Labour plans council tax shake-up that could see rich areas pay more
Labour is proposing a significant reform to council tax funding, aiming to make it fairer by directing more central government funds to areas with the highest need.
The new approach seeks to alleviate the burden on local authorities that currently impose large council tax increases with little return, by enabling them to request lower rises.
The reform will likely result in less central funding for areas where local services are not as stretched.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government official said the current system has led to "perverse outcomes" and the new plan aims to be fairer to councils that have historically faced difficult financial decisions.
A consultation has been launched by the MHCLG to evaluate how new funding allocations will be made, including assessing needs for adult social care, children's social care, and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities funding.
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Times
40 minutes ago
- Times
Sir Bill O'Brien obituary: miner and Labour MP who clashed with Scargill
Bill O'Brien went down the mines as a teenager, but it was through opposing the miners' leader Arthur Scargill, not supporting him, that he found his way to Westminster where he served for 22 years as a Labour MP. His first clash with Scargill came in 1976 when he was secretary of the Glasshoughton branch of the National Union of Mineworkers and Scargill was president of the Yorkshire NUM. There was little love lost between the two men, one an old-school Labour pragmatist and the other a militant left-winger, and when Scargill sued the Sheffield Star for libel, O'Brien and a colleague co-operated with the newspaper. Scargill won his case, and at his behest the NUM suspended O'Brien and his colleague from holding office for two years. O'Brien, supported by his branch, challenged the ban in court and won. Seven years later O'Brien clashed with Scargill a second time when Albert Roberts, the veteran Labour MP for the Yorkshire constituency of Normanton, announced his retirement. O'Brien challenged Scargill's man, Henry Daley, for the party's nomination and once again prevailed. O'Brien went on to win the seat in the 1983 general election. Hard-working, single-minded and a dedicated constituency MP, he was re-elected four times and served seven years as an opposition frontbench spokesman. William O'Brien was born in Glasshoughton, a neighbourhood on the edge of Castleford, in 1929, the son of a miner of Irish descent. He was educated at St Joseph's Catholic School in Castleford, but left school at 15 or 16 to become a coalface miner at the local colliery along with three of his four brothers. Almost immediately he joined both the Labour Party and the NUM, and discovered a flair for organising. He became a shop steward at Glasshoughton and was elected to Knottingley urban district council. In 1974 Knottingley became part of Wakefield Metropolitan district council. O'Brien rose to become chair of the new council's finance committee and its deputy leader. He also served as a Wakefield magistrate. He suffered setbacks. In 1973 he challenged Owen Briscoe, a left-winger, for the post of secretary of the NUM's Yorkshire region and lost. But he did manage to earn a degree in education from the University of Leeds in 1978, and in the same year married his second wife, Jean Scofield, a fellow Labour Party member who had grown up in an adjoining street. His first marriage had been short-lived but produced a daughter, Darrel. He treated as his own Jean's two daughters, Kaye and Diane. O'Brien was elected to parliament for Normanton in 1983 with a slender majority of 4,183. The following year Scargill launched the miners' strike that became a protracted trial of strength against Margaret Thatcher's government. O'Brien supported the strike and condemned the government's planned pit closures, but opposed Scargill's methods. The Glasshoughton colliery closed in 1986, not long after the miners' strike ended in defeat, but O'Brien was re-elected with an increased majority of 7,287 the next year. Neil Kinnock, then Labour's leader, swiftly appointed him opposition spokesman on the environment despite the fact that O'Brien had backed Roy Hattersley for the leader's job. After the 1992 election Kinnock's successor, John Smith, made him the opposition spokesman on Northern Ireland. Proudly working class and partial to nights out in the working men's clubs of his constituency, O'Brien was one of 16 members of the so-called Rambo tendency created half in jest by a fellow Labour MP, Joe Ashton, to resist Labour's takeover by far-left and middle-class 'infiltrators and poseurs'. He returned to the back benches when Tony Blair succeeded Smith in 1994, but continued to sit on select committees and to fight hard for his constituents until he stood down at the general election of 2005. He was replaced as Normanton's MP by Ed Balls, who went on to become a cabinet minister under Gordon Brown. By then O'Brien was in his mid-seventies, but he did not retire from public life. He continued to hold authority to account. He served as a school governor and became a champion of local causes including the Pontefract Town Centre Partnership — an alliance of interested parties determined to reverse the town centre's decline — and the Dr Jackson Cancer Fund, created in memory of a local doctor to improve cancer care in mid-Yorkshire. He was knighted in 2010. Alongside 'reading', O'Brien listed 'organising' as one of his two hobbies in his Who's Who entry. He continued to 'organise' well into his nineties. In 2003 he suffered a stroke and spent ten weeks in hospital. Visitors recalled how he campaigned from his bed to have a water fountain installed for their benefit. Sir Bill O'Brien, union activist and politician, was born on January 25, 1929. He died on May 16, 2025, aged 96
Telegraph
an hour 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
an hour 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…
