Environment

It sounded like good news when the government made the announcement that they are going to build thousands of “cheap” starter homes, to help first time buyers into the property market. Housing Minister, Gavin Barwell, announced the first phase of the home building scheme will be completed in 2017 across 30 local authority areas. So far so good, however what the Tories think is affordable and what the average person on the street thinks seem oceans apart. Housing Charity Shelter...

Many environmentalists were worried about Donald Trump becoming US President after a number of comments seemingly dismissive of global warming and its dangers to the planet. In one tweet he wrote: "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." On Jan 29th 2014, Trump also Tweeted: "Snowing in Texas and Louisiana, record setting freezing temperatures throughout the country and beyond. Global warming is an expensive hoax!" And if that...

Workers in the UK working via employment agencies are not getting a fair deal, says the Resolution Foundation. The problem is growing as the number of agency staff has increased rapidly in recent years. The Think-Tank found that agency workers are disproportionately drawn from ethnic minorities and are concentrated in low-paid industries and lower-skilled jobs. There are now 865,000 agency staff in the UK, which has risen 200,000 since 2011. Over the last 18 months, 14% of agency workers were also...

More good news for cyclists in the capital as the Mayor of London has announced a plan to invest £770m on cycling initiatives across London. The funding will be spread over five years, seeing £154m per annum to fund infrastructure and promote cycling. Khan wants to make cycling in the capital a "safe and obvious choice for Londoners of all ages and backgrounds". There have been numerous deaths of cyclists in recent years, prompting calls for safer cycle lanes around...

A charity has raised serious concerns about the neglect that teenagers are suffering. The Children’s Society Troubled Teens report found that over one in seven year ten pupils suffer neglect at the hands of their parents or guardians. These shocking statistics are “deeply worrying’ according to the report. The researched consisted of two thousand 12-15-year-olds who completed an online questionnaire and the research was conducted by York University. The survey was spread across the country and involved over seventy different...

British boffins have developed nuclear-powered batteries which could generate power for thousands of years. An elite team of physicists and chemists at the University of Bristol have grown a man-made diamond that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate an electrical current. This will enable it to generate power, potentially soling the problem of batteries ever running out. The team at the University of Bristol reckon the development could solve some of the problems of nuclear waste,...

They say that the grass is always greener on the other side, but in this instance they could be right! An eco pioneer says he has found the answer to Britain's growing energy needs by making gas from grass. Dale Vince claims the ultra-green technology is a viable alternative to fracking and could produce enough energy to heat 97 per cent of the country's homes. He said if fully developed the new industry would pump £7.5 billion each year into the economy and...

A police station is believed to be the first in the country with NO front-line officers - and is run by a part-time volunteer who is a WAITROSE manager. Hucclecote police station in Gloucestershire once had several full-time police officers and a sergeant patrolling the streets. But thanks to budget cut-backs it is now staffed by a team of 10 'specials' - who are not fully trained or paid - although less than half are on duty at the same...

Forget cutting edge green technology, according to a new scientific study bird poop could be the key to combating climate change. Researchers at the Colorado State University who are working to better understand key components of Arctic climate systems have linked ammonia emissions from summertime Arctic seabird-colony excrement, called guano, to newly formed atmospheric aerosol particles which can in turn influence Arctic cloud properties and their effects on climate. Publishing in Nature Communications and featured by the American Association for the...