VE Day: Council duties under the Armed Forces Covenant
As we mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Geoff Wild, Legal & Governance Consultant, looks at the duties of councils under the Armed Forces Covenant.
Rise in drug-related deaths reveals ‘stark’ inequalities
20/05/2025 A recent study by the Health Foundation reveals a drastic increase in the number of drug-related deaths in the UK and striking geographical inequalities. |
Wealthy boroughs place homeless families in deprived areas
19/05/2025 Wealthier London boroughs are increasingly placing homeless families in more deprived areas, charities warn. |
Lung conditions disproportionately impact minority ethnic groups, asthma charity says
15/05/2025 Minority ethnic groups and those from deprived communities are significantly more likely to be hospitalised for asthma, new research reveals. |
‘Historic changes’ to council pensions to end discrimination
15/05/2025 A package of reforms to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is set to end discrimination and boost maternity leave, deputy PM Angela Rayner says. |
Heat pump adoption ‘miles off track’
09/04/2025 Poorer areas in Britain are less than half as likely to see heat pumps installed than in richer places, think tank says. |
Call for action on economic inequalities
07/04/2025 The Government has been urged to back mayors and shift spending priorities to tackle regional inequality by an influential think-tank. |
PAC: Inequalities risk being ‘baked into’ charge point roll-out
12/03/2025 Regional divides and inequalities risk being ‘baked into’ the roll-out of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, MPs have warned. |
City leaders call for more support for coastal areas
10/03/2025 City leaders have called for a ‘comprehensive strategy’ to tackle disadvantages in coastal communities. |
Fife Council reaches £46m ‘turning point’
25/02/2025 Fife Council has reached a ‘turning point’ and will now have to save £46m, according to a new report by the Accounts Commission. |
Council chiefs warn of ‘stark inequalities’ in oral health
11/02/2025 Local authority leaders have urged the Government to take urgent action to address ‘stark inequalities in oral health’. |
Call for national health inequalities strategy
04/02/2025 A new Local Government Association report has called on the Government to introduce a national strategy to tackle health inequalities in England. |
EXCLUSIVE: Labour axes expert levelling up group
14/11/2024 An expert group advising the Government on reducing inequalities has been disbanded by Labour. |
Stark inequalities leave women in north with ‘heavy burdens’
04/09/2024 Women in the North of England are more likely to be an unpaid carer than women in other regions of England, a new report on regional inequalities has revealed. |
Huge variation in on-street EV charger provision
27/08/2024 A new report has revealed significant disparities between council areas in electric vehicle (EV) charging provision for EV owners without off-street parking. |
Council bosses call for men’s health strategy
27/08/2024 The ‘silent health crisis’ facing men in England should be a national concern, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said. |
Levelling up progress ‘glacial’, think tank says
19/06/2024 Progress on levelling up in England has been ‘glacial’ and – according to some metrics – inequality has got worse, a new analysis by the IFS has revealed. |
NextGov: Boosting social mobility
13/06/2024 Carl Cullinane, director of Research and Policy at the Sutton Trust, looks at what the next government should do to deliver greater social mobility. |
Sir Marmot sends MPs damning letter on their constituents’ health
01/05/2024 Health inequality expert Sir Michael Marmot has urged MPs and council leaders to act after a report found government policies were ‘cutting people’s lives short’. |
Addressing regional inequalities
18/04/2024 Andrew Borland, Chief Innovation Officer at the Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC), University of Liverpool discusses the importance of levelling up for growth. |
Children’s services in North face £25bn care burden
17/04/2024 Children’s services in the North face a £25bn care burden due to ‘deeply rooted social inequalities’ and the ‘North-South divide’, a new report has revealed. |
Dashboard compares healthy life expectancy across councils
10/04/2024 A data tool to compare healthy life expectancy across all councils in England has been launched by The Health Foundation. |
Levelling up plagued by ‘astonishing delays’
15/03/2024 The Government’s levelling up agenda has been characterised by ‘astonishing delays’ and blind optimism, according to Parliament’s spending watchdog. |
Less than 20% of levelling up projects completed
04/03/2024 Fewer than a fifth of projects backed by the Government's £3.6bn Towns Fund were on track to be completed by the end of February, FOI requests have revealed. |
Northern households pay £250 more council tax
12/02/2024 Households in the North are paying on average £250 a year more than they should for council tax due to ' outdated council tax bands’, campaigners say. |
Ombudsman calls for Royal Commission for social housing
23/01/2024 The Housing Ombudsman has called for the establishment of a Royal Commission to deliver a long-term plan for social housing that tackles social injustices. |
‘Bad health blackspots’ hold back growth
19/01/2024 Stark health inequalities are holding back economic growth, new research has found. |
A million lives ‘cut short’ by inequality
08/01/2024 A million people in England had their lives cut short because of health inequality between 2011 and 2019, research has found. |
‘Astounding’ regional inequality in cancer deaths
12/12/2023 The risk of dying from the cancers with the highest mortality rates varies ‘massively’ across England, according to a study published in The Lancet Oncology. |
New index exposes deprivation disparities
12/12/2023 A ‘novel methodology’ has uncovered stark inequalities between different ethnic groups in small residential areas. |
Council chiefs call for workforce plan after ‘unfair care’ warning
20/10/2023 Council leaders have repeated their call for a dedicated social care workforce plan in response to a CQC warning that councils are struggling to meet demand. |
Level up seaside towns or lose power, Conservatives told
19/09/2023 The Conservative Government must level up England’s struggling coastal communities or risk losing 113 seaside seats to Labour, a conservative think tank warns. |
EXCLUSIVE: Fresh equal pay claims warning
07/09/2023 Councils face a fresh wave of potential equal pay claims after a legal ruling exposed problems with the application of the national pay scheme. |
Levelling up for the next generation
30/08/2023 John Rayson, Atkins’ managing director for the North, asks if the aspirations of the next generation align with decision-makers in the North. |
Government failing to protect disabled people
17/08/2023 The UK and Welsh governments are failing to protect disabled people from discrimination and the situation is worsening due to the cost-of-living crisis. |
Barnsley launches new initiative to boost employment
04/07/2023 Barnsley Council and the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority have launched a new initiative to support thousands of residents into employment. |
MPs warn of 'lost decade' for disadvantaged pupils
07/06/2023 The educational gap between disadvantaged pupils and others could take a decade to return to pre-pandemic levels, MPs warn. |
Oxford and Swindon top ‘good growth’ index
26/05/2023 Oxford and Swindon have come out top in a ranking of cities according to their residents’ economic wellbeing, with Bristol and Exeter following closely behind. |
Levelling up will fail without long-term funding
26/05/2023 The Government’s levelling up policy will fail without long-term funding for councils, MPs have warned. |
North misses out on £21m of levelling up funding
23/05/2023 Local authority areas in the North have missed out on £21m of funding from the Government’s flagship levelling up fund, a new study has revealed. |
London boroughs agree first infrastructure framework
17/05/2023 All 33 local authorities across London have agreed an infrastructure framework on a cross-party, pan-London basis for the first time. |
‘Red Wall’ areas score poorly on social fabric index
02/05/2023 Local communities in areas won by the Conservatives from Labour in 2019 have continued to face decline despite the levelling up agenda, think tank finds. |
Many council areas face ‘nature access gap’, study reveals
02/05/2023 In a third of local authority areas more than 70% of households don’t have access to nature within a 15-minute walk, new research finds. |
Report shows stark variations in levelling up funding
25/04/2023 Competitive bidding has led to a £0.5bn gap in levelling up cash between the best and least funded combined authorities, according to new analysis. |
Traffic collisions more likely to affect poorer neighbourhoods
18/04/2023 People living in London’s more deprived areas are twice as likely to be killed or seriously injured in road collisions, new research reveals. |
Londoners face maternity care ‘postcode lottery’
14/04/2023 Mayor Sadiq Khan is being urged to help drive up maternity care standards after councillors claimed there is a ‘postcode lottery’ in the delivery of services. |
Digitisation must not lead to ‘two-tier society’, auditor says
09/03/2023 Spending on internet infrastructure must be balanced with measures to prevent creating a two-tier society when it comes to services, Welsh government says. |
Women’s rough sleeping often ‘hidden’, council chiefs say
08/03/2023 Council leaders in London have called for action to address ‘systemic inequalities’ creating barriers to women accessing support and housing. |
‘Hidden’ unemployment rates reveal deepening divides
31/01/2023 Nine out of 10 of the UK’s cities and towns with the highest hidden unemployment rates are in the North, new study reveals. |
Gove urged to address ‘inequalities’ affecting GRT community
27/01/2023 Lords committee has asked the Government for more information on how it plans to address inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) people. |
County leaders call for devolution to be ‘turbocharged’
21/11/2022 County council leaders have called on the Government to ‘turbocharge’ devolution to help them level up by attracting more foreign direct investment (FDI). |
Public health budget slashed by a quarter, charity reveals
26/10/2022 A charity has warned against cuts to public health as an analysis reveals that austerity under Conservative governments has hit the poorest the hardest. |
Investment needed to close ‘digital divide’
20/10/2022 David Hennell, business development director, at National Broadband, discusses why the PM must prioritise digital investment as part of levelling up plans. |
Government announces £50m to research health inequalities
11/10/2022 Thirteen local authorities are set to benefit from a £50m investment aimed at boosting research into tackling health inequalities. |
Levelling up fails North East, study reveals
07/10/2022 The Government’s flagship policy of levelling up and closing the North/South divide has failed to benefit the North East, a new study has found. |
Rich to benefit most from energy price cap
13/09/2022 Higher-income households are set to benefit the most from the Government’s new cap on energy prices, think tank finds. |
Index reveals high levels of inequality between UK cities
22/08/2022 The impact of the predicted recession is likely to be felt more in some cities than others, a new study of the economic resilience of UK cities has revealed. |
Educational inequalities result in ‘substantial differences’ in life chances, think tank says
17/08/2022 Educational inequalities have ‘barely changed’ over the last two decades and are likely to increase following the COVID-19 pandemic, financial experts warn. |
Birmingham faces fresh equal pay claims and strikes
09/08/2022 The leader of Birmingham CC has urged trade unions to engage in talks over fresh equal pay disputes – rather than ballot staff over potential strike action. |
North-South gap remains wide despite levelling-up rhetoric
09/08/2022 The income gap between the North and the South has remained consistently wide since the early 2000s despite all the talk of levelling-up, think tank says. |
‘Parallel pandemic’ of mental ill health cost North £2bn
25/07/2022 The number of mental ill health cases in the North of England were much higher during the pandemic than in any other part of the country and cost £2bn. |
Councils warn public health investment needed to deliver women’s health strategy
20/07/2022 Council leaders have warned that past cuts to public health funding could undermine government efforts to tackle major inequalities within women’s health. |
Boost cities to level up UK, think tank says
27/06/2022 Levelling up needs billions of pounds worth of investment in cities – a level of investment not currently being considered by policy makers, think tanks say. |
Care home owners paid 13 times more than carers
15/06/2022 The pay of executives at equity firms that own care homes is 13 times higher than the wages of the care home workers they employ, new research has revealed. |
Inquiry hears of bullying and racism in social care sector
10/06/2022 Lower-paid health and social care workers have experienced bullying, racism and harassment at work, an inquiry by Britain’s equality regulator has heard. |
Over 300,000 people living with undiagnosed dementia
17/05/2022 Improving early diagnosis for the hundreds of thousands of people with dementia could lead to over £3bn in savings through lower carer costs, report says. |
Levelling up means making ‘sad Londoners happier’
11/05/2022 The Government’s levelling up agenda should focus more on affluent local authority areas in London that have low levels of wellbeing, think tank says. |
Women in England's poorest areas die younger than nearly all other OECD countries
19/04/2022 Women living in the poorest parts of England have a lower life expectancy than women in living in almost any OECD country, new research has revealed. |
Cost of living crisis risks leaving levelling up ‘dead on arrival’
07/04/2022 The Government’s levelling up agenda could be undermined by a deepening North-South divide exacerbated by the cost of living crisis, a think tank has warned. |
Extra £4.7bn for schools unlikely to cover cost pressures
04/03/2022 Government ‘has little assurance’ the £4.7bn committed to schools in the 2021 spending review will cover the cost pressures that schools are facing, PAC warns. |
New taskforce aims to ‘level up’ maternity care
23/02/2022 Government launches taskforce aimed at tackling disparities in maternity care experienced by women from ethnic minority groups and those in deprived areas. |
Smoking 'single largest driver' of health inequalities
09/02/2022 A third of smoking households in England are living in poverty with rates highest in the North, a new study has revealed. |
Leads for reviews into health disparities confirmed
07/02/2022 The leads for two significant independent reviews to tackle health disparities have been confirmed. |
Rural health services need ‘levelling up’, MPs say
01/02/2022 Rural local authorities spend a disproportionately higher share of their budget on providing social care than their urban counterparts, MPs warn. |
Hearing loss more prevalent in the North, study reveals
25/01/2022 Northerners over 50 have a 13.5% higher prevalence of hearing loss than Southerners in England, University of Manchester researchers have revealed. |
Mind the gap between levelling up ‘rhetoric and reality’, think tank warns
17/01/2022 Central Government policies have undermined the ‘levelling up’ agenda and left the UK more regionally divided than ever, a new study says. |
‘Levelling up’ agenda undermined by pandemic response
14/12/2021 Incomes in London and the south-east have increased six times faster than in ‘red wall’ regions since the general election, new research reveals. |
Cities should be central to ‘levelling up’ agenda, think tank says
18/11/2021 The Government should focus on investing in cities outside of London rather than spreading investment too thinly across small towns, think tank recommends. |
Childhood obesity ‘one of the greatest public health challenges’
17/11/2021 Local authority leaders urge Government to do more to tackle childhood obesity as the NHS warns of a ‘significant increase’ in obesity rates among children. |
Councils to explore innovative ways of tackling health inequalities
20/10/2021 Five councils are to take part in a new programme which will see them introduce innovative ways of improving health and tackling health inequalities. |
Public health grant cuts run counter to levelling up, say experts
05/10/2021 Real terms cuts to local public health work against levelling up and the Government must boost funding after years of underinvestment, say two leading health organisations. |
Decade of improvement in life expectancy undone by pandemic, data reveals
24/09/2021 The pandemic has undone a decade of improvement in life expectancy, a health think tank has warned. |
Disadvantaged children ‘locked out’ of early years opportunities
19/08/2021 Research suggests Government’s policy of 30 hours of funded childcare for working parents has widened the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers. |
Pandemic hits disadvantaged pupils hardest, study reveals
07/06/2021 Disadvantaged pupils have experienced ‘greater learning losses’ than their more affluent peers, new research has found. |
New 'Singapore-style' Office will tackle leading health risks
29/03/2021 A new 'Singapore style' Office for Health Promotion will systematically tackle the ‘top preventable risk factors causing death and ill health in the UK’, the Government announced today. |
Budget 2021: Chancellor confirms £4.8bn ‘levelling up fund’
03/03/2021 Rishi Sunak has confirmed that the first round of the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund will be available to local areas to help tackle regional inequalities. |
Sport England unlocks additional £50m for grassroots sport
26/01/2021 Sport England has announced it will invest £50m to help grassroots sport and physical activity recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. |
Pushing for real reform
21/01/2021 The pandemic was a game changer for the central/local government relationship, says Joanne Roney, who has started her two-year stint as president of Solace. |
Professor Whitty warns of health inequalities across country
18/12/2020 Deprived areas have higher levels of ill-health and disease, a report has warned today. |
|
Commission calls for action to reduce mental health inequalities
12/11/2020 The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted existing inequalities in mental health, a new report has warned. |
|
Baroness Lawrence calls for urgent action to tackle structural racial inequalities
27/10/2020 Structural racism meant Black, Asian and minority ethnic people were disproportionately affected by the COVID pandemic, a new review has warned. |
|
COVID 'magnifying' health and care inequalities
16/10/2020 The coronavirus pandemic has ‘exacerbated’ existing problems in social care and magnified health inequalities, a report has warned today. |
|
Tackling inequality key for post-COVID recovery, say experts
30/09/2020 Safeguarding people's living standards, re-evaluating the role of key workers in society, and reducing inequality are ‘crucial’ for the UK’s economic recovery, researchers say. |
|
Racism raises the risk from COVID-19 for minorities
17/06/2020 Racism has raised the risk of people from black and ethnic minority communities developing COVID-19 and dying from the disease, says an official report. |
|
Contact tracing app could leave ‘many behind’ charity warns
03/06/2020 The government's contact tracing app could exacerbate existing health inequalities, a charity has warned today. |
|
London has highest poverty rates, report shows
21/04/2020 London has greater levels of poverty than any other region in the UK, new figures have revealed today. |
|
Government urged to 'think big' to tackle regional inequalities
02/03/2020 A comprehensive review of economic decline and social division has called for a ‘large-scale, comprehensive, long-term and devolved’ plan of action to deliver change. |
|
Minimum ‘basic’ income trial reports mixed results
26/02/2020 A pilot scheme assessing the impact of a minimum ‘basic’ income on poverty and inequality improves well-being but financial insecurities remain. |
|
Think tank calls for ‘Devolution Parliament’
21/02/2020 A think tank has called for a ‘Devolution Parliament’ as it releases research showing that England has the worst regional inequalities in the developed world. |
|
Charity warns of ‘deep’ health inequalities
20/02/2020 A charity has warned of ‘unacceptable’ health inequalities in how long and how healthy babies born today in different parts of England can expect to live. |
|
Commission calls for action on ‘unequal risk of mental ill health’
21/01/2020 Some groups of people have a much higher risk of poor mental health than others, the Commission for Equality in Mental Health has found. |
