Culcheth: Shopping site plan to be discussed by councillors
Several traders were given 28 days to leave the site in February and the issue was raised during Prime Minister's Questions by Warrington North MP Charlotte Nichols.She said the eviction notices were issued "entirely out of the blue and on spurious pretexts from the new owner".
The proposals include:Adding windows on the first and second floors of the complexFree standing cycle storage for 14 bikesStorage for six large binsChanges to the car park which would see two spaces lost and short-term bike storage addedObjections have been received from 139 local residents, alongside three Warrington councillors and a parish councillor.The residents' objections include concerns over the bins and parking, but also calls for the CPS centre to be safeguarded for shops and businesses and asking for it to be protected as a community hub.A previous plan for a bike and bin store were refused by Warrington Council in November 2024, with councillors saying it would have a "detrimental impact".But in planning documents, council officers said the proposed location in the new application - further away from the shopping centre - was "assessed to be acceptable now" and the proposal was "acceptable in principle".The officers said that a number of the representations from the public did have concerns about intention to convert part of the site into residential use and that "this does seem to be the case".But they said the application could only be considered on the proposal that had been submitted and not any future development of the site.Councillors will discuss the plans at a meeting later.
See more Cheshire stories from the BBC and follow BBC North West on X. For more local politics coverage, BBC Politics North West is on BBC One on Sunday at 10:00am and on BBC iPlayer.
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The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
How can England possibly be running out of water?
During the drought of 2022, London came perilously close to running out of water. Water companies and the government prayed desperately for rain as reservoirs ran low and the groundwater was slowly drained off. Contingency plans were drafted to ban businesses from using water; hotel swimming pools would have been drained, ponds allowed to dry up, offices to go uncleaned. If the lack of rainfall had continued for another year, it was possible that taps could have run dry. That, however, was just a taster of what could come down the line. On Tuesday, the government announced a 'nationally significant' water shortage in England, which means the whole country is at risk of running out if the dry weather continues. People across England are already banned from using hosepipes, with more restrictions probable over coming months. The UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH), an independent research institute, has warned of exceptionally low river flows. Reservoirs are also at extremely low levels and groundwater is dwindling. Droughts are generally two-year events. A year of dry weather means water supplies are running out – that is what is happening now. Things really come to a head if the following year does not bring above average rainfall. That is when the shortages start to bite, with farmers unable to irrigate and households and businesses hit with sweeping restrictions. With reservoirs at record lows and stream flows exceptionally low, England is desperate for rain. Forecasts indicate that by 2055 England's public water supply could be short by 5bn litres a day without urgent action to future-proof resources, the equivalent to more than a third of the supplies available today. The effect on the economy will be profoundly negative. The thinktank Public First has estimated that the economic cost of water scarcity could be £8.5bn over this parliament. So how on earth did famously rainswept England, notorious the world over for being green and wet with our national symbol pretty much a furled umbrella, come to this? Britain's geology and climate means there should be plenty of water. Underground in the south of England the rock is made of chalk, which is very soft and porous. These layers of rock filter rainwater into some of the cleanest water in the world, collecting in huge aquifers that have been tapped by local residents for centuries. Water companies now use those aquifers to provide the majority of the drinking water in some parts of the south. Further north, the rock underfoot is harder; sandstone and limestone, so lacking the benefits of the chalk aquifer. But it tends to receive more rainfall than the south, so there has generally been plentiful water from the skies to fill the reservoirs on which the northern water companies rely. There are also the rivers that crisscross the country, which (when clean) include gin-clear chalk streams buzzing with mayflies and thronging with salmon and other fish. The UK is one of the rainier places in Europe. Some areas are wetter than others. In England, the Lake District generally receives an average of 2,000mm of rainfall a year, while in parts of the south-east it is as low as 700mm. Perhaps it is because the country has always had such rich resources, that they have been taken for granted. Running out of water has never really been in question. But with population growth and climate breakdown, this is starting to look like folly. It was in the 17th century that the New River Company began piping water into London's homes from the springs in nearby Hertfordshire for the very rich. Slowly the technology began to spread and grow in popularity. Over the next decades, England's population would rise dramatically and the water systems of its rapidly growing cities would come under increasing stress. When the Great Stink hit London in 1858 during a heatwave, the civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette had already been commissioned to draw up plans to urgently update the city's sewage system. Known for his tirelessness, Bazalgette checked every connection himself, making thousands upon thousands of notes, and saved many lives as the system diverted sewage away from the city and into the Thames estuary. Later, treatment centres were added to purify the water. Today, consumers are used to having water coming out of a tap and they want to use a lot of it. Future generations, who will be dealing with long, dry summers, would probably be shocked at the profligate way clean tap water was used to flush toilets, water gardens and run washing machines. UK households use more water, mostly on showering and bathing, than other comparable European countries, at about 150 litres a day per capita. For France the average is 128, Germany 122 and Spain 120 (although in Italy its 243 litres a day). And the waste starts long before it gets to people's taps. Water companies in England and Wales lose about 1tn litres of water through leaky pipes each year. The industry has said that about 20% of all treated water is lost to leaks. The water firms have pledged to halve leakages by 2050. Meanwhile, the annual pipe replacement rate is 0.05% a year across all water companies: much of the sewage system in London, for example, has not been significantly updated since Bazalgette and his colleagues installed it in the 19th century. No new reservoir has been built in 30 years despite significant population growth and climate breakdown meaning longer, drier summers during which the country desperately needs to store water. The reservoirs England does have are at their lowest levels in at least a decade, just 67.7% full on average. According to Dr Wilson Chan, a hydroclimatologist at UKCEH, 'above average rainfall over several months is needed to ease pressures on water resources'. Was it the privatisation of the water and sewerage industry in 1989 that has led to this situation? England's water system has been widely criticised, and privatisation has been blamed for a lack of investment in infrastructure. Some say this is owing to the water companies paying out dividends rather than using the money raised by customer bills solely for investment in infrastructure; others blame a privatised regulated monopoly system that has prioritised low customer bills over investment. Experts have also pointed to the regulatory system. Water company drought plans compel firms to follow a series of steps before they can increase abstraction, taking more water from reservoirs, rivers and the ground to supply customers, beginning with reducing consumption (a hosepipe ban). 'Water companies must now take action to follow their drought plans – I will hold them to account if they delay,' says the water minister, Emma Hardy. 'We face a growing water shortage in the next decade.' But water companies believe that people hate being told to reduce their water consumption, so avoid hosepipe bans as much as possible. It does not help that bans may also lead to customers giving low satisfaction marks for their company, which are then taken into account by the regulator. The end result of these incentives; unsustainably high levels of abstraction from the natural environment, most of which will not be replaced by rain on the same timescale. Stores of water such as fossil aquifers and chalk streams recharge over centuries. The Environment Agency (EA) assess that 15% of surface water bodies and 27% of groundwater bodies in England have unsustainable levels of abstraction. 'We are calling on everyone to play their part and help reduce the pressure on our water environment,' says Helen Wakeham, the EA's director of water and chair of the National Drought Group. 'Water companies must continue to quickly fix leaks and lead the way in saving water.' This is not just a management problem. As climate breakdown accelerates, rainfall patterns are changing fast, and water will increasingly become less available at certain times of year. As Sir David King, a former UK chief scientific adviser who chairs the Climate Crisis Advisory Group, says: 'Drought in England is no longer a warning. It is a clear signal that climate collapse is unravelling our water, food and natural systems right now. 'This crisis demands a fundamental shift that places real value on our planet and environment, invests in nature, restores water cycles and transforms how we use every drop. If we rise to this moment we can turn crisis into opportunity, delivering economic resilience, ecological renewal and climate leadership.' The UK is not the only country that is already struggling to deal with changing weather patterns. Almost half of Europe is in drought, with wildfires tearing across the continent and farmers struggling to grow crops. Many of the economies of Southern Europe are dependent on sunny weather that has historically made the region the perfect place to grow vegetables for export. Scientists are concerned that farming in certain southern European countries will become less and less viable. More than 90 million people in eastern and southern Africa are facing extreme hunger after record-breaking drought across many areas has led to widespread crop failures and the death of livestock. As the impacts of the climate crisis unfurl around the world, is the UK government awake to the scale of the problem? Nine new reservoirs are in the pipeline to be built before 2050, while there are consultations on reducing demand for water. But this may be too little, too late; many housing developments are on pause because of water scarcity. The first new reservoir planned for Abingdon in Oxfordshire is sited in the same place as the government's new datacentre zone, leading to fears the water will be used to cool servers rather than serve customers in one of the most water-stressed areas of the UK. Green homes experts have said government building codes for new housing should include rainwater harvesting for internal use such as in lavatories and washing machines. People with gardens could use a water butt in summer, so that clean tap water is not being pumped through a hose into garden plants. Reducing time in the shower by a minute can save water, says Waterwise, while green building groups recommend the use of water-saving shower heads. A recent government commissioned report recommends smart water meters ate installed nationally, so households who use sprinklers and fill swimming pools are charged more than those who are more frugal with their use. More broadly, farmers could build reservoirs on their land to reduce the need for irrigation. Nature-based solutions could be used too, such as releasing beavers that create dams and hold water in the system, or restoring wetlands. 'We need to build more resilience into our rivers and their catchment areas with nature-based solutions at scale, such as healthy soils that allow water to filter into the ground and not rush off taking the soil with it; riverside tree planting to provide shade and further slow the flow of water; wetlands to store and slowly release water, and rewiggling streams to raise the water table and purify pollutants,' says Mark Lloyd, the chief executive of the Rivers Trust. 'We also need to finally implement the use of rainwater rather than drinking water where we can, such as car washing, gardening, washing pets, filling paddling pools and flushing the loo. Other water-stressed countries have used this approach for decades and we need to join that party.'
The Guardian
41 minutes ago
- The Guardian
A UK headline wealth tax? It may be simpler to put up existing taxes
Pressure to go further on wealth taxes – by creating new modes of clawing at hoards of hard-to-reach cash – is mounting. For starters, the fiscal picture is looking fairly bleak, with economists estimating that Rachel Reeves must raise £20bn – or even as much as £50bn – to meet her goal of balancing day-to-day spending against the revenue raised from taxation. On the government backbenches, meanwhile, MPs want the chancellor to squeeze the richest in society harder. They even put forward an early day motion last month calling for a 2% annual tax on individual assets over £10m. Yet introducing these kinds of taxes is often not straightforward, with the behaviour of the wealthy being hard to monitor and harder still to predict. The first significant problem is working out where the assets are and who holds them. That has always been difficult and has become even more challenging after one of the most important economic surveys, the household wealth data series, was suspended by the Office for National Statistics because of its low quality. The upshot is that HMRC simply does not know how many millionaires or billionaires there are in the UK. Without reliable figures, it is extremely hard to write policies, cost them and administer them. There is also a battle to be had with an 'old guard with set views' in Whitehall. Whitehall sources paint a picture of a Treasury led by figures influenced by economists whose thinking was prominent at Oxford University in the 1980s and 90s – such as James Mirrlees, Christophe Chamley and Tony Atkinson – leading to something of an orthodox view. In a nutshell, that position is that if you tax capital too much, it will stop investment and hamper growth. Or, in Chamley's words: 'Tax rate on capital income tends to zero in the long run.'. Since this era, the debate within economics has become more nuanced. A growing body of research suggests that some taxation on capital, even at relatively high rates, could lead to greater investment. As it becomes less attractive to hoard wealth because of taxation, risk appetites would then increase in pursuit of higher returns. You might be less tempted to keep your money in a vanilla savings account that can be taxed hard and easily if you can get a much better rate of return – even with a bit more risk – elsewhere. Treasury insiders argue that Reeves has followed the more modern logic, having already taken steps to widen the scope of inheritance and capital gains tax (IHT and CGT). They posit that her reluctance to pursue a headline wealth tax does not mean she has pulled her punches when it comes to taxing wealth. Hostile backbenchers, on the other hand, suggest she follows the old orthodoxy too closely. They often cite her decision to go for relatively small changes in the amounts of tax paid via CGT, rather than bring it more closely in line with income tax at the last budget, which also upset more senior political colleagues. What the debate about how to handle changes to IHT (which have been fiercely opposed by farmers) or CGT illustrates is that if the government really wants to tax wealth more effectively then it has all kinds of ways to do so before opting for a politically – and potentially economically – sensitive route with a headline wealth tax. Yet even changing existing mechanisms might not be easy, when the UK already has one of the highest rates of tax on property and wealth among developed economies, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Political pressure may make it harder to maintain a more gradualist approach, however. Figures on the left of the Labour parliamentary party are attracted to totemic wealth taxes of the kind introduced in Spain – its so-called solidarity tax – and Switzerland. They see it as part of showing a commitment to rebalancing the economy. Reeves is critical of international examples, saying that Switzerland does not have IHT, and that Spain's wealth tax is so riddled with exemptions that it raises too little money. Some developed economies that had comparable wealth taxes have dropped them, too. 'We have inheritance tax. We have capital gains. We've just got rid of the non-dom tax status that doesn't exist anymore in our tax system. So we do have taxes that tax the wealthy,' Reeves said in a recent interview with LBC. Other measures that go further are not yet proven to work, she claims, saying that those who 'come up with simple solutions' must do more to 'explain exactly how it would work, whether it's an ongoing tax, what it would do to tax avoidance, what it would do about people moving or changing the way that their wealth is stored'. Economists argue that the government should focus its energies on raising existing taxes, such as equalising CGT with income tax, for example, or changing gifting rules around IHT first, rather than introduce a novel wealth tax. The Treasury is already examining gifting rules among other possible IHT changes. Yet while Reeves might agree with some of these arguments, it's less clear whether her cabinet colleagues will tolerate a slow and steady approach, particularly if the fiscal picture sours.
The Sun
41 minutes ago
- The Sun
11 steps to be £1,000s better off even if you're on a low income – including the 50/30/20 rule
STARTING out on the journey to improve your finances can feel daunting - it's hard to know where to start. But small steps can have a huge impact, we spoke to top finance experts to pull together an 11 step guide to being financially better off within six months - and you could save THOUSANDS of pounds. 1 Here's how to get started: Set a budget To be better off, you need to live within your means. Understand your income and outgoings, and then create rules for how to spend your money. Graham Wells, from Gro Wiser financial coaching, says: 'Trying to fix multiple aspects of your finances in one go is unlikely to work, so you need to prioritise. "Be realistic and focus on small steps that will compound over time.' The 50/30/20 rule is one way to divide up your spending, where 50% of your money goes on essentials like the rent or mortgage and food shop each month, 30% on nice-to-haves like meals out and new clothes, and 20% into savings. You may need to tweak the percentages depending on your income and outgoings, or if you want to save more. Six month savvy: Someone earning £1,500 a month after tax could save £1,800 in six months by following this rule and putting 20% into savings monthly. Automate it Set up direct debits so that your money is automatically funnelled to where it needs to be. For example, you might set up one to pay off credit card debt and another to transfer cash into a savings account. Automating the process means you don't need to remember to do it manually and removes the temptation to spend on other things instead. "Set up the direct debits for payday - if you wait until the end of the month to see what's left, you can be almost certain there will be nothing," says Sarah Coles from the wealth manager Hargreaves Lansdown. Six month savvy: Use the round-ups tool on your banking app. This rounds your spending to the nearest pound and puts the difference into savings. For example, if you spent £1.87, it would be rounded to £2, with 13p going into savings. These small amounts really add up over time. Check your bank statement It's easy to lose track, so check for any subscriptions, membership or services that you might have forgotten about and no longer need. Do you use all of those TV streaming services? When was the last time you went to the gym? Check you are getting the best deal on bills like your mobile phone, broadband and car insurance. If you are out of the initial deal period, you are probably overpaying. Six month savvy: Research by Citizen's Advice found that a quarter of UK adults have accidentally taken out a subscription, often because they didn't realise a trial period had ended or that the deal had automatically renewed. According to Money Wellness, we each waste about £170 a year on unused subscriptions. Get free money Use cashback websites to earn money on those essentials that you do need to buy. Sites like QuidCo and Topcashback offer money back on purchases such as insurance, holidays and clothing: just set up an account, click through to the retailer from the cashback website, and then buy as usual. Cashback is never guaranteed so only use this for things you need to purchase anyway. Switching bank accounts is another way to bag free cash; banks often pay bonuses to new customers. Be sure to check the requirements to make sure you qualify. Six month savvy: Currently on QuidCo you could get 7.5% cashback at Expedia, while at Topcashback you could get 15% cashback at Currys. Topcashback says its users earn on average £345 a year. Banks including Santander, First Direct and Lloyds are currently offering switching bonuses of up to £180. Pay down debt Focus on clearing expensive debt before you worry about savings. The interest rates on credit cards and loans are higher than you can earn on savings, so will undo your efforts. Check if you are eligible for a 0% credit card, where you can clear your debt without racking up extra interest charges. Ideally you should have a direct debit to clear your credit card in full each month, but if you can't afford this try to pay off more than the minimum amount. Six month savvy: If you had £1,000 on a credit card charging 24% and paid £50 a month, it would take two years and two months to clear and you'd pay £252 in interest. If you paid £200 a month, you would clear it in six months and pay £58 in interest. 'My Lifetime Isa has changed my finances - I could get £15k free cash' When Antony Jones first heard about the Lifetime Isa, he thought it sounded too good to be true. But since opening an account, he has pocketed £4,000 in free cash. Lifetime Isas can be opened by those aged 18-40, and you can save up to £4,000 a year in them until you are 50, which you can put into cash or invest. The best thing is that you get a 25% bonus from the government - so if you save £4,000 in a year, you get £1,000 on top. If you saved the maximum every year from age 18 to 50, you'd get £32,000 free cash in total. And because the bonus gets paid a month after you put money into the account, you can start to feel better off very quickly. 'I only regret missing out on those years when I could have been saving into a Lifetime Isa but didn't know about them,' says Antony, 39, who lives in Cardiff and opened his account in 2021. He could get £15,000 in total from the bonus if he keeps saving until he is 50. The one catch is that the money can only be used either to buy your first home or after age 60. Antony, who works as a software developer, already has a mortgage so wants the money to boost his retirement savings. He has set up a direct debit to invest £330 a month through the investment platform AJ Bell, and splits the money between two funds: Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity and Vanguard Global All Cap Index. 'I opened a Lifetime Isa because I wanted the bonus, but it's completely changed my finances. It has helped me learn about investing and do more of it,' says Antony. Set up a savings account Experts recommend having three to six months' of outgoings in an easy-access savings account in case of an emergency. Make sure you are getting a good rate - money in your current account won't earn interest. Top easy-access accounts are currently from Chase Bank and Trading 212, paying almost 5%. You can then put some money in a fixed savings account, where you may get a higher rate but can't access the money for a set period. Alice Haine, from the investment firm Bestinvest, says: "A small amount set aside each month will kickstart your journey towards financial security, with each top-up helping to ease the stress when a sudden cost lands in your lap." Six month savvy: For those just starting a regular saver account can be a good option - these pay a higher rate but limit how much you can save. For example, you can save up to £300 a month with First Direct and earn 7%. If you maxed out the account, after a year you would have saved £3,600 and earned £135 in interest. Pay into a pension Retirement might be decades away, but it's still important to save for. If you are 22 or over and earning at least £10,000, you should be automatically put into your company pension scheme. Usually you contribute 5% of your salary into a pension and your company pays in 3%. Ask if your employer will pay in more if you increase your contribution too. Six month savvy: Pensions are for the long-term so you won't see results in six months, but if you contribute £50 a month from age 22 and your company £30 a month, and it grew at 5% a year, you would have more than £108,000 by age 60. Start investing Investing is the best way to grow your money over the long-term, but it comes with risks because the stock market can go down as well as up. You should only invest money that you are able to tie up for a minimum of three years. The simplest way to start is with a robo-investing app, where you answer some questions about your finances and how much risk you want to take, and are then guided to a ready-made investment fund. You can often start with as little as £1. Six month savvy: If you invested £25 a month into a fund that grew at 6% a year, after a year you would have £309, and after 10 years you would have £4,096. If you were able to save £50 a month, you'd have £617 after one year and £8,194 after ten years. Set some boundaries Identify your money weaknesses and set some rules to help you tackle them. If you are an impulse buyer, for example, delete shopping apps from your phone. Consider the 24-hour rule, where you leave an item in your basket for a day to give you time to think about whether you really want it. Six month savvy: Use a spreadsheet or budgeting app to record your spending and break it into categories, says Wells: 'This can be transformational. "It helps people understand more about their spending behaviours and what changes they would like to introduce.' Be kind to yourself There is often a feeling of guilt associated with money and a sense that we should know more, says Wells, but it's not something many people are taught. No one is perfect and there will be months that you get off track. Coles adds: 'Don't lose sleep about the imperfections in your finances. Focus on what you have achieved, rather than what is left to do.' Six month savvy: Write a list of the things that are worrying you, says Haine: 'Sometimes the things causing the most anxiety can be easy to fix. "Doing everything at once will feel overwhelming, so focus on each money woe one at a time.' Get help Improving your finances can be overwhelming, but there is support available if you need it. Charities like Citizens Advice and Step Change are an important resource if you are struggling with debt. The Money Helper website offers guidance on everyday money as well as savings and pensions. For investing help, be sure to use regulated websites for tips such as Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell. I'm a psychologist - here are three tips to change your money mindset Simonne Gnessen, founder of Wise Money Financial Coaching: Reframe it What messages do you tell yourself about money? Saying 'I'm bad with money' or 'I always overspend' can unconsciously encourage you to behave in that way. Try to notice how you think and feel about money, and reframe it. Say 'I'm making progress' and 'I am trying' instead, and focus on the wins. Be curious Don't judge yourself if you get off track or overspend. Instead try to explore what caused you to do that and consider what you could have done differently. Coming from a place of curiosity rather than judgment means you will be more open to change. Journaling can help you explore your feelings and spot behaviour patterns. Set a money date Make it something you enjoy rather than a chore. Schedule regular time for money matters, whether it is five minutes to top-up your savings or an hour to comb your bank statement - this stops tasks building up and becoming overwhelming. Set a time to check-in with your partner; do it over coffee and cake rather than at home surrounded by paperwork, to make it feel like a treat. Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@
