Gloucestershire e-bike campaign encourages more women to cycle
Jo Atkins, manager of Think Travel, said: "This gives people a chance to try e-bikes and see what a game changer they are."Ethan James-Hodges from The Electric Bike shop said he had seen more women considering using electric bikes even though "typically the cycling industry is geared towards men and always has been".
Ms Yexley said: "The focus is on woman... to create a safe and friendly environment to give the bikes a try and see if it is something which you could enjoy."Further taster events will be held on 17 September at Gloucester Quays, and on 27 September in Montpellier Gardens, Cheltenham. Sarah Summers, 54, said she uses the hire scheme to cycle to work three days a week and the new £48m cycle spine linking Bishops Cleeve to Stroud via Gloucester and Cheltenham had been a big help."The cycle spine helps enormously by providing a safe space to ride," she added.The 26-mile route is expected to be completed in full by January 2026.
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Sky News
22 minutes ago
- Sky News
One year of Starmer: Nine charts that tell us whether Labour's first year has been a success or failure
It might feel like it's been even longer for the prime minister at the moment, but it's been a whole year since Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Party won a historic landslide, emphatically defeating Rishi Sunak's Conservatives and securing a 174-seat majority. Over that time, Sir Keir and his party have regularly reset or restated their list of milestones, missions, targets and pledges - things they say they will achieve while in power (so long as they can get all their policies past their own MPs). We've had a look at the ones they have repeated most consistently, and how they are going so far. Overall, it amounts to what appears to be some success on economic metrics, but limited progress at best towards many of their key policy objectives. From healthcare to housebuilding, from crime to clean power, and from small boats to squeezed budgets, here are nine charts that show the country's performance before and after Labour came to power, and how close the government are to achieving their goals. Cost of living On paper, the target that Labour have set themselves on improving living standards is by quite a distance the easiest to achieve of anything they have spoken about. They have not set a specific number to aim for, and every previous parliament on record has overseen an increase in real terms disposable income. The closest it got to not happening was the last parliament, though. From December 2019 to June 2024, disposable income per quarter rose by just £24, thanks in part to the energy crisis that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine. By way of comparison, there was a rise of almost £600 per quarter during the five years following Thatcher's final election victory in 1987, and over £500 between Blair's 1997 victory and his 2001 re-election. After the first six months of the latest government, it had risen by £144, the fastest start of any government going back to at least 1954. As of March, it had fallen to £81, but that still leaves them second at this stage, behind only Thatcher's third term. VERDICT: Going well, but should have been more ambitious with their target Get inflation back to 2% So, we have got more money to play with. But it might not always feel like that, as average prices are still rising at a historically high rate. Inflation fell consistently during the last year and a half of Rishi Sunak's premiership, dropping from a peak of 11.1% in October 2022 to exactly 2% - the Bank of England target - in June 2024. It continued to fall in Labour's first couple of months, but has steadily climbed back up since then and reached 3.4% in May. When we include housing costs as well, prices are up by 4% in the last year. Average wages are currently rising by just over 5%, so that explains the overall improvement in living standards that we mentioned earlier. But there are signs that the labour market is beginning to slow following the introduction of higher national insurance rates for employers in April. If inflation remains high and wages begin to stagnate, we will see a quick reversal to the good start the government have made on disposable income. VERDICT: Something to keep an eye on - there could be a bigger price to pay in years to come 'Smash the gangs' One of Starmer's most memorable promises during the election campaign was that he would 'smash the gangs', and drastically reduce the number of people crossing the Channel to illegally enter the country. More than 40,000 people have arrived in the UK in small boats in the 12 months since Labour came to power, a rise of over 12,000 (40%) compared with the previous year. Labour have said that better weather in the first half of this year has contributed to more favourable conditions for smugglers, but our research shows crossings have also risen on days when the weather is not so good. VERDICT: As it stands, it looks like 'the gangs' are smashing the government Reduce NHS waits One of Labour's more ambitious targets, and one in which they will be relying on big improvements in years to come to achieve. Starmer says that no more than 8% of people will wait longer than 18 weeks for NHS treatment by the time of the next election. When they took over, it was more than five times higher than that. And it still is now, falling very slightly from 41.1% to 40.3% over the 10 months that we have data for. So not much movement yet. Independent modelling by the Health Foundation suggests that reaching the target is "still feasible", though they say it will demand "focus, resource, productivity improvements and a bit of luck". VERDICT: Early days, but current treatment isn't curing the ailment fast enough Halve violent crime It's a similar story with policing. Labour aim to achieve their goal of halving serious violent crime within 10 years by recruiting an extra 13,000 officers, PCSOs and special constables. Recruitment is still very much ongoing, but workforce numbers have only been published up until the end of September, so we can't tell what progress has been made on that as yet. We do have numbers, however, on the number of violent crimes recorded by the police in the first six months of Labour's premiership. There were a total of 1.1m, down by 14,665 on the same period last year, a decrease of just over 1%. That's not nearly enough to reach a halving within the decade, but Labour will hope that the reduction will accelerate once their new officers are in place. VERDICT: Not time for flashing lights just yet, but progress is more 'foot patrol' than 'high-speed chase' so far Build 1.5m new homes One of Labour's most ambitious policies was the pledge that they would build a total of 1.5m new homes in England during this parliament. There has not yet been any new official data published on new houses since Labour came to power, but we can use alternative figures to give us a sense of how it's going so far. A new Energy Performance Certificate is granted each time a new home is built - so tends to closely match the official house-building figures - and we have data up to March for those. Those numbers suggest that there have actually been fewer new properties added recently than in any year since 2015-16. Labour still have four years to deliver on this pledge, but each year they are behind means they need to up the rate more in future years. If the 200,000 new EPCs in the year to March 2025 matches the number of new homes they have delivered in their first year, Labour will need to add an average of 325,000 per year for the rest of their time in power to achieve their goal. VERDICT: Struggling to lay solid foundations Clean power by 2030 Another of the more ambitious pledges, Labour's aim is for the UK to produce 95% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. They started strong. The ban on new onshore wind turbines was lifted within their first few days of government, and they delivered support for 131 new renewable energy projects in the most recent funding round in September. But - understandably - it takes time for those new wind farms, solar farms and tidal plants to be built and start contributing to the grid. In the year leading up to Starmer's election as leader, 54% of the energy on the UK grid had been produced by renewable sources in the UK. That has risen very slightly in the year since then, to 55%, with a rise in solar and biomass offsetting a slight fall in wind generation. The start of this year has been unusually lacking in wind, and this analysis does not take variations in weather into account. The government target will adjust for that, but they are yet to define exactly how. VERDICT: Not all up in smoke, but consistent effort is required before it's all sunshine and windmills Fastest economic growth in the G7 Labour's plan to pay for the improvements they want to make in all the public services we have talked about above can be summarised in one word: "growth". The aim is for the UK's GDP - the financial value of all the goods and services produced in the country - to grow faster than any other in the G7 group of advanced economies. Since Labour have been in power, the economy has grown faster than European rivals Italy, France and Germany, as well as Japan, but has lagged behind the US and Canada. The UK did grow fastest in the most recent quarter we have data for, however, from the start of the year to the end of March. VERDICT: Good to be ahead of other similar European economies, but still a way to go to overtake the North Americans No tax rises Without economic growth, it will be difficult to keep to one of Chancellor Rachel Reeves' biggest promises - that there will be no more tax rises or borrowing for the duration of her government's term. Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said last month that she is a 'gnat's whisker' away from being forced to do that at the autumn budget, looking at the state of the economy at the moment. That whisker will have been shaved even closer by the cost implications of the government's failure to get its full welfare reform bill through parliament earlier this week. And income tax thresholds are currently frozen until April 2028, meaning there is already a "stealth" hike scheduled for all of us every year. 5:03 But the news from the last financial year was slightly better than expected. Total tax receipts for the year ending March 2025 were 35% of GDP. That's lower than the previous four years, and what was projected after Jeremy Hunt's final Conservative budget, but higher than any of the 50 years before that. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) still projects it to rise in future years though, to a higher level than the post-WWII peak of 37.2%. The OBR - a non-departmental public body that provides independent analysis of the public finances - has also said in the past few days that it is re-examining its methodology, because it has been too optimistic with its forecasts in the past. If the OBR's review leads to a more negative view of where the economy is going, Rachel Reeves could be forced to break her promise to keep the budget deficit from spiralling out of control. OVERALL VERDICT: Investment and attention towards things like violent crime, the NHS and clean energy are yet to start bearing fruit, with only minuscule shifts in the right direction for each, but the government is confident that what's happened so far is part of its plans. Labour always said that the house-building target would be achieved with a big surge towards the back end of their term, but they won't be encouraged by the numbers actually dropping in their first few months. Where they are failing most dramatically, however, appears to be in reducing the number of migrants making the dangerous Channel crossing on small boats. The economic news, particularly that rise in disposable income, looks more healthy at the moment. But with inflation still high and growth lagging behind some of our G7 rivals, that could soon start to turn. The Data and Forensics
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Brother and sister jailed over insider trading
A brother and sister have been sentenced to six and five years in jail respectively for insider trading and money laundering after they used his position as a Janus Henderson analyst to break the law. Redinel Korfuzi, 38, a former research analyst at the asset management firm, was accused of using confidential information to which he had access in his City job to trade using accounts held by his sister Oerta Korfuzi, 36, and two other people. Last month, the Albanian siblings were convicted of conspiracy to commit insider dealing and money laundering between December 2019 and March 2021. The Financial Conduct Authority, which prosecuted the case, said the pair had used Korfuzi's access to inside information to 'rig the system to satisfy their greed'. Sentencing them on Friday at Southwark crown court, Judge Alexander Milne said the case 'has elements akin to a Greek tragedy where an individual of some standing is brought crashing down by a fatal flaw . . . You both thought of yourselves as being too clever to be caught out.' The Korfuzis used confidential information on 13 companies including Daimler, Jet2 and THG to make close to £1 million. The insider trading took place at the London flat the siblings shared, taking advantage of working from home after pandemic lockdowns began in March 2020 to co-ordinate the scheme. They used 'short' trades, the term for betting on a share price falling, investing after Korfuzi had obtained inside information such as emails from companies gauging investor interest on plans to raise equity or to sell large blocks of shares owned by existing shareholders, the City regulator said. Korfuzi traded in the shares of those companies on a number of accounts, including those operated by his sister. The FCA detected suspicious activity and the siblings were arrested in March 2021. FCA investigators also uncovered a separate international money laundering operation. It said prosecutors were unable to identify the source of the crime from which the cash derived but the laundering involved deposits made into accounts controlled or operated by the siblings from the UK to Albania. Milne said the scam was 'not a victimless fraud' as insider trading 'diminishes public trust in the integrity of the market'. Two other defendants, Korfuzi's personal trainer Rogerio de Aquino and de Aquino's partner Dema Almeziad, whose accounts were used to execute trades, were cleared of all charges at the trial last month. Korfuzi persuaded the couple to open trading accounts when the personal trainer's business was struggling during the Covid-19 crisis. After they were acquitted last month, Almeziad's lawyer Roger Sahota said: 'There was no evidence that Ms Almeziad knew anything about insider dealing and it is wrong to expect ordinary people to understand or spot complex financial conduct that even professionals struggle with.' Janus Henderson, which manages roughly $380 billion in assets, was not involved in the criminal case or accused of any wrongdoing. The successful prosecution of the Korfuzis follows other positive results for the FCA in court recently, including the Upper Tribunal upholding its ban on Jes Staley, the former Barclays boss.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Domesday Book village is up in arms as new owner of £585,000 historic cottage applies to bulldoze it in favour of 'modern, bland new-build' homes
Villagers are up in arms after the new owner of a £585,000 historic cottage applied to bulldoze it to make way for new-build homes. Eric Abbott has also hit out at new owners of the property he lived in for more than 60 years after claiming they only sold it on the condition that it would be lived in by a family. Almost a thousand people have now signed a petition to stop the development in Swanmore, Hampshire, and 200 objections were written during the public consultation period for the plans. New owner Simon Smith has submitted an application to Winchester City Council to demolish the house and build two two-storey modern houses with four bedrooms each, parking for three cars and gardens. Neighbours think that the new build won't fit in well with the character of the village, and will cause traffic problems on an already busy street which is around the corner from a primary school. Houses on the street cost an average of £800,000, and some buildings in Swanmore - which is mentioned in the Domesday Book - date back to the 16th or early 17th centuries. Villagers received flyers about the petition against the redevelopment, which has 931 signatures, through their letterboxes. The flyers said that the cottage, known as Hiawatha, is being 'flattened' and replaced with 'two modern, bland new-builds'. Former company director Mr Abbott, 94, raised his family in the property with his wife Peggy. It was sold after being put on the market last year for £585,000. In an objection he wrote against the planning application, Mr Abbott said: 'As the previous owner of Hiawatha I was totally dismayed to see the change of heart of the new owners attempting to destroy Hiawatha and replace with totally unsuitable houses. 'I instructed the estate agent to ensure my wonderful house was only sold to a family who would love it like I did and not destroy it. 'The estate agent assured me that he had made this clear to the new owners and that they had agreed it to be their forever home which is all I ever wanted for another family to love it like I had for the last 64 years. 'It seems they lied and were buying Hiawatha for financial gain. 'I had been offered to sell to many builders and I declined as this house is part of history, it was there before Chapel Road was even made. 'I would never have sold it had I known this was their intention and they knew that. 'There is an ancient well that in the deeds demands that it should be operable for future water shortages in the village and this was a legal requirement. 'I believe Hiawatha was built in the 15th century it is a beautiful flint cottage which should not be replaced with two identical new builds. 'I feel it should remain standing and let the slow worms, birds, bats and many other species carry on living as they have been for many years. 'I strongly object and do hope that this does not go ahead it would be a great shame to the wonderful village of Swanmore.' David Hughes, 63, lives nearby and hopes he's not a 'nimby' for wanting the house to keep its character. The scientist said: 'I put in [an objection] saying I wasn't very keen on it, hopefully not from a nimby point of view. 'If we're not careful, we'll have a lot of new houses here. 'It's an unusual-looking house, it breaks up some of the monotony of the architecture.' The villager admitted that he was surprised 'how many other people were that bothered about it'. Swanmore local John Allen thinks that the council like the idea of the demolition because replacing the house with two houses will bring in more council tax. The 79 year old retiree said: 'The council like it, wouldn't it, more council tax, more money, that sort of thing.' Paraphrasing film producer Samuel Goldwyn in reference to Mr Abbott's agreement with the new owners, he said 'a verbal agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on'. 'He should've got it done legally,' he said. A middle-aged female neighbour who wanted to remain anonymous said she had signed the petition against the redevelopment. She said: 'I don't think it's the prettiest building in the village, but my main concern for it is if they put two properties in it. 'The road is already abused enough with traffic, I know there's three bedrooms [in each house].' 'As we all know, if you've got three teenagers moved in all of a sudden you haven't got enough parking.' An elderly female neighbour who also didn't want to be named said that it's 'bad' that the new owners didn't honour the agreement not to demolish the house. 'That's pretty poor, actually, I think,' she said. 'I mean, they knew what they were going to be doing with it - that doesn't seem very honest.' Ash Bennett, Mr Abbott's former neighbour, a 54 year old air traffic controller said: 'I've lived here 18, 19 years. 'I was aware when they sold the house, I didn't know until more recently about what was going to happen to it. 'I didn't follow it closely, but my understanding was that there was an agreement it wasn't going to be knocked down and developed, it would be renovated which isn't what they wanted to do. 'Personally speaking, I would rather they wouldn't knock it down.' The father of three added that the house needs 'a lot of work'. He said: 'I went in it 18 years ago, nothing much has been done to it since. 'My understanding is it would require a lot of work to it.' On the planning application, Historic England said that there is no evidence to indicate that the building predates the 19th century - it is believed to have been built between 1840 and 1868. It said: 'The building does not illustrate an important aspect of the nation's history, nor does it have the historic associations with nationally important individuals, groups, or events, which might give it historic special interest.' A decision is due to be made about the planning application on July 18.
