Great British News: Top 10 national news stories you may have missed this week - The Worcester Observer

Great British News: Top 10 national news stories you may have missed this week

Worcester Editorial 30th Jan, 2022   0

Once again there has been a lot of great British news to report this week (24th – 30th January 2022).

You might think it’s all doom and gloom in the media, but it’s not… good things are happening too!

Help spread a little positivity and share these ten best read national news stories from the last seven days (Monday 24th – Sunday 30th January 2022):

10) 20 town and city centres in England transformed through ambitious regeneration projects

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street, a leading proponent for regenerating derelict and run down sites across the West Midlands. Press photo.

Towns and cities across the country will be transformed thanks to a radical new regeneration programme that will breathe fresh life into disadvantaged communities. Under plans set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, due to be published next week, derelict sites in towns and city centres will be transformed creating new homes, jobs and beautiful new communities across England. Wolverhampton and Sheffield will be the first of 20 places that will be supported by government to deliver ambitious regeneration projects that will boost local communities and create urban areas people will be proud to live and work in… click here

9) 600 crime groups disrupted, £3.5 million seized and 10,500 arrests since Project ADDER launched one year ago




Police stock photo

The Home Office has revealed early successes of Project ADDER at a meeting this week to underline the importance of cracking down on drug misuse. Over 600 organised crime groups have been disrupted and more than 13,000 people supported in drug treatment interventions delivered by outreach workers just one year on from the launch of the Project ADDER programme, which was set up to cut drug-related crime and harm in England and Wales. The Home Office has revealed some early successes of the trailblazing project… click here

8) UK’s higher education sector outperforms most of the world, new surveys determine


Oxford University. Photo credit: Pixabay

The Times Higher Education, Quacquarelli Symonds, Shanghai Ranking Consultancy and U.S. News and World Report recently carried out extensive and authoritative surveys of the 2022 university rankings, producing four world rankings tables. The survey covered institutions of higher education from across the globe and found that institutions from the U.K. remain the main challengers to the U.S. in terms of many important factors, including academic excellence. The U.K.’s universities have continued their previous exceptionally strong performance on the world stage, with European institutions left far behind and massively outnumbered by them in the league tables… click here

7) Seafood sector set to benefit as UK starts Greenland trade talks

Brixham Fishing Port in Devon. Photo credit: LunaSeaArt

Lovers of fish and chips could be set to benefit from slashed seafood tariffs as the UK and Greenland start trade talks. Negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement were formally launched this week (27 January) seeking to reduce or remove tariffs on seafood, as well as strengthen other aspects of the relationship between the two countries. Trade between the two countries was worth £10 million in 2020, with coldwater shrimp – worth an estimated £49 million – additionally shipped from Greenland to the UK. The deal will provide a platform to deepen cooperation on ensuring regional stability in the Arctic as well as collaboration on UK priorities including science, technology, climate change and development… click here

6) Almost 90% of global financial services expected to establish or extend operations in UK this year

City of London – Free stock photo

Optimism is back on the up for UK financial services firms as almost 90% of global finance service firms say they plan to retain or grow their operations in Britain. According to recent data released by Ernst & Young (EY) – a company that tracks market attractiveness across 150 countries – 90 percent of financial investors believe the UK’s attractiveness will improve or remain the same over the next three years. The EY data shows over 87 percent of global financial services are expected to establish or extend operations in the UK this year – the highest recorded since 2016. International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan tweeted: “Fantastic to see investor confidence in UK financial services hit new high”… click here

5) British marque Bentley to develop and build first electric car in the UK with £2.5 billion investment

Photo credit: Bentley Motors

Bentley’s first-ever Battery-Powered Electric Vehicle (BEV) will be developed and built in the UK with the company committing to investing £2.5 billion in sustainability over the next ten years. The announcement is a major boost for the UK economy and also helps secure Bentley’s first step into electrification at the production plant, where all Bentley models are built and 4,000 colleagues work. The first BEV is scheduled to roll off the production line in 2025 and will mark a significant moment in Bentley’s long and illustrious history… click here

4) UK hospitals are first in Europe to use next generation of surgical robots

 Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Milton Keynes University Hospital Surgery Unit this week. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street.  Creative Commons Attribution-2.0 Generic News License.

Milton Keynes is one of only two hospitals in Europe to now use the robot arms which have been hailed by doctors as “a leap forward in surgical precision.” Both in Britain, the other hospital to benefit from the state of the art equipment is the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. Since its introduction at MKUH, CMR Surgical’s Versius Robot has performed hundreds of complex surgeries across colorectal, gynaecological and general surgery. On his visit to Milton Keynes University Hospital this week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was impressed with the robotics facility, noting that the tech could be a key way to deal with the NHS backlog due to Covid… click here

3) Moving towards greater energy independence as government backs UK power plant with £100 million

Business and Energy Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng. Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street. Creative Commons Attribution-2.0 Generic News License.

Plans to build a new nuclear power plant in the UK have been backed by £100 million of government funding to support the continued development of the Sizewell C project in Suffolk. The funding commitment from Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng will be used to continue the development of the project which will aim to attract further financing from private investors and, subject to value for money and relevant approvals, the UK government. Business and Energy Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said: “In light of high global gas prices, we need to ensure Britain’s future energy supply is bolstered by reliable, affordable, low carbon power that is generated in this country”… click here

2) UK exports at a 22 month high driven by trade to non-EU countries

Felixstowe port and container. Photo credit: Department for Transport. Creative Commons License.

New figures show exports of goods and services from the UK rose 4.6 percent from a month earlier to a 22-month high of GBP 57.1 billion in November of 2021, driven by a 15.2 percent jump in goods exports to non-EU countries. Secretary of State for International Trade, Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, said: “This is a defining moment in our national trading story. As we agree ambitious new trade deals around the world, it is more vital than ever that businesses across the UK take advantage of these opportunities and unleash their full exporting potential. Reaching £1 trillion worth of exports by the end of this decade means more jobs, more opportunities and higher wages helping the UK to level up and build back better.” The Government has launched a new ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’ plan to help businesses across the UK double exports and sell their world-class products around the globe…. click here

1) EU recovery lagging behind as private investments move away from bloc and invest in Britain

Photo credit: West Midlands Gigafactory

A leading European commentator and former associate editor of the Financial Times, Wolfgang Münchau, has shamed Brussels about the eurozone’s recovery lagging behind the UK since Brexit. Mr Münchau points out private companies are increasingly moving to invest in the UK, the US and also Japan. Mr Münchau also slams the bloc for failing to take a lead in hybrids and electric cars, one of the main sources of private-sector investment in Europe. The news came in the week British marque Bentley announced its first-ever Battery-Powered Electric Vehicle (BEV) will be developed and built in the UK with the company committing to investing £2.5 billion in sustainability over the next ten years. Since leaving the EU, the UK has primed itself as a key place for battery production, as seen with Nissan’s new £1 billion electric vehicle hub and battery gigafactory in Sunderland. UK start-up, British Volt has also announced the creation of an all-purpose gigafactory in Northumberland while another £2.5 billion automotive battery production facility near Coventry is also being built in the West Midlands… click here

For last week’s Top Ten Great British news stories (17th – 23rd January 2022) click here.

This post is sponsored by the Conservative Post who post positive news stories every day. The Conservative Post is an independent news group about conservative values – free people, free speech, free markets and small government.

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