New research has found that closing a loophole in the UK’s asylum policy could benefit the public purse by millions of pounds each year.
Carried out by the British Red Cross and the London School of Economics and Political Science, the research claims that extending the support provided to new refugees in the UK would not only benefit the economy by £7 million pounds each year, it would also far outweigh the costs of doing so by up to three times.

An opportunity of a lifetime is slipping through our fingers, unless public land is used to provide genuinely affordable homes.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has warned that the Scottish Government’s Budget will hit vulnerable communities the hardest.
Councils have said they believe the budget will have a major impact on the government’s ability to address the four priorities of inclusive growth, tackling child poverty, wellbeing and climate change, and puts Scottish Government commitments at risk if no further funding is found as part of the Budget Scrutiny process.

A scheme is now available to Birmingham residents to install central heating for free into fuel poor and vulnerable homes.
Supported by Birmingham City Council, the Connected for Warmth scheme aims are to reduce bills, increase comfort in non-gas households, and improve health outcomes for residents.
It is estimated that across Birmingham, more than 8,000 homes are without central heating and are unable to heat their home to the temperature needed to stay healthy and warm.

New research from the Institute of Alcohol Studies has claimed that higher alcohol taxes could benefit disadvantaged groups.
The researchers calculated the amount of alcohol duty that different households paid as a share of their income and total spending. The analysis indicates that alcohol taxes account for a similar share of the incomes and budgets of rich and poor households alike, and at worst are only mildly regressive, with little difference found in the proportion of income or expenditure spent on alcohol duty by more and less affluent households.

Just over one per cent of government infrastructure spending in England will go towards flood defences.

Julie James has announced that a further £24 million is being injected immediately into building more new affordable homes in Wales.

The government will provide £16.6 million to 75 projects across England to help fund domestic abuse refuge services.

Kate Forbes has said that the new Scottish National Investment Bank has Scotland’s transition to net-zero carbon emissions at its centre.

The government is investing £1.2 billion to develop a state-of-the-art supercomputer, which will be used to help more accurately predict storms, select the most suitable locations for flood defences and predict changes to the global climate.