Campaigners say councils are using Ripa powers to catch ‘low-level’ offenders and disregarding the public’s right to privacyCouncils have used controversial surveillance legislation to combat “low-level” offences, such as the misuse of blue badge parki…
Bailiffs called in to at least 280,000 homes over council tax debt
Local authorities also asked for thousands of people’s benefits to be reduced to clear arrearsLocal authorities in England referred at least 280,000 households to bailiffs over council tax debt in the first year of the pandemic, and asked for more than…
Apsana Begum’s court ordeal is an indictment of Tower Hamlets council | Shami Chakrabarti
We must examine the independence of local bureaucrats, and whether they can be trusted to deal with imprisonable offencesIt could have been a John Grisham novel set in the Chicago of yesteryear. Apsana Begum, Britain’s first hijab-wearing MP, was acqui…
Births, marriages and deaths left unregistered after systems failure
Computer outage, staff shortages and pandemic disruption causing turmoil for families and businesses in England and WalesThe Home Office was accused last night of causing “turmoil for families” after a failure in its online system for registering birth…
Our seaside towns are worth saving | Letters
Skilled jobs, affordable housing and investment in education are all vital components of any rescue packageWill Hutton is right to deplore the decline of coastal communities (“There is a way to save our coastal resorts… welcome to Zoomtown-on -Sea”, Co…
Conservatives accused of cutting local sport funding by nearly half since 2010
Labour says 47% less spent on grassroots facilities, wasting chance to build on success of 2012 London Olympics Labour has accused the Conservatives of squandering the London 2012 Olympic legacy by slashing grassroots sport funding by nearly half sin…
In the footsteps of George Lansbury: lost radical who led an East End rebellion
Poplar’s Labour mayor, who went on to lead his party, was jailed in his fight for social justice 100 years agoKings and queens are immortalised in statues, prime ministers are remembered with official portraits, but an opposition leader best known for …