Martin Lewis makes major council tax payment announcement affecting three million people
announced on live TV that the government is launching a consultation into council tax payments which will affect over three million people.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain on Friday (20 June), the Money Saving Expert founder said he is 'grateful' that the government is listening to concerns on council tax debt collection, which Lewis described as 'so rapid and aggressive it would make banks blush'.
He said that 'forcing someone to pay for a year when they can't pay for a month' is 'destroying lives'.
Lewis announced that the consultation will consider slowing down this process so people have longer to pay the debt before action is taken.
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Telegraph
27 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The 10 best cafés and coffee shops in Manchester
Manchester's restaurant scene is booming and so too is its collection of more casual coffee shops. In the city's laid-back cafés, you can start your day with the perfect flat white, enjoy a top-notch brunch with your cuppa, sample some of the city's best doughnuts with a cold brew, or drink coffee from the café's own roastery. If you're looking for a caffeine fix while exploring the city centre, here's our pick of the best coffee shops in Manchester – from bijou joints, where the focus is on delivering the perfect cup every time, and places where the décor is as good as the drinks, to a classy Mediterranean-inspired café that becomes a bar in the evening. All our recommendations below have been hand selected and tested by our resident destination expert. Find out more below or for further inspiration see our guides to the city's best hotels, bars and things to do. Fig & Sparrow A couple of minutes' walk away from the alternative shopping emporium Affleck's Palace, at the heart of the Northern Quarter, this small independent coffee shop has been a staple in the area since 2013. Along with excellent coffee by local roastery Heart & Graft, you can order good value brunch dishes, sandwiches, soups and cakes by Stockport's Silver Apples bakery. It's a laid-back space with wooden floorboards, sage green chairs, pillars and exposed beams. Nab one of the three seats in the window to watch life on Oldham Street while you sip. Fort In the Great Northern Warehouse, next to its rainbow staircase up to Deansgate Mews, this slick coffee shop has its own roastery and takes making the perfect flat white or pourover seriously. Its minimalist interiors with pale grey walls, black tables and a wooden counter are flooded with light from huge windows onto Deansgate and upbeat music plays while you sip. There are accompanying pastries available to buy from Sticky Fingers bakery in Stockport – but look out for food and location changes due to an imminent move. Siop Shop This small café, in a former weavers' cottage on Tib Street, has all of the ingredients to make you smile: some of the best doughnuts in Manchester in creative flavours and designs, cheerful décor with tangerine orange, tomato red and sunflower yellow seating; and excellent coffee that is roasted in-house. Order one of its classic doughnut favourites, such as lemon meringue, or go for a sandwich baked in house. Looking for more reasons to love it? Siop Shop runs a gardening club every other Wednesday evening, too. Area: Northern Quarter Nearest Metrolink: Shudehill Website: Price: £ ManCoCo You can smell the coffee roasting in ManCoCo in the morning, as you pass by this roastery and coffee house tucked away under some railway arches near Deansgate station. All of the coffee roasted here is ethically sourced from identifiable single origin farms, estates or small farm cooperatives and you can pop in to buy a bag or sit in its purple and turquoise walled space, sipping its own ManCoCo Manchester blend. If you're inspired to create the perfect cuppa at home, enrol with its coffee academy, where courses range from 'barista training for everyone' and an 'introduction to coffee brewing' to 'latte art'. Just Between Friends A top contender for the best coffee in Manchester, Just Between Friends, has three sites – one in the Northern Quarter, one in Ancoats and one in the Cheshire suburb of Wilmslow. In the Northern Quarter, head to Tib Street and look for a bijou, black café front with the word coffee painted above the windows and its menu on the glass. The focus here is on your perfect cup with a blackboard of specials on the wall and petite hexagonal wooden tables to sit at with your drink. There's a small menu of bagels and pastries if you're after more than a caffeine fix. Federal In its three central Manchester cafés, Federal aims to 'offer the city's sunniest welcome'. It does this through the combination of consistently warm and friendly service, a buzzy atmosphere, a tempting brunch menu and fantastic coffee by roasters Ozone. Peruse its coffee menu in its Oxford Road site, checking what the weekly batch brew is, and choose a seat next to its plant-lined windows or outside next to Circle Square. You can't book and there's often a queue – but these tend to go down quickly as the service is speedy. There are cakes and pastries by Stockport bakery Sticky Fingers for a sweet treat with your drink, too. Area: Oxford Road Corridor Nearest Metrolink: St Peter's Square Website: Price: £ Idle Hands Idle Hands first launched on Piccadilly Approach in 2015 before it moved to its current Northern Quarter base in 2018. There are rotating coffee choices from roasters around the world in its quirky high-ceilinged space with plant-lined windowsills, colourful prints on walls and turquoise pillars – think Swerl roasters in Sweden or Round Hill Roastery in Somerset – and a selection of tempting pies in its counter, including pecan and lemon meringue. Its brunch options, such as fry ups on a stack of homemade hash browns, are popular too. Pollen Pollen Bakery started out under railway arches near Piccadilly railway station in 2016, where it attracted queues of people after one of its legendary sourdough loaves and cruffin pastries. It now has two permanent sites in the city centre – its main bakery in Ancoats and a café serving cakes, pastries and brunch in the new micro neighbourhood Kampus, over the water from Canal Street. Head to its industrial chic, light-filled Kampus space, for a coffee by Old Trafford based roasters Blossom and watch its pastry team making all of the treats on the counter behind a glass screen. You'll find it hard to resist taking some home. Foundation Designed by Manchester studio NoChintz, Foundation has sleek monochrome interiors, exposed brick and pays attention to detail in everything from lighting to hanging plants. When it launched in 2015, the aim was to create a flexible space for those who appreciate quality, with the motto 'coffee is everything'. Foundation's formula has proved to be a winner with five sites now open in Manchester. Its Whitworth site is attached to the hip of Whitworth Locke Hotel and has an extensive drinks menu featuring coffee classics, as well as some more unusual options such as the Kevlar – an Americano with butter and coconut oil. Haunt On the corner of central Peter Street and Mount Street, with large windows to gaze out of, Haunt is a popular spot to work during the day while it slips into a place to sip an aperitivo in the evening. There are speciality coffees by Leeds-based North Star Coffee Roasters, its own homemade chai lattes, bagels and sandwiches, and a brunch menu that includes a tiramisu French toast. The classy space is inspired by all-day Mediterranean cafés and bars with a chequerboard floor, marble tables and metro tiled bar. Area: Petersfield Nearest Metrolink: St Peter's Square Contact: Price: £ How we choose Every restaurant in this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, who has visited to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of budgets, from neighbourhood favourites to Michelin-starred restaurants – to best suit every type of traveller's taste – and consider the food, service, best tables, atmosphere and price in our recommendations. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest opening and provide up to date recommendations. About our expert Cathy has lived in Manchester all of her life and still feels spoilt by the culture and varied dining options on her doorstep. You'll find her chasing her children around the Whitworth or sipping G&Ts in The Refuge.
Spectator
28 minutes ago
- Spectator
Poll: majority of Brits think small boats unstoppable
Summer is here! And you know what gorgeous weather means: more small boats crossing the Channel. Get ready for the great Starmada in the coming weeks, as thousands more migrants prepare to sail the 21 miles from Calais to Dover. The current crisis has been going on since 2018, when Sajid Javid – the-then Home Secretary – felt the need to cut short his holiday after 100 migrants crossed in a 24-hour period. Those were the days… Now Mr S has got some polling and it seems that the public are accepting these crossings as inevitable. A survey done by Merlin Strategy of 2,000 UK adults between 17 and 18 June shows that 51 per cent of Brits think that the government will never be able to stop the boats – including 7 in 10 Reform 2024 voters. Some two thirds (66 per cent) say the Starmer government does not have control over Britain's borders while the same figure (67 per cent) believe, correctly, that the number of Channel crossings has increased this year – compared to just seven per cent who think they have dropped. Unsurpisingly, therefore, seven in ten say the government must do whatever it takes to stop the boats. That UK-France summit cannot come soon enough…
BBC News
40 minutes ago
- BBC News
Staff at a Dorset school strike over restructuring plans for two schools
Staff at a state school are taking industrial action in protest at restructuring Sherborne Area Schools' Trust (SAST) said Shaftesbury School and Sturminster Newton High in Dorset had been facing a budget deficit of £1m between them so it was "looking to share some leadership roles across the two schools to reduce overheads".On 17 June, Shaftesbury School staff who are members of the National Education Union (NEU) walked out over the restructure, which the NEU said would "take teaching resource away from the front line."SAST said it continued to engage "in constructive dialogue with union colleagues". Jon Timbrell, who represents the NEU in the South West, said the restructure is "stripping half of the heads of curriculum out of the schools" and "prioritising retaining a large layer of executive management".He said a lot of the changes the trust had proposed "have been really unpopular within the community" and the turnout on Tuesday "was huge", with sixth formers, parents and other residents coming to show support."In negotiations with the trust, we raised the fact that the financial picture has changed quite significantly," Mr Timbrell added, referring to the 4% pay rise for teachers announced by the government and the investment in education proposed in the spending said the union was calling on the trust "to look again at the figures in light of that as well."More strikes are planned for next Tuesday and Wednesday. SAST said the plans were "designed to ensure long-term financial sustainability".It said similar issues were being faced "by many rural secondary schools, who are having to decide whether their sixth forms are sustainable".It had also commissioned an independent report in conjunction with the Department for Education, which looked at ways to reduce costs "whilst maintaining educational provision". The schools already share an executive headteacher and operate in a joint sixth form."We believe that sixth forms should remain in our local communities, and we are therefore looking to share some leadership roles across the two schools to reduce overheads whilst encouraging collaboration between them," the trust added there had been "a full consultation involving staff and union representatives"."We have listened throughout and made considered adjustments in response to genuine feedback, while keeping our focus on what matters most — the experience and outcomes of our students." You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
