It is a rental trap!

Saving money to pay the rent each month.
Source: www.gasboilers-buyability.co.uk

A rising number of twenty and thirtysomethings living in London will not get on the property ladder anytime soon.

The desperate shortage of affordable homes in the capital is forcing many in the rental trap and they are helpless in the face of not always scrupulous landlords.

Rents in London, in fact, rose eight times faster than wages, hitting thousands of young working people who are now struggling to pay the higher rental rates, which swallow an ever higher chunk of their income.

Renting costs have been pushed to astronomical levels in the West End and surrounding areas, forcing many tenants to consider relocating outside London.

A one bedroom apartment in central London costs nearly £ 2,700 a month, while in the suburban areas prices stand at slightly less than £ 1,100.

“More than a quarter of Londoners now rent from private landlords, compared with 14 per cent in 1991. But many say they are being priced out the rental sector just as brutally as they have been excluded from home ownership”, David Newnes, director of LSL Property Services said.

According to Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the Labour group on Westminster council,  the astronomical levels charged by homeowners make the strongest case yet for the introduction of controls on private rents.

“London is the only mayor cuity without a form of rent control and hundreds of thousands of ordinary Londoners are now paying a massive price for the huge escalation in rents throughout the capital”, Mr Dimoldenberg said.

The London Coffee Festival

Exhibitor at the London Coffee Festival. Picture: Federica Tedeschi

The London Coffee Festival captured the attention of thousands of London’s coffee lovers for the third year in a row.

The annual event, which is the flagship celebration of UK coffee week, is well-known for its smart format: the first two days are reserved for trade only, while the weekend is open to the public as a ticketed celebration.

Over the four-day coffee Festival, which ended yesterday, more than 15,000 coffee lovers, baristas, independent coffee shop owners and roasters, big coffee chains’ stands and industry experts, along with musicians and artists, gathered at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane.

There were also tea companies and independent food and drinks producers.

However, at the heart of the Festival there were coffee samples, demonstrations from world-class baristas and several lab seminars.

“The Festival is about inspiring the industry and also inspiring consumers to learn, discover and play with coffee and London has become one of the best cities in the world for coffee. We can see the queue all around the door and all the way up to Bricklane”, the Founder of the London Coffee Festival, Jeffrey Young, said.

Mr Young, who is also the Managing Director of AllegraGroup, the organiser of this massive UK event, has pointed out that the Festival is about charity, as well.

Through the ‘Coffee Art project’, in fact, the event provides an opportunity for the coffee and foodservice industry to raise money for Project Waterfall, the charity working in partnership with WaterAid.

“This year we launched the Coffee Art Project and had over 85 enthusiastic and really committed artists who provided fantastic art works to a project that has also helped promoting the artists themselves. Next year we would like to extend the interactivity of the visitors voting for their favorite piece of work”, Mr Young said.

Talking about the 2014 edition of the Festival, it is clear that ‘interactity’ will remain the key concept of this successful coffee event.

“The consumers will still be encouraged to taste free coffee samples from some of the best places all over the country, as this is the first form of interactivity. There will be more demonstrations and visitors will also be inspired by some of the best baristas in the country to get behind the machine and actually make the coffee themselves”, Jeffrey Young added.

Final journey for the Iron Lady

Margaret Thatcher in 1992. Source:http://www.brunogarschagen.com

This morning Margaret Thatcher’s funeral was under the gaze of the world’s eyes.

The hearse carrying the former Prime Minister’s coffin set off from Palace of Westminster at 10am to arrive at St Paul’s after one hour.

More than 2,000 guests, including the Queen, a congregation heavy with British politicians from decades past and present and several PMs from 170 countries, were in London to take part to the ceremony.

The Big Ben was silenced, PM question cancelled and hundreds of people all over Britain gathered to remember a memorable life.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who was sitting beside the former PM’s coffin during the function, had earlier said:

“Baroness Thatcher had an incredibly tough time during her eleven years in office”.

“She was an extraordinary woman and the greatest British peacetime Prime Minister”.

Lady Thatcher, who died last week at the age of 87, has been the only female PM in Britain and also the longest serving for over a century (1979-1990).

She transformed British politics, and this is why both Britain and the world still debate over the Iron Lady legacy.

This morning police were ready for protesters, but luckily, only a few groups took advantage of the situation to show their anger towards Mrs Thatcher’s reforms.

Most people just wanted to mark their respect while the former politician, who was also a mother and a grandmother, was making her final journey.

Would you buy a suspended coffee?

Picture: gwblogspot.blogspot.com (through Google)

Along with their usual cappuccino, Londoners can now buy a ‘suspended coffee’.

Is it a new taste of coffee we are talking about? Not really. 

It is a hot cup of goodwill, instead.

The ‘suspended coffee’, in fact, is either a coffee or any other hot beverage people pay for but do not drink. This very special cup is reserved for someone who cannot afford to pay for their own.

The idea was born in Naples (Italy), a decade ago and thanks to social networks, hundreds of cafés around the world have joined the scheme.

More than 150 venues across the UK have signed up to the initiative at the end of March.

There is a ‘suspended coffee’ website in development and an already popular Facebook page, counting more than 45 thousands ‘likes’.

“It is a fantastic idea and the recipients are thrilled,” said Hettie Clarke, manager of Coffee7 in Forrest Gate, London.

There are concerns about people taking advantage of the scheme, that, at present, is entirely based on good faith. Anyone can enter a café and ask for a ‘suspended coffee’; they are unlikely to be asked for credentials.

“We’re not going to make judgments. If you can say, ‘here is a suspended coffee, from us to you’, you feel like you are doing good, but it is not too in your face,” Ms Clarke added.

Meanwhile, other British coffee shops are thinking of offering ‘suspended food’ as well, such as cookies or sandwiches homeless and broke people could enjoy along with their ‘special coffee’.

Minor offenders can get a job

Job applicants with old and minor convictions will not have their criminal past revealed to employers, it was announced earlier this week by the Home Office.

Under the proposed legislation, convictions resulting in a non-custodial sentence, will be removed from record checks after 11 years for adults and five and a half year for young offenders.

Cautions will be filtered from record checks by the Disclosure and Barring Service, previously the Criminal Records Boreau, after six years for adults and two years for underage offenders.

The changes will affect those applying for jobs that need background checks, and come after a case involving a young woman who had to reveal details of two minor offences that took place when she was just 11 years old.

Lord Taylor of Holbeach, minister for criminal information, said that criminal records checks are an important tool for employers to use in making informed safeguarding decisions.

“This new system strikes a balance between ensuring that children and vulnerable groups are protected and avoiding intrusion into people’s lives,” he said.

The Home Office has announced the system would be implemented within weeks. 

However, all serious violent and sexual offences will continue to be disclosed.

David Miliband quits politics

Labour Party politician David Miliband has announced yesterday he will be quitting politics to head to America.

The former foreign secretary, who is moving to New York to take up a senior role at the charity International Rescue, in September, is forcing a by-election in South Shields, the constituency that he has been representing in Parliament since 2001.

Labour insiders hope his departure will ease tensions that have avoided Ed Miliband’s leadership since he beat his older sibling in 2010.

Miliband Senior declared that he wants to see his younger brother Ed take Labour back into power, and end up the ‘comedy’ surrounding his relationship with him.

“This is right not just for me, but is right for the Labour party as well,” David Miliband said.

“I entered politics to make a difference and now I am going to do it in a different sphere,” he added.

Mr Miliband, who was nicknamed “Brains” by spin doctor Alastair Campbell when he ran Mr Blair’s policy unit in 1997, was praised by several political figures.

Former PM Tony Blair said: ”He is obviously a massive loss to UK politics”.