Suicide rates among young people in England rose 50% in 10 years, figures show
Suicide rates among children and young people in England have increased by 50% in the last decade, figures show.The Office for National Statistics analysed data covering almost 12 million children and young people aged between 15 and 25 from 2011-12 to 2021-22.There were 4,315 suicides across the whole period.A total of 440 young people killed themselves in 2021-22, up 47% from the 300 such deaths in 2011-22.The number of suicides per 100,000 children and young people was up 54% over the same period.
Suicide rates were higher around the summer exam period and slightly lower at the start of the academic year, the ONS found,Gemma Byrne, the policy and influencing manager at the charity Mind, said the figures were devastating and showed that the country was “sliding backwards, not moving forwards, on young people’s mental health”,She said: “The causes of suicide are complex and differ from person to person, but we know that over half a million people under 18 are on mental health waiting lists, with one in four of them waiting for more than two years for meaningful care,Too many young people can’t get help in the community when they need it,“Until the government grasps the scale of the nation’s mental health crisis, more children and young people will be let down by the systems supposed to care for them.
We must see investment in timely support for young people, through a national network of early support hubs and a commitment to tackling mental health waiting lists, so they can get help before it’s too late.”The ONS found “small significant differences” between the suicide rates for males and females across the school year.Suicide rates among females were highest in early May, at 0.53 for every 100,000 people, compared with 0.29 per 100,000 in early July.
The figures for males ranged from a peak of 1,26 in early July to a low of 0,85 in late November,Last year suicide rates across all ages in England and Wales reached the highest level since 1999 and charities called on the government to invest in suicide prevention measures,The Department of Health and Social Care has been approached for comment.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie.In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14,Other international helplines can be found at befrienders,org
UK office, shop and warehouse construction plunges to 11-year low as costs soar
Construction of offices, shops and warehouses in the UK has fallen to the lowest level in more than a decade amid rising build costs and general uncertainty.All commercial sectors have been hit, with construction across office, retail and industrial sectors down by 21% to 5.85m sq metres (63m sq ft) in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, according to the latest data from CoStar.This is the lowest commercial construction since 2014 and comes as housebuilding is also slowing, in a blow to the Labour government, which last year announced an ambitious target of building 1.5m new homes over five years
Bank of England chief warns of ‘worrying echoes’ of 2008 financial crisis
The governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, has warned recent events in US private credit markets have worrying echoes of the sub-prime mortgage crisis that kicked off the global financial crash of 2008.Appearing before a House of Lords committee, the governor said it was important to have the “drains up” and analyse the collapse of two leveraged US firms, First Brands and Tricolor, in case they were not isolated events but “the canary in the coalmine”.“Are they telling us something more fundamental about the private finance, private asset, private credit, private equity sector, or are they telling us that in any of these worlds there will be idiosyncratic cases that go wrong?” he asked.“I think that is still a very open question; it’s an open question in the US.”He added: “I don’t want to sound too foreboding, but the added reason this question is important is if you go back to before the financial crisis when we were having this debate about sub-prime mortgages in the US, people were telling us: ‘No it’s too small to be systemic; it’s idiosyncratic
Pizza Hut administration: the 68 restaurants that will close
The locations have been revealed of 68 Pizza Hut restaurants that will close after the company behind its UK venues fell into administration.They are across the country, from Finchley Lido in London to Carlisle in Cumbria and Rhyl in north Wales.Eleven delivery-only Pizza Hut sites will also close as part of a restructuring, putting 1,210 workers at risk of redundancy.DC London Pie, the company running Pizza Hut’s UK restaurants under a franchise deal, appointed administrators from the corporate finance firm FTI on Monday.The US company Yum! Brands, which owns the global Pizza Hut business as well as KFC and Taco Bell, has bought the UK restaurant operation in a pre-pack administration deal, saving 64 sites and securing the future of 1,276 workers
UK borrowing reaches five-year high for September at £20.2bn
UK government borrowing was the highest for five years in September after rising debt interest costs and higher welfare payments pushed the public finances deeper into the red.Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed public sector net borrowing – the difference between public spending and income – hit £20.2bn last month, up £1.6bn from the same month last year and the highest September borrowing since 2020.The ONS said a rise in tax receipts was unable to offset the jump in debt interest costs this year and a rise in welfare costs, which have mostly increased in response to rising inflation
Reeves has mountain to climb in budget after borrowing rise
Rachel Reeves has already seen the most significant numbers setting the backdrop for next month’s budget – the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecasts for five years’ time, when her fiscal rules are judged.But September’s public finances data, published on Tuesday, will hardly have lightened the mood in No 11 as she draws up plans for tax rises and spending cuts.Even before the impact of the U-turns on winter fuel payments and disability benefits hits, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that the deficit in the first six months of the fiscal year was £7.2bn higher than the OBR predicted at its last forecast in March, at £99.8bn
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