Specialist insurer Ecclesiastical is giving £120,000 to good causes as part of its annual 12 days of giving Christmas campaign.
Now into its fifth year, Ecclesiastical is once again inviting Scotland residents to nominate a registered charity close to their hearts to benefit from this festive financial boost.
Ten lucky winners will be announced each weekday from 6 to 21 December.
Dundee Museum of Transport, REACH Lanarkshire Autism based in Glasgow, West Regional Scout Council in Paisley and Kirkcaldy Foodbank were some of the local beneficiaries in 2020, following overwhelming public support in the country.
It’s quick and easy to nominate a charity online. Nominations are open until 20 December and you can vote for your favourite charity at:
Winners will be drawn at random – and while it’s not a popularity contest, the more times a charity is nominated the more chance it has of being selected.
Ecclesiastical is encouraging everyone to use their social media channels to ask people to vote for their favourite cause to give them the best possible chance of winning.
Last year saw an amazing 285,000 people around the UK support the 12 days of giving Christmas campaign in total, with a staggering 17,800 charitable causes up and down the country receiving votes.
Mark Hews, Group CEO of Ecclesiastical, said: “As a commercial company with a charitable purpose, giving back is at the heart of our business. In fact, Ecclesiastical is the fourth largest corporate donor in the UK*.
“Our annual 12 days of giving Christmas campaign has supported hundreds of charities over the past four years and I’m delighted that we will once again help charities change lives for the better.
“We know that for many charities, £1,000 can make a real difference. We’re encouraging everyone to nominate a cause close to their hearts this Christmas to be in for a chance to win a festive financial boost.”
FORTY managers from Asda central region – including local region manager Brian Boyle – will be taking a brave plunge into the chilly sea at Portobello at 1pm today to raise money for children in need (writes SHARON GRAY, Asda Leith’s Community Champion).
We have raised over £1000 so far, but are looking to raise more. Come along and give your support! Meet up at Bath Street entrance from 12:45pm.
Sharon has also sent some pictures of the Asda team in training:
The Scottish Parliament’s Criminal Justice Committee is calling for comprehensive reforms to be made in the justice system, as well as more money for the sector, ahead of the Scottish Government’s budget next month.
After considering the financial position of the sector, the Committee has concluded that many of the budget challenges in the justice system are symptoms of wider problems that have not been significantly addressed over many years.
While it believes there is a need for greater investment, connected problems such as court backlogs, high numbers of remand prisoners, and overcrowded, outdated jails with ‘revolving doors’ and issues with drugs deaths need to be tackled together with policy-based solutions, as well as adequate funding.
The Committee is calling for joined-up, long-term plans, led by the Scottish Government, and incorporating all the main justice partners to try to address issues including:
• The huge court backlog of around 50,000 cases made worse by the pandemic; • The size of the prison population, including the number of women in jail and remand prisoners; • Improving the prison estate; • Issues in prison such as drug misuse, prisoner and staff welfare, and managing serious organised crime groups inside; • The need for investment in police and fire services; • Issues in the legal aid system; • Support for victims and community justice schemes.
The Committee has suggested that spending on areas such as:
• effective diversion from prosecution or diversion from incarceration schemes for cases where those are appropriate, • drug recovery cafés in prisons, and • Throughcare for those leaving prison,
may all help ease pressures in the system, and in time reduce the overall budgetary challenges for the justice sector.
Speaking as the report was launched, Committee Convener, Audrey Nicoll MSP, said:“We believe that there is a case for further spending to support the justice system to meet the many challenges it is facing.
“However, we recognise that money is not unlimited, and that some of the seemingly intractable issues faced by our courts, prisons and other justice partners will not be fixed simply by loosening the purse strings.
“We believe joined up actions, achieving long term goals such as reducing reoffending, could prove transformational. This would improve outcomes for society as well as the budget for the sector.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave this speech at the CBI conference yesterday:
Great to be here in Tyneside, the number one exporting region of the UK.
Great to be with the CBI.
And I want to begin with a massive thank you to British business.
For keeping going.
For looking after your employees.
For rising to the challenge.
For responding to the call for ventilators in those first dark days.
Dozens of you,
Kitchen appliance makers,
Hairdryer makers,
Formula one motor car manufacturers,
Turning your production lines over in days to try to save lives.
For making the masks and the gowns and the gloves at such speed.
Turning things round from that awful moment when we realised we simply didn’t have the domestic production.
So we have gone from being able to supply 1 per cent of our domestic needs to 80 per cent.
And thank you British industry, enterprise, commerce,
For producing not just one but perhaps half a dozen vaccines.
Because without you, let’s face it, we would simply not be here,
And nor would tens of thousands of people in our country and millions around the world,
Who owe their lives to your resourcefulness and inventiveness.
And while I’m on the subject, can I ask who has had your booster?
You all look far too young and thrusting to need a booster but get your booster as soon as you can.
Because it is by vaccinating our country that we have been able to get your staff back to their place of work, to open our theatres, our restaurants and to get back for longer now than any other comparator country to something like normal life.
Even if we are still bumping elbows and wearing masks.
I am not going to pretend that everything is going to be plain sailing.
We can see the state of the pandemic abroad.
The supply chain issues that we’re facing.
The pressure on energy prices that we’re all facing.
The skills shortages.
But don’t forget folks, my friends, it was only last year they were saying we would have an unemployment crisis now on the scale not seen since the 1980s or 1990s.They were forecasting 12 per cent unemployment.
And what have we got?
Thanks to you, thanks to the resilience of British business, we have employment back in work at pre-pandemic levels.
It was only last year that we experienced the biggest fall in output in a century.
As we were forced to lock down the economy.
Well look at us now.
Thanks to you and thanks to British business bouncebackability, we are forecast to have the fastest economic growth in the G7.
And I was there in the 70s and 80s and 90s.
And I remember mass unemployment.
And the misery and the drain of the human spirit.
And I would much rather have our problems today – which are fundamentally caused by a return in global confidence and a surge in demand.
Because now we have a massive opportunity to fix these supply-side problems.
To transform whole sectors of our economy and to tackle the chronic problems underlying the UK economy.
The woeful imbalance in productivity across the country.
But also the imbalance between British business.
Between the go-getting world-beaters represented by so many people in this room,
And the long comet tail whose potential is frankly yet to be realised.
That don’t have the skills – particularly the IT skills – as Rishi the Chancellor so often points out.
That don’t have the banks behind them, that don’t have the investment.
And that is the mission of this country – to unite and level up.
Of this government – to unite and level up across the whole country.
And I’ve got to be honest with you, it is a moral mission.
As you get older, the funny thing is you get more idealistic and less cynical.
It’s a moral thing, but it is also an economic imperative.
Because if this country could achieve the same kind of geographical balance and dispersion of growth and wealth that you find in most of our most successful economic comparators,
And if all our businesses could reach more balance in their levels of productivity,
Then there would be absolutely no stopping us.
And we would achieve what I believe we can.
And become the biggest and most successful economy in Europe.
And today fate has handed us an opportunity to do that.
When the first industrial revolution began 250 years ago it was British industry that had first-mover advantage.
For hundreds of years, we maintained that pace.
Right up until the beginning of the 20th century we were producing more coal, smelting more iron, building more ships and boilers and making more machines than virtually any other country on earth.
And today we are on the brink of another revolution.
A green industrial revolution.
And again there are many ways in which we have first-mover advantage.
And today I want to tell you in the CBI how Britain is going to win in the new green industrial revolution.
Provided we act and act now.
I have had some pretty wonderful jobs in my life, but among the most purely hedonistic I would rank motoring correspondent of GQ magazine.
I drove:
Ferraris
Maseratis
Nissan Skylines
Proton Sagas
You name it, I drove it.
And I learned to admire the incredible diversity of the UK specialist motor manufacturing sector, which is actually the biggest in the world.
And I have spent hours in the traffic, listening to the porridge-like burble and pop of the biggest and most sophisticated internal combustion engines ever made.
And I have heard that burble turn into an operatic roar as I have put my foot down and burned away from the lights at speeds I would not now confess to my protection officers.
In that time, that great era, I only tried two EVs – electric vehicles.
An extraordinary wheeled rabbit hutch that was so tiny you could park it sideways.
And I tried the first Tesla for sale in this country, for GQ, that expired in the fast lane of the M40.
They’ve got a lot better.
And when a few years later as Mayor of London I tried to get London motorists to go electric and we put in charging points around the city, I must confess that they were not then a soaraway success.
And they stood forlorn like some piece of unused outdoor gym equipment.
But ten years after that – the tipping point has come, hasn’t it?
UK sales of EVs are now increasing at 70 per cent a year.
And in 2030 we are ending the market for new hydrocarbon ICEs, ahead of other European countries.
And companies are responding.
Here in the north east, Nissan has decided to make an enormous bet on new electric vehicles and together with Envision there is now a massive new gigafactory for batteries.
And around the world, these cars are getting ever more affordable.
And at Glasgow two weeks ago the tipping point came, as motor manufacturers representing a third of the world market – including the EU and America – announced that they would go electric by 2035.
And of course, Glasgow was far bigger and more important than that.
250 years after we launched the first industrial revolution, we are showing the world how to power past coal.
When I was a kid, 80 per cent of our electricity came from coal.
And I remember those huge barges taking coal up the Thames to Battersea power station and those four chimneys belching fumes into the face and lungs of the city.
By the time I became mayor, Battersea was a wreck.
Closed for being simply too polluting.
And good for nothing except the final shoot out in gangster movies.
But in 2012, we were still 40 per cent dependent on coal.
Today – only ten years later – coal supplies less than 2 per cent of our power.
And by 2024 it will be down to zero
And Battersea of course is a great funkapolitan hive of cafes and restaurants and hotels and homes
Thanks to the vision of the former Mayor.
And every time I made that point to leaders in Glasgow,
About the speed of the switch that we’ve made from coal,
I could see them thinking about it and I could see them thinking: right, ok, maybe this is doable.
And when I was a kid literally zero per cent of our energy came from wind.
And it seemed faddish and ludicrous to imagine that we could light and heat our homes with a technology that dated from 9th century Persia, I think.
And yet today – look at the coast of the north east where we are today.
Row after row stretching out to the north sea, of beautiful white mills as we claim a new harvest,
Rich and green from the drowned meadows of doggerland.
And on some days we derive almost half this country’s energy needs,
With the biggest offshore wind production anywhere in the world – and growing the whole time.
And that tipping point having been reached, the pace of change is now going to accelerate like new a Tesla.
Because I can tell you as a former motoring correspondent, EVs may not burble like sucking doves, and they may not have that arum arum araaaaaagh that you love,
But they have so much torque that they move off the lights faster than a Ferrari.
And we are now embarked on a new epoch.
And in just a few years’ time, after almost a century of using roughly the same technology, we are going to change radically.
We are going to change radically:
our cars
our trucks
our buses
our ships
our boats
our planes
our trains
our domestic heating systems
our farming methods
our industrial processes
our power generation
And much else besides.
And I can tell you the force driving that change.
It won’t be government, and it won’t even be business – though business and government together will have a massive influence.
It will be the consumer.
It will be the young people of today,
The disciples of David Attenborough,
Not just in this country but around the world,
Who can see the consequences of climate change and who will be demanding better from us.
And I confidently predict that in just a few years’ time it will be as noisome, offensive to the global consumer to open a new coal fired power station as it is to get on a plane and light up a cigar.
And as the world reaches this pivotal moment, post Glasgow, it’s vital that we recognise not just the scale of the challenge, but the opportunity now for British business and industry.
Because in the end it is you, it is business people, who will fix this problem.
Governments don’t innovate.
Governments don’t produce new products and get out and sell them in the market place.
And though governments can sell, governments can spend tens if not hundreds of billions,
We know that the market has hundreds of trillions.
And yet we also know that government has a vital role in making that market, and in framing the right regulation.
And to ensure that you, the British business succeeds in this new world, we have set out a ten point plan for government leadership.
A new Decalogue that I produced exactly a year ago, when I came down from Sinai and I said to my officials the new ten commandments thou shalt develop:
Offshore wind.
Hydrogen.
Nuclear power.
Zero emission vehicles.
Green public transport, cycling and walking.
‘Jet zero’ and green ships
7: greener buildings
8: carbon capture and storage
9: nature and trees
10: green finance
And for each of those objectives we are producing a roadmap, so that you in the private sector can see the opportunities ahead and what you need to do.
And we are regulating so as to require new homes and buildings to have EV charging points – with another 145,000 charging points to be installed thanks to these regulations.
We are investing in new projects to turn wind power into hydrogen.
And the net zero strategy is expected to trigger about £90 billion of private sector investment, driving the creation of high wage high skill jobs across the UK, as part of our mission to unite and level up across the country.
Not just in the green industrial revolution of course, but in all sectors of the economy.
And to help you, and to build the platform, to give you the advantage you need, we are now waging a cross-Whitehall campaign to solve our productivity puzzle and to rebalance our lopsided economy.
Fixing our infrastructure with investment on a scale not seen since the Victorians.
And we must begin with energy and power generation,
if we are going to have, allow, our manufacturing industry to succeed, we must end the unfairness that UK, high energy-intensive manufacturing pays so much more than our competitors overseas.
And that’s why we are going to address the cost of our nuclear power and we are all now paying for the historic under under-investment in nuclear power.
Which country first split the atom?
Which country had the first civilian nuclear power plant?
It was this one.
And why have we allowed ourselves to be left behind?
Well, you tell me.
So we are investing not just in big new nuclear plants but in small nuclear reactors as well.
And we are consulting on classifying this essential technology as “green investment”, so that we can get more investment flowing in and ahead of the EU.
Lenin once said that the communist revolution was soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.
Well, I hesitate to quote Lenin, Tony, before the CBI, but the coming industrial revolution is green power plus the electrification of the whole country.
We are electrifying our cars, we are electrifying our rail.
Last week we announced three vast new high speed lines.
Cutting the time from London to Manchester by an hour.
And creating a new Crossrail of the north
Cutting the time from Manchester to Leeds from 55 to 33 minutes.
A crossrail for the Midlands,
Cutting journey times from Birmingham to Nottingham from one hour and 14 minutes to 26 minutes.
But these plans are far richer and more ambitious than some of the coverage has perhaps suggested.
To solve this country’s transport problems, you can’t just endlessly carve your way through virgin countryside.
You have to upgrade, and to electrify.
You have to use the tracks that already exist and bring them back into service.
And we are doing the Beeching reversals – that’s putting in lines that were taken out sadly in the last century.
You have to put other transport networks as well.
You have to put in clean buses, you have to improve,
4000 new clean green buses we’re putting in.
And of course, you have to fix the roads as well.
We cannot be endlessly hostile to road improvements.
And we have to do it now, we have to fix it now.
I know that there are some people who think that working habits have been remade by the pandemic, and that everyone will be working only on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, in an acronym I won’t repeat.
I don’t want to be dogmatic about this, but I have my doubts.
And it is not just that young people need to be in the office to learn, and to compete, and to pick up social capital.
There are also sound evolutionary reasons why mother nature does not like working from home.
So I people prophesy that people will come back, Tony – they will come to the office.
And they will come back on the roads and the rail.
But people also want choice.
And that is why we must put in the gigabit broadband – as we are – which has gone up massively just in the last couple of years from 7 per cent when I became PM to 65 per cent at the beginning of next year.
And with safer streets,
With great local schools,
With fantastic broadband,
People will have the confidence to stay nearer the place they grew up.
To start business.
And business will have the confidence to invest.
And then of course there is one thing that business wants and that this country needs,
Far more than a hundred supersonic rail links,
Far more than broadband,
And that is skills.
And the people that you all need to staff your business.
It’s an astonishing fact that the 16-18 year olds in this country are getting 40% less time and instruction than our competitors in the OECD, and so we’re turning that round.
We are focusing on skills, skills, skills,
Investing in our FE colleges, our apprentices, in the knowhow and confidence of young people.
And since, as everybody knows, 80 per cent of the 2030 workforce are already in work,
We are giving every adult who needs it the chance to get a level three skill.
£3000 for a lifetime skills guarantee.
We are supporting bootcamps for everything from IT to entrepreneurship.
And at this pivotal moment in our economic history, we are taking advantage of our new freedoms.
To deliver freeports as well as free trade deals.
And to regulate differently and better,
To lengthen our lead in all the amazing new technologies of the 21st century:
AI
cyber
quantum computing
And all the rest and all the applications of those technologies to the areas in which we excel.
So you get fin tech, ed tech, bio tech, med tech, nano tech, ag tech, green tech,
So you sound basically like 15th century Mexico.
And that is what this country is doing
There are only 3 countries that have produced more than 100 tech unicorns
and they are, as you will know, well which are they? Let’s see who’s been paying attention to any of my speeches in the last few … which 3 nations have produced more than 100 tech unicorns?
Correct. They are the US, China and the UK
And the wonderful thing about the more than the 100 tech unicorns is they are dispersed now far more evenly across the whole of the UK than the tech unicorns of some of our rival competitor economies.
And that is a fantastic thing.
We want to see the dispersal of this growth and development across the UK. That’s why this government has doubled investment in scientific research – and again, we want to see the benefits of that research across the whole of the country
But in the end
And this is the most important message of all.
There are limits to what governments can do.
And I just want to be absolutely clear about this – because this has been an extraordinary period.
There has been the financial crisis of 2008, where government had to intervene on a massive scale.
Then Covid, when government had to intervene on a massive scale.
But government cannot fix everything and government sometimes should get out of your hair.
And government should make sure there is less regulation and indeed less taxation.
And the true driver of growth is not government, it is the energy and dynamism and originality of the private sector
And Tony, yesterday, I went as we all must to Peppa Pig World.
Hands up if you’ve been to Peppa Pig World – [not enough]
I was a bit hazy about what I would find at Peppa Pig World, but I loved it.
Peppa Pig World is very much my kind of place.
It had very safe streets.
Discipline in schools.
Heavy emphasis on new mass transit systems, I noticed.
Even if they are a bit stereotypical about daddy pig.
But the real lesson for me about going to Peppa Pig World was about the power of UK creativity.
"Yesterday I went to Peppa Pig World… I loved it, it's very much my kind of place"
Who would have believed, Tony, that a pig that looks like a hairdryer, or possibly a sort of Picasso-like hairdryer,
A pig that was rejected by the BBC,
Would now be exported to 180 countries,
With theme parks both in America and in China as well as in the New Forest,
And a business that is worth at least £6bn to this country, £6bn and counting.
I think that it is pure genius, don’t you?
No government in the world, no Whitehall civil servant in the world, could conceivably have come up with Peppa.
So my final message to you.
As we stand on the brink of this green industrial revolution.
As we prepare to use our new regulatory freedoms in what I believe will be a very strong post-Covid rebound.
We are blessed,
We are blessed not just with capital markets and the world’s best universities and incredible pools of liquidity in London, the right time zone and the right language and opportunity across the whole country,
We are also blessed with the amazing inventive power and range of British business.
And that above all is what fills me with confidence, members of the CBI, for the days ahead.
Thank you very much for your kind attention this morning, thank you.
The Scottish Parliament’s Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee is beginning an inquiry looking at the Scottish Government’s use of emergency regulation making powers.
The regulation making power, known as the ‘made affirmative procedure’, has been used over 100 times by the Scottish Government since the start of the pandemic. While the legal mechanism existed before, it was only used a handful of times in a year.
The made affirmative procedure means that legal changes come into force before MSPs have a chance to look at or vote on them, allowing the Government to act quickly. The Parliament does however need to approve the changes within 28 days for the law to stay in force.
The Parliament gave the Scottish Government more ability to use these powers in the Coronavirus Acts, originally passed in April and May 2020. The UK Coronavirus Act also allows for the procedure to be used in the UK Parliament and devolved legislatures.
The committee hopes to help the Parliament ensure an appropriate balance between flexibility for the Government in responding to an emergency situation while still ensuring proper parliamentary scrutiny and oversight.
Committee Convener, Stuart McMillan MSP, said:“There are good public health reasons to ensure the Scottish Government can act quickly to keep people safe. The Committee recognises that use of the made affirmative procedure has allowed the Scottish Government to respond quickly to the many challenges presented by the pandemic.
“But our Committee wants to ensure the power to do so is used appropriately and necessarily.
“Whenever possible, MSPs should have proper opportunities for oversight, and the public have opportunities to engage and comment on proposals before they come into force. This is a cornerstone of our democracy in Scotland.
“We will consider how the power is currently being used by the Scottish Government and make any recommendations for changes we find necessary.”
Police will be hosting an online recruitment event aimed at people from all minority ethnic communities across Scotland. This event will give attendees a fantastic opportunity to hear from serving BME officers and their experiences as a police officer in Scotland as well as the opportunity to ask questions.
The event will also focus on the recruitment process and the training, with a unique insight in to life at the Scottish Police College.
The event will be hosted on Microsoft Teams on Thursday 2nd December from 6.30pm – 8pm.
The consent, support and co-operation of our fellow citizens lies at the heart of the identity and legitimacy of policing in Scotland.
To ensure that bond is as strong as possible, we must fully represent and reflect the communities we serve. Inclusion is an operational necessity and morally the right thing to do. We are committed to increasing the number of officers and staff from under-represented groups.
There are well documented barriers to some people applying to join the police service. We therefore run a number of different recruitment events to answer specific questions from people from diverse communities. This is to make sure everyone has fair access to the Police Scotland recruitment process.
Acute rental demand over Q3 2021 has pushed UK rental growth to its highest level since 2008
Annual rent growth has increased by 7.2% in Glasgow and 3.6% in Edinburgh
Demand continues to outstrip supply, which is running at 43% below the five-year average – exerting an upward pressure on rents
Average UK rents are now tracking at +4.6% on the year [and 6% excluding London], after climbing 3% over the last quarter – with rental demand doubling in central Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh and London in Q3 v. Q1
Rental growth is close to, or at, a 10-year high across most UK regions – except for in London and Scotland
After 15 months of consecutive falls, London’s rents have swung back into positive territory, rising by 4.7% between June and September, as offices reopened and city life resumed
The structural undersupply of rental properties across the country and the strength of the employment market will support rental growth into 2022
UK rental growth [excluding London] is set to ease slightly to 4.5% by the end of 2022
UK rental market growth has reached a 13 year high as renters rush back to city centres, reports Zoopla, the UK’s leading property portal, in its quarterly Rental Market Report.
Record price growth defines new era for the UK rental market
Acute tenant demand over the third quarter of 2021 has propelled UK rental growth to its highest level for over a decade [13 years].
The market is being shaped by an ongoing supply and demand imbalance, with demand continuing to outstrip supply, which is running at 43% below the five year average and exerting an upward pressure on rents.
The imbalance has been compounded by both long-term structural issues such as landlord divestment following the 3% stamp duty levy introduced in 2016, and more the immediate post-lockdown demand, which collectively have eroded available supply.
Average UK rents are now tracking at 4.6% year on year, after climbing 3% over the last quarter. Excluding London, where the market has lagged, average UK rental growth has reached a 14-year high of +6%.
Rental growth is also explained in part by tenant demand moving up the price bands [see figure 1]. This reflects the ongoing search for space, which has not only characterised the sales market, but the rental market, too.
UK monthly rents now account for 37% of an average income for a single tenant occupant; however, even with strong rental growth, the measure of affordability remains in line with the five year average [see figure 2]*.
The regions registering the highest levels of rental growth are among those that are the most affordable when compared to the UK average, and as such, there has been more headroom for rents to increase.
Rental growth is close to, or at, a 10-year high across most UK regions – except for in London and Scotland. Rents are up most in the South West (9%) year on year, followed by Wales (7.7%) and the East Midlands (6.9%).
In many of the UK’s largest cities, annual rental growth is running well ahead of the five-year average rate of growth. Bristol leads with 8.4% growth in the year to September, followed by Nottingham at 8.3%, and Glasgow at 7.2%.
Rental demand in the central zones of Manchester, Edinburgh and Leeds has at least doubled over Q3 compared to Q1, and in Birmingham demand has increased by 60% – buoyed by the return of office workers and students, and the lure of city life.
Figure 2
London rents rebound into positive growth – but remain lower than pre-pandemic levels
After 15 months of consecutive falls, London’s rents swung back into positive territory, up +4.7%, in Q3. This amounts to annual growth of +1.6% compared to falls of almost 10% at the start of the year.
As with other major UK cities, market activity rose significantly in Q3, with tenancies agreed in London running 50% above the five-year average, underlining the bounceback in the market as offices reopened and city life resumed.
Despite this upward trajectory, given the falls over the last 18 months, average London rents are still 5% lower than they were at the start of the pandemic.
Rents forecast to rise by a further 4.5% by the end of 2022
Looking ahead to the new year, the structural undersupply of rental properties across the country is expected to support rental growth into 2022.
In addition, the supply shortage coupled with the strength of the employment market which, despite the pandemic, is set to remain robust, will in turn support demand and sustain rental growth.
While the level of rental demand might ease in the near term in line with seasonal trends, demand levels will remain higher than usual, especially in city centres, where there is an element of pent-up demand being released.
On the supply side, rental stock will remain tight, amid lower levels of investment into the sector by landlords, and this will underpin rental pricing. There is more leeway for stronger rental growth in areas of the country where rents are relatively more affordable, suggesting that rents could rise above earnings outside of the south of England, supporting rental growth across the UK excluding London at 6% in 2021 and 4% in 2022.
Meanwhile, London rental growth is expected to pick up to 3.5%, with rents ultimately exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
Gráinne Gilmore, Head of Research, Zoopla, comments: “The swing back of demand into city centres, including London, has underpinned another rise in rents in Q3, especially as the supply of rental property remains tight.
“Households looking for the flexibility of rental accomodation, especially students and city workers, are back in the market after consecutive lockdowns affected demand levels in major cities.
“Meanwhile, just as in the sales market, there is still a cohort of renters looking for properties offering more space, or a more rural or coastal location.”
*The methodology Zoopla has used to calculate affordability has changed from the last quarter; Zoopla is now using ASHE data, and previously used the Labour Force Survey.
A documentary film showcasing a talented autistic pianist has won a prestigious Scottish BAFTA award.
Harmonic Spectrum, which features 25 year old Edinburgh-based Sean Logan, was awarded the distinguished honor in the Short Film & Animation category at the star-studded BAFTA Scotland Awards on Saturday.
The film focuses on Sean, a talented musician using the piano to navigate life on the Autistic Spectrum. As he is drawn into new musical collaborations, he must learn to balance his enthusiasm and compulsive energy with understanding and compromise, redefining his artistic perspective.
The documentary short was produced and directed by Austen McCowan and Will Hewitt (above), and has been shown at several film festivals throughout the UK.
Having already gained Best Short Documentary at the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival and the Optical Sound Award at the Flatpack Film Festival, the BAFTA win is the film’s most high-profile honour to date.
The BAFTA Scotland awards honour achievement in Scotland’s film, television and video game industries.
Sean Logan, who is starring in Harmonic Spectrum, said:“I hope that the legacy of this film is focused on what art can mean for people on the spectrum. Music is a therapeutic tool for people like myself, it connects me to people, music is something that brings people together.
“What I’ve learned is that the help is out there, and it’s by using tools that are out there already in the world for autistic people like myself, that I’ve succeeded. However, we need to ensure that people have access to those tools, because loads of people are still struggling.
“We’re really coming into a great time for people on the spectrum, as autism is being understood and identified a lot more now, and by 2050, who’s to say that neurodiversity won’t be the norm?”
Rob Holland, External Affairs Manager at the National Autistic Society Scotland, said:“We’re delighted to see Harmonic Spectrum receiving a Scottish BAFTA award, as it represents an important step in raising awareness of the lives and experiences of the 56,000 autistic people in Scotland.
“The depiction of autistic people in film and TV has often been from the perspective of non-autistic people and in many cases has compounded myths and assumptions. This film flips that putting Sean’s voice as well as his music at the heart of the story.
“We hope that this achievement will inspire more stories from autistic people like Sean to be told through film.”