Jane Cozens Today, Friday 9 September 2022, the United Kingdom enters a period of national mourning to mark and commemorate the death of Queen Elizabeth II. All around the world there are people waking up to a new, unsettling, and profound sense of loss, a phenomenon that has surprised many. By trying to understand why there is … Read more
Prior to 5 May commentators agreed that the 2022 local elections represented a potential watershed moment in UK politics. To an extent they were right. While local elections often point to trends that will influence the upcoming general elections, the 2022 ballots had the potential to significantly undermine the Conservative Party leader and prove the … Read more
Opinions may vary regarding Robert Jenrick’s announcement on further funding for cladding remediation work earlier this month. However, I think it’s fair to say that ‘widespread condemnation’ was the overwhelming response from media outlets up and down the country. Front pages were splashed with the words ‘betrayal’, ‘anger’ and ‘laughable’. Even backbench Conservative MPs broke … Read more
The Background The Law Commission published three reports earlier in July 2020 which set out a series of proposals to reform the leasehold system in England and Wales. The Law Commission was asked to look into the issue of leasehold reform by the government after former communities secretary Sajid Javid promised (in 2017) to make extending leases … Read more
Long-awaited reforms to the planning system in England were finally unveiled on 6 August. While previous housing secretaries, of which there have been many, have merely tinkered with the edges, Robert Jenrick’s efforts appear to be about to turn the system on its head. The glossy 43-page consultation document, ‘Planning for the Future’ certainly contains … Read more
Silence says you consent. Social issues get the country, and consumers, talking. The murder of George Floyd in the US city of Minneapolis has achieved global media attention and put a rocket under the BLM movement. From the #MeToo to #Icantbreathe protests, petitions and social media campaigns have dominated the media, even managing to break through coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is the realisation that having no opinion is not an option that sets these campaigns … Read more
Society appears to have undergone some quite seismic changes since Thursday 12 March – the day the UK Prime Minister announced that COVID-19 was not going to be a barrel of laughs and that we should all start washing our hands. A lot. However, whether it is the community spirit, the air quality, the (much) … Read more
When the prospect of working from home cropped up in bygone times, most people envisaged a more relaxed and commute-free experience that would give them the benefits of a vibrant, exciting work life with the added upside of being surrounded by their own stuff. In reality, in the time of C19, when wfh has become compulsory for … Read more
While working from home is usual practice for some, many of us are more familiar with an office environment. For organisations, both big and small, it may take a few weeks to adjust to this new way of working. We have put together this brief guide to share some of the practices we as a … Read more
Maps are good things. Great things, on occasion. They can be wonderfully useful for orientation –and I don’t mean just in the sense of getting from A to B, but also in helping to make sense of the world around us. An example? Take a look below. This map shows a different way of visualising … Read more
