London Lions plans 'world-class' basketball stadium in capital
The London Lions basketball club has announced it hopes to construct a purpose-built basketball stadium in the capital.Lenz Balan, CEO of the club, which currently tops the Super League Basketball standings, said: "We want to create a world-class home for elite hoops and a place where the community can come together."Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan, who created a basketball taskforce last year, said he supported the proposal, adding that it would create positive opportunities for young people.The club, which plays at the Copper Box Arena in Stratford, is due to announce a proposed stadium location in the coming months.
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Telegraph
2 days ago
- Telegraph
Reeves dismisses Khan in row over police funding
Rachel Reeves has rejected claims made by Sir Sadiq Khan that her spending review will result in the number of police officers being cut. In her spending review on Wednesday the Chancellor announced a 2.3 per cent real-terms increase in police spending power. But the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said the funding settlement 'falls far short of what is required to fund the Government's ambitions and maintain our existing workforce'. Sir Sadiq, the Mayor of London, said he was concerned the spending review 'could result in insufficient funding for the [Metropolitan Police] and fewer police officers'. Asked if Sir Sadiq was wrong, the Chancellor told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'I really don't accept that there needs to be cuts when we are actually increasing the money that the police force gets.' Told about the NPCC's warning, Ms Reeves said: 'The police have been allocated a budget which has a real-terms increase of 2.3 per cent a year and they now need to live within those budgets.' Making 'sums add up' Ms Reeves said the police were getting a 'substantial' increase in spending power. She told BBC Breakfast: 'That [2.3 per cent] is a substantial increase and that is for every year of this spending review period, so for the next three years. 'So there is no reason for those numbers to decline. The spending power of police is going up substantially and the spending that we set out yesterday was an average across all parts of government of 2.3 per cent a year, and so policing are in line with that average across other government departments. 'But look, I wasn't able to say yes to everything that people asked for in the spending review. People always are going to want more whether it is in health, education, defence or indeed for policing. 'But my job as Chancellor is to make sure that the sums add up and we can't spend more than we have coming in.' Senior officers have warned that a lack of funds will put at risk Labour's promises to deploy an extra 13,000 neighbourhood police officers, as well as their pledge to halve violence against women and girls and reduce knife crime. The extra funding for the police is expected to amount to just £200 million in real-terms by the end of the decade.
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Mayor and LTA partner to make tennis accessible for Londoners
A three-year partnership has been launched to open tennis up to more people across Sir Sadiq Khan and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) have begun a collaboration, with a £500,000 investment, called Rally Together London - a programme which will train 250 people from underrepresented backgrounds to join the tennis workforce and facilitate sessions for local programme aims to help at least 5,500 more young people to play the sport - with a minimum of 50% to be wider partnership will see the mayor and the LTA work on various initiatives and campaigns to promote women's tennis and women's sport across the capital. 'Inspiring next generation' Rally Together London plans to recruit, train and deploy 200 tennis activators to deliver the sport and help grow the LTA's Barclays Free Park Tennis programme - which offers weekly sessions with equipment provided on public park courts - and LTA SERVES, which takes tennis into local communities for young announcement comes as a women's tennis tournament returned this week to the Queen's Club for the first time in more than 50 years, with the HSBC Championships 2025 running until 15 capital is also set to host the Women's Rugby World Cup final at Twickenham Stadium, as well as football, basketball, rugby league, hockey, cricket, netball, athletics and Sadiq said: "The really exciting aspect of this partnership is that we will be reaching young people across the capital, and specifically young women, as we create new opportunities for them to play tennis, train as coaches and get jobs in the industry."LTA chief executive Scott Lloyd said: "We know that London is a tennis city, with iconic events like the HSBC Championships engaging and inspiring the next generation to pick up a racket and play on accessible community facilities, including park courts in every London borough."Naomi, an LTA SERVES activator from Badu Sports based in east London, said: "Tennis is an amazing sport, and I've seen the impact that it can deliver for young people in London first hand, helping them get active, developing skills and confidence."
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Labour's spending review: the chancellor tightened belts and loosened seams
Brexit's ghost haunts a Labour spending review intended to lay the foundations for a second term. Its headlines echo the twin themes of the referendum campaign: control immigration, fund the NHS. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said she would end the use of hotels for asylum seekers 'in this parliament' saving £1bn a year, while NHS spending will rise by 3% a year. Ms Reeves framed it as a politics of security and compassion. Yet it reads as Brexit's populist promises, filtered through Westminster orthodoxy. The risk is that this is all slogan and very little solution. The asylum savings are speculative, and the annual increase in NHS budgets is below its historical average. There are also real-terms cuts or essentially flat budgets for key departments such as transport, education and local government. The Home Office faces cuts deeper than asylum savings alone, prompting alarm from police and the London mayor, Sadiq Khan. Plainly, what looks good today for the chancellor may feel insufficient tomorrow on hospital wards, high streets or in the classroom. The everyday experience of voters will shape their judgment. That is why there were nods from Ms Reeves to cost-of-living pressures by keeping the cap on bus fares and the insistence that police and council funding would see 'spending power' rises. Despite negative briefing, Ed Miliband secured significant wins in the review, notably protecting the £13bn Warm Homes insulation scheme and cementing his influence over the GB Energy agenda, while bolstering the UK's net‑zero energy strategy. Ms Reeves shrewdly tightened belts and loosened seams. Britain, under Labour, will be a place where 'every pound is spent wisely' while billions in capital investment would level up the country. This is down to a welcome change in the fiscal rules brought in by the chancellor last October that allows more room for such investment. That shift enables the fanfare of the review: the nuclear reactors, the affordable housing and the new Manchester-to-Liverpool railway. What has not changed is the government's rule that says its current budget must be in surplus by the end of the forecast. This restricts the state's day-to-day spending and – despite being relaxed next year – leads to real-terms cuts in departments as well as curbing options to directly boost household income. The spending review is a bet that infrastructure spending will lead to higher productivity. But it lacks the demand-side fuel to make these projects generate inclusive growth within this parliament. That makes it harder to hit the government's economic mission milestone of higher disposable household income and GDP per capita. Ms Reeves will probably have to raise taxes to meet her fiscal rules, not least because the government's promises keep stacking up and money needs to be found to restore winter fuel payments and reconsider the two-child benefit cap. Yet neither the prime minister nor the chancellor dares to say it aloud. Higher taxes, especially on wealth, would be a good thing. These may become inevitable as Ms Reeves' calculations rest upon £14bn of projected efficiency gains – as if cuts can be pain-free. Political storytelling only goes so far when the effects of policy show up in threadbare services and flatlining household incomes. For all the investment, the worry must be voters see more drift than renewal. Without a shift in fiscal doctrine, Labour risks governing in prose while the public still waits for the poetry it was promised.
