Wednesday, February 12

Day: May 31, 2019

How the Airbnb boom is putting pressure on housing
Extras, Featured

How the Airbnb boom is putting pressure on housing

    Everyone knows that Google, Apple and Facebook are big, and that Uber and Netflix are fairly sizeable too. But far fewer people are aware just how enormous Airbnb and its rivals have become not in the boulevards and piazzas of foreign cities, but right here, in the UK. The scale of the growth is not only remarkable, but also largely untracked. We are blind to the amount of short-term letting that goes on, said Ian Adams, cabinet member for Westminster Council, which estimates that as many as one in 15 housing units in the borough are being let as short-term rentals. According to the last figures released by Airbnb, two million guests stayed at 64,000 London listings between 1 July 2016 and 1 July 2017, a growth of 49% on the previous year. When you factor in riva...
Shamima Begum was groomed and UK failed to protect her, says lawyer
Featured, United Kingdom

Shamima Begum was groomed and UK failed to protect her, says lawyer

    Islamic State bride Shamima Begum was "groomed and radicalised" due to a failure by UK authorities to protect her from the influence of extremists, the lawyer representing her family has said. The 19-year-old was a schoolgirl when she left her home in Bethnal Green, London, to join the terror cult in 2015, and made headlines when she resurfaced in a Syrian refugee camp earlier this year. Her bid to return to the UK following the birth of a baby boy in February failed to move Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who controversially stripped her of British citizenship. Mr Javid has now been accused of "human fly-tipping" by the lawyer representing the Begum family, who used a letter published in The Times to claim the Tory leadership hopeful used the case to further his caree...