The London borough cutting sick pay and holidays for school cooks and cleaners
Plus: DLR and Bakerloo extensions on the line, Apple and Google under fire over phone theft, and an overlay of the Great Fire of London on the city today
Morning — a quiet cutback, then a messy fallout. Newham council has approved a plan to slash sick pay and holiday for hundreds of school cooks and cleaners — many of them low-paid women from ethnic minority backgrounds. The decision, buried in redacted documents and pushed through under pressure, is aimed at covering losses from the borough’s free school meals scheme. But it hasn’t gone unnoticed: councillors raised the alarm, City Hall is facing questions, and even the mayor of Newham admitted unease. Our report on the cuts hitting school cooks and cleaners in east London is after your round-up below.
Plus: DLR and Bakerloo extensions on the line, Apple and Google under fire over phone theft, and an overlay of the Great Fire of London on the city today.
What we’ve spied
💸 The fate of two major transport projects in London is on the line today, as chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver her spending review. City Hall has asked Reeves for funding for extensions to the DLR and the Bakerloo line, as well as more cash for the Met Police. But, according to a Guardian report, Sir Sadiq Khan’s office isn’t hopeful. A source close to the mayor tells the paper he’s “furious” with Reeves over her lack of spending plans for the capital. The source goes on to say it would be “unacceptable if there are no major infrastructure projects for London announced in the spending review and the Met doesn’t get the funding it needs”.
Khan’s team has attempted to argue that extending the DLR to Thamesmead and the Bakerloo line further into south London is critical to spurring on more housing development in the capital. But, based on what’s been trailed so far, it appears Reeves is prioritising projects in cities other than London. The lack of cash comes on top of more bad news for the DLR earlier this week: new trains that were meant to be introduced on the line in April 2024 have been delayed, leading to a temporary reduction in timetables. And in perhaps a sign of pessimism over the prospects of a Bakerloo extension any time soon, this week TfL announced that the ‘Bakerloop’ express bus service tracing its planned route will launch this autumn.
Meanwhile, London’s borough councils have publicly called on Reeves for more cash to support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. In a statement published ahead of the spending review, London Councils warned that 16 of the capital’s 33 local authorities “are at heightened risk of bankruptcy because of insufficient schools funding”.
Reeves is due to announce her spending plans at roughly midday today.
📣 Elsewhere in London transport: TfL has once again become embroiled in a Tube advert controversy. This time TfL is coming under fire for its decision to ban adverts campaigning for the decriminalisation of abortion submitted by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS). BPAS’s ad campaign featured case studies of women investigated by police or prosecuted after terminating their pregnancies, as well as QR codes calling for people to lobby their MP to support decriminalisation ahead of a vote in Parliament expected in the coming weeks. But TfL rejected the ads, citing how the “serious allegations” made about police could bring the Met and City Hall into disrepute. TfL’s ban may be overturned, however — Khan has now stepped in to order an urgent review of the decision, following BPAS accusing TfL of “silencing the voices of women”. Just a couple of days later it emerged TfL has banned another ad — this time one by the Save the Children charity calling on the government to scrap the two-child benefit cap. In this case, TfL deemed the ad to be in breach of its rules on political advertising.
📱 MPs have accused Apple and Google of deliberately stalling the rollout of an anti-phone theft feature that’s been requested by London police. 18 months ago the Met Police asked the two tech giants to stop stolen phones from being able to access cloud services like iCloud and Google Drive — a move that would effectively brick the devices, and in turn make them less valuable to thieves. But despite soaring phone theft figures in London, the feature has yet to be implemented, and the delay was criticised by a group of MPs last week when they held a meeting with Apple and Google representatives. During the meeting of the House of Commons tech committee, Lib Dem MP Martin Wrigley went as far as to say that the two companies had avoided adding the feature in order to protect their bottom lines. He said: “Apple and Google continue to make profit and continue to sell more phones because these phones are not removed from the system”. In response, Apple and Google representatives pointed to existing anti-phone theft features on their devices and raised concerns about the potential for accidental user lockouts or even blackmail. More tech details on the Met’s request are in this article in the Register.
🚗 Lambeth council has been ordered to immediately remove a low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) in West Dulwich by the High Court, following its defeat in a landmark case brought by residents last month. The council has also been denied the right to appeal the ruling, which found that the way Lambeth implemented the south London LTN in 2024 was unlawful, and has been ordered to pay £34,000 towards the legal costs of residents who challenged it. But the residents aren’t done — they’re now calling on Lambeth to refund fines it issued in relation to the LTN. “This ruling is definitive — the LTN was unlawful,” said a spokesperson for the West Dulwich Action Group. “The Council has lost, has been denied permission to appeal, and must now face the consequences of what that means. At the top of that list is the £1 million-plus in fines it issued while the unlawful scheme was in place. We now call on Lambeth Council to clarify whether it will refund those fines. This is not just about legality — it’s about fairness and public trust. If the law was broken, the money should be paid back”. Reacting to the latest High Court ruling, a spokesperson for Lambeth said the council “remained committed to delivering our programme to reduce road danger for those most at risk and make our streets calmer, more community-friendly places".
🏚️ Residents of a development in Bermondsey have been awarded £550,000 in compensation over fire safety defects in the cladding on their flat block. The Exchange development, built by the housing association Notting Hill Genesis and the construction company United Living, was one of thousands of developments identified as having similar building safety issues to Grenfell Tower following the fire in 2017. In 2020 the Exchange’s residents began a legal case to ensure remedial work was carried out and that they wouldn’t be footing the bill. They have now won their case, and compensation is being awarded to 76 leaseholders and freeholders in the block. “We are pleased that NHG and United Living have at last done the right thing, but disappointed it took so long,” said one resident, Kyle Taylor. “We bought our homes in good faith and were devastated to discover they were not safe because of cost-cutting construction.” The Exchange residents say they hope their case will set a precedent for others living in blocks with unsafe cladding.
🔍 And finally, we leave you with:
The Great Fire of London overlaid on the modern city (Reddit)
The mother of all Tube gaps (TikTok)
A tuff Lime bike drift (TikTok)
A ‘fox infestation’ on the roof of Google’s £1bn King’s Cross office (Guardian)
The story behind the design of London’s Standard Hotel (TikTok)
A heron interrupting a London lunch (TikTok)
Frustration that London women’s football is too ‘family-friendly’ (TikTok)
Frustration with the amount of rubbish left on Regent’s Canal (TikTok)
Plans to turn Grosvenor Square into a ‘wildlife haven’ (BBC)
Testing a London cabbie’s knowledge (TikTok)
Amid funding shortfalls, the cost of London school meals falls on catering staff
By the Spy
An east London council is stripping back sick pay and holidays for its school cooks and cleaners, despite concerns the cuts will disproportionately affect "minoritised women".
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