£12,000 solar-panel grants for thousands of homes confirmed

Households will be given £15bn in grants and loans to install solar panels, heat pumps and batteries to help lower bills, under new legislation to boost energy resilience in the UK.

A new Energy Independence Bill, announced as part of the King’s Speech, will also seek to shave money off people’s bills if they use power during sunny or windy periods when the grid is producing excess electricity.

But the most eyecatching element of the new legislation is the creation of the new Warm Homes Agency, which will oversee the Government’s vast rollout of energy electrification over the coming years.

Shorts – Quick stories

health

Are lifts still safe? Warning over UK’s obesity rates

The obesity epidemic means that many lifts are no longer big enough to transport people between floors, according to British researchers.

A study found that the maximum capacity of lifts in the UK and elsewhere in Europe has failed to keep pace with the increase in weight of the average person, raising concerns about safety and discrimination.

What you need to know

Lifts stuck in the past

The UK-based study found that despite weight growth and the obesity epidemic, the limit for elevators has not increased since about 2004.

Weighty concerns

In the 1970s, the average British man and woman weighed 75kg and 65kg, respectively. These figures now stand at 86kg and 73kg.

Capacity problems

Because lifts assume an average weight of 75kg, this means the amount of room is becoming limited and loads are getting heavier.

Super-sized society

Researchers said their findings suggested lift designs are now based on “flawed calculations” and could lead to issues like elevators cutting out if passengers exceed total weight limits. People with obesity may also feel stigmatised when entering lifts.

Lead researcher Professor Nick Finer warned of a need to “super-size” many aspects of daily life, including lifts, to make the workplace and other environments safe and suitable for people living with obesity. By 2040, as many as seven in 10 Britons are projected to be overweight or obese.

world ANALYSIS

Trump’s fatal flaw is about to be exposed on the world stage

James Rogers

Co-founder Council on Geostrategy

When the US President arrives in Beijing this week, he will be visiting a China which has spent years making itself more resilient to American influence and pressure.

Consequently, Donald Trump will be attempting to secure a series of rapid but transactional victories with a weakened hand.

Critical question for the US: who is hurting more?

The White House faces a situation of diminishing economic leverage. Trump’s tariff barrage on Beijing was supposed to force co-operation. But China has shown willingness to deploy its own economic arsenal. While Beijing is feeling the effects of US microchip curbs, Washington is being hit by China’s squeeze on critical minerals.

Analysis

4 min read

Beijing patient as Iran strife drags on

The most visible challenge constraining the White House is its ongoing conflict with Iran. While Trump struggles with rising fuel prices and a dropping approval rating, Xi Jinping is advancing Beijing’s interests in the Indo-Pacific region.

Trump’s controversial moves, including the snatching of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and threats to annex Greenland, have created a space for China to make overtures to European leaders. Consequently, American structural power is diminished.

politics

Four key takeaways from the King’s Speech

The monarch has outlined changes to health, education and the justice system on behalf of an embattled Sir Keir Starmer looking to prove he can enact the speed of change being demanded by his MPs.

In his speech at the State Opening of Parliament, King Charles unveiled a legislative programme including the introduction of digital ID, limits on trial by jury, measures curbing settled status for migrants and an overhaul of special educational needs teaching.

Four big Labour changes

• 1Digital ID will be introduced as a way of checking immigration status when people start a job, but will not be mandatory. 
• 2Special educational needs teaching will be overhauled to give schools more responsibility for deciding how pupils are taught.
• 3A courts modernisation bill will restrict trial by jury to the most serious cases.
• 4Gaining settled status in the UK will be made harder for migrants under plans which could provoke a backlash from Labour MPs.

Few surprises as PM battles to stay

The King’s Speech is the set piece opportunity for the government of the day to lay out its legislative programme. But the ceremonial pomp was at risk of being overshadowed by the battle within the Labour Party over whether Starmer should remain in Number 10.

While the bills outlined were largely expected, allies of Starmer said the programme would allow Labour to say it had fixed Britain’s emaciated public services. But rumours abound that Health Secretary Wes Streeting will launch a leadership challenge as early as Thursday.

HEALTH

How children’s taste for vegetables ‘begins before birth’

Young children react more favourably to the smell of vegetables if they were regularly exposed to them while developing in the womb, researchers have found.

A study at Durham University found evidence that three-year-olds develop a memory of the flavour and odour of foods they were exposed to in late pregnancy.

Everything you need to know

Remembering tastes

The reactions of toddlers to the smell of carrots or kale was examined to see whether taste can be established in utero.

Powder capsules

Children were tested for their response to the smell of the vegetables after their mothers took capsules of carrot or kale while pregnant.

Flavour memory

Researchers found children reacted less negatively if their mothers were exposed to the vegetables while pregnant.

Mothers advised to eat varied diet

The scientists found an enduring favourable response in toddlers to the vegetable flavours they were exposed to in the later weeks of pregnancy.

The study recorded the facial expressions of 12 children when they were given wet cotton swabs dipped in the carrot or kale powder their mothers had taken.

PROPERTY AND MORTGAGES

4 min read

LIFESTYLE

4 min read

What the researchers said

• The researchers said the study suggested mothers-to-be should eat a varied diet rich in vegetables and fruits of different colours, with the added possibility it could influence the eating habits of their unborn child.

Analysis

3 min read

HEALTH

Why weight-loss pill after jabs may help keep pounds off

People using anti-obesity jabs can maintain weight loss by moving to a daily pill at the end of their treatment, a study suggests.

Researchers found that using orforglipron – an anti-obesity pill developed by US pharmaceuticals giant Eli Lilly – could be an “effective approach” for avoiding regaining pounds after injections have stopped.

What you need to know

• While anti-obesity jabs are effective at promoting weight loss, patients have been found to regain the pounds after treatment stops.
• Researchers in the US found that switching to orforglipron allowed patients using jabs to retain about 75 to 80 per cent of their weight loss.
• Orforglipron is also a GLP-1 agonist, the same type of compound used in anti-obesity injections such as Mounjaro and Wegovy.

OPINION

3 min read

Weight-loss pill ‘cheaper’ than jabs

The US findings add to evidence that anti-obesity pills hold promise as a new method of promoting or maintaining weight loss, not least because they are significantly cheaper to manufacture than injections and easier to use.

Orforglipron, which is Eli Lilly’s hope for its next blockbuster drug, is taken as a once-a-day pill and was tested with 376 patients who had previously used jabs. The pill has been licensed in America but is still awaiting approval in the UK.

politics

Which members of Government have gone so far?

Sir Keir Starmer has briefly met with presumed leadership rival Wes Streeting in No 10 as the Prime Minister continues to resist calls from within Labour for him to stand down.

The crisis at the top of Government has so far seen the resignations of 10 MPs from their frontline roles, including four junior ministers. Among the most prominent has been the departure of Home Office minister Jess Phillips.

What you need to know

• Six parliamentary private secretaries (PPS) – the eyes and ears of a minister in the House of Commons – have stepped down.
• They include Joe Morris, PPS to Streeting, and Melanie Ward, PPS to Justice Secretary David Lammy, a key ally of Starmer.
• The three ministers who have quit alongside Jess Phillips are Miatta Fahnbulleh, Alex Davies-Jones and Zubir Ahmed.
• In her resignation letter, Phillips criticised Starmer for his record on online protections.

OPINION

4 min read

Crisis in Downing Street

While the Prime Minister has suffered the loss of 10 members of his Government, to date the departures have been restricted to its junior ranks. Starmer is widely seen as having laid down the gauntlet to his Cabinet colleagues to either formally challenge him, or allow him to stay in office.

Some 11 Labour-supporting unions are expected to state publicly that Starmer will not lead the party into the next election. Ministers are being watched minute-by-minute for signs of a formal split.

FOOD AND DRINK

Greggs to open international shop at Tenerife South airport

The British chain will bring its beloved range of baked goods to the Canary Islands.

Greggs last operated shops abroad in Belgium in 2008, but said Tenerife was “the ideal location to test spreading our wings in an overseas setting”.

What you need to know

• Greggs will open a branch in Tenerife South airport later this month.
• The usual range of sausage rolls, pasties and sweet treats will be on offer.
• A ‘Spanish omelette roll’ will also be on the menu.
• Around half of Tenerife’s 13 million visitors go to and from the UK each year.

OPINION

2 min read

What Greggs is saying

It’s an exciting milestone for Greggs as we bring a slice of home to the Canaries, and we’re confident our great-value offering will resonate just as well under the Spanish sun as it does on the UK high street.

Greggs chief executive Roisin Currie

GO DEEPER ON THIS TOPIC

Greggs has made me ashamed to be British

Emily Watkins

Freelance writer

Spain – a land of excellent food, rich cultural identity and a beautiful language.
Of course, if you’re a British tourist there, odds are you won’t have noticed.

Why do the British insist on exporting their culture when they travel?

Read more here.

How would Andy Burnham become prime minister?

Andy Burnham is one of the frontrunners to replace Sir Keir Starmer if he resigns as Prime Minister. The Manchester Mayor has previously indicated he would be willing to overthrow the current Labour leader.

First step – find a vacant seat

A vacant parliamentary seat would need to be available and finding one may not be easy.

There are two by-elections coming up in Scotland, but Burnham is unlikely to stand in these.

MPs have indicated in the past they would step aside for Burnham, including Clive Lewis, but these suggestions have since been quashed.

Step two – Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee

If a seat were to become vacant, Burnham would need to win over the National Executive Committee (NEC), who is responsible for choosing Labour’s candidates. In January, the NEC blocked Burnham from running in Gorton and Denton. A 10-strong group, including the PM, voted to deny Burnham permission.

Exclusive

3 min read

Step three – a leadership ballot

If Burnham were to be elected to Parliament, only then could he make a Labour leadership bid. According to the Labour Party rule book, candidates seeking to enter the ballot must be an MP.

This is because the Labour leader is the Prime Minister, therefore they would need to be a Member of Parliament. The current rules state a candidate must receive nominations from 20 per cent of their Labour colleagues in Parliament to be in the running.

A summary of necessary steps

What is standing in Burnham’s way?

• Vacant seat
• NEC permission
• Win election, become an MP
• Meet nominations threshold
• Win leadership competition, become Labour leader and prime minister

Low-income homes

Under the Warm Homes Plan, around £5bn will be made available to fund free home improvement plans for low-income families. The packages would be tailored to what would be most suitable for people’s homes, whether that is installing solar panels, heat pumps, insulation or draught proofing. It is expected that households with a total income of around £35,000 or less would receive a grant of between £9,000 to £12,000.

Mid-to-high income homes

The Plan will also provide around £2bn of government funding to back no and low interest loans for higher income households to fit heat pumps and solar panels and batteries to help take them off the “roller coaster of fossil fuels”. Ministers had hoped to fast-track the rollout of the plan to help insulate households from the impact of higher energy bills later this year in the wake of the US-Iran war.

Solar panels

According to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the war in the Middle East has led to soaring interest in fitting solar panels and batteries. The department has calculated that an owner-occupier three-bed mid-terrace house with solar panels and battery fitted could save around £450 on their bills each year. The Government is also tweaking regulations to allow those renting or living in flats to buy plug-in solar panels that could save them around £110 a year on their energy bills.

Heat pumps

The new technology has suffered from difficult media coverage, with the cost of fitting heat pumps usually cited at more than double that of a new gas boiler or around £11,000. Under the Government’s boiler upgrade plan, homeowners can apply for a grant of up to around £7,500. Officials have estimated that a three-bed detached house with solar panels and a heat pump could save £550 a year.

Energy discounts

The legislation will enable the removal of charges on power consumers export to the grid, for example from solar panels, and allow discounted energy at times of excess generation to give families more control over bills as renewables increase. Currently, when there is excess power being generated – for example on a sunny, windy weekend day – grid operators have to pay generators to reduce what they are putting into the grid, increasing costs for consumers and wasting clean power when it is most available.

Uncoupling electricity prices from gas prices

A separate piece of legislation, called the Electricity Generator Levy Bill, will aim to lower the cost of energy bills by cutting the link between electricity prices and gas prices. Under the current system, households can end up paying higher bills because the price of electricity is set by the last unit of electricity needed to meet demand at any given time. This is usually gas-generated electricity, meaning when gas prices spike, such as during international conflicts, electricity prices go up. The Government hopes to weaken this link and deliver cheaper, more stable bills.