Jeremy Corbyn warns rules on council asset sales threaten allotments

Jeremy Corbyn has criticised Angela Rayner, the local government secretary, for rules that allow councils to sell allotments to fund day-to-day spending, saying it “makes the future of these precious spaces even more perilous”.Rules on council asset sales mean local authorities can sell off sites to help “deliver transformation and invest-to-save projects” they would otherwise not be able to afford.Corbyn, writing for the Telegraph, said the possible sale of allotments would fill many with “deep dismay”.“Allotments have always been under threat from developers. Now, that threat seems to have government backing, which makes the future of these precious spaces even more perilous,” he said

Prison system was days from collapse three times under Sunak, review finds

The criminal justice system was within days of collapse on three occasions before being bailed out by “last-minute emergency measures”, an independent review by a former prisons watchdog has found.Dame Anne Owers said the prison system, under pressure from overcrowding, was “in crisis” between autumn 2023 and the summer of 2024, but No 10 under Rishi Sunak refused to cut the numbers in jail until “the next predictable cliff edge”.Former ministers and officials interviewed by Owers “expressed frustration and sometimes anger” at the failure to endorse a plan to avert crises and suspected that this was a deliberate move by Downing Street, she said.“Many believed that the default position was to do as little as possible as late as possible, with the consequence that the system repeatedly reached the brink of collapse,” she said.The 25-page report into the teetering Prison Service, which remains at nearly 97

Home cooking and minimally processed foods best for weight loss, study finds

People lose more weight if they cook minimally processed food from scratch than if they eat ultra-processed and ready-made foods, according to the first study to establish a clear link between ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and weight.Trial participants were given one of two diets with the same nutritional profile for eight weeks. One diet was made up of UPFs while the other comprised minimally processed foods.When the first group ate breakfast bars and ready-made lasagne, for example, the second ate oats soaked in milk and natural yoghurt and homemade spaghetti bolognese.At the end of the trial, participants on the second diet had lost twice as much weight as those on the first

Experts express concern for future of Health Survey for England

Public health experts have expressed concern for the future of a “vital” health survey, after the government said it would no longer be run by NHS England.The Health Survey for England, launched in 1991, is an annual study that collects data from about 8,000 adults and 2,000 children across the country, through face-to-face interviews and questionnaires.It gathers data on a range of important health metrics such as height and weight, smoking and alcohol use, with public experts describing it as an “arterial” source of data due it being nationally representative and high quality.At a briefing in July by the UK Data Service, the government said the 2025 edition would be the last one because “NHS England will not be prioritising population health surveys in its long-term strategic work plan”.The news comes amid unprecedented cost cutting within the NHS, as the health service faces a predicted shortfall of nearly £7

Call to crack down on ‘hooch’ and medicine in prisons after Dorset death

Ministers should draw up a specific policy to reduce inmate access to illicitly brewed alcohol and medication, a coroner has said, after the death of a vulnerable prisoner.An inquest jury found last month that Sheldon Jeans, who was discovered dead in his cell at HMP Guys Marsh in November 2022, had died as a result of consuming illegal alcohol and four different medications that had not been prescribed to him, recording death by misadventure.Rachael Griffin, the senior Dorset coroner, issued a prevention of future deaths (PFD) report in response to findings at the inquest, highlighting national policy and guidance relating to the handling of hooch and medication in prisons as areas for concern.“In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken … There is a lack of national policy, and local guidance at HMP Guys Marsh, to inform staff working in prisons of the dangers of illicitly brewed alcohol, also known as hooch,” she wrote.The report has been sent to the Department of Health and Social Care, HM Prison and Probation Service, HMP Guys Marsh, and Oxleas NHS foundation trust, requesting a response by 19 September 2025 detailing actions to be taken and a timetable for that action

A Clockwork Orange estate fights ‘art washing’ redevelopment plans

Protesters staged a sit-in at a brutalist 1960s estate featured in Stanley Kubrick’s dystopic film, A Clockwork Orange, to highlight concerns about a development they say amounts to gentrification and art washing.The brief occupation on Saturday of the Lakeside Centre in Thamesmead, an arts centre in south-east London, is part of a wider battle by longstanding residents, who claim that the soul of the community, along with many socially rented homes, will be lost as part of a huge regeneration by the housing association Peabody.Thamesmead was conceived by a group of architects at the former Greater London Council in the 1960s and hailed as “the town of tomorrow”, providing alternative housing to replace dilapidated inner-city homes in London.Lesnes, one of the estates built in the area in the 1960s, was famously depicted in A Clockwork Orange.Sixty years on, improvements are urgently needed and Bexley, like other councils, does not have the cash to do this