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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.