London

Tower Hamlets Council is the only London local authority to be ranked this year in the Stonewall Top 100 UK Employers Index and its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) staff network has been "highly commended" by Stonewall for its "outstanding work". The council's staff network was praised for hosting a 2017 London Pride event on trans inclusion. 2018 marks the first year that Stonewall have ensured that gender identity work counts towards an organisation's overall score and ranking. No organisation is recognised in the Top 100 without demonstrating they are committed to transgender inclusion in their workplace. John Biggs, Mayor of Tower Hamlets said: "I am pleased we are on a journey with Stonewall to further support communities, like the transgender community, whose voice...

To coincide with national mental health campaign Time to Talk day, the council is launching its 'Suicide Prevention Strategy 2018-2021.' The annual day on 1 February aims to encourage everyone to talk about mental health and end the stigma around it. One in four people are affected by mental health at some point during their lifetime however suicide is often a taboo topic. Talking openly about mental health is considered an important preventative measure. In Tower Hamlets, the suicide rate (8.6 out of 100,000) is lower than that of England (9.9) and slightly lower than the London average (8.7). However, the council recognises that more can be done to prevent suicide and suicide attempts. Four in five suicide victims are men, and over half of all suicides are in men and women aged 20-3...

Tower Hamlets Council's Cabinet has approved a new Community Engagement Strategy on Tuesday 30 January 2018. The new strategy will ensure that the many diverse communities within the borough are at the very heart of the services offered by the council and can influence and shape the borough in which they live and work. It also marks a more transparent, outwardly-facing approach to the council's work, putting local people at the very heart of what is done by ensuring people are informed, engaged, involved with and empowered by the council. The new strategy builds on existing good practices and aims to resolve, with partners, the challenges the borough will face in the coming years. It follows a period of consultation with a wide range of individuals and organisations within the borough...

    A man has been convicted of murder after driving a van into a group of Muslims near a north London mosque in a terrorist attack. A jury concluded that Darren Osborne intended to kill as many Muslims as possible and had been brainwashed after gorging on extremist rightwing propaganda online. Police believe one catalyst for his three-week spiral into terrorism was a BBC drama about a Muslim grooming gang. The attack last June left Makram Ali, 51, dead with a tyre mark across his chest and 12 others injured after the van Osborne was driving struck people in Finsbury Park. Osborne, 48, was convicted after a trial at Woolwich crown court in south-east London, having previously denied murder and attempted murder. In a defence that the prosecutor, Jonathan Rees QC, desc...

    Sadiq Khan is planning to block foreign homebuyers from buying properties in London until they have been offered to British residents first. I want to help Londoners by looking at what measures I can offer to make sure they get first dibs on more new homes, the London mayor told The Times. The proposal, the first of its kind, would see new homes put on the market in three stages. First, they would be offered to Londoners, and then to British residents, before being made available for sale abroad. The plans for what the newspaper describes as a first dibs policy follows research, commissioned by Khan, which found that, despite the assumption foreign buyers only purchase high-end property, more than half of all new homes sold to overseas buyers were worth between £20...

    A van driver tried to run over and kill as many Muslims as possible in a terror attack outside Finsbury Park mosque in retaliation for Islamic State-inspired atrocities in London and Manchester, a court heard today. Darren Osborne, 48, drove a hired van into a crowd of worshippers as they left the mosque during Ramadan, killing one man - 51-year-old Makram Ali - and leaving several others seriously injured, it is said. Mr Ali had already collapsed on to the ground when he was struck by the van, jurors heard, and many of those injured were trying to help him. It is alleged Osborne, from Cardiff, came to London with a plan to target Muslims, intending to carry out an attack at a march in central London, angered by recent terrorist attacks and child grooming s...

    Affluent Richmond, in south west London, is the most targeted area for burglaries in the capital, new figures show. Based on the analysis of more than two million insurance claims made between January 2016 and December 2017, the survey identified the safest and most at risk areas of the UK. Guildford, in Surrey, topped the list nationally with 52 in every thousands homeowners forced to make claims after a burglary, the poll by MoneySuperMarket showed. Mortlake, in Richmond upon Thames, was the biggest target for criminals in the capital, with 45.7 claims for every 1,000 residences. East Finchley, in Barnet, north London, came in second place, where just under 40 in every 1,000 households have claimed after a theft. Herne Hill, in south London, which overlaps the ...

    Newspaper clippings from 1889 are among the items discovered under the floorboards of Buckingham Palace during renovation works. The ripped fragments of a November 27 edition of the Evening Standard, almost 130 years ago, were found along with three empty cigarette packets as potentially dangerous wiring was replaced. The work is part of a 10 year refurbishment of Buckingham Palace, expected to cost nearly £370 million, to avoid the risk of catastrophic building failure" at the Queen's main residence. The removal of vulcanised Indian rubber (VIR) cabling, which was installed in the late 1940s, is the first stage of the re-servicing of the building. Player's Navy Cut cigarette packet So far 2km of the wiring has been replaced, equivalent to the length of 40 Olympic...

    People living in a privately-owned tower block with the same cladding used on Grenfell Tower could be forced to pay millions for replacement panels to be fitted. Residents at Citiscape in Croydon, south London, are facing the prospect of having to fork out up to £2m to remove and replace the aluminium composite material (ACM) panels. Such cladding is believed to have fuelled the spread of the Grenfell blaze in June, which left 71 people dead. The Citiscape building was one of 228 across the country which failed safety tests brought in by the Government in the aftermath of the fire. First Port Property Services, which manages the high-rise building, was advised in August that action should be taken. It has written to residents twice, informing them that the cost w...

Donald Trump has got the message that many Londoners are staunchly opposed to his policies and actions, mayor Sadiq Khan said after the US president cancelled his planned visit. The London mayor who has clashed with the president in the past said a visit by Mr Trump would have been met by mass peaceful protests. The US president confirmed on Twitter that he would not visit the UK to cut the ribbon on the new US embassy building in south London. Mr Trump said he thought the embassy’s move from Grosvenor Square in Mayfair to Nine Elms, south of the Thames, was a bad deal and the building was in an off location. But the prospect of demonstrations against his appearance could also have been a factor in the president’s decision to cancel the visit. Mr Khan said: It appears that Presi...