London politics

London politics

After facing a major legal challenge over last summer's Brockwell Park festivals, like Mighty Hoopla, Cross The Tracks, Wide Awake and Field Day, organisers Summer Events Ltd (which runs the Brockwell Live series) could be in for another fight this year. Campaign group Protect Brockwell Park took Lambeth Council to court over the fact that the events hadn't gone through proper planning permission and won the ruling, meaning that all major events held in the park have to go through a full planning process.

Across the country, highways authorities are responsible for nine out of every 10 miles of road - approximately 225,000 miles throughout the UK. They grit on average 40% of roads - a total of around 80,000 miles. In London, local councils and Transport for London (TfL) grit major roads. Gritter lorry on A9, south of Inverness. Amber weather warnings have been expanded after coming into force in parts of Scotland, as forecasters warn of heavy snow that could bring blizzard conditions and travel disruption. Picture date: Friday January 2, 2026.

There's going to be around 18 months of work on the northern end of the Jubilee line, where it runs high up on raised embankments. A letter sent to local residents and shared by the local Councillor, Jayanti Patel, informs them that the works will start in a couple of weeks time, on 16th January 2026 and last for around 18 months, completing in summer 2027. The affected area is the raised embankment around Queensbury tube station, a couple of stop short of the line's terminus at Stanmore.

According to data, around three out of ten women in the Greater London area have had to choose between buying enough food or hygiene products amid the cost-of-living crisis, while a third have had to choose between purchasing products for themselves or their children; 29 per cent also say they have either missed a job interview or had to take a day off work because they are not able to afford basic products.

At the centre of the dispute is the tour operators' margin scheme, which allows eligible businesses to pay VAT only on their profit margin rather than the full value of a service. Originally designed for holiday and coach tour companies, the scheme has also been used by ride-hailing platforms. According to the Treasury, this reduced the effective VAT rate paid by some operators to as little as 4%, compared with the standard 20% rate.

Electric cars are now eligible for a 25% discount if registered for Auto Pay, reducing the fee to 13.50 a day. There is a 50% discount for electric vans, HGVs, light quadricycles and heavy quadricycles registered for Auto Pay. Transport for London had previously proposed to scrap the electric vehicle exemption entirely. It said without changes, about 2,200 more vehicles would use the congestion charging zone on an average weekday in 2026, increasing congestion and undermining the current scheme.

I want to reassure residents that we are doing everything possible to respond effectively to the cyber security incident and to keep delivering our services. Our priority is to support and protect the most vulnerable in our community, despite the disruption that is being caused. We acted quickly to secure our systems, and we are working towards restoring council services as safely and swiftly as possible, but this will take time. We remain committed to transparency and will continue to provide updates as our recovery progresses.

Ms Cox told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the initial contractor was dismissed by the council after installing windows over 3cm too small, and their successors had repeatedly made the problem worse. This included "deliberately knocking out bricks" from the wall to force in an oversized window, taking incorrect measurement errors and "botched" temporary fixes that have left the home colder than before.

Shauni-Leigh Tyson, her four children and her partner Adam face being evicted from their home in Plaistow on 23 January, despite having a repayment plan in place with Newham council. Ms Tyson said the damp had affected the family's health, impacting Adam's ability to work and leaving one of her children requiring steroids, antihistamines and a pump, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The Freemasons filed papers in London on Christmas Eve and claim the Met's policy amounts to religious discrimination against Freemasons who are also police officers. They say the Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, is making up the law on the hoof and accused his force of whipping up conspiracy theories about the influence of Freemasons. The Met has vowed to fight back as it sees the policy as part of its fight to restore trust and credibility, and a case currently under investigation involves claims of masonic influence and alleged wrongdoing.

On the morning when I went with them, we walked just a few yards out of the police station to set up a morning check in the City. There were cyclists ignoring pedestrian crossings and red lights, and moving dangerously through pedestrians, despite the fact that they were outside a police station and there were six or seven uniformed officers on cycles, on the road and on the pavement.

An intervention by the mayor of London is needed to safeguard the future of car clubs in the capital, environmental groups have said. Sir Sadiq Khan was told "urgent questions" had been raised about how "policy conditions in our city are harmful to car sharing services", after the car-sharing firm Zipcar announced it would stop operating in the city from 31 December.

"taking the issues raised seriously"

Considering the above, on balance, the loss of the allotment space is considered in these circumstances to be acceptable and the provision of extra burial space beneficial and in alignment with the policies of the development plan.

Fares are to rise on London's transport next year, as TfL complies with its funding deal to raise prices by more than inflation. However, the fare rise will be staggered with Underground and Overground fares rising in March, and bus and tram fares rising in July. The delay in fare rises for buses and trams will be funded by a transfer from the City Hall budget to TfL so that TfL remains within its requirement to see a net increase in revenue

The plan, put forward by TfL's property arm, Places for London and Barratt Homes, would have seen approximately 300 new homes, including 40% affordable homes, built on the car park and on the light industrial land to the south of the station. The development had been recommended in the planning officer's report, but the councillors voted to reject it. The main reasons were strong local opposition to building over the car park and concerns about the buildings' height.

"it beggars belief" she was re-selected to stand in the 2026 council elections.

A Saudi-registered Rolls Royce worth almost 250,000 was removed from London's Grosvenor Square as part of what the local council said was a crackdown on illegal parking. Westminster City Council (WCC) said it had begun removing supercars parked in Mayfair following complaints from residents about guests at the Chancery Rosewood hotel. The council said people staying at the hotel, on the site of the former US Embassy, had been parking their vehicles illegally on the pavement outside, and penalty charge notices (PCNs) had been ineffective.

Sue Baker, a Labour councillor for Barnet Vale ward, told the committee she had received an overwhelming amount of negativity to the plans from residents. She listed the loss of the car park as problematic as it was used by many elderly residents as well as people with disabilities and mobility issues. Residents were concerned about the impact on the access road and station entrance as a school, St Catherine's RC Primary School, was also located close by.

She should've been suspended when the ruling was made in January, it is a serious offence and she should have been suspended pending an investigation. It beggars belief that she was then re-selected for the elections. They knew that she had [a judgement made against her] in January, and in May this year they put her forward for Chair of the Environment and Scrutiny Panel

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has confirmed that tube fares will be going up significantly next year. The increase of almost six percent is the result of an official order from the government that told TfL it should increase prices by the RPI rate of inflation plus one percent every year until 2030, in order to receive a £2.2 billion boost.

At the time, the Mayor of London said he desperately wanted it to happen, but it cannot be at any cost and suggested a roll-on roll-off ferry as a short-term solution for crossing the river. He added: Despite considerable effort by TfL to minimise the cost of what is a welldesigned and technically feasible solution, the sheer scale and the complexity of providing an opening bridge on this part of the river with the increased costs means it is currently unaffordable. I continue to support a bridge as the right, longterm solution.

Lambeth Council has axed the Lambeth Country Show and dropped a last-minute legal appeal in order to allow the rest of the Brockwell Live events programme to go ahead next summer. Questions had been raised over the legality of major events in Brockwell Park including Mighty Hoopla, Field Day and Wide Awake after the council lost a High Court challenge in May. A judge ruled the events exceeded the permitted 28 days allowed under temporary change-of-use rules.

Many of the weaknesses which we have reported here in the report are not new. They are long-standing issues that have persisted, some of which over many years. The pace of improvement has not matched in some cases the scale of the challenge facing the authority around a number of these matters. Without urgent and sustained action and clear accountability the council risks remaining in a cycle, in my view, of statutory intervention and limited assurance.

The coat of arms, once a familiar sight in London, was first granted to the Greater London Council (GLC) in October 1966, but when the GLC was abolished, the armorial was put into abeyance. Most municipal authorities have a coat of arms, but when the GLA was created in 2000, it didn't apply for one. Coats of Arms in most of the UK (except Scotland) are granted and managed by the College of Arms, under powers delegated to it by the Crown.

Hackney Council takes a 'health in all policies' approach to everything we do. "Gambling-related harm is well documented but not well recognised as it is often a highly stigmatised form of damage in the lives of some of ourmost deprived citizens."

Latest figures show the number of spiking related offences recorded by the Metropolitan police increased by 23 per cent year-on-year to 2,633 in 2024/25 - almost 220 cases a month. But in only 84 cases was there a positive outcome, such as a person being charged with an offence. Offences were highest in Westminster (435) which covers the bulk of the West End - Lambeth (173) and Camden (164).