Month: March 2025

UK News: Second home owners are poised to fight back as Cornwall prepares to impose double council tax – leaving councillors fearing for their budget

Cornwall councillor Steve Arthur is convinced that this year’s council budget will have a large hole in it because of tax-avoiding second home owners.

Arthur, a local businessman who runs a holiday cottage firm in Perranporth on the north Cornish coast, expects many of the county’s second home owners to nominate their children as council tax payers. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/TJHfFh

Workers earning under £123 a week to get 80% of salary in sick pay, keeping more people off benefits

More than 1 million of the lowest-paid UK workers are to be guaranteed sick pay worth up to 80% of their weekly salary from the first day of sickness, under changes intended to boost living standards.

The UK has one of the stingiest rates of statutory sick pay in the developed world, according to the Resolution Foundation, with those earning less than £123 a week not entitled to anything. For the rest, the rate is set at just £116.75 a week at present, rising to £118.75 – or £3 an hour – for full-time workers from April, but that only kicks in after three days of sickness. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/TJHf5g

Exclusive: Medics more sleep deprived now than during Covid crisis amid staff shortages and surging demand

One in three doctors in the NHS are so tired that their ability to treat patients is impaired, according to a report that reveals medics are more sleep deprived now than during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Longer hours, staff shortages and soaring demand for care on top of the backlog that worsened during the Covid crisis are causing extreme tiredness among doctors, leading to memory blanks, problems concentrating and patient harm. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/TJHf5R

Trucks carrying aid were sent back to Egypt on Sunday after Israel decided to stop the entry of all goods and supplies into Gaza.
http://dlvr.it/TJHbHD