Author: News Desk

Jeremy Hunt to offer £63m budget lifeline to England’s swimming pools The Guardian says England’s struggling swimming pools are to be offered a lifeline in the budget with the creation of a £63m fund to ease cost pressures. On Wednesday, the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, will outline that the new money will be made available for one year and managed by Sport England. It will allow local authorities to apply for funding for leisure centres with pools that face immediate cost pressures including operational and maintenance expenses and energy bills. The move comes shortly after the Guardian revealed England had lost…

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Today’s news summary – Paper Talk Tuesday’s front pages continue their coverage of the Gary Linekar row, following the announcement that the sports legend will be allowed back on air without further reprimand following his tweets over the government’s controversial migrant plans. Many of today’s newspapers feature pictures from Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony, and some of the tabloids lead with news former pop star and convicted paedophile Gary Glitter has been taken back to jail. The UK, US and Australia security pact and the collapse of the US bank – Silicon Valley Bank are also hot topics for the papers. …

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Budget to boost lifetime allowance for pension savings In an effort to encourage people to continue working, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt plans to use his Budget to increase the lifetime allowance for pension savings to up to £1.8m. This would address government concerns that higher wage earners, such as doctors and consultants, retire earlier. The annual cap on tax-free pension contributions may also be raised from £40,000 to £60,000, which is expected to benefit millions of workers. Currently, any excess over the lifetime allowance of £1.07m is subject to a tax charge. The allowance has been seen as an issue in…

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UK job vacancies fall for eighth time in a row Companies in the UK blamed economic pressures for holding back on hiring new staff, as job vacancies fell for the eighth consecutive time. The official figures were released a day before Wednesday’s Budget, where the Chancellor is expected to outline plans to encourage people back to work. Between December and February, the number of job vacancies fell by 51,000 compared to the previous three months. However, despite the decline, there are still 1.1 million job vacancies, 328,000 more than in the January to March 2020 period before the pandemic. The…

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Paedophile pop star Gary Glitter recalled to prison after breach Gary Glitter, a former pop star, has been returned to prison for breaching the terms of his release, according to the Probation Service. Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, had been released from prison in February, after serving half of his 16-year sentence for sexually abusing three schoolgirls. He was released on licence conditions that included wearing a GPS tag. He had been one of the biggest music stars of the 1970s. In 2015, he was jailed for attempted rape, indecent assault and sex with a girl under 13.…

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