ago Towns may have to be abandoned due to floods with millions more homes in Great Britain at risk

Every constituency projected to be at greater risk, with many areas likely to be uninsurable, Guardian investigation findsThe flood-prone Worcestershire town being abandoned by insurersDoors, drains and paving perils: protecting your home from floodingMillions more homes in England, Scotland and Wales face devastating floods, and some towns may have to be abandoned as climate breakdown makes many areas uninsurable, a Guardian investigation has found.New analysis from the insurance industry, seen by the Guardian, reveals the extent of concern in the sector, with bosses warning that large swathes of housing and commercial property in densely populated areas will be at greater risk.Every constituency in Great Britain is projected to have increased flood risk in future. In England, 69% of constituencies are likely to have an increase of more than 25% in the number of properties facing flood risk by mid-century. In Wales and Scotland, every area is projected to have a similar rise with m...

Events

5 d. ago ‘An unseen side of Black Britain’: memories of 1980s Bradford – in pictures

Pinball, boomboxes and vintage cars! Victor Wedderburn’s photographs capture the joys – and struggles – of the era for the city’s immigrant communities Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago ‘Frightened to get out of their cars’: Britain’s toxic race debates threaten overseas care workers

Staff are being advised to travel in mixed groups and carry panic alarms as incidents of intimidation spreadThey have travelled thousands of miles to care for the most vulnerable people in society. But care workers recruited overseas to fill much-needed roles are increasingly facing racist abuse in the UK, industry insiders have warned, as the country’s immigration debate becomes increasingly toxic.Staff working with elderly and disabled service users have been advised to travel to work in racially mixed groups and carry panic alarms. The measures follow a surge in reports of “verbal abuse and spitting” from strangers since the summer, said Nadra Ahmed, the executive chair of the National Care Association (NCA), which represents about 5,000 providers. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago Millions more homes in Great Britain at risk of flooding, investigation finds

Every constituency projected to be at greater risk, with many areas likely to be uninsurableThe flood-prone Worcestershire town being abandoned by insurersDoors, drains and paving perils: protecting your home from floodingMillions more homes in England, Scotland and Wales face devastating floods, and some towns may have to be abandoned as climate breakdown makes many areas uninsurable, a Guardian investigation has found.New analysis from the insurance industry, seen by the Guardian, reveals the extent of concern in the sector, with bosses warning that large swathes of housing and commercial property in densely populated areas will be at greater risk.Every constituency in Great Britain is projected to have increased flood risk in future. In England, 69% of constituencies are likely to have an increase of more than 25% in the number of properties facing flood risk by mid-century. In Wales and Scotland, every area is projected to have a similar rise with many being much worse hit.Bermo...

Events

1 week ago Britain missing out on potential £2bn recycling industry by exporting plastic waste

Exclusive: Government failure to close loophole allows 600,000 tonnes to be shipped elsewhere each yearA plastic recycling industry potentially worth £2bn and 5,000 jobs is dying in the UK because of government failure to close a loophole which allows 600,000 tonnes of plastic waste to be exported each year.The Guardian can reveal that in the past two years 21 plastic recycling and processing factories across the UK have shut down due to the scale of our exports, the cheap price of virgin plastic and an influx of cheap plastic from Asia, according to data gathered by industry insiders. Continue reading...

Economics

1 week ago Pride of Britain 2025 date, time and how to watch glittering ceremony

The Pride of Britain Awards 2025 will take place this month - and be televised two days later in a star-studded show

Politics

1 week ago Britain’s big, baffling ladybird glut: ‘My house is literally crawling with them’

These little spotted beetles are looking for a comfortable new home for the winter – and it could be yoursName: Ladybirds.Age: Ladybirds typically live for one to three years. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago I preached levelling up as the key to Tory success – but Boris Johnson didn’t do it. Now look at us | Justine Greening

Social mobility and equality of opportunity is crucial to Britain’s success. The party that embraces those things will prosperJustine Greening is a former Conservative ministerAs the existentially challenged Conservative party meets in Manchester for its annual party conference, it has much to ponder on where it goes next. It’s not even clear if there is a road forward at all. These are tough times for a party that now has little, if anything, new or unique to say to voters.It could have been so different if it had made tangible progress on an agenda that matters to people across the country: Levelling up. Yet Boris Johnson’s government hadn’t got the first clue on how to turn his zeitgeisty rhetoric on levelling up into policy reality. For the two years after the 2019 election, it debated what the term even meant.Justine Greening is a former Conservative minister and was MP for Putney from 2005 to 2019 Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago The major London airport that has been crowned the best in Britain for 2025 – and it’s not Heathrow

The major London airport that has been crowned the best in Britain for 2025 – and it’s not Heathrow  Time Out Worldwide

Society

2 w. ago Becky Barnicoat on the growth of fascism in Britain – cartoon

Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago What a £5 coffee (or a £100 Pizza Express) tells us about a changing Britain | Gaby Hinsliff

For many gen Xers, it feels like we’re sliding back towards the land of our childhoods: where eating out was for special occasions, and Thermoses were kingIt was only a chain-store coffee.A morale-boosting one, bought for consoling purposes on the faintly weepy way home from dropping our precious firstborn off at university; but still, just a takeaway oat-milk latte from a bog-standard roadside chain somewhere in Berkshire. The shock was that it was over £5.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Economics

2 w. ago The Guardian view on climate policy: Britain needs clean power, not culture wars | Editorial

Kemi Badenoch’s plan to scrap the Climate Change Act is reckless. Ed Miliband offers a bolder, fairer vision. The future must be built on renewablesLet’s scrap Britain’s successful climate law so we can burn more gas, lose investment and have higher bills. Crazy as it might seem, that is the message of Kemi Badenoch’s new energy strategy. The Conservative leader proposes to repeal the 2008 Climate Change Act in favour of a plan to “maximise oil and gas extraction”, and remove all legally binding carbon targets. It’s pitched as pragmatism. But it’s a lurch into ideological self-harm.Britain’s energy problem isn’t its climate legislation, which is admired globally, backed by industry and supported by the public. It’s that this country remains too dependent on volatile fossil fuels. Emissions targets are not the reason for high bills. It is gas prices, which skyrocketed after Russia invaded Ukraine. They set UK electricity prices. In Europe, they don’t – that’s why bills are lower...

Events

2 w. ago Lee Miller review – a dazzling, daring career from war photographer to surrealist pioneer via Hitler’s bathtub

Tate Britain, LondonAn overdue showcase of Miller’s remarkable work follows its many frenzied twists – from her unrecognised work with Man Ray to unseen gems of the Egyptian desert and unflinching glimpses of DachauUnapologetically ambitious and voraciously inventive, this vast new Lee Miller exhibition is the most comprehensive display of the late American photographer’s work ever held in the UK. It’s an overdue account of a remarkable artist whose dazzling, daring career had more than a few twists: from Vogue cover girl to Vogue photographer; from surrealists’ muse to pioneer of the movement; from commercial portraitist to war photographer.Some of Miller’s fabled work is here, including her famous self-portrait in Hitler’s bathtub, her boots – dirtied with mud from Dachau concentration camp – strewn symbolically on the floor. The exhibition builds a sense of the dizzying, sometimes frenzied energy of Miller, who could photograph fashionable hats as well as Nazis who died by suicid...

Events

2 w. ago Britain may already be at war with Russia, former head of MI5 says

Eliza Manningham-Buller points to extent of cyber-attacks and other hostile activity orchestrated by MoscowBritain may already be at war with Russia because of the depth and intensity of cyber-attacks, sabotage and other hostile activity orchestrated by Moscow against the UK, according to a former head of MI5.Eliza Manningham-Buller, who led the domestic spy agency two decades ago, said she agreed with comments made by the Russia expert Fiona Hill, who argued in a Guardian interview earlier this year that Moscow was at war with the west. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Britain’s oldest identical twin dies, aged 105, three years after her sister

Kathleen Whitehead, known with sibling as ‘the Twinnies’, put their long life down to wine, chocolate and exerciseBritain’s oldest identical twin has died at the age of 105 – three years after her sister.Kathleen Whitehead died peacefully this month. Her twin, Dorothy Sivyer, died in July 2022. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Inside new Big Brother house including 'never seen before detail' fans don't see

Richard Arnold gave fans a sneaky glimpse inside the brand new Big Brother house live on Good Morning Britain ahead of the live 2025 series launch on Sunday evening

Politics