The cabinet has been asked to give officers the green light to enter a contract and project agreement for disposal of waste at the site.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is set to appoint a contractor to run waste-to-energy services at the Hanford site for the next five years. The current contract ends at the end of March this year.
The cabinet has been asked to give officers the green light to enter a contract and project agreement for disposal of waste at the site.
The new operation and maintenance contract will ensure the current plan is capable of operating for a further five years, providing the best value and most environmentally sustainable means of disposing residual waste in the city.
The terms would include an option to extend for a further two years, if required.
The cabinet is also set to approve moving ahead with developing plans for the energy-from-waste facility post 2030.
The move will give the council certainty moving forward – providing the city with a cost-effective, efficient, centrally-located waste disposal service, while the new facility is developed.
Councillor Amjid Wazir OBE, cabinet member for city pride, enforcement and sustainability for Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said: “This announcement is great news Thanks to effective management and strategic investment in the facility, the plant has already reduced its emissions reduced by around 20 per cent over the last couple of years. At the same time, capacity and availability have increased. its also seen capacity and availability increase.
“While these improvements are significant, the plant is coming to the end of its useful life and we now need to start future planning for securing a replacement facility for the disposal of residual waste.
“The energy-from-waste site ensure almost no waste goes to landfill. In fact, the reduction is to just 0.1 per cent and provided the most cost-effective outcome ensuring financial resources can be protected for frontline services. Secure, low-cost carbon energy will be generated and made available for use within the city.”
More than £37,000 of illegal tobacco, vapes and cash was seized by Trading Standards officers during a recent operation.
The five-week operation during January and February saw officers from the Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service, supported by Devon and Cornwall Police and Avon and Somerset Police, look for illegal tobacco.
During the operation officers visited 14 shops across the region including in Brixham, Crediton, Kingsbridge, Newton Abbot, Paignton, Plymouth, Taunton, Teignmouth and Wellington.
They used detection dogs to look for hidden stashes.
Only one shop was found to not be selling illegal products. All but one of the 14 shops were found to be selling illegal products.
Alex Fry, Operations Manager for Heart of the South West Trading Standards, said: “The removal of illegal tobacco and vapes from the marketplace is a high priority for us and we have conducted a number of intelligence-led operations over the last few weeks.
“The service uses detection dogs so regardless of where it is hidden, in a storage container or retail premises, the dogs have the ability to sniff out even small quantities of tobacco and vapes that are hidden from view.
“The sale of counterfeit and illicit tobacco and illegal vapes is big business and those shops involved can undercut other local general stores who are trying to operate legally during difficult economic conditions.”
Councillor Sally Haydon, Cabinet member with responsibility for community safety, said: “We are working hard to make Plymouth a healthier city and removing cheap, illegal tobacco and vapes from our shops is a high priority.
“This is not a victimless crime. The availability of these products at pocket money prices encourages children to start smoking and vaping and the proceeds are often used to fund other criminal activities.
“We are finding increasingly elaborate methods to hide illegal tobacco but no matter where it’s hidden on the premises our detection dogs can find it.”
Investigations into those premises found selling the items are ongoing. To report concerns of counterfeit or other illegal products email [email protected] or phone 01392 383000.
The council’s Cabinet was today (Wednesday 19 February) expected approve a finance report that sets a balanced budget for 2025/26.
The report also reveals the council has reduced the amount it needs to save over the next 2 years from £32.6 million to £17.2 million by 2026/2027.
Council Leader Stephen Simkins said that despite the difficult financial climate, their priority remained delivering “what matters most to residents.”
He said: “Thanks to lots of hard work to deliver savings proposals and some additional funding from the new Government, we’ve been able to bring down our deficit.
“This doesn’t mean the financial challenges have gone away – far from it. There is still a lot of hard work to be done and more difficult decisions ahead, but we will never stop being ambitious for our city.
“By managing the financial challenge and making savings in some areas, we are able to invest more in what matters most to our residents.”
Independent Auditors Grant Thornton recently gave the council a ‘clean bill of health’ for its annual statement of accounts and said that it provided ‘value for money’ in its annual auditor’s report.
Councillor Louise Miles, Cabinet Member for Resources, said this demonstrated that the council managed public funds well and was open and transparent with residents on its spending plans.
She said: “I’m proud to set a balanced budget for the year ahead which means we will continue to deliver excellent services while having a positive impact on the lives of everyone who lives in our city.
“I’d like to thank residents for their understanding as we review and make changes to some of the services we deliver. I’d also like to thank those who responded to our budget consultation. Our engagement with residents is an ongoing process and we welcome everyone’s views on our plans.”
The budget report will now be debated at next week’s meeting of Full Council (Wednesday 26 February).
AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ashtrom Renewable Energy, a global independent power producer and renewable energy developer and subsidiary of Ashtrom Group, has signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to sell electricity to the municipality of San Antonio, Texas through CPS Energy, the city’s local utility company.
According to the signed agreement, CPS Energy (Aa2 Moody’s) will purchase approximately 70% of the electricity produced by the project, along with purchasing green certificates (RECs), for a period of 20 years at a predetermined fixed price. Under the agreement, Ashtrom has committed to achieve the commercial operation of the El Patrimonio project by the second half of 2027. The remaining electricity produced by the project is expected to be sold within Texas’s open electricity market. The project will produce electricity equivalent to the annual consumption for about 37,500 households.
“We are proud to announce a significant collaboration and the signing of an important agreement with CPS Energy, the largest municipal utility company in the U.S.,” said Yitsik Mermelstein, CEO of Ashtrom Renewable Energy. “The agreement is not only an expression of our great partnership with CPS Energy, but also a central pillar in realizing our strategic vision to expand renewable energy activities in the country. This step strengthens our position as a leading player in the industry and is a significant milestone in the company’s growth journey.”
El Patrimonio is Ashtrom’s second solar project in Texas, marking a key achievement for the company that further deepens its presence in the ERCOT market. The completion of the PPA is expected to accelerate the project’s development and construction processes. The solar project is expected to be constructed in Bexar County, Texas, with a planned capacity of approximately 150 megawatts (AC).
In addition to delivering electricity to San Antonio, the El Patrimonio project will support the local economy and community through educational activities. Ashtrom will establish an annual scholarship program, offer field tours of the El Patrimonio site for local students, and host job fairs on-site. Through these efforts, Ashtrom aims to enhance community knowledge of renewable energy and the role people can play in its future.
About Ashtrom Renewable Energy
Ashtrom Renewable Energy is delivering clean energy at scale. We build best-in-class renewable energy projects in the United States and around the globe. With a hands-on, risk-informed approach that emphasizes strategic and cost-effective execution, the company is an independent power producer (IPP) led by a team of energy experts with decades of experience in solar and wind siting, development, construction, financing, and operation. Ashtrom Renewable Energy leverages the financial stability and culture of excellence cultivated by Ashtrom Group (TASE: ASHG), a leading infrastructure, construction, and real estate development company with a 60-year legacy of success. With a development pipeline of ~1.8 GWdc in the U.S. and ~2.5 GWdc worldwide, Ashtrom Renewable Energy is poised to rapidly scale its development and investment activities in the U.S. market for the long term. Learn more about Ashtrom Renewable Energy at https://www.ashtromrenewableenergy.co.il/en
About Ashtrom Group Ashtrom is one of Israel’s leading construction and real estate companies whose shares are traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange 90 index The group operates in several operating sectors: Construction and infrastructure contracting in Israel – including, inter alia, residential and infrastructural contract constructions; Franchise – participation in tenders and executing planning, operations and financing activities for large-scale infrastructure and residential projects; Housing entrepreneurship in Israel, through Ashdar, a subsidiary that is a leader and among the oldest companies in the field; Investment and entrepreneurial real estate, through Ashtrom Properties, a subsidiary operating in Israel, Germany and England, holding and managing shopping malls and commercial centers, office buildings and employment centers, industrial structures and more; Industries – mainly manufacturing, marketing and selling raw materials to the construction industry and importing and marketing finishing products for the construction industry; Construction and infrastructures contracting abroad, as well as residential real estate development in the U.S. and Europe – performed by Ashtrom International; Renewable energy – investment in wind, solar, storage and other energy related projects in Israel and worldwide. Ashtrom Group chairperson is Mr. Rami Nussbaum, and the group’s CEO is Mr. Gil Gueron.
A new animal licensing policy looks set to be adopted which will help make things clearer for people who run businesses involving animals, such as dog breeding, boarding of cats and dogs, including day care for dogs, keeping or training animals for exhibition and hiring out horses.
The new policy, which comes into effect on 1 April, outlines our process for issuing an animal activities licence, but sets out clearly that applicants must:
have no relevant convictions
have not been disqualified from holding a licence
have the knowledge, experience, compliance history, and ability to comply with licence rules and safeguard the welfare of animals in their care
has made suitable management and training arrangements to safeguard and protect any staff and/or members of the public who may be affected by the licensed activity.
As part of this policy, all applicants and licence holders need to submit a basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, issued within three months before making an application.
The policy applies to both those looking to start a business and those already running one. For those already running a business, they will need to comply with the new requirements when they renew their licence.
There are 60 licensees in Plymouth:
selling animals as pets – ten
cat boarding – four
commercial day care – one
dog kennelling – one
dog breeding – six
home boarding – 36
animal exhibition – two
Currently, there is no database to track animal welfare offences and disqualifications related to animals. A DBS check will strengthen the council’s ability to determine whether someone is suitable to hold a licence, operate the business and comply with licence conditions.
There will also be a requirement for applicants to submit a written safeguarding policy and provide training for staff whose activities involve contact with children or vulnerable adults. Applicants and licence holders whose activities involve such contact must introduce a staff vetting procedure.
Councillor Sally Haydon, Cabinet Member with responsibility for licensing, said: “This is about making it absolutely clear what we expect from people who run businesses looking after animals. While the vast majority show the utmost professionalism, we are sadly all too aware of some awful cases where a quick buck trumps the welfare of the animals.
“It’s important that these rules are in place to protect animals from incidents like overbreeding, overcrowding when boarding and from people who aren’t aware of the rules that come with handling animals and the care that comes with it. Getting a licence is the first step if you’re thinking of starting a business which involves animals.”
A person who carries out a licensable activity without a licence commits a criminal offence and is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for up to six months, a fine or both.
If you think someone is unlicensed or have a complaint you can report the issue.
Inspectors visited the City of Wolverhampton Council run service last month and, in their report published this week, praised consistently high attendance across all courses. Students ‘enjoy their studies’, ‘learn in a calm and purposeful environment’, ‘develop their confidence and feel well supported by staff’.
Students who are looking for employment or higher skilled jobs receive ‘specialist high quality careers advice and guidance’, with a high proportion of students achieving their learning goals and being well prepared for their next steps.
Students benefit from Adult Education Wolverhampton’s links with employers or community groups. The service also provides ‘positive learning opportunities for families in local schools’.
Inspectors concluded that Wolverhampton Adult Education Service continues to be a good provider.
Anna Place, Deputy Head of Service said: “The service aims to continuously improve, and the inspectors recognised our strengthened quality assurance and improvement strategies that have supported high levels of achievement.”
Councillor Chris Burden, the council’s Cabinet Member for City Development, Jobs and Skills, said: “This is great news and I’m delighted that the inspectors have continued to recognise the enthusiasm, dedication and expertise that our teachers and the wider service brings to adult students across the city each and every day.
“Providing good quality education and training for all our residents to learn and grow, increasing their employability and wellbeing, whatever their age or situation, is a key commitment in Our City: Our Plan, and I’m pleased that Adult Education Wolverhampton is continuing to help us deliver on that pledge.
“A recent survey found that 99% of students would recommend Adult Education Wolverhampton to their friends and family, and I would urge residents to take full advantage of the opportunities available.”
To find out more about courses available through Adult Education Wolverhampton, please visit Adult Education Wolverhampton, call 01902 558180 or attend the next open day taking place on Saturday 21 June.
Manchester City Council is set to invest around £5 million extra funding to keep neighbourhoods clean, green and tidy.
The move, proposed in newly-published reports about the Council’s 2025/26 budget to be considered at its Executive meeting on 19 February, will be funded from Manchester’s £5.4 million share of a rebate to councils from Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s waste reserve which was announced last week.
The extra funding, to be spent over three years, will be used to improve and support the upkeep of neighbourhoods across the city. In the council’s recent budget consultation this was the top priority identified by residents – with 77.5% of residents putting it among the issues which mattered the most to them.
£4.6 million of the extra funding will be invested to boost services to keep neighbourhoods clean, including cleaning, combatting flytipping, maintenance of green spaces and leaf collection.
A further £400,000 will be used to overturn a decision taken last year to start charging for replacement recycling bins which would have applied from this April.
The remainder will be invested in other neighbourhood priorities including an extra £338,000 towards improved enforcement to tackle damp and mould in private rented sector properties.
While significant challenges remain, the Council’s position has improved since planning for its 2025/26 budget began in spring 2024. At that point the then Government had indicated there would be real terms funding cuts for local government which, together with emerging pressures, would have required deep cuts.
The incoming Government’s Autumn Statement reversed this position with a real terms increase in Core Spending Power instead. The Government’s financial settlement for the Council, which it received just before Christmas, was better than expected with a number of increases, especially in recognition of the nationwide pressures in social care. Manchester’s Core Spending Power increase of 10.4% is the highest nationally, reflecting a ministerial decision to direct resources to places with high deprivation levels and low council taxbases which had been the hardest hit since 2010.
This has meant that while £18.2m of savings from previously published savings identified for 2025/26 are required, the Council will be able to set a balanced budget for 2025/26 which also takes account of ongoing pressures. The savings relate to efficiencies and increased income generation not service reductions.
The budget assumes a 4.99% increase in the Council’s element of Council Tax, 2% of which is specifically to support adult social care.
Council Leader Cllr Bev Craig said: “We are still dealing with the brutal legacy of 14 years of austerity and cuts to our funding under the previous Government, and that can’t be turned around overnight.
“But the improved funding under the current Government, which recognises this legacy, is a step in the right direction. Together with our careful planning, it means we’re able to bring forward a budget which looks to make lives better and improve the city.”
Councillor Rabnawaz Akbar, Executive Member for Finance, said: “Residents told us loud and clear in our recent budget consultation that keeping neighbourhoods clean was their top priority and we have responded to that with this extra investment.
“We are pleased to be in a position where can deliver a budget that works for Manchester people.”
A recent event in Derby brought together community groups, sustainability experts, and local organisations to explore key topics in community-led sustainability efforts. The event facilitated conversations on funding, decarbonisation, renewable energy, community engagement, and sustainable transport solutions.
Delegates were able to hear from topic experts, engage with case studies, and participate in meaningful discussions aimed at driving action and collaboration within their communities.
As part of the event, attendees were able to take part in table discussions guided by facilitators, ensuring that key insights, innovative ideas, and critical challenges were captured and shared.
The event aimed to provide community groups with the knowledge and resources to take action on pressing sustainability issues. By fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing, the event hoped to empower communities to drive change at a local level.
Key topics at the event included:
Community funding and creating bids
Decarbonising community buildings and local homes
Local sustainable transport and travel
Local Area Energy Planning
Joanna Watson, Founder of Darley Community Energy Ltd commented:
“The Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Community Event was packed full of interesting speakers and representatives from across the Community Energy sector. Of particular interest was insight into the Local Area Energy Plan consultation process and that Community Energy groups are recognised as key stakeholders. It was good to see many familiar faces from across the sector sharing their work, and also a great networking opportunity.”
Peter Burgess-Allen, Project Manager and Development Lead at Marches Energy Agency added:
“A lot of my work at Marches Energy Agency involves talking to community activists or council officers, and sometimes managing to get them together. It was great to see community groups given a platform to share their work and hear about council strategy to tackle emissions, in the same space. I look forward to more debate and interaction going forwards!”
Councillor Carmel Swan, Derby City Council Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Transport and Sustainability said:
“Community groups are a vital part of our journey to net-zero and really hold the key to accelerating projects in their local area. This event showed that we’re lucky to have lots of engaged communities in the area and I look forward to taking forward the learning and knowledge shared at the event.”
The event was funded by Fast Followers, part of Innovate UK’s Net Zero Living Programme, designed to help places and businesses across the UK to accelerate the delivery of the transition to Net Zero.
The event was hosted by a partnership of Derby City Council, Derbyshire County Council, Nottingham City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, Rushcliffe Borough Council, Gedling Borough Council and Broxtowe Borough Council.
Norovirus, also known as the winter vomiting bug, is a stomach bug that causes sickness and diarrhoea. It can be very unpleasant, but most people will make a full recovery within 2 or 3 days without needing any medicine.
However, some groups – including young children, the elderly or those with weakened immunity – are at risk of suffering more serious and prolonged illness, which may require medical treatment.
Symptoms include feeling sick, being sick and diarrhoea, as well as a raised temperature, headache, tummy pain and body aches. The virus can easily spread from person to person through hand to mouth contact and can be picked up by touching infected surfaces such as equipment, hands, toys or dirty nappies or from eating food prepared or handled by someone with norovirus.
Councillor Jasbir Jaspal, the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Cabinet Member for Adults and Wellbeing, said: “Norovirus is highly contagious and can spread rapidly anywhere that people are gathered, such as hospitals, schools or offices, especially during colder weather.
“If you have norovirus, avoid visiting people in hospitals and care homes to prevent passing on the infection in these settings.
“Do not return to work, school or nursery until 48 hours after your symptoms have stopped and do not prepare food for others in that time either, because the virus can still be passed on in the days after you stop being sick.
“Washing your hands frequently with soap and warm water is the best way to stop it spreading; this is particularly important after an episode of illness, after using the toilet, before eating or preparing food.”
If you are concerned about symptoms talk to your GP by phone, contact NHS 111. For more information on how to help yourself or your family members recover from norovirus, visit NHS | Norovirus (vomiting bug).
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Adam Crawford, Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice, University of Leeds, and Chair in Policing and Social Justice, University of York
The UK government has doubled the additional funding for neighbourhood policing in England and Wales to £200 million. This is to support its commitment to putting 13,000 new police officers on the streets.
High-profile cases and scandals have eroded trust in police in the UK. According to some metrics, it is at its lowest level in 20 years. But the key to repairing it could be through neighbourhood policing. After all, this is where most people’s interactions with police happen.
The government clearly understands this, hence the extra funding – but how do we make sure that the new recruits are delivering a good policing service?
My colleagues and I within the Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre (University of York and University of Leeds) have recently published research that shows police are failing to meet the public’s minimum standards of service delivery.
With Professor Ben Bradford, we developed a framework for a “minimum policing standard”. This is a list of things that members of the public, when asked, think the police should simply be able to do as a minimum standard under normal circumstances.
We asked focus groups around the country – a total of 93 people – to identify what “good” or “effective” policing meant to them. Members of the public felt very strongly that, at minimum, police should be responsive, fair and respectful, as well as engaged and visibly present.
Interestingly, people were more concerned with how policing is conducted, the quality of the treatment people receive, and the relationship between the police and the communities they serve, than with particular outcomes.
The three areas that our respondents thought were most important to the minimum standard were:
Response: the way police respond to calls for service, follow up and address crime.
Behaviour and treatment: the ways officers and the police as an organisation treat individuals and communities.
Presence and engagement of police in neighbourhoods.
How are the police doing?
We then conducted a nationally representative survey of 1,484 respondents across Britain, and found that they viewed police to be failing across all three areas.
Less than 30% of people were confident that police are open and transparent with the decisions they make, prioritise the crimes most affecting the respondents’ community, and provide adequate follow-up after a crime has been committed.
While a majority of our respondents had confidence that police would treat people with respect, less than half thought that police were good role models, or that they built good relationships with the community or with young people. However, the public still retained significant trust in the idea of “the police” as a whole – which gives me and my colleagues hope that things can improve.
The government’s efforts to reverse declining confidence in police focus on three aspects: internal reform, fighting crime and revitalising neighbourhood policing. Though all of these are important, our research suggests that the last is the most vital.
Trust in police has consequences for crime too. Research shows that people are more likely to report crime and cooperate with investigations when they feel that the police are fair and respectful.
Declining officer numbers and experience
Between 2010 and 2018, police officer numbers declined from 143,734 to 122,405 across England and Wales, an overall loss of over 21,000 officers. Since 2019, this has increased back up to 147,746 by March 2024. But it means that we now have a police workforce that is both younger and less experienced. In March 2024, more than one in three police officers had less than five years’ service.
The Home Office said that the additional £100 million in funding “reflects the scale of the challenges that many forces face” in building out their neighbourhood policing teams. This funding is to help them reach the aim of putting those extra 13,000 officers on the street by 2029.
But these new recruits will again be inexperienced, and may not have developed the appropriate social, interpersonal and problem-solving skills to ensure that standards are met in all instances. This could lead to mistakes that set public confidence and trust in policing back further.
One way to address this would be to limit the range of social problems that police are expected to respond to. Too often, the police are called upon to manage a host of social ills and vulnerable people. They are often filling gaps left by the withdrawal of other public and third sector services, such as mental health services, exacerbated by austerity.
Yet there has been little critical assessment of what problems the state is asking the police to solve, and whether the police are really the best suited to solve them. Greater clarity about the limited role of the police would help avoid raising unrealistic expectations, and focus attention on the minimum standards that people want from local policing.
Our research suggests that if police meet a minimum standard in their neighbourhood interactions with the public (the small things), then the public will be more likely to trust police to be fair and trustworthy when it comes to big and complex things like serious organised crime, counter-terrorism and violent offending.
Adam Crawford receives funding from ESRC, Centre Grant number: ES/W002248/1.
He is a member of the Police Science Council, a publicly appointed committee that is one of the Scientific Advisory Councils of the UK government, which provides independent advice to the National Police Chiefs’ Council in the UK on science, technology, analysis and research matters relevant to policing policy and operations.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Gleb Redko, PhD Researcher in Punk, Brutalism & Psychogeography, School of Architecture Art & Design, University of Portsmouth
With ten Oscar nominations, The Brutalist has reignited the debate over the legacy of brutalism. The polarising architectural style was shaped by post-war hopes for a better future. But it was also, as historian Adrian Forty argues in his book Concrete and Culture (2012), an “expression of melancholy, the work of a civilisation that had all but destroyed itself in the second world war”.
The fictional architect at centre of The Brutalist, László Tóth, is an Austro-Hungarian modernist and concentration-camp survivor who moves to America to rebuild his life. His designs, described as “machines”, are inspired by the trauma of camps like Buchenwald and Dachau.
Emerging from the rubble of the second world war, brutalism became an architectural response to devastation and the pressing need for urban renewal. The destruction caused by the Blitz provided architects with opportunities to design environments reflecting the ideals of the new welfare state: equality, accessibility and functionality for the collective good.
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This ethical foundation aimed to address the social needs of the post-war era, particularly in housing, education and public welfare infrastructure. Notable examples of the style include the Barbican estate and Southbank Centre in London.
Architectural critic Reyner Banham, who coined the term brutalism in his 1966 work Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic, argued that the movement was more than an aesthetic choice. He championed the work of Alison and Peter Smithson, young British architects who played a crucial role in shaping brutalism through projects like Robin Hood Gardens in London’s Tower Hamlets. For Banham, brutalism was an ethical stance and a form of “radical philosophy” aiming to address the social needs of the post-war era.
The brutalist style has, however, often been criticsed for what many perceived to be its unappealing, “ugly” aesthetic and alienating qualities. In 1988, King Charles famously compared the National Theatre in London to a nuclear plant, encapsulating the public’s mixed reactions. Similarly the situationists (a French anti-capitalist art movement) denounced brutalist housing estates as “machines for living”. They saw them as oppressive structures that stifled human connection.
The perception of brutalism is highly dependent on context. In warmer climates like Marseille in France, the play of sunlight on raw concrete gave structures a sculptural quality. In the UK’s wet climate, however, exposed concrete weathered quickly, making buildings appear grey and neglected.
Yet for brutalist architects, this was never just about aesthetics. They saw their designs as expressions of honesty and social progress, rejecting ornamentation in favour of raw, functional materials that symbolised a new egalitarian society. The very qualities that critics saw as oppressive were, to its proponents, what made brutalism a radical and hopeful architecture.
Rebellion and reclamation
Despite their ethical intentions, brutalist buildings often appeared to have an alienating impact on their residents. In his book Making Dystopia (2018), architectural historian James Stevens Curl discusses the Canada Estate in Bermondsey, London, built in 1964, where tenants expressed their disaffection for the environment through acts of vandalism.
By the 1970s, the optimism surrounding modernist and brutalist projects had begun to collapse, both figuratively and literally. One of the most infamous moments symbolising this failure was the Ronan Point disaster in 1968. A gas explosion on the 18th floor of this newly built tower block in east London caused a partial collapse. Four people were killed and serious concerns were raised about the safety and quality of post-war high-rise housing.
This tragedy pushed the Clash’s Joe Strummer to write one of the band’s most notable songs, London’s Burning, in 1976. In the late 1970s and 1980s, punks splattered brutalist architecture with graffiti slogans echoing situationist critiques of modern urban life.
Some referenced punk band names or song lyrics, showing how punk didn’t just adopt the attitude of the situationists but also their language and tactics. Jamie Reid, the architect of the Sex Pistols’ aesthetic, often used images of brutalist structures as a stark backdrop to his punk visuals.
The punk movement reinterpreted the failure of brutalism not just as an architectural problem but as a broader societal collapse, highlighting issues of alienation, neglect and the erosion of post-war utopian ideals.
Yet, in recent years, the brutalist aesthetic has found a new audience. Online communities, such as Reddit’s 1.5 million-member r/EvilBuildings reflect on buildings and surroundings captured by community members and the impressions these structures leave. Brutalist buildings frequently top the list.
This renewed interest highlights the complex legacy of a style that was once widely criticised but continues to captivate a broader audience beyond architects.
Brutalism’s dual legacy, a movement intended to create community but often seen as alienating, continues to shape debates in architecture and urban planning. The controversial nature of this style is evident in the demolition of prominent structures like the Smithsons’ Robin Hood Gardens (2018), the Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth (2004), and the currently ongoing demolition of Cumbernauld town centre in central Scotland.
These demolitions highlight both brutalism’s polarised reception and the public reassessment of its value. These spaces are more than just concrete. They are sites of memory, rebellion, and ongoing cultural significance, continuously shaping and being shaped by the society around them.
Gleb Redko does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Officers from the Environment Agency are hosting two events where residents can view final designs for the scheme, ask any questions and meet the project team.
On Thursday 27 February and Thursday 6 March, designs will be displayed at Hebden Bridge Town Hall.
People are invited to pop in from 12pm to 8pm to view the designs and ask any questions, prior to the main planning application being submitted to the council.
Environment Agency work to reduce flood risk from the River Calder and Hebden Water will consist of raising and strengthening river walls, using glass panels and raising barriers to minimise any intrusion on the iconic views for those living on the riverside.
Working in partnership with Calderdale Council, the Hebden Bridge Flood Alleviation Scheme is designed to reduce flood risk from the River Calder and Hebden Water.
Jo Arnold, Calderdale Programme and Partnership Manager at the Environment Agency, said:
We are really pleased to share our plans for the Hebden Bridge Flood Alleviation Scheme with the local community and we’d encourage all residents to attend to see what the final designs entail, ask questions and provide comment, prior to our plans being submitted for planning approval.
It’s a great opportunity to see the designs in detail, find out what the work will entail, ask any questions and speak directly with the team behind the project.
This scheme will play a key role in better protecting homes, businesses, and critical infrastructure across the town and support their long-term resilience against flooding.
Information on preparing for flooding
Environment Agency officers will also be on hand to help anyone who’d like information on how to be prepared for flooding, provide practical advice, and help people sign up for flood warnings.
Even with flood defences in place, people can never be fully protected against flooding, so the Environment Agency always urge people to check their risk and sign up to flood warnings.
Calderdale Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Action and Housing, Cllr Scott Patient, said:
It’s great news that the Hebden Bridge Flood Alleviation Scheme is reaching the final stages of development and crucial that we now move into delivery. I hope people take the time to find out more about the plans to better protect the town from flooding.
It’s now nearly ten years since Storm Eva and five years since Storm Ciara caused significant flooding in the upper valley, but the risk is ever present, and we continue to work in partnership to minimise risk and build resilience.
The planning application is expected to be submitted later this summer. It is anticipated that pre-construction preparation work will commence later in 2025.
Hebden Bridge Flood Information Centre on Valley Road continues to open on Mondays and Fridays from 10am to 2pm where people can get any further information.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Latest information and actions from the Education and Skills Funding Agency for academies, schools, colleges, local authorities and further education providers.
Climate action must benefit all of Scotland, says First Minister.
First Minister John Swinney has vowed that he will take a collaborative approach to tackling the climate and nature emergency, and that the transition to net zero ‘will abandon no community’.
Addressing key climate stakeholders at the Glasgow Botanic Gardens, the First Minister said that despite the many examples of government supported actions and projects that are contributing to a more climate resilient Scotland, there is much more to be done.
He also called once again on the UK Government to at least match the Scottish Government’s investment in securing a future for the Grangemouth refinery.
The First Minister said:
“This transition will abandon no community. The importance of safeguarding jobs and livelihoods has never been more stark than in the immediacy of the situation at Grangemouth.
“If we are going to ensure a future for the site, opportunities for its highly skilled workforce, investment is needed now. That is why yesterday, I announced that the Scottish Government will amend the 2025-26 Budget at this late stage to allocate an additional £25 million for a Just Transition Fund for Grangemouth.
“Today, I urge the UK Government to at least match our funding – and to use the powers they have to go further. If this is a Government for the United Kingdom, then Scotland should be getting its fair share of UK-wide investments.”
The First Minister added:
“If we are to persuade people to back climate action wholeheartedly, we must speak not only of the costs and challenges – which there will be – but also demonstrate clear and direct household and community benefits where these are possible. Tangible benefits at home, in terms of more jobs, lower energy bills, and new economic opportunities, delivering also tangible benefits for the planet.
“My approach to Government has always been collaboration, which is why I want this to be the start of an ongoing conversation, with a focus on action, on delivery. I believe that we can only make the progress, and map out the next necessary steps on our climate journey, by bringing together local and central Government, agencies, stakeholders, trade unions, community organisations, and the wider public.”
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Scientists comment on the expansion of the OpenSAFELY data platform.
Prof Andrew Morris, Director of HDR UK, said:
“OpenSAFELY is an excellent example of what is possible when we get health data right with the confidence of patients, the public and health professionals. Access to comprehensive GP data across all of England is a great step forward for safe and approved research. GP data offers greater breadth and depth than hospital data, providing a detailed picture of people’s health over time. Many common conditions, like arthritis, depression and back pain are mostly managed by GPs, so this data is vital for research that can improve care for millions.
“The OpenSAFELY platform is one that proved its worth during the pandemic, giving us much needed knowledge about COVID-19. It permits researchers to work with the information the data provides – while preventing them from accessing the data itself. Now by moving beyond COVID-19, researchers will be able to uncover groundbreaking insights that can improve the health and well-being of countless individuals. Significant challenges remain – the system is still evolving, with much work still to be done. But as OpenSAFELY and other initiatives show, the UK has both the skills and the will to make it work.
“The UK has long been a global leader in health data research. But to stay ahead, we must make coordinated investments in secure data infrastructure if data driven research is to power improvements in patient care, public health, NHS efficiency, clinical trials and enable medical discovery. This includes secure data sharing with flagship programmes such as Our Future Health, UK Biobank and Genomics England.”
Professor Sir Rory Collins, Principal Investigator and CEO of UK Biobank, said:
“The expansion of OpenSAFELY should be welcomed as it enhances an innovative and useful tool for health researchers working on GP data. However, the most significant leaps in scientific discovery will come from comparing many different types of data simultaneously, and at scale. For example, the 20,000 researchers who use UK Biobank can analyse over 10,000 variables on many of our 500,000 volunteers, with whole genome sequencing being just one of those.
“It is this ability to study the genetic, imaging, lifestyle, secondary and – soon – primary care data in combination that is so vital for research. That’s why we’ve seen over 14,000 peer-reviewed papers published using UK Biobank data, including developments that should lead to better diagnostics and treatments for conditions such as diabetes, dementia and heart disease.
“GP data is a critical national asset, and both researchers and patients will benefit from this expansion. The next step is adding consented GP data to larger datasets, and we at UK Biobank are delighted to be working with NHS England to add the de-identified primary care data of our 500,000 volunteers.”
Prof Sheila Bird, Honorary Professor, University of Edinburgh’s College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine; and Visiting Senior Fellow at the MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge, University of Cambridge, said:
“Dr. (now Professor) Ben Goldacre, a physician by profession, was first to receive the Royal Statistical Society’s Award for Statistical Excellence in Journalism for his Bad Science column in the Guardian.
“Professor Goldacre, who authored the Goldacre Review in 2022 [1] is against Bad Science. But he is staunchly for properly-approved record-linkages which respect patient confidentiality: and his team at OpenSafely have worked, during SARS-CoV-2 and since, to deliver just that. The delivery is a work in progress, as the excellent video about OpenSafely makes clear. Hence, my comment is about elements of enhanced delivery.
“First, as the Royal Statistical Society has argued for since swine-flu in 2009/10, the public – and OpenSafely – need legislation to end the late registration of fact-of-death in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Only in Scotland, in our dis-United Kingdom, is fact-of-death registered, by law, within 8 days of death having been ascertained. OpenSafely for E&W urgently needs prompt and proper registration of fact-of-death which – for inquest deaths – is delayed by months or years [2].
“Second, since one of five deaths aged 5-44 years in E&W is not registered for at least 6 months [2], ending the late registration of deaths is essential if we are to learn by OpenSafely’s research how to prevent or reduce premature mortality such as deaths due to suicide or addictions.
“Third, analysts – including biostatisticians such as I – need to know in more detail about the random generators that OpenSafely uses for creating its pseudo-data, on which, as a biostatistician, I would develop and test my analysis routines. In particular, real data are often more complex in structure than statistical approximations to them in terms of their distribution (eg lognormal distribution assumed but the actual ln-data are not normally-distributed) or correlation structure. Analysts typically need to check assumptions on real data but may be writing checking-code based on approximations. For the checking-code to be incisive enough, analysts may need to understand in some detail the “random generation” processes.
“Fourthly, enhancements to OpenSafely may lead to important evolution in how some data are recorded by general practitioners. For example, when Gao et al. used record-linkage within Scotland’s safe-haven to analyse the methadone-specific death-rate and other opioid-related deaths in Scotland’s Methadone Client Cohort (2009-2015)[4], we found that the available data were quantity of methadone prescribed (not daily-dose) and reimbursement date (not prescription end-date) because those quantities were the data needed to audit the reimbursement of pharmacists[5]. By contrast, guidelines on safe prescribing of methadone are written in terms of daily-dose!
“Finally, the precautions built-into OpenSafely may mean that patients who registered objection to the use of their GP-data by care.data or the subsequent attempted grab during SARS-CoV-2 (which also failed) may wish to re-consider their objection. How does one do so?
Bird SM. Editorial: Counting the dead properly and promptly. Journal of the Royal Statistics Society Series A 2013; 176: 815 – 817.
Bird SM. End late registration of fact-of-death in England and Wales. Lancet 2015: 385: 1830 – 1831.
Bird SM. Everyone counts – so count everyone in England and Wales. Lancet 2016: 387: 25 – 26. Gao L, Robertson JR,
Bird SM. Scotland’s 2009-2015 methadone-prescription cohort: quintiles for daily-dose of prescribed methadone and risk of methadone-specific death. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 2020; accepted 12 June 2020; https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.14432.
This was announced at an SMC Press Briefing, and was accompanied by a funding announcement from Wellcome. The embargo lifted at 11:30am on Wednesday 19th February.
Declared interests:
Prof Andrew Morris “Andrew Morris is Director of Health Data Research UK, the national institute for health data science; is Professor of Medicine and Vice Principal at the University of Edinburgh; is President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, has minority (
Prof Sir Rory Collins “I am CEO and PI of UK Biobank, which is a Charitable Company established as a Joint Venture by the MRC and Wellcome. I have been in that role since September 2005, seconded 60%FTE from the University of Oxford where I am Head of the Nuffield Department of Population Health (which, along with other research organisations globally, benefits from using the UK Biobank – without any preferential access – for health-related research that is in the public interest).”
Prof Sheila Bird “has 30-years of experience of confidential record-linkage; & leads for Royal Statistical Society on need for legislation to end late registration of fact-of-death in E&W and Northern Ireland.”
The independent committee provides advice to the Department for Transport (DfT) on the transport needs of disabled people – particularly on ministerial policy priorities and areas they think need urgent attention.
Their works helps DfT stand by its ambition to ensure transport is accessible for all, including keeping it at the heart of bus and rail reform, as well as the establishment of the Passenger Standards Authority.
Local Transport Minister, Simon Lightwood, said:
We are clear in our ambition to have an inclusive transport network so disabled people can travel easily confidently and with dignity. DPTAC has a key role in ensuring we develop policy that delivers this.
This unique committee has membership with broad understanding of the barriers faced by disabled people and it ensures those issues are understood right from the start of policy development.
The new members of DPTAC are:
Damian Joseph Bridgeman – prominent leader in public policy, disability advocacy, and corporate governance
Mark Cutter – Chair of Northern’s Accessibility User Group (NAUG) and the Rail Accessibility and Inclusion Forum for the North (RAIFN)
Carly Danesh Jones – autism advocate who has previously held advisory roles with Heathrow Airport and East Midlands Rail
Mary Doyle – coach who advises multinational companies on inclusivity and accessibility policy
Paul Finnegan – Chief Executive of suicide prevention charity Lighthouse
Dr Miro Griffiths – disability scholar at the University of Leeds
Prof Mari Martiskainen – Professor of Energy and Society at Science Policy Research Unit within the University of Sussex
Rachael Mole – consultant and advisor within accessibility and people management
Ruth Murran – english and drama teacher with life-long experience of global travel
Maral Nozratzadeh – postgraduate researcher at the University of Leeds School of Law
David Sindall – previously Head of Disability and Inclusion for the Association of Train Operating Companies for 12 years
Zamila Skingsley– former Cabinet Office Director
Edward Trewhella – Chief Executive at Driving Mobility
DPTAC has helped to inform DfT’s work to improve transport accessibility, including the Access For All programme which has made over 260 train stations accessible, as well as the Aviation Accessibility Task and Finish Group that was launched by DfT in November 2024.
It has also helped inform bus and coach policy, including the Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations 2023 that require operators of local bus and coach services to provide information on the route, direction of travel and each upcoming stop.
DPTAC chair, Matthew Campbell-Hill, said:
I am delighted to welcome our new DPTAC members, who bring a wealth of diverse experiences and expertise.
Their insights will be invaluable as we work together to remove barriers and improve accessibility across our transport network. By harnessing this collective knowledge, we can drive meaningful change and ensure that transport truly works for everyone.
Existing member Sue Sharp, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Society for Blind Children, has also been appointed the group’s Deputy Chair.
Those appointed to DPTAC serve terms of 2 to 3 years.
Under the Transport Act 1985, DPTAC’s membership should have between 10 and 20 members, excluding its chair. These appointments bring DPTACs membership to a total of 17.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
CMA independent inquiry group’s initial assessment is that GXO’s purchase of Wincanton is likely to reduce competition in the supply of dedicated warehousing services to UK grocers.
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The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) independent inquiry group’s initial assessment is that GXO’s purchase of Wincanton is likely to reduce competition in the supply of dedicated warehousing services to grocery customers in the UK.
Logistics, including warehousing, is essential to the operation of supermarkets and many other businesses in the UK. Efficient logistics systems help to lower costs for both businesses and consumers and ensure that products are available in stores when needed.
GXO and Wincanton are currently two of the three suppliers of dedicated warehousing services used by grocers in the UK. The inquiry group considers that some alternatives would remain for supermarket customers following the transaction, in particular they could switch to the third supplier, DHL, and some could switch some of their activities to their own in-house warehouses. The inquiry group’s initial assessment, however, is that these remaining alternatives would not be sufficient to prevent fees rising and that the deal could raise costs for grocers that rely on dedicated warehousing services as part of their logistics.
Richard Feasey, Chair of the independent inquiry group, said:
Contract logistics services play a critical role in ensuring that supermarket shelves are fully stocked for customers in the UK every day of the year. Our initial view is that this merger could raise the costs of these services and reduce choice for supermarkets who rely on these services for moving goods across the country.
We want to ensure competition in this market is working as well as it can to manage costs for supermarkets and grocers, and ensure products continue to reach supermarket shelves efficiently.
The CMA invites any interested parties to respond to these provisional findings by no later than 5pm on Wednesday 12 March 2025.
GXO announced its deal to acquire Wincanton in February 2024. The deal was then completed in April 2024, although an interim enforcement order (IEO) is in place to prevent the 2 organisations integrating while the CMA conducts its merger review.
Contract logistics services (CLS) encompass a range of B2B and B2C supply chain-related services, which enable businesses to supply goods to customers and consumers. These services include transport and distribution, warehousing and additional value-added services.
The interim report contains the inquiry group’s provisional findings on whether the merger gives rise, or may be expected to give rise, to a substantial lessening of competition in any market in the UK.
The inquiry group also assessed other areas of CLS including the supply of transport services and shared warehousing. At this stage, the inquiry group has not found significant competition concerns in relation to those markets.
CLS to retail customers includes the provision of services to customers whose products are consumer-facing such as groceries or fashion and apparel. This includes products that are ordered online, products that sell quickly and have a short shelf life due to high consumer demand or perishability (known as Fast Moving Consumer Goods), and products that require temperature-controlled logistic services (including certain food and drink products). CLS to non-retail customers involves the provision of services to customers whose products and services are not consumer-facing, such as automotive, construction, energy and manufacturing businesses.
The inquiry group analysed evidence which showed that customers often prioritise reputation, reliability and track record when choosing CLS providers. Despite there being other alternatives in the CLS market, GXO and Wincanton (alongside DHL) are regarded as leading suppliers of mainstream CLS services, particularly for warehousing for grocery retail customers. The evidence shows that customers’ preference for suppliers with a track record creates a barrier to entry and expansion for smaller providers.
All media enquiries should be directed to the CMA press office by email on press@cma.gov.uk or by phone on 020 3738 6460.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A study published in The Lancet Public Health looks at life expectancy changes across 20 European countries from 1990-2020.
Prof Jennifer Dowd, Professor of Demography and Population Health, University of Oxford, said:
Does the press release accurately reflect the science?
“While accurate overall, the press release at times oversimplifies and overstates the conclusions of the paper, including the press release title: “We are no longer living longer.” The paper looks at mortality trends from 1990-2021 and finds slowing improvements in life expectancy in the decade prior to COVID–but improvements still mean we are living longer. Life expectancy declined due to COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, but this is likely a temporary shock and doesn’t mean we will die sooner than our parents and grandparents, as implied. The press release also states that food, physical activity, and obesity are largely to blame for these trends, but this overstates what we can confidently say about these causes.”
Is this good quality research? Are the conclusions backed up by solid data?
“This is good quality research, especially in the standard estimation of life expectancy trends and the causes of death contributing to these trends. The part of the analysis that tries to attribute slower mortality improvements to specific risk factors such as cholesterol, hypertension, and “dietary risks” is on shakier ground. The estimates used for this part of the analysis were based on different data and analysis that are not discussed in detail here. The estimation of how risk factors such as diet causally impact mortality is methodologically very challenging, and there is a lot of uncertainty about any single estimate. In addition, the population-representative data on the prevalence and trends of these risk factors across all the countries is not readily available. Putting these two sources of uncertainty together means it is very difficult to attribute country-level life expectancy trends to specific risk factors with high confidence. The “under the hood” part of how these estimates are produced is largely glossed over in the paper, but they are presented as established facts.”
How does this work fit with the existing evidence?
Have the authors accounted for confounders? Are there important limitations to be aware of?
“The portion of the paper attributing life expectancy changes to specific risk factors like diet and physical activity is based on other analyses that are highly vulnerable to bias due to confounding. The conclusions for this portion of the analysis should be tempered.”
What are the implications in the real world? Is there any overspeculation?
“We are seeing slowdowns in life expectancy improvements after decades of often rapid gains. But even slow improvements mean we are living longer on average. Slowing improvements may be a warning sign of things to come, so we need to continue tracking these trends. This paper makes strong statements about the specific risk factors responsible for slowing life expectancy improvements, including obesity, high cholesterol, and “occupational risks.” While these risk factors are no doubt important for health, we can’t say with certainty how each one contributes to these trends.”
How confident can we be as to the causes of the decline in life expectancy in England?
“The reported decline in life expectancy in England was only during COVID. Prior to that there were slower improvements in life expectancy compared to the previous period and compared to other countries. There is not broad agreement on the cause of these slowdowns, as it is difficult to directly test mechanisms such as austerity cuts. We have good evidence that the slower improvements were largely attributable to slowing improvements in cardiovascular disease, as well as some increases in external cause mortality such as drug deaths at younger ages and midlife. For more thorough examinations, please see paper here and here.”
Could these trends be potentially linked to current state of NHS/ waiting lists? Also could the use of weight-loss drugs potentially help reverse this trend if they tackle rising obesity rates?
“Challenges with the NHS are one potential contributor to mortality trends in England, but the size of their contribution is not well established. These trends likely reflect much longer-term trends in risk factors such as obesity that accumulate over time. Since the obesity epidemic is now many decades old, more people are entering midlife and older age having been obese for a long time, which could be contributing to these trends. There is cautious optimism that the new GLP-1 class of diabetes and weight-loss drugs could be a game-changer for treating obesity have some long-term benefits for life expectancy, though more evidence is needed to confirm this.”
Dr Yize Wan, NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Intensive Care Medicine & Anaesthesia, William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI), Queen Mary University London (QMUL), said:
“The reasons for these findings are complex and likely to be a combination of both individual risk factors from health behaviours and the need to improve access and delivery of healthcare systems. This study has highlighted the importance of addressing modifiable risk factors and preventing and not just treating long-term disease. It would be important to see if these trends are seen across the whole population or whether people from more socioeconomically deprived or different ethnic backgrounds are disproportionally affected. Particularly as we know that socioeconomically and ethnically disadvantaged population groups are more likely to be exposed to common risk factors such as poor diet and low physical activity as well as have more limited access to healthcare.”
Prof Tom Sanders, Professor emeritus of Nutrition and Dietetics, King’s College London (KCL), said:
“This is a useful analysis of changes in life expectancy across Europe since 2011 compared with the period 1990-2011. Prior to this life expectancy had increased by about 11 years compared with 1960s for a variety of reasons particularly better control of high blood pressure, blood pressure and immunisation against flu as well as lifestyle changes (smoking cessation and better diet) including increased prosperity. This study shows overall across the 20 countries there was an improvement in life expectancy increased from 1990 up to 2011 by on average 0.23 years but this rate of improvement slowed to 0.15 years between 2011 and 2019. The UK, France and Germany showed bigger declines in life-expectancy compared to the Nordic countries.
“It is important to recognise that the demographics of the European population have changed markedly in some countries such as the UK, France and Germany because of increased migration compared to Nordic countries. In the UK, the population growth had been due to migration often from countries where life expectancy is much lower.
“The authors attribute the small decline in life-expectancy to increasing prevalence of obesity particularly in younger and middle-aged adults. While, obesity is likely to contribute to decreased life expectancy in future generations, the prevalence was not particularly high in the older generation, who accounted for most of the deaths in the period 2011-2019.”
‘Changing life expectancy in European countries 1990–2021: a subanalysis of causes and risk factors from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021’by Nicholas Steel et al. was published in The Lancet Public Health at 23:30 UK time Tuesday 18th February 2025.
DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(25)00009-X
Declared interests
Dr Yize Wan: I have no declarations of interest.
Prof Jennifer Dowd: No conflicts.
For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.
Coventry Job Shop are excited to host an event exclusively for female customers on Wednesday 5 March, dedicated to empowering women to secure high-quality jobs and meaningful careers.
The ‘I Can’ International Women’s Day Jobs and Careers Event is designed to inspire and shatter stereotypes, opening doors for women in industries they may not have previously considered.
Each session will welcome up to 100 women, offering them the chance to hear from trailblazing female leaders in fields such as construction, manufacturing, armed services and logistics.
Guest speakers from Coventry City Council will also be at the event to deliver powerful talks. This includes Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, Councillor Dr Kindy Sandhu.
After these motivational talks, those at the event will be able to see what jobs are on offer. Attendees will be able to apply for live positions and connect with skills providers to gain the necessary qualifications for these exciting roles.
Councillor Dr Kindy Sandhu, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills said: “This will be a really powerful careers event to mark International Women’s Day and support our female residents looking to either start their career or break into a new industry.
“We have some fantastic employers who will be attending, equipped with plenty of advice. I would encourage any women looking for their next career journey to join me at the Job Shop for this exciting event.”
This exclusive event (with the Job Shop closed to other customers) offers a unique opportunity to inspire and empower women on their career journeys.
Some of the confirmed employers and training providers for the event include Hill Group, Balfour Beatty Vinci, The British Army, Octavious and Tarmac. Coventry Adult Education, NIS Group, Hercules Academy, Challenge TRG and RMF will also be on hand to offer valuable advice on relevant training courses.
To find out more about the event, or to request an event invite, drop into the Job Shop to speak to one of the Employment Coaches, or contact the Job Shop on: 024 7678 5740 or jobshop@coventry.gov.uk.
Approximately 67 per cent of households in the city pay by Direct Debit, which is the easiest way to pay your Council Tax, especially if you’re worried about forgetting to pay.
Instead of making the payment directly, Direct Debit means the Council take the amount out of a person’s bank account, when it is due.
It also means the customer is protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee. If they wish to change the way that they pay and switch to Direct Debit the online instruction is simple to complete.
For anyone who currently pays their Council Tax in 10 instalments and want to switch to 12, this can be requested by completing this quick form.
A change of circumstance
The Council also want people to get in touch if their circumstances have changed by applying to us for a Council Tax Discount.
Anyone eligible will get a discount on their bill. For example, if just one person is living in the household – where before there was two or more – the bill will be reduced by 25 per cent.
Also, people who are claiming Universal Credit or other benefits may not automatically receive council tax support, but they can make a claim to ensure they don’t pay more than they need to. Make a claim for council tax support or for more information.
Cllr Richard Brown, Cabinet Member for Finance, said:
“It’s important that people contact us if they want to change the way they pay, can’t afford to pay or have a change of circumstances when it comes to paying Council Tax.
“Most people find it easiest to pay by Direct Debit but if you don’t it is quite easy to switch. Also, I’d encourage anyone who may have a query to get in touch and if anyone is eligible for support with a reduction on their bill they can get help.”
Anyone who may no longer want to receive a paper copy bill can visit Council Tax – Sign up to paperless billing – Data protection – Coventry City Council
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Improvements in physical security arrangements at Sellafield have been recognised by the UK’s nuclear regulator.
The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has returned the Sellafield site to a routine regulatory regime for physical security after a period of enhanced oversight.
Inspectors cited a sustained period of improved performance, highlighting the close working relationship between ONR inspectors and Sellafield Ltd in achieving this outcome.
Physical security at Sellafield is delivered using a wide range of assets and capabilities and through an approach that includes defence in depth and armed response. A number of physical security assets and capabilities have been improved as part of the return to routine regulatory attention.
Regulatory attention levels are set by ONR and are assigned based on the regulator’s assessment of overall performance, considering a broad range of safety and security considerations and operational issues that a site is addressing.
Gary Wilkinson, head of security and resilience at Sellafield Ltd, said:
Following an action plan over many months, we have successfully met all the requirements set by ONR.
This is a significant achievement and has been a big team effort from across the company – thank you to everyone involved in this important achievement.
Paul Dicks, ONR’s director of regulation for Sellafield, decommissioning fuel and waste, said:
We have worked closely with Sellafield Ltd through our enabling approach to ensure that the required improvements are delivered.
I’m satisfied that Sellafield Ltd has demonstrated significant and sustained security improvements which has allowed us to return them to routine regulatory attention.
Sellafield Ltd currently remains in significantly enhanced attention for cyber security and collaborative work is ongoing to achieve the required improvements in this area.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
The company made almost a million unsolicited cold-calls, resulting in people complaining to the Information Commissioner’s Office
Callum Jones was the director of a company which harassed people with nuisance cold-calls in 2019 and 2020
Colourcoat Ltd, based on the south coast, made almost a million calls trying to sell home improvements within an eight-month period
Jones has now been disqualified as a company director following investigations by the Insolvency Service
The boss of a home improvement company which made more than 900,000 cold-calls has been banned as a director for four years.
Callum Jones was the sole director of Sussex-based Colourcoat Ltd, which specialised in roof cleaning, wall coating and insulation services.
Colourcoat made 969,273 unsolicited marketing calls which connected between August 2019 and April 2020, with almost half to people who had opted out of receiving such calls.
The company also used false names and made repeated calls which were described by some customers as being aggressive and abusive.
Colourcoat was fined £130,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in 2021 but went into liquidation without paying the fine in full.
Jones, 39, of Oban Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, has now been disqualified as a company director following investigations by the Insolvency Service.
Victoria Edgar, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:
Callum Jones allowed his company to plague households over an eight-month period, making hundreds of thousands of nuisance cold-calls.
Businesses employing such unscrupulous tactics can expect enforcement action to be taken against them and Jones’s director ban now means he cannot run or manage any company for the next four years.
A total of 452,811 of the nuisance calls were made to people who had opted out of receiving such calls by registering with the Telephone Preference Service.
Colourcoat also used various fake company names including “Homes Advice Bureau”, “EcoSolve UK” and “Citizens Advice”.
Twenty-four complaints about the company were made to the Telephone Preference Service with a further 10 directly to the ICO.
Andy Curry, Director of Enforcement and Investigations at the ICO, said:
We welcome the decision to disqualify Callum Jones as the director of Colourcoat Ltd.
Nobody should be made to feel uncomfortable after simply answering the phone, and our investigation found that this company had no regard for the law, or the people they were illegally calling.
Our Financial Recovery Unit works closely with the Insolvency Service to bring companies and directors to account. By disrupting the non-compliant activities of directors such as Callum Jones, we can help ensure they can’t easily resurface under a different name and continue to cause further harm to people.
The ICO issued an enforcement notice to Colourcoat in June 2021 for breaching regulations 21 and 24 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 relating to the use of calls for direct marketing purposes.
Colourcoat went into liquidation in June 2023, having only paid just more than £74,000 of its £130,000 fine.
The Secretary of State for Business and Trade accepted a disqualification undertaking from Jones, and his ban started on Monday 3 February.
The undertaking prevents him from being involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.
Further information
Callum Jones is of Oban Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex. His date of birth is 2 January 1986
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Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry to examine ongoing regulatory concerns regarding the trustees’ management and administration of Zlotchiv (charity register number 1181876).
The charity, which is a charitable incorporated organisation, awards grants for the advancement of Jewish faith and education as well as for the relief of those in need.
Zlotchiv’s trustees have failed to meaningfully engage and cooperate with the Commission about regulatory concerns, which has resulted in the regulator escalating a compliance case to a statutory inquiry.
The Commission’s concerns are about irregularities in the charity’s financial management, including a series of bounced cheques from the charity’s bank account alongside payments, which appear to be related party payments, that were not disclosed by the charity in its annual returns.
Trustees are expected to act in the best interests of the charity and properly manage any conflicts of interest between the charity and other parties. They must also provide accurate information annually to the Commission, which in this case includes a trustees’ annual report, accounts and external scrutiny report.
The inquiry will examine if the trustees are complying with their legal duties in respect of the administration, governance and management of the charity, with particular regard to:
the charity’s financial management, including the charity’s viability, the extent of any related party transactions and unauthorised trustee personal benefit
the trustees’ compliance with the charity’s governing document
the extent to which any failings or weaknesses identified in the administration of the charity are a result of misconduct and/or mismanagement by the trustees
The scope of the inquiry may be extended if additional regulatory issues emerge during the Commission’s investigation.
ENDS
Notes to editors
The Charity Commission is the independent, non-ministerial government department that registers and regulates charities in England and Wales. Its ambition is to be an expert regulator that is fair, balanced, and independent so that charity can thrive. This ambition will help to create and sustain an environment where charities further build public trust and ultimately fulfil their essential role in enhancing lives and strengthening society. Find out more: About us – The Charity Commission – GOV.UK
On 6 January 2025, the Charity Commission opened a statutory inquiry into the charity under section 46 of the Charities Act 2011 as a result of its regulatory concerns that there is or has been misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity.
A statutory inquiry is a legal power enabling the Commission to formally investigate matters of regulatory concern within a charity and to use protective powers for the benefit of the charity and its beneficiaries, assets, or reputation.
An inquiry will investigate and establish the facts of the case so that the Commission can determine the extent of any misconduct and/or mismanagement; the extent of the risk to the charity, its work, property, beneficiaries, employees or volunteers; and decide what action is needed to resolve the concerns.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Mr Charles King has been appointed His Majesty’s Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Somalia.
Charles King
Mr Charles King has been appointed His Majesty’s Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Somalia in succession to Mr Michael Nithavrianakis MVO. Mr King will take up his appointment during May 2025.
Curriculum Vitae
Full name: Charles Nicholas King
Year
Role
2023 to 2024
FCDO, Joint Head of Israel/OPTs Gaza Taskforce
2020 to 2023
FCDO, Head of Levant and North Africa Department and UK Special Representative for Syria
2017 to 2020
Paris, Counsellor, Foreign Policy and Strategic Affairs
2015 to 2016
FCO, Chief of Staff to Jonathan Powell, PM’s Special Representative for Libya
2012 to 2015
Istanbul, Head of Syria Office
2010 to 2012
FCO, Head of Afghanistan Reconciliation and Regional Team
2009 to 2010
Baghdad, Deputy Head of Political Section
2008 to 2009
Damascus, Second Secretary Political/Economic
2007 to 2008
Cairo, Arabic language training
2006 to 2007
FCO, Head of Africa/Middle East Consular Casework Team
2004 to 2006
FCO, Deputy Head of EU Accessions Bill Team and Desk Officer for Romania and Bulgaria
Coventry City Council’s efforts to promote digital inclusion across the city have received a major funding boost.
The Council’s digital inclusion programme, #CovConnects, has received £340,000 to support its ongoing work within in the city.
The funding, which comes from the Government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the West Midlands Combined Authority, will help the team secure 1250 Mi-Fi units which will be distributed through the programme’s #CovConnects Device Bank.
Mi-fi units are small, portable devices which allow people to use 4g/5g units to connect to the internet. Each of the units comes with 2 years’ worth of unlimited data enabling residents to connect to the digital world. The mi-fi devices and sim cards have been provided thanks to the Council’s ongoing partnership with Vodafone.
The Device Bank launched in July 2023 and has distributed over 3850 devices to organisations across the city. These devices are used by these groups to help support residents in their everyday lives allowing the most vulnerable in the city to complete everyday task such as online banking, filling our job applications and accessing vital NHS services.
Cllr Richard Brown, Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources, said: “As an organisation, we’re committed to ensuring that as many residents as possible can access the digital world. This funding will help us do just that.
“It will allow us to expand our efforts and get more of these devices into the hands of those who need it most. Having your own device, which you can use every day, is something that has the potential to completely transform your life. “
Richard Parker, the Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “So much in life is reliant on us being online, whether that’s finding a job, booking a GP appointment, or managing finances. Too many people are still locked out of opportunities because they don’t have reliable internet or the right digital skills and this can be isolating. It’s why I want more people to have the digital access they need to get on in life. This scheme is a step towards breaking down those barriers, helping more people access the services, support, and training they need to build a better future.”
The #CovConnects Device Bank is part funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. Please visit the UK Shared Prosperity Fund webpage for more information
Get in touch with us to find out more about the digital inclusion programme in Coventry, devices, data and skills provisions we can help with: covconnectsdigital@coventry.gov.uk
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A paper published in Nature Medicine looks at the contribution of genetic and lifestyle factors to risk of premature death, ageing, and age-related diseases.
Prof Felicity Gavins, Professor of Pharmacology at Brunel University of London, and Royal Society Wolfson Fellow, said:
“This is an exciting study. The fact that most of the risk factors identified are modifiable highlights an enormous opportunity for prevention. By addressing social inequalities, promoting healthy behaviours and reducing harmful exposures, we can really make a meaningful difference in reducing age-related diseases and premature mortality.
“However, some caution is needed. This is an observational study, so further research is needed to confirm causal relationships, especially before any long-term policy changes are made. Furthermore, targeted interventions will be essential to translating these findings into real-world impact.”
Dr Stephen Burgess, Group Leader at the MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge, said:
“This is a large and detailed investigation into the predictors of major causes of mortality in a UK-based population. It provides further demonstration supporting previous research that, in the majority of cases, our genes do not determine our future. There are exceptions, including rare conditions that are caused by a single genetic variation. But for the majority of conditions that Western people die from, disease risk is more strongly attributable to modifiable risk factors and our wider environment, as shaped by our upbringing and choices. Genetics can load the dice, but it is up to us how we play our hand.
“A limitation of the work is that it does not highlight particular risk factors, nor can it make specific causal claims about what would happen if we changed our risk factors and environment.”
Prof Frances Flinter, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Genetics, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; and Member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, said:
“This is a very impressive, thorough and detailed analysis of a vast amount of genetic and non-genetic data from the UK Biobank. The authors compare the relative contributions to ageing and premature mortality of genetic susceptibility markers (polygenic risk scores) and environmental factors, which they refer to as the ‘exposome’ (including alcohol, diet, smoking, housing, type of heating, weight in childhood etc).
“Overall, polygenic risk scores (PRS) for twenty-two major diseases explained less than 2% of additional variation in mortality, whereas the exposome explained 17%. In particular, the exposome explained a greater proportion of the variation than polygenic risk scores for the incidence of disease of the lung, heart and liver, whereas polygenic risk scores explained a greater proportion of the variation than the exposome for dementia and breast, prostate and colorectal cancers.
“The risk of premature mortality was lower in Black, Asian and ethnicities other than white, even after adjustment for socio-demographic deprivation factors, which is currently unexplained.
“With so much focus on genetic determinism these days, it is good to be reminded of the significance of environmental contributions to health, particularly as the risk factors are known and many can be modified.”
Prof Ilaria Bellantuono, Professor in Musculoskeletal Ageing; and Co-Director of The Healthy Lifespan Institute, University of Sheffield, said:
“This important study comprehensively confirms what smaller studies have suggested: multiple socioeconomic and environmental factors significantly influence the risk of developing age-related diseases. More critically, it highlights that health is shaped by multiple interacting factors. This has important policy implications, meaning that policies targeting only one or two of these factors will have limited impact on extending healthspan. The findings support the need for an integrated, multi-faceted approach to prevention and to identify the most influential domains for intervention (smoking, socioeconomic status and deprivation, physical activity, sleep and mental and physical wellness including tiredness, as well as early life exposures including height and body size at 10 years and maternal smoking around birth).
“The study is rigorously conducted and transparently acknowledges its limitations, which are inevitable in research of this nature.”
Dr Julian Mutz, King’s Prize Research Fellow at the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King’s College London, said:
“The study by Argentieri, van Duijn, and colleagues sought to tease apart the relative contributions of environmental exposures (termed the “exposome”) and genetic risk on biological ageing and premature mortality.
“The authors analysed data from the UK Biobank, a unique resource with a wealth of information on sociodemographic characteristics, health records, genetics and biomarker data from half a million UK residents.
“They employed a complex analytical design to identify environmental exposures that were independently associated with biological ageing (defined using a proteomic ageing clock that they developed in a previous high-profile study) and mortality, while minimising the risk of reverse causation, confounding and correlation between exposures. The approach is elegant, though certain assumptions warrant caution. For example, the finding that many exposures independently associated with mortality (e.g., diet or mental health) were not associated with the proteomic ageing clock (or had an association in the opposite direction) does not necessarily mean that these exposures do not impact ageing biology.
“Key findings from the study were that a higher income, Asian or Black ethnic background, higher levels of physical activity and living with a partner were associated with lower mortality risk and a protein-predicted age younger than chronological age. Smoking, living in council housing (reflecting socio-economic status) and the frequency of feeling tired were associated with higher mortality risk and a protein-predicted age older than chronological age.
“Each of the 25 independent exposures that the authors identified was associated with incident diseases and ageing biomarkers.
“To investigate the relative contribution of the environmental exposures compared to genetics, the authors calculated polygenic scores for 22 diseases. Polygenic scores aggregate the small effects of many common genetic variants to estimate an individual’s predisposition to specific traits or diseases. However, there are several caveats to this approach: first, polygenic scores only capture part of the genetic risk; and second, many environmental exposures also have a genetic component. The broad headline of the press release that “environmental factors affect health and ageing more than our genes” should be viewed in light of these limitations.
“One of the most interesting findings from this study is the comparison of the contributions of chronological age and sex (both non-modifiable risk factors), environmental exposures and polygenic scores across several disease endpoints. For example, for certain diseases (e.g., dementia), genetics appears to be more important.
“A key implication of the study is that there is a broad range of modifiable risk factors that could be targeted to reduce the risk of premature mortality and age-related disease. How successful this will be remains to be seen. We already know much about the health-promoting effects of lifestyle interventions, such as physical activity and smoking cessation, but a significant intention–behaviour gap remains.
“The authors have, for the most part, carefully highlighted that the observed associations may not be causal.”
Prof Kevin McConway, Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics, Open University, said:
“This new study involves a large dataset, using data from almost half a million participants in the UK Biobank, data on 164 different environmental exposures (using ‘exposure’ in the broad epidemiologists’ sense, from smoking and intake of various foods, to how plump they were at age 10, to their ethnicity) and (for some of them) genetic and blood measures too. It’s big data, and the researchers use some big-data methods.
“The aim was to quantify the contributions of environmental exposures and genetics to aging and premature mortality, taking into account many aspects of people’s environment rather than concentrating on a few risk factors determined in advance.
“The results are interesting, and I think they do support the researchers’ view that we can learn more by looking at many environmental exposures together rather than trying to pick them off one (or a few) at a time. However, there are some important limitations (as the researchers make clear).
“It would be easy to dismiss this new research by saying that all they have really found is that, if you want to be healthy in old age, you need to give up smoking, do some exercise and not be poor, and we already knew that. But that’s not (in my view) the important finding at all. The important finding is that you get more by looking at more aspects of the environment, if you have enough good data to do that – but that needs careful statistical analysis, including aspects that this study could not do itself. However I think there are good reasons not to pay too much attention to the exact numerical results in the paper, for reasons I’ll come to.
“This is an observational study – the UK Biobank researchers did not choose how the participants acted, but only observed and recorded what they said and did. Like all observational studies, the findings are about correlations and associations, not about cause and effect. The statistical methods used by the researchers can’t determine whether the associations between exposures and ill health and mortality, that they observed, are there because the exposures cause the ill health and mortality. They might, or they might not.
“The way the researchers filtered out exposures that might have showed up as associated with ill health only because they were correlated with other exposures, or because the exposure was actually caused by ill health (reverse causation, as it’s called), does to some extent make it a bit more likely that the associations they mainly report on are ones of cause and effect – but they certainly can’t confirm that they are cause and effect. The researchers say, in their conclusion, that their results indicate that interventions based on environmental exposures are possibly (my emphasis) the best starting point for improving age-related health, but they add that “future causal modelling [that is, research that specifically looks at cause and effect, which uses different methodology] will be needed to study specific exposures of interest.”
“In view of these issues about cause, it’s unfortunate that the press release uses a lot of language that implies the associations are indeed reflecting cause and effect. They talk about the impact of environmental factors on mortality and aging. If something isn’t causing the ill health, ‘impact’ is the wrong word – if you change a factor that is correlated with ill health but doesn’t cause it, you won’t change the level of ill health.
“And when the release says that environmental factors explained 17% of the variation in risk of death, compared to less than 2% for genetic predisposition, this is presenting a misleading picture of what is reported in the research paper. The paper talks about additional mortality variation (in addition to the variation explained by age and biological sex, which are the most important factors, unsurprisingly, along with smoking). And in this context, statisticians are using ‘variation explained’ to mean something statistically technical that has nothing direct to do with cause and effect, even though it sounds as if it does.
“There are other important limitations. The UK Biobank population isn’t typical of the general UK population. And the exposures were all measured at only one time point, when people first entered the UK Biobank study. Therefore, even though the UK Biobank is a major study that goes on through time, these findings can’t, for instance, look at the impact on ill health if someone gives up smoking, or becomes wealthier, or changes what they eat. The researchers emphasise the importance of studying what leads to ill health across the life course, not just at one or a few time points, but like most studies using UK Biobank data, they could not actually do that in this study, beyond looking at some things that participants said about their childhood when they entered the study.
“There is no implication that the 25 independent environmental factors that were identified in this research are the most important environmental factors, or the only important ones. The filtering process that removed factors that might have been correlated to strongly with other factors, or might have been liable to reverse causation, may have removed some that were in fact important to health. (I’m not saying that they should not have been removed, in the light of the overall aims of this study – just that removing them could have led to something being missed.)
“And obviously the researchers could only take into account environmental exposures that were recorded in the UK Biobank data, and that’s not everything. The early life exposures, mentioned in the press release and the paper as being important, were actually recorded alongside all the others when people entered the study, so based on what they recalled, and not actually followed up over time.
“Ideally in a study like that using a big and complicated data set, researchers would model the data statistically using just part of the data set, and then check with the rest of the data set whether the findings hold and are not just a statistical fluke. These researchers did that, splitting the data on English UK Biobank participants into two and checking the results from one half on the other half, and then checking several aspects of the statistical modelling by validating the results on data from UK Biobank participants in Scotland and Wales. That’s good, but not ideal, because the Scottish and Welsh participants are likely to be too similar to the English participants to give an independent enough validation.
“It’s interesting that the research paper says that they sought to validate the findings using a different study based in Rotterdam, which would have been much better than the Scottish and Welsh UK Biobank data. But they could not do that because the Rotterdam study did not have enough recorded environmental exposures that matched those in the UK Biobank. They point out that this is likely to be a more widespread problem, because there’s no standard way across different studies of this kind to choose which exposures to record, or how to define them.
“I have to say that I personally wouldn’t pay too much attention to any of the exact figures on associations that are given in the paper. That’s partly because of the limitations I’ve mentioned (and the researchers give more limitations in the paper). But it’s mainly because the data set is big and complicated, and the statistical methods used involved many stages and are complicated. The researchers had to make a long series of choices on which data to analyse and how to analyse it. Another team of researchers would not have made the same choices in each case. That doesn’t mean that this team is wrong and another team would be right – just that there often isn’t a clear best choice to be made. And other choices would have led to different findings, in terms of the detailed numbers at least.
“Statisticians sometimes refer to the series of choices of how to analyse a data set, not entirely seriously, as ‘researcher degrees of freedom’. This study has a lot of researcher degrees of freedom. The researchers did check out some of their choices by carrying out sensitivity analyses, but that doesn’t get near to dealing with every choice they had to make. If time and money were no object, it would be very interesting to see what a different research team made of the same data – but in the real world, that’s not going to happen.
“One final point about the press release. It says that 23 of the 25 independent environmental factors, identified in the research as contributing to the association between environmental exposure and ill health, ‘are modifiable’. The research paper says only that they are potentially modifiable. This sounds like a nit-pick, and maybe it is – but look at the factors (in Figure 2d in the paper, which shows the 25 along with age and biological sex). Smoking is modifiable, even if it can be hard for individuals to make that modification. But for some of the others it’s not easy to see what the modification might be. How do you modify things so that you are living with a partner, if you currently aren’t? (Living with a partner is associated with better health.) How do you modify how often you feel fed up, or how often you feel unenthusiastic? These potential modifications could maybe be done, but saying they are ‘modifiable’ is too much of a simplification. And it’s certainly important to understand that modifying some of them would be possible only by changes in society – it’s not just a question of individuals choosing what to do. (It also bears repeating that this study, because of the issues about cause and effect, can’t actually tell us with any certainty whether modifying these facts would actually change health anyway.)”
Dr Divyangana Rakesh, Lecturer and Researcher in the Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, said:
“This study makes clear just how much our environment shapes aging and mortality, and it is not surprising that environmental risk often outweighs genetic risk. The authors used a rigorous approach to show that while genetics play a role in specific diseases, our environment – from socioeconomic status to lifestyle factors – shapes overall health trajectories in powerful ways. We see this in developmental research as well, where environmental factors, including socioeconomic status and deprivation, play a crucial role in shaping children’s outcomes. Findings like these reinforce the urgent need to address environmental determinants of health if we want to support healthy development and aging for everyone.”
Prof Joyce Harper, Head of the Reproductive Science and Society Group, UCL Institute for Women’s Health, UCL, said:
“This extensive study systematically examined environmental factors linked to aging using data from the UK Biobank. The researchers conducted an exposome-wide analysis of all-cause mortality in a cohort of 492,567 individuals and investigated how these exposures influenced a proteomic age clock. Their findings identified 25 independent environmental factors associated with both mortality risk and proteomic aging.
“It is so great to see this brilliant study from Oxford Population Health. In today’s society, so many are trying to get a quick fix to improve health and longevity, but this study and others are showing the importance of our lifestyle and environment on healthy aging. It is the first study to show how the combined effect of individual exposures affects us through the life course. I hope people are listening.”
‘Integrating the environmental and genetic architectures of aging and mortality’ byM. Austin Argentieriet al.was published in Nature Medicine at 10.00am UK time on Wednesday 19 February 2025.
DOI: 10.1038/s41591-024-03483-9
Declared interests
Prof Felicity Gavins: “No conflicts.”
Prof Frances Flinter: “No CoI.”
Prof Ilaria Bellantuono: “I am funded by the Michael J Fox Foundation, Dunhill Medical Trust. I co-lead UkAgeNet (https://ukagenet.co.uk/ ) and I am co-director of the Healthy Lifespan Institute.”
Dr Julian Mutz: “I report no conflicts.”
Prof Kevin McConway: “Previously a Trustee of the SMC and a member of its Advisory Committee.”
Dr Divyangana Rakesh: “I have no conflicts of interest to declare.”
Prof Joyce Harper: “No conflicts. I am writing a book on health and happiness over 50 but I do not think that conflicts.”
For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A new study led by researchers from Oxford Population Health at the University of Oxford has investigated whether lifestyle and other environmental factors (the ‘exposome’) have a smaller or bigger impact on health and premature death than our genes.
The study uses data from UK Biobank, and the researchers have developed a new ‘ageing clock’ – a method to estimate how quickly people are ageing biologically based on levels of proteins in their blood. They then use this to see which environmental factors might be linked with biological ageing.
The study will be published in Nature Medicine and looks at 164 environmental factors and 22 diseases of ageing.
Journalists dialed into this briefing to hear from some of the authors of the study and to ask your questions.
Speakers included:
Prof Cornelia van Duijn, senior author of the paper and St Cross Professor of Epidemiology at Oxford Population Heath, University of Oxford
Dr Austin Argentieri, lead author of the study at Oxford Population Health, and Research Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Broad Institute
A campaign to increase awareness of tenants’ rights was launched today by Housing Minister Paul McLennan. This includes information about where renters can to go to access help and advice.
Tenants in Scotland have some of the strongest rights in the UK which include:
the right to ask for a review of a rent increase and for landlords to give the correct notice period before increasing rent
protection from illegal evictions or being asked to leave a property without proper notice
the right to a rented home that is maintained to an acceptable standard.
Speaking on his visit to Citizens Advice Scotland in Edinburgh, Mr McLennan said:
“People who rent their homes in Scotland already have strong rights when it comes to rent rises, maintenance and repairs and evictions. This campaign is important to make sure we increase awareness of these rights.
“We also want to highlight the end of the temporary change to rent adjudication on 31 March. This was put in place to support the transition back to market rent following the temporary cap on rents under the Cost of Living Act.
“Under existing legislation most private tenants continue to have the right to seek a review of a rent increase and I would encourage any tenant who is concerned about this to apply.
“We’re also taking forward measures in the Housing Bill to address the need for longer term action on rent control and strengthen tenants’ rights where it’s needed.”
“A safe, secure home is foundational to people’s lives. We see thousands of people coming to our local bureaux seeking advice because they are struggling to afford their rent, as well as landlords who need support.
“The Scottish CAB network is here to help with free confidential advice for anyone who needs it. We need to see a rented sector that works for everyone, where everyone knows their rights and responsibilities, and clear information and access to redress when things go wrong.
“Scotland deserves a rented sector that works for everyone, so that more people can stay in their homes.”