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    Jennifer Williams

    Northern England correspondent

    Email Jennifer Williams @JenWilliamsMEN  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)

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    • Tuesday, 26 September, 2023
      HS2
      Greater Manchester mayor proposes compromise on HS2 rail line

      Burnham says northern leg could be delayed if government commits to east-west route

      Trains at Manchester Piccadilly station
    • Sunday, 24 September, 2023
      News in-depthEnglish devolution
      English devolution ‘comes of age’ as Manchester takes on the buses

      Andy Burnham hails shift from Thatcher’s deregulated model back to local public control

    • Wednesday, 20 September, 2023
      HS2
      HS2 costs set to jump as inflation undermines rail project’s future

      Price tag set to rise to a figure closer to £91bn, according to calculations by the Financial Times

      Montage of artist’s impression of an HS2 train with £50 notes and a map of the route in the background Undated artist impression handout  issued by HS2 of a early visualisation of an HS2 train. Designs of HS2’s 225mph trains have been recognised for their environmental credentials, according to the company building the high-speed railway. PA Photo. Issue date: Sunday September 3, 2023. HS2 Ltd said its trains are the first in the world to achieve the British Standard Institute’s PAS 2080 global accreditation. See PA story RAIL HS2. Photo credit should read: HS2/PA Wire
    • Tuesday, 19 September, 2023
      News in-depthUK property
      UK homelessness on the rise as rents soar

      Lack of affordable housing collides with growing demand and tighter margins faced by landlords

      The housing and homeless charity Shelter holds a protest on Parliament Square opposite the Houses of Parliament
    • Monday, 18 September, 2023
      HS2
      Tory MPs warn UK government against killing off northern leg of HS2

      Ministers also consider option of cancelling final stretch of high-speed line into central London to cut spiralling costs

      HS2 hoardings outside the site of Birmingham Curzon Street station
    • Monday, 18 September, 2023
      UK politics
      UK to appoint commissioners to run Birmingham city council

      Michael Gove set to announce technical consultation period after local authority declared itself in effect bankrupt

      A man begs for loose change outside Birmingham City council house
    • Sunday, 17 September, 2023
      HS2
      Labour casts fresh doubts over HS2 route north of Birmingham

      UK opposition party’s caution comes after Tory government refuses to commit to northern section of project

      A woman walks past HS2 hoardings
    • Thursday, 14 September, 2023
      UK infrastructure
      HS2 route north of Birmingham in doubt as Sunak and Hunt explore more cost-cuts

      Downing Street, Treasury and transport department refuse to commit to building high-speed line to Manchester

      An aerial view of the Birmingham High Speed Rail 2 station construction site at Curzon Street in Birmingham, England
    • Wednesday, 13 September, 2023
      UK regional policy
      Levelling up agenda has ‘stalled’ under Sunak, says think-tank

      IfG warns flagship policy to bridge regional divides is not a priority for the government

    • Monday, 11 September, 2023
      UK social mobility
      UK youth face being worse off than parents, says social mobility chief

      Regional inequality, London’s housing market and stagnant wages cited as concerns

      Teenagers walking through a city centre
    • Sunday, 10 September, 2023
      UK north-south divide
      Lagging school spending for north of England poses risk to economy, study warns

      MPs and experts say educational attainment in region has been hit by insufficient financial support after Covid

      Uniformed children walking to school
    • Sunday, 10 September, 2023
      News in-depthUK economy
      A northern English town looks to BAE Systems to help it ‘level up’

      Barrow-in-Furness hopes the UK defence company’s bulging order book will serve to regenerate the area

      Two workers at a bench
    • Sunday, 3 September, 2023
      Apprenticeship levy
      English councils seek devolution of apprenticeships as uptake sinks

      CCN calls for restoration of adult education budget to 2010 levels and says levy has failed

    • Thursday, 31 August, 2023
      FT Magazine
      From leaking roofs to queues for scraps, one year in a British school

      Battered by the pandemic and the rising cost of living, UK schools like Newman Roman Catholic College in Oldham are at the front line of a profound national crisis

    • Monday, 21 August, 2023
      News in-depthUK regional policy
      Can King’s Cross provide a template for UK regeneration?

      Local leaders welcome proposals to ‘level up’ the country but say more ambition is needed

      People walk past the remnants of an old gas storage tank which has been incorporated into the scheme
    • Thursday, 17 August, 2023
      UK schools
      UK exam boards make sharp cuts to top A-level grades

      Return to pre-pandemic marking causes A and A* grades to fall to 27.2% of total, down 9 percentage points

      Students react after receiving their A-level results at Ark Acton Academy in west London. The fall in A and A* grades in the UK equated to 73,000 fewer top marks in 2023
    • Monday, 14 August, 2023
      News in-depthUK economy
      Regional leaders welcome UK ‘investment zones’ but warn success rests on wider growth

      Liverpool and South Yorkshire become testbeds for flagship strategy to level up economy

    • Monday, 17 July, 2023
      News in-depthUK by-elections
      Labour aims to turf out the Tories in northern England by-election

      Rishi Sunak is braced for the Conservatives to lose in Selby and Ainsty

      Selby and Ainsty consituent Debbie Strachan sitting at a table
    • Tuesday, 11 July, 2023
      UK north-south divide
      London and South East gain half of net growth in jobs since 2010

      Regional inequality in the UK ‘without parallel in developed world’, think-tank finds

      Tower Bridge in London
    • Thursday, 22 June, 2023
      UK local government finance
      Just 12% of audits by English local government bodies completed on time, MPs find

      Ministers told to get a grip on oversight after MPs finds huge backlog of unaudited accounts

      Woking Borough Council offices
    • Wednesday, 21 June, 2023
      HS2
      Latest delays to HS2 forecast to add £366mn to soaring final bill

      Ministers’ decision to push back section of high-speed rail link will drive up costs, according to government estimates

      Promotional hoardings surround an HS2 construction site in London
    • Sunday, 18 June, 2023
      UK local government finance
      Post-Brexit grants mired in red tape and uncertainty, warn local leaders

      Replacement to EU funding schemes stalls after Whitehall fails to sign off on investment plans in time

      Tyne Bridge and Sage Centre and Gateshead in England
    • Tuesday, 13 June, 2023
      Terrorism in UK
      Man arrested after students among 3 people killed in Nottingham

      Police working with counter-terrorism officers to investigate attacks on Tuesday morning

    • Tuesday, 6 June, 2023
      UK local government finance
      UK port accuses Ben Houchen of wasting public funds in legal action

      Mayor accused of risking ‘the public purse and the reputation of Teesside’

      Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen
    • Friday, 2 June, 2023
      UK labour disputes
      UK’s biggest rail union says it will not ‘disarm’ for pay talks

      Warning from RMT leader Mick Lynch comes as strikes affect high-profile sporting weekend

      Mick Lynch
    Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

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