Latest news with #JacquiSmith
Scotsman
4 days ago
- Business
- Scotsman
The 9 places in Scotland where houses prices are rising fastest
But property prices have increased much faster in certain parts of Scotland than others - in some cases by more than 10 per cent in the last year. New data from the Office for National Statistics shows how house prices have changed in different areas of Scotland between March 2024 and March 2025, the latest date for which figures are available. Two of Scotland's more remote regions, the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands, are among the areas where house prices have risen fastest. Jacqui Smith, property officer at the Shetland-based Anderson & Goodlad estate agents, said: 'Since Covid, I think a lot of people want the rural lifestyle. 'When the pandemic happened, many people down south found they were stuck in tiny square boxes and weren't able to get out and enjoy the natural environment in the same way you can here. 'Some people just want the slower pace of life and they like the fact it's very community-orientated here. 'We're finding a lot of retired folk want to move up here, and they can afford to go above and beyond the valuation. 'There's some detriment to first-time buyers, and it can be harder for locals to get on the property ladder.' Ms Smith added that the Shetland Islands appeal to a wide range of homebuyers, including families, and not just people who are retired. 'The school facilities are better here than on the mainland and there are more opportunities in respect of what they can offer,' she said. 'That stems from the 70s and 80s when the oil boom happened and they got the infrastructure in for families.' Below are the nine areas of Scotland with the biggest house price rises between March 2024 and March 2025, listed in reverse order. Do you have a house hunting story or tips to share? You can now send your stories to us online via YourWorld It's free to use and, once checked, your story will appear on our website and, space allowing, in our newspapers. 1 . North Lanarkshire - up 7.6% The average house price in North Lanarkshire was £149,000 in March 2025, according to the latest Office for National Statistics data, up by 7.6 per cent from March 2024. That was the ninth highest annual percentage increase in Scotland. | North Lanarkshire Council Photo: North Lanarkshire Council Photo Sales 2 . Moray - up 7.7% The average house price in Moray was £200,000 in March 2025, according to the latest Office for National Statistics data, up by 7.7 per cent from March 2024. That was the eighth highest annual percentage increase in Scotland. | RDImages/Epics/Getty Images Photo: RDImages/Epics/Getty Images Photo Sales 3 . South Lanarkshire - up 8.6% The average house price in South Lanarkshire was £174,000 in March 2025, according to the latest Office for National Statistics data, up by 8.6 per cent from March 2024. That was the seventh highest annual percentage increase in Scotland. | Google Photo: Google Photo Sales 4 . Stirling - up 8.8% The average house price in Stirling was £233,000 in March 2025, according to the latest Office for National Statistics data, up by 8.8 per cent from March 2024. That was the sixth highest annual percentage increase in Scotland. | ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images Photo: ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images Photo Sales
Scotsman
4 days ago
- Business
- Scotsman
The 9 places in Scotland where houses prices are rising fastest
But property prices have increased much faster in certain parts of Scotland than others - in some cases by more than 10 per cent in the last year. New data from the Office for National Statistics shows how house prices have changed in different areas of Scotland between March 2024 and March 2025, the latest date for which figures are available. Two of Scotland's more remote regions, the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands, are among the areas where house prices have risen fastest. Jacqui Smith, property officer at the Shetland-based Anderson & Goodlad estate agents, said: 'Since Covid, I think a lot of people want the rural lifestyle. 'When the pandemic happened, many people down south found they were stuck in tiny square boxes and weren't able to get out and enjoy the natural environment in the same way you can here. 'Some people just want the slower pace of life and they like the fact it's very community-orientated here. 'We're finding a lot of retired folk want to move up here, and they can afford to go above and beyond the valuation. 'There's some detriment to first-time buyers, and it can be harder for locals to get on the property ladder.' Ms Smith added that the Shetland Islands appeal to a wide range of homebuyers, including families, and not just people who are retired. 'The school facilities are better here than on the mainland and there are more opportunities in respect of what they can offer,' she said. 'That stems from the 70s and 80s when the oil boom happened and they got the infrastructure in for families.' Below are the nine areas of Scotland with the biggest house price rises between March 2024 and March 2025, listed in reverse order. Do you have a house hunting story or tips to share? You can now send your stories to us online via YourWorld It's free to use and, once checked, your story will appear on our website and, space allowing, in our newspapers. 1 . North Lanarkshire - up 7.6% The average house price in North Lanarkshire was £149,000 in March 2025, according to the latest Office for National Statistics data, up by 7.6 per cent from March 2024. That was the ninth highest annual percentage increase in Scotland. | North Lanarkshire Council Photo: North Lanarkshire Council Photo Sales 2 . Moray - up 7.7% The average house price in Moray was £200,000 in March 2025, according to the latest Office for National Statistics data, up by 7.7 per cent from March 2024. That was the eighth highest annual percentage increase in Scotland. | RDImages/Epics/Getty Images Photo: RDImages/Epics/Getty Images Photo Sales 3 . South Lanarkshire - up 8.6% The average house price in South Lanarkshire was £174,000 in March 2025, according to the latest Office for National Statistics data, up by 8.6 per cent from March 2024. That was the seventh highest annual percentage increase in Scotland. | Google Photo: Google Photo Sales 4 . Stirling - up 8.8% The average house price in Stirling was £233,000 in March 2025, according to the latest Office for National Statistics data, up by 8.8 per cent from March 2024. That was the sixth highest annual percentage increase in Scotland. | ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images Photo: ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images Photo Sales
Telegraph
7 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Only drink one glass of wine a year, says researcher
Prof Nutt is a neuropsychopharmacologist and the chairman of the discipline at Imperial College London, as well as a former government drugs adviser. He clashed with Jacqui Smith, the then home secretary, after comparing the 100 deaths a year from horse riding with the 30 deaths a year linked to ecstasy. His advisory committee had recommended that cannabis should not be reclassified from Class C back to Class B, leading to heavier penalties, but the recommendation was not taken on board by Ms Smith. Prof Nutt said there was a 'relatively small risk' of psychotic illness linked to cannabis use, but that to prevent one episode of schizophrenia, it would be necessary to 'stop 5,000 men aged 20 to 25 from ever using' cannabis. He also supported reclassifying ecstasy from a Class A to Class B. He has been outspoken about the harms of alcohol but has also helped his daughter open a wine bar and admitted that he enjoys a tipple on weekends and special occasions. Mixed advice on alcohol consumption Advice on alcohol consumption, and the health benefits and risks of drinking wine in particular, has often been mixed. One recent study, published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, suggested that champagne and white wine 'protect' the heart from cardiac arrest. It suggested long-term beliefs about the benefits of red wine may also apply to other varieties of the drink. Its thought that the polyphenols found in wine, typically associated with red wine, can play a role in lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of heart disease. These antioxidants can be found in all types of wine but are lower in white varieties, and some experts think they can help to protect the heart and other body cells as well as the brain. However, this research does not take into account the other potential harms that alcohol can cause. Prof Nutt recommends following the guidelines set out by the NHS, which state that both men and women should not drink 'more than 14 units a week [equivalent to six pints of average-strength beer or 10 small glasses of lower-strength wine] on a regular basis'.
New European
27-05-2025
- Business
- New European
If universities sink, then so will Starmer
Universities, left to find new ways to pay the bills, aggressively recruited foreign students, who pay much higher fees – meaning most universities now rely on overseas students to stay afloat, a business model created with the full knowledge of successive governments. The UK's universities have had a tough few decades, in both political and financial terms. The Conservative-led coalition transformed their funding model by tripling tuition fees, destroying the Liberal Democrats' credibility for a generation in the process. But the toxicity of that decision, combined with the choice not to have tuition fees increase with inflation, meant the government went nowhere near increasing fees for more than a decade, while education was not immune to austerity cuts and belt-tightening across government. Despite that, unis have been relentlessly attacked by MPs and ministers for that model, with some suggesting foreign students are 'taking places' that would otherwise be filled by Brits (in practice they are subsidising places for UK students), or else that they are serving as a gateway for unwanted immigrants to enter the country, contributing to that 'crisis'. Fold in universities' place at the centre of the culture wars – as if either left wing academics or student activism were anything new – and by the time Labour re-entered government last year, British universities were exhausted, demoralised, and several were on the verge of financial collapse. No one thought Labour would enter government and scrap tuition fees while lavishly funding universities, but academics and university bosses alike hoped for some improvement – at least an end to universities being endlessly dragged into the culture wars, caught in the middle of battles between the Home Office and Treasury on immigration, or told to find 'efficiency savings' as if it's a new idea, rather than something that has been demanded of them every year for a decade. Needless to say, they have been disappointed. Skills minister Jacqui Smith ruffled feathers in the sector when she accused universities, in the pages of the Telegraph, of having 'lost sight' of their responsibility to spend public money wisely, launching into attacks on vice chancellors' salaries and demanding they cut 'wasteful spending'. But Blue Labour MPs have gone much further. Dan Carden, who was head boy at one of the North West's most prestigious grammar schools, St Edward's College, before studying at the LSE, said in the Daily Mail that he 'would close half our universities and turn them into vocational colleges' because 'we need to renew the skills required for production, not produce an endless stream of graduates for email jobs and human resources'. Carden's Blue Labour colleague Jonathan Hinder – who also attended one of the North West's most prestigious grammar schools, before going on to study history and politics at Oxford – expressed similar sentiments, saying 'I don't think we should have anywhere near as many universities and university places'. He added he would be 'not that disappointed' if several universities collapsed as overseas student numbers fell. To say such comments are testing the patience of academics would be the understatement of the century. Backbenchers could be easily ignored were it not for the fact that No 10 seems highly attuned to the concerns of Blue Labour, hyper-focused on Reform, and blind to what they see as a simple fact – that if universities started failing, Labour's prospects of re-election would collapse with them. 'None of that sentiment would survive contact with the reality of even one university going bankrupt,' says Professor Rob Ford of the University of Manchester. 'Because the fallout from that in the place where it happened would be catastrophic, and the MPs that represent that place would experience it like a meteorite hitting in terms of the local economy.' The impacts would be direct and indirect, he explains. 'Universities don't just employ lecturers, they employ thousands of people at all sorts of levels. They have huge estates, lots of buildings. People have to maintain those buildings. They have lots of administrative staff. Even at a modestly sized university, you are talking about thousands of people, at every rung of the career ladder.' Beyond that, though, universities support thousands more jobs in their local areas – some through contractors, such as caterers or student housing, but many more in the wider local economy. The nightlife in university towns, many of the private rentals, town centre shops, cafes and more rely on students. The majority of UK students still study away from home, and so are bringing money into an area. An overseas student is essentially bringing money into the country with every penny they spend – it is not just their fees, but their rent, food, and everything else that is essentially a UK export. This is backed up by data: research for Public First has found universities are among the top three exporters in more than 100 constituencies – something which isn't true for any other sector of the economy. Of those 100 seats, Labour holds 85. One of the study's authors put it starkly: 'In a lot of towns, your university is your car plant, it is your steel mill'. University WhatsApp groups swirl with rumours about which institutions are on the brink, and which university might fail first. Some look to what happened with local councils, where for years there were warnings councils would go bankrupt that never quite materialised – as no one wanted to be first. But at least nine councils have declared bankruptcy since 2020, and dozens more are at risk. If universities start to fail, it will be disastrous for Labour MPs and their constituents. It would be the modern equivalent of the factory closure, or the end of the pit. And despite how some Labour MPs seem to imagine their voters, it would be Labour's core supporters who were most affected. Some Labour MPs still seem to imagine the party's voters are the kind of mass manual working class that largely hasn't existed in this country for decades. The data is very different. A large-scale post-election survey by YouGov found that Labour won university graduates by more than two to one, securing 42% of them versus the Tories' 18%. But even in an election where the Conservatives resoundingly lost, among people with GCSE education or lower, Labour lost out to the Tories by 28% versus 31% (Reform got 23% of these voters). Blue Labour isn't trying to appeal to Labour's actual voting base – it is arguing that the party should give up on these voters in a bid to secure a new core. This was not seen as a credible argument when the hard left made it, and should not be seen as one now. That the tactic to appeal to this imagined new voting base relies on degrading a sector vital to the UK's economic fortunes, and to the future of the towns many Labour MPs represent, is gross recklessness. Universities have certainly made mistakes – so many years of education being seen as such a good thing means they have got out of the habit of making the economic case for their existence, some vice chancellor salaries are obviously ridiculous, and the sector has cried wolf too many times. But the numbers on the account books are clear: this time the crisis is real. Some senior university leaders still think the government has more sense than to allow a university to collapse – probably. Professor Sally Wheeler is the vice chancellor of Birkbeck, University of London, an institution founded to provide part-time evening education for the working classes. She thinks if it came to the crunch, the government would step in – at least for some. 'I question: would Labour let a uni go bust? Well, they might within the M25 – that's what everybody says, where there are an awful lot of them. Would they in a red wall seat? I doubt it,' she says. She doesn't expect transformational new money from Labour – people in her job are having to be ever more creative to keep the lights on, she says, from making commercial partnerships to looking at campuses overseas. But she expresses frustration that a lack of insight creates problems no minister would likely ever intend. These range from the mundane, such as small universities like hers facing as much compliance cost as those five or 10 times larger, to the ridiculous. She highlights an issue with hybrid teaching, in which some students learn in person and some dial in remotely. The tech is there, the students love it, and for an institution like Birkbeck designed to help people with other commitments to study, it's ideal – but overseas students aren't allowed to use the tech. They can't even install it. This is because of restrictions to crack down on dubious visas. The sector is beset by issues like this, she explains. Ultimately, universities don't expect miracles from Labour. After a dubious first year in government, they don't expect much. On a pragmatic level, senior figures hope that ministers will engage with the practical issues that could be fixed with little cost, which might make a hard job slightly easier. But the big hope is a philosophical one – that Labour won't get so preoccupied in a battle with Reform over the souls of a largely imagined working class that it ignores, or even cheers on, a potential economic calamity in its new political heartlands. Higher education might have been bad at making the arguments, but its campuses are the new factories, or even the new mines, supporting thousands or tens of thousands of jobs. Closures could devastate communities for a generation. Surely, they hope, Keir Starmer won't let himself be sleepwalked into being the 21st-century Thatcher?
Powys County Times
11-05-2025
- Business
- Powys County Times
Universities must be more transparent with public money, skills minister says
Universities have 'lost sight' of their responsibility concerning public money and should be more transparent about how it is spent, a Government minister has said. It comes after revelations that two in five universities and colleges in England expect to run at a deficit this year. Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, skills minister Baroness Jacqui Smith said universities should focus on 'the core mission of higher education, which is rooted here in Britain, its young people, its economy and its society'. 'We ask students to make a considerable investment in their degrees. Universities have huge revenues and must be more transparent about where this money is going,' she said. 'They ask Government to do more to support them, but seem to have lost sight of their responsibility to protect public money.' Last November, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson announced undergraduate tuition fees in England, which had been frozen at £9,250 since 2017, would rise to £9,535 from 2025/26 to 'secure the future of higher education'. 'But we have a clear message to university leaders across the country: you also need to do your bit,' Baroness Smith said. 'If we allow you to increase the fees you can charge students, then this – and the salaries you earn – must be backed with a clear commitment to break down barriers to opportunity and support our mission to drive growth.' The deterioration in financial performance for the universities sector is likely to continue without reforms, the Office for Students (OfS) has warned. The higher education regulator said it is making preparations to protect students in case of possible closures of institutions. The watchdog's annual health check said 43% of higher education providers in England face a deficit in 2024/25, compared to 40% of institutions in 2023/24. The OfS analysis said the primary reason for the decline is a fall in international student recruitment and estimated that overseas student numbers could be more than a fifth lower than previous forecasts. In January, Ms Phillipson said universities would have to demonstrate that they could deliver 'best outcomes' for students in the wake of increases in tuition fees. 'We will expect the higher education sector to demonstrate that, in return for the increased investment that we are asking students to make, they deliver the very best outcomes,' she said. Ms Phillipson said she expected universities to play a bigger civic role in their communities and make a 'stronger contribution' to economic growth. University leaders have been warning of significant financial concerns caused by a drop in the number of overseas students, who can be charged higher tuition fees, following restrictions introduced by the former Conservative government, as well as frozen tuition fees paid by domestic students. A number of institutions across the UK have announced redundancies and course closures over the past year as a result of growing financial pressures. Philippa Pickford, director of regulation at the OfS, told the media at a briefing: 'We're not expecting short-term university failures, certainly of a large institution, but it is something that we are preparing for and making sure that we've got processes in place to manage.' She said the OfS is working closely with a small number of institutions where they are 'concerned about their financial viability' to think about what needs to be put in place to protect students if they were to fail. Ms Pickford added: 'There is no doubt that if it was a large institution that fails, our ability to secure good outcomes for students is quite low, and that's why we think it's really important to have some sort of special administration regime in place for higher education. 'I know that's something that we're talking to Government about at the moment.' Some universities are predicting a strengthened financial performance in the longer term, but the OfS has warned that forecasts seem 'too ambitious'. 'We are concerned that this expected recovery is based on overly ambitious figures for recruitment growth over this period: 26% growth in UK student entrants and 19.5% growth in international student entrants,' the report said. Since January 2024, international students in the UK have been banned from bringing dependants with them, apart from some postgraduate research courses or courses with government-funded scholarships. The OfS report said international student entrant numbers are projected to be 21% lower than last year's forecasts. Separate figures, released by the Home Office on Thursday, showed that study visa applications were down 24% in the year to April 2025 compared with the previous 12 months, from 582,500 to 441,700. The fall has been driven by a steep drop in the number of applications that cover dependants (down 83%), with only a small drop in the number of main applicants (down 10%). The Government is due to set out its plan for higher education reform in the summer.
