Community News

In the 1980s Labour politicians did an excellent job in exposing Conservative Council Leader Dame Shirley Porter’s infamous ‘homes for votes scandal.’ And after many years of neglect, social housing is back on the agenda today.

Michael Gove, the new Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, is attempting to move the government on from the cladding scandal that surrounded the Grenfell Tower fire. He is trying to address the issue once and for all, following his predecessor, Robert Jenrick’s perceived failure to tackle the issue.

The first two successful applicants to the City Ideas Fund have been announced by City of Wolverhampton Council. The fund offers a one-off grant of between £500 and £10,000, for city employers, partners, voluntary organisations, community groups and individuals to develop ideas and projects which help young people into jobs and learning.

The first round of funding closed last month with ideas coming forward to address some of the key challenges connected with reducing the number of unemployed 18 to 24-year-olds in the city from 2,660.

There’s said to be no celebrations quite like it, as Burns Night – which will be widely celebrated across Scotland – as natives, some wearing traditional Scottish attire and listening to fabled music, it promises to be yet another colourful night to mark the life and death of the poet Rabbie Burns. The 18th century poet was best known for composing poems such as Auld Lang Syne, Tam o’Shanter and Ae Fond Kiss, with his distinctive, witty voice woven into the very fabric of Scottish culture.

The City of Wolverhampton Council, and other local authorities, has scored an important legal victory at the Court of Appeal about injunctions served against ‘persons unknown’.

The outcome of the hearing paves the way for the council to apply for the reintroduction of a ground-breaking injunction banning street racing in the Black Country.

Birmingham’s annual civic commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day will be hosted at Millennium Point. The Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor Muhammad Afzal, will lead the event on Sunday (30 January 2022) which this year has the theme of One Day. The event is free, open to all and starts at 2pm.

Holocaust Memorial Day commemorates the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and Nazi persecutions, as well as other genocides around the world.

St Giles Hospice is celebrating after this month's TreeCycle campaign became the most successful yet, collecting even more trees than last year's record-breaking collection.

The environmentally-friendly recycling campaign saw more than 5,000 Christmas trees picked up by volunteers in return for a small donation to St Giles, raising over £69,000 for the hospice. Last year’s collection picked up 4,428 trees.

Government plans to claim £4bn from property developers to fix cladding issues are ‘light on detail’ and ‘important questions remain unanswered’, says Peter McHugh.

Peter, a partner at national law firm Clarke Willmott LLP, says with the threat of legal action hanging over developers the government should be providing clarity as a matter of urgency.

Plans for a £500,000 upgrade to a community sports facility in Perry Barr, to further strengthen the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Legacy have been confirmed.

A new Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) will be developed at Holford Drive Community Sports Hub (HDCSH) in the months following the Games through the project – jointly funded by Sport England and the Birmingham City Council capital contribution towards Birmingham 2022. The MUGA will be located at the front of the premises on what is currently an unused piece of grassland.

A young man calling for a change in the law to prevent abusive partners from inheriting victims’ estates is a casualty in the trade-off between “certainty and fairness” in law.

Paul Davies, partner at national law firm Clarke Willmott LLP, says the case of a son whose stepfather inherited his mother’s estate despite an inquest linking her suicide to domestic violence, has no legal recourse.

Homeless charities and professional bodies across the country have paid tribute to the life and legacy of Jack Dromey MP after his sad passing on the 7^th January.

The tribute talks about the importance of Jacks contribution to the foundations of youth homeless parliament and how he helped ensure that young people who have experienced homelessness have their voices heard. 

Every new year provides a chance to reflect, and for many, getting a healthier balance between work and life is a priority resolution. There's no wrong time to start, so January being well underway shouldn't prevent anyone from planning a few moments of creativity to boost their wellbeing and help beat the January blues!

St Giles Hospice is calling for people to help make a real difference for a great local cause in 2022 by volunteering at one of its charity shops. Every sale made at the hospice’s 21 shops across the area helps to fund the charity’s support for local people and their families who are living with a terminal illness, and volunteers play a vital role in helping St Giles to reach the £850,000 total it needs to raise each month to run its services.

Stoke-on-Trent offers tenants the most affordable rent costs for an apartment new data can reveal, while London takes the top spot for being the most expensive city.   

The research by Eachnight.com analysed the most populated cities in the UK and used data from Numbeo to find where tenants can rent an apartment at the lowest cost.

Six charities based in the West Midlands have received a £1,000 Christmas gift thanks to Ecclesiastical Insurance. The charities were nominated to win a share of £120,000 by members of the public as part of the specialist insurer’s annual 12 days of giving Christmas campaign. 

Midlands Film and Media CIC is a newly launched Community Interest Company, set up to help grassroots micro budget independent film makers and other creatives, working with small/no budgets, in the Midlands.

The CICs aim is to build confidence, develop ambition and enable individuals and businesses to grow through media.

Local authorities from across the West Midlands have joined to help rough sleepers as they battle the harsh winter weather and ongoing challenges caused by the pandemic.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), the Homelessness Taskforce, and partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors, have set out a joint winter plan with the aim of protecting people sleeping rough across the region.