Pershore's former police station may undergo £1m transformation
They also said the current layout, being specifically for a police station and offices, made it redundant to today's business and public service space demands. The council's report states funding will be generated by the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (£145,000), the enhanced building capital budget (£160,000) and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (£250,000). The council has recommended the approval of the funding gap of £565,000 to be met from reserves.
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Rayner's housing quango bosses spend thousands on hospitality and travel
Angela Rayner's housing quango has spent nearly a quarter of a million pounds on expenses for directors. Officials at Homes England have spent £240,000 on travel, hospitality, food, accommodation and office supplies since 2021. The revelation comes after Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, allocated £39 billion for affordable and social housing over the next 10 years in the spending review. Homes England, set up in 2018 to fund more affordable housing across England, will distribute 70 per cent of this money. The quango defended the spending as necessary for executives who travel for work and said there was a strict approvals process for expenses. Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager of the TaxPayers' Alliance, which obtained the data through Freedom of Information (FoI) requests, said: 'Taxpayers will be dismayed that Homes England bureaucrats are racking up more expenses. 'This is a clear example of a runaway quango. Rather than supporting the Government's new house-building targets, they are piling extra costs onto construction companies making new homes. 'If Labour want any chance of hitting their housing targets, ministers must get a grip on Homes England and focus on getting spades in the ground.'
Telegraph
an hour ago
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Revealed: The Telegraph's best value private school
When King Edward VI High School for Girls (KEHS) opened in 1883 on New Street in Birmingham, it didn't even have a proper door. With only a handful of pupils, it was tucked away behind a curtain in a corridor used by the boys' school of the same name. Today, the school is in leafy Edgbaston, and attracts girls from across the West Midlands, with some travelling as far as 100 miles each day. The school has been named The Telegraph's best value private school for 2025, charging below-average school fees (£7,145 per term), while achieving some of the best exam results in the country (80.3pc of A-levels last year scored either A or A*). This year, the tool – which gives hundreds of private schools a 'value for money' score based on fees and academic results – has been upgraded to take into account schools' facilities. As a result, KEHS jumped up the list, due to the fact it has an indoor swimming pool, seven tennis courts and two AstroTurf pitches. It also shares an international athletics track with the University of Birmingham, which Jamacia trained on during the 2022 Commonwealth Games. In the past year, the school has reached national finals in netball, tennis, fencing, chess and badminton. Away from the sports field, the school excels in music. It hosts 40 major concerts each year in conjunction with King Edward's School, its twin boys school on the same site. In 2018, its Year 11 pupil, Lauren Zhang, was crowned BBC Young Musician. But, like all private schools, it is up against a hostile Labour government. The school has passed on the VAT raid in full, with fees rising in September by 20pc compared to a year ago. Kirsty von Malaisé, the principal, says between the girls' and boys' school, the increase in employers' National Insurance and rise in minimum wage has added £1m to its wage bill. In response to these changes, rather than merging with the boys' school, the school is in fact increasing the number of girls it accepts. Year groups will expand from 96 girls to 120 from September. It is hoped by adding an extra form to its new intake of girls, the school can take advantage of economies of scale. Mrs von Malaisé says the move will make the school more financially resilient in the long term. 'Who knows what else the Labour government is going to throw at us, because a lot has hit us this year. 'To be the only country in Europe which is taxing education feels wholly regressive. It is clearly a socialist agenda to the detriment of pupils. 'Even though it's 7pc of pupils [who are educated at private schools] in the country, that's still a lot of young people being educated.' On paper, KEHS is exactly the sort of school to be most severely impacted by Labour's VAT levy. 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Freya, 17, a lower sixth pupil, who hopes to study history of art at St Andrew's, says: 'The main thing I've taken away from why we do so well is because the teachers don't treat us like children. 'They treat us as if we are on the same level as them. We've always had discussions with them rather than feeling like we are being spoken to.' It's something Ines, 12, agrees with. She says: 'The way they talk to you makes you feel like they are actually interested in your answer.' For others, it's the camaraderie of a girls-only education that makes KEHS stand out. Ffion, 14, remembers being in awe at the size of the school on her first day. 'I had just arrived, and I had been home educated in Year 6. I was five minutes late to a lesson because I was lost and wandering around the science corridor. 'This random sixth former stopped me and asked if I was alright. I told her I was really lost. She was so kind and informative. She stopped me from panicking, and that's something you don't forget.' Britain's second best value private school is Queen Elthelburga's College in North Yorkshire, a mixed day school that charges £7,595 per term and scores A or A* in 84.4pc of A-levels. Its facilities include an indoor swimming pool, a theatre, a recording studio and a Combined Cadet Force. Close behind is Withington Girls' School in Manchester, with termly fees of £5,964, a 75.5pc A or A* exam achievement rate and its own gym, tennis court and theatre. Rounding out the top five are St Michael's School in Carmarthenshire – last year's winner, with termly fees of £5,482 – and King's College School in Wimbledon, which is London's best value private school, charging £10,482 a term and offering its boys a climbing wall, rowing facilities, a pool, a theatre, a recording studio and Combined Cadet Force. How does your school compare? Try our tool to find out.
Telegraph
an hour ago
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Can Britain survive four more years of Labour?
One year on from his landslide election victory, Sir Keir Starmer's plans are in disarray. His Chancellor is in tears. His MPs are in open rebellion. But most importantly outside Westminster, his promises to restore growth in the economy have come to nought, despite extremely expensive plans to force a rebound. Here are the charts that show why the optimism of last summer – when Labour's victory supposedly replaced the inept Tories with 'grown-ups' – has withered. Growth Since the shock of the pandemic lockdowns and the boost from reopening the economy, GDP has only grown in fits and starts. In last year's election campaign, the Conservatives made much of the 'gangbusters' growth of the first half of 2024. But that rapidly petered out. The opening months of this year also saw a brief growth spurt which came to an end even more quickly – the economy shrank again in April. 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Unfortunately, even they were not enough to fund the Government's spending plans. The Chancellor also changed her fiscal rules to justify additional borrowing at the same time. Even if everything went to plan, the Office for Budget Responsibility estimated her plans would add hundreds of billions of pounds to the national debt compared to their forecasts under the Conservatives. By the end of the decade the number-crunchers expect the debt to stand at £3.4 trillion, up from the £3.1 trillion previously estimated for 2028-29. Yet slower growth, about-turns on reforms, stubborn borrowing costs on that mounting debt and fresh promises on military spending all mean Reeves is yet again facing a black hole in the finances. That means more tax rises are anticipated, whether stealthily in the form of frozen tax thresholds or overtly with higher rates - all on top of the record tax burden already weighing down the private sector. More tears are on the way, and not just from the Chancellor.
