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This Friday marks a year since the Labour Government took office. It’s not been smooth sailing, and we’ve covered scandals, policy rows, and the headwinds PM Keir Starmer has faced extensively at Byline Times.
But the Government has certainly been busy – even if much of it does not make it on to the front pages of Britain’s largely right-leaning press, a media that save for this week’s welfare row, tends to prefer discussing polling and personal spats over policy.
So here’s a collection of some news from Westminster and Whitehall you may have missed.
This list is by no means conclusive, and it is up to you whether you think the news is either good or bad. Mostly, as you’d imagine, they are things the Government sees as positive developments – as we’ve picked out Government announcements which haven’t been extensively reported on.
However, they do offer a flavour of some of the things that we could, but aren’t, talking about thanks largely to the priorities of the British press.
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A Green Energy Revolution
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has published its ‘Solar Roadmap’, a ‘landmark’ strategy for solar energy with over 70 actions pledged to rapidly boost solar deployment in Britain, from 18GW now to 45-47GW by 2030.
It’s part of the Government’s push to get to 100% – or near-100% – clean energy by the end of the decade.
The Government is also establishing a ‘Solar Council’ between Government and business to monitor delivery and provide a forum for industry-Government engagement on the issue.
Heat pump grants of up to £7,500 are being extended until 2030, and the Government is expected to set up a loan scheme for home energy upgrades such as installing solar panels. The vast majority of new homes will have solar panels installed on them by default under Ed Miliband’s plans.
Meanwhile, Ministers are looking at how to boost the use of ‘solar canopies’ covering car parks, as is common in France. The energy department has launched a call for evidence on the idea.
Mike Childs, head of science, policy and research at Friends of the Earth, welcomed the new strategy, noting that it makes clear “only a tiny fraction of land [0.4%] is required…and that solar farms can work in harmony with wildlife.”
The Government says families could save around £500 a year on their energy bills by installing solar panels as part of Labour’s “rooftop revolution”.
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An EU ‘Customs Convention’
The Government will consult on whether Britain should join a European customs convention, to simplify international supply chain rules, according to Politico.
Ministers will consult on whether Britain should join the “Pan-Euro-Mediterranean” convention to simplify rules around international supply chains, a new trade blueprint states.
Politico reported that the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean customs convention relaxes ‘rules of origin’ regulations and tariffs between nations, helping firms with international production chains that cross borders.
This one probably should have got more attention, though it is still early days. A Global Vaccine Alliance
A Global Vaccine Alliance
The UK has pledged £1.25 billion towards renewal of Gavi, the global Vaccine Alliance, for 2026-2030.
It will help Gavi in their mission to protect up to 500 million children between 2026-2030 and save up to eight million more lives.
Gavi, which provides free vaccines internationally, now receives investment from 56 countries and over 60 organisations.
Romilly Greenhill, CEO of Bond, the UK network for organisations working in international development and humanitarian assistance, said the UK cash was a “welcome step that reaffirms the UK’s role as a committed partner in protecting the world against preventable disease and support childhood vaccinations.”
Don’t miss a story
Bond has, like many aid organisations, been very critical of international aid cuts by the Government more widely. But this seems to be a major commitment not facing the chop.
More Support for Farmers
Farmers are to receive more advice and support to help them meet high environmental standards with Environment Agency (EA) farm inspections increasing by around 50%.
The boost in funding will help the EA offer more guidance to farmers, strengthen links with supply chains and farm networks, make better use of technology like remote sensing, and take stronger action against serious or ongoing pollution.
It will see the expected number of inspections reach a record 6,000 a year by 2029, supported by more investment in “advice-led” regulation.
The EA’s approach sees officers visiting farms to check compliance with environmental law. If rules are broken, farmers are told what to fix and given a deadline in writing as part of the enforcement process.
Fast-Tracked Housing
A new ‘Fast Track’ planning process will be introduced to “enhance the review of newbuild applications, unblock delays and boost sector confidence.”
It comes as Government reforms are set to lead to the creation of a single construction regulator, as recommended by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. The Government accepted every recommendation of the inquiry.
Ministers say delays to building new high-rise homes will be “unblocked” through a new package of reforms to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) announced this month.
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A Plan to Halve Obesity
Food retailers and manufacturers will be told to “make the healthy choice the easy choice” in a new partnership between Government and industry to tackle the obesity epidemic and ease pressure on the NHS.
As part of Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s new 10 Year Health Plan, large retailers including supermarkets will have to follow a new standard to make the average shopping basket of goods sold slightly healthier.
The policy will see all big food businesses report on healthy food sales. “This will set full transparency and accountability around the food that businesses are selling and encourage healthier products,” a Government spokesperson said.
The Government will then set targets to increase the healthiness of sales in communities across the UK and work with the Food Strategy Advisory Board on the sequencing of this policy.
Reducing Brits’ daily intake by just 50 calories could lift 340,000 children and 2 million adults out of obesity.
Free Breakfasts
Thousands of families across the country are now using the Government’s flagship free breakfast club programme, with two million meals served in its first term as it is rolled out in stages across England.
The programme, which is set to give parents almost 100 hours back each year and save up to £450 in childcare costs, is one in a number of Government measures to “back working families”.
The 30 minutes of free childcare give parents extra breathing space in busy mornings, allowing them to get to work easier, make time for appointments and help them juggle family life. According to the latest parent poll over half (59%) say the cost saving would motivate them to use a free breakfast club, and eight in ten say breakfast clubs help them to get to work on time and drop their kids off at school more easily.
The rollout delivers on the Government’s manifesto promise to ensure state schools offer free breakfast clubs to all pupils.
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Support for the Terminally Ill
The Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has pledged more support for those diagnosed with a terminal illness, as the Civil Service joins hundreds of employers in “ensuring best practice for people facing the most difficult time of their lives” by signing the Dying to Work Charter.
The Dying to Work campaign raises awareness of the steps employers can take to provide employees with dignity and peace of mind as they navigate a terminal diagnosis in work.
These steps are listed in this charter created by the TUC and founder Jacci Woodcock MBE, who was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer in 2012. It encourages employers to sign up as a promise to ensure additional support for terminally ill staff and making sure the employee is involved in any decision-making around how they continue in work.
The charter has over 400 employers signed up all over the UK. It covered over 1.5 million employees. Now with the Civil Service signed up, around two million employees are now protected by it.
A New National Nature Reserve
A landscape in Surrey “beloved by lizards and literary greats” is to become the latest National Nature Reserve, the Government has announced.
The Wealden Heaths National Nature Reserve, in the heart of the Surrey countryside and on the doorstep of more than a quarter of a million people, has just been declared by Natural England the 9th National Nature Reserve in the King’s Series.
The King’s Series of National Nature Reserves will see 25 reserves created or extended by 2027. The landscape inspired the likes of writers Tennyson and Conan Doyle, and has “folkloric origins” as the home of Thor.
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The reserve has secured its status as a haven for wildlife, ensuring that it can provide a home for rare species such as Nightjars, Sand Lizards, Adders and Natterjack Toads into the future and an area of 2,765 hectares of greenspace accessible by hundreds of thousands of people. Wealden Heaths National Nature Reserve stretches across an area around three times that of London’s Richmond Park.
More Help for SEND Kids
Thousands of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will benefit from more support in the classroom, as the Government launches an “innovative new pilot” to trial assistive technology in up to 4,000 schools.
Backed by up to £1.7m, ‘lending libraries’ will be set up in up to 32 local authorities and will enable schools in the area to borrow and trial a range of devices to suit their pupils’ needs.
The lending libraries will be stocked with a range of tools, including reading pens to scan text and read it aloud, dictation tools which convert spoken word into text, and tablets which leverage images to help non-verbal pupils communicate.
This will help schools support a wide range of needs, including dyslexia, autism and ADHD. The lending libraries model adopts a ‘try before you buy’ approach. This gives schools the opportunity to measure the impact of different devices before making an upfront investment – building confidence in what works and reducing the risk of wasted expenditure.
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Thousands More Mental Health Workers
More than 6,700 extra mental health workers have been recruited in England since July 2024, latest data shows.
The latest recruitment milestone means the Government is more than halfway towards its target of hiring an extra 8,500 mental health staff by the end of this Parliament. Ministers say it will “help get people the care they need so they can get back to work, school and doing what they love.”
Under the new NHS 10 Year Plan, launching this week, patients will also get better access to support directly through the NHS App, including self-referral for talking therapies without needing a GP appointment.
Other developments include: £16bn announced for new publicly-owned ‘National Housing Bank’ to address the social housing crisis, 4.2 million extra NHS England appointments being delivered since July 2024 (over double ministers’ target of 2 million in the first year), and a new partnership between the Department for Transport, Network Rail, and mobile coverage providers to “eliminate mobile signal blackspots” on Britain’s main railway routes.
These announcements are all from the past two weeks – there is much else we didn’t get to.
So while there are valid criticisms to make of this Government, it’s worth looking at many of the positive things they are doing too.
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Josiah Mortimer also writes the On the Ground column, exclusive to the print edition of Byline Times.
So for more from him…
