Matt Barbet hosts tonight’s show as he brings you the latest UK news stories, including:
🔴 A special report on the housing crisis facing the UK – hearing from people struggling with soaring house prices, unaffordable rents, and no-fault evictions – leaving many homeless and desperate. A special report from our People and Politics correspondent, Nick Martin
🔴 Could flying taxis be coming to skies near you soon?
It sounds like the stuff of sci-fi — but could it become reality within the next couple of years? We’ll speak to one of the companies hoping to fly you soon.
🔴 The flatmates who woke up to find a Banksy on their wall – we’ll speak to the flatmates who live in the building now sporting the artist’s latest creation.
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It’s 8:00 this is the UK tonight I’m Matt barbette coming up inside the country’s housing crisis as more than a million people wait for social housing you’ll hear from people struggling with soaring house prices unaffordable rents and no fault evictions leaving many homeless and desperate in a special report from our
People and politics correspondent Nick Martin where us see other children their age have the house the properties where they can just be kids my kids can’t just be kids and that is what hurts me the most also tonight flying taxis and crime fighting drones yeah it sounds like the
Stuff of sci-fi but could it become reality within the next couple of years we’ll speak to one of the companies hoping to fly you soon nothingham Forest are in the relegation Zone after becoming the latest Club to be docked points for breaking the Premier League’s Financial rules
And imagine waking up to find a Banky on your wall we’ll speak to the flatmates who live in the building now sporting the artist’s latest creation all that to come and much more here on the UK Tonight tonight we want to talk about one of the biggest issues and most basic necessities for people up and down the UK somewhere to live the shortage of affordable homes has been mounting for decades now with more than a million people on the waiting list for social housing according to the charity shelter
To put that in some context for you in the last year only 9 a half thousand new social rented homes were completed Sky people and politics correspondent Nick Martin has been to Hastings a coastal town struggling with soaring house prices unaffordable rent and hundreds of households stuck in temporary
Accommodation his report is the first first in our new series fault lines which explor some of the biggest challenges in the country during this election year for one bedroom property the average waiting time in Hastings is 4 years for a two bedroom it’s 5 years and
For a three bedroom it’s 6 years for millions of people a place to call home is a dream not a reality this is Hastings a Seaside town that sums up Britain’s housing crisis house prices have doubled here in a decade and the wealthy have snapped up second homes but
Popularity comes with a price there just aren’t enough homes to go around my whole life is in one room and he’s so used to being in a trapped room that the outside world for him is hard to deal with private rents have soared Sal iies stagnated and landlords are evicting
Record numbers of tenants who now find themselves homeless just worry that you’re not going to give them the best life that they should have years ago you know temporary meant tempies but now it’s not uncommon for for household to be in there for Years the Council Office on the seafront in Hastings is where the homeless come for help the B’s turned up about theast 20 10 77y old Eunice arrived here with her possessions packed into just a few bags her landlord wanted the property back so she’s been evicted last year she lost
Her husband now she’s lost her home so you don’t have anywhere to stay no no how do you feel about that well I don’t feel very happy about it because I’ve always had something I’ve never been in this situation in my life before I’ve always had my kids always had
Somewhere to live I’ve never been on the streets in my life I never thought I’d ever come home and Mis believe me so this is a list of people we currently have booked in that are waiting for housing appointments one of 29 Pages wow there’s a lot of people on
There there’s a lot of people there waiting for housing appointments morning Leah morning I’m feeling nice to meet you 18-year-old Leah and her 14-month-old daughter Livia are about to be made homeless their landlord has served them with a section 21 eviction notice meaning it’s not their fault I honestly I lost it this
Weekend I’ve searched everywhere I’ve searched like hotel rooms everything me and my mom were on the phone constantly do you know why you’ve been given a section 21 the landlord wants to sell does he yeah you know what there’s so many landlords they just selling and it’s just there’s no enough rental
Properties people no it’s just that is it and it’s we’ve lived this for 16 years now according to crisis landlords are using section 21s a lot they’re up by a third this year and tenants can’t do anything about it the government’s promised to ban them but
They haven’t it’s just a h it’s tourist town everyone wants to be here like can’t do anything about it you just got to deal with it yeah we’ve spent a week inside Hastings buror Council which is SP spending a third of its entire Budget on temporary accommodation housing officers admit they’re often
Overwhelmed essentially we’re seeing people in the biggest crisis of their lives aren’t we they’re coming in they don’t know where they’re going to go what they’re going to be doing what sort of place is like so it is really really hard and really sad tenants are at the
Mercy of a computer system that requires them to bid on a property they’re interested in today there are six properties that are available to bid for um in comparison there’s about 1500 households on the housing register wow you can say the supply just nowhere meets the the demand so somewhere today there’ll be
Someone clicking on this somewhere thinking hoping against hope oh absolutely but actually the odds are completely stacked against them and it’s likely that whoever’s looking at this isn’t going to get this at all completely completely we’re going to go in and we’re going to go back up the stairs
Okay no it’s okay mom outside we go outside another day okay yeah yeah being in here it it does eats away at you it’s like you just you wake up and you’re waiting am I going to get a house today and you know you’re bidd in and you’re
Getting nowhere and you get excited for this week and you’re like am I going to get somewhere today and it’s like you’re not moving you’re not you’re not getting anywhere and I think at this point I’ve just lost hope I feel like I’m never going to have a home like more than
100,000 other households in England alone Jessica is stuck in temporary accommodation it’s been like this for 5 years and she’s only 20 and for her son Leo this small room is the only home he’s ever known what kind of impact does all of this have on
Leo he’s so used to being in a trap room that the outside world for him is hard to deal with even just going for a walk going out to a play group he doesn’t know how to act and you kind of see it in him he’s a little bit like what what
What do I do when I actually became homeless we went to about five estate agents in town and everyone that we walked into they were like we won’t accept you we won’t accept you and you know we talk about politicians saying that they understand the housing crisis they don’t it’s all a
Big front we’re just nobody’s then you’re not you’re not important and you don’t matter I got affection me and my boyfriend is sick we live all of a sudden Theresa and Eli come bursting through the housing office doors desperate I can get you Phil tries to calm her down but she’s upset I’m
Sleeping in the cold Teresa takes a seat she’s breathless anxious my cloth is all Dam my boyfriend is sick Phil needs to quickly figure out if Theresa and her boyfriend are a priority so he runs their names through the system I think they were Rob out of ours
I there are strict government guidelines when it comes to who can get priority for housing pregnant women single Ms people fleeing domestic violence care levers and so on but Phil believes Theresa and Eli have an open case with a neighboring Council and there’s nothing
Can do to help them so I’ve had a look on the system um basically so look I mean this is from what I can see is that there’s an open case with tumbridge Wells don’t shoot don’t bite my head off I’m just telling you what I um but
There’s no open case with Hastings because you haven’t got the local connection to Hastings I went to the office so what do you get paid for we have to follow guid lines unfortunately so we sit in your office go over there see me and them we’re hom
Theresa and Eli have been homeless for years they tell me sometimes they stay with friends other times this is all they have when you go to bed at night on here what’s it like like they we going to die in it yeah a heart could stop any time in that
C Eli and Theresa are like a pair of lost souls and because they’ve moved around so much over the years it’s just not clear who should take responsibility for them but in the grander scheme of things of all the people around here who need housing it appears to me that those
Two really are at the bottom of the pile because it’s about priority those with the greatest need are helped first we’re going to go and see Chelsea um who’s a single man with two children with physical health issues I’m out with Vanessa she’s one of Hastings most experienced housing officers and her the
Most recent case goes to the heart of what priority really means so the property that she’s in at the moment isn’t suitable now due to her Children’s Health so we’re looking at moving hery single mom Chelsea has been living in temporary accommodation for a year after being served with a no fault
Eviction seven-year-old Harley and six-year-old Jesse both have desen muscular distrophy a severe muscle wasting disease that gets worse over time they’re active now but soon they’ll both need wheel chairs eventually help to breathe and will likely not survive past 30 there’s no cure for duchan what strikes me about this is how
Narrow everything is kind of the complete opposite to what you’d want if you’ve got wheelchairs the kitchen is the narrowest kitchen I think I’ve ever seen it’s definitely very narrow it’s going to be hard to find that suitable property that is big enough for both of these kids to liveing
And it’s not going to be just for now it’s got to be until they pass away so yeah Goodness Me It’s Hot goodness me yeah that’s hard to say out loud and that’s hard for me to hear it is I’m sorry it is hard talk about cuz you just worry that you’re not
Going to give them the best life that they should have where you see other children their age have the houses the properties where they can just be kids my kids can’t just be kids and that is what hurts me the most and that’s why while they’re still walking I want to give
Them what they should be doing as kids but we’ll just have to see how it goes what keeps you going my boys it seems that Chelsea has the weight of the world on her shoulders she just needs a long-term stable home and there isn’t one she is not alone there are more than
500 households living in temporary accommodation in Hastings it has become a divisive highly politicized issue all of these look empty to me in fact this whole block looks empty why are these homes empty Grace how you doing I’m Nick lovely to meet you and you thank you so much for
Giving us your time Grace is a noons straight talking local campaigner trying to get other locals to stand up and fight what she says is a deliberate neglecting of social housing stock so it can be sold privately for profit so there’s 53 Flats in here which are all
Empty were emptied last summer it’s own by Housing Association called orbit and they have they decid they said that these flats are not up to Modern thermal efficiency standards but most of the houses in Hastings are probably not up to Modern thermal efficiency standards and we’re not going to flatten all of
Them so it’s just another drain of social housing out of the system what do you think about what the government say is they understand the problem and they’re trying to tackle it well it’s just not true as I said the the government all the government’s policies
Are aimed at greasing the wheels of the big developers and the big house builders that’s the only thing they’re interested in why are these homes empty you know we’d like to know we’d like orbit to tell us we asked orbit what the plan is for this block of flats and they
Said they aim to provide as much affordable housing on the site as planning decisions allow but they could not confirm What proportion of the new development would be earmarked for social housing Hastings isn’t unique in this housing crisis there’s a chronic shortage of affordable social homes councils used to own houses millions of
Them and from the 1980s onwards right to buy meant tenants could purchase their homes now councils like Hastings are coming full circle buying some of those houses back with the help of government money it would have been a local Authority property 20 30 years ago sold
Under right to buy now we’ bought it back and we’ll be using it to um offer to someone who’s uh in emergency accommodation at the moment and it’s quite odd isn’t it cuz ex-council house 30 years ago you probably sold it to someone and now here
We are you’re buying it back yes needs must we can either keep going spending 400 500 a week on temporary combination which is isn’t good enough or we can yeah bite the bullet and say right you know we get get back into this start building up our portfolio
Again the conservatives and labor don’t agree on much but they do agree on how to tackle the housing crisis build 300,000 homes a year but last year only 9 a half thousand new social rented homes were completed nowhere near enough for the 1.1 million people on the
Waiting list should we go into have a Lon ready Chelsea and her boys were moved into accommodation it’s still temporary but there’s more space to cope with their increasing needs so are we going to be happy in this home do you think are you going to be happy Harley yeah
Yeah Unice was moved into temporary accommodation after her eviction but she is still on the waiting list and she’s been on it for seven years now what does an average day look like for you from the moment you get up I don’t ever want to get up my whole life is in one
Room my whole entire life and then there are people like Leah taking their first steps into this broken system for one-bedroom property the average waiting time in Hastings is 4 years for a two-bedroom it’s 5 years and for fre bedroom in six years her journey into the unknown just
Beginning well in response to that story from Nick the department for leveling up housing and communities told us that figures show that the majority of families who’ve been in temporary accommodation for long periods of time are living in Council owned Properties or private rented sector homes rented by
The local Authority they continue this provides a suitable home whilst families wait for settled accommodation and councils have a responsibility to help families find this as quickly as possible that’s why they say we are giving them 1.2 billion p over three years through the homelessness prevention Grant and our 11 A5 billion
Pound affordable homes program will go further to deliver thousands more affordable homes to rent and buy across the country that statement from the government in response next a left-wing Anarchist who filmed bomb making experiments in his back Garden has been jailed for 13 years under anti-terror laws 20-year-old Jacob
Grah from Liverpool said he wanted to kill at least 50 people by attacking government buildings and politicians houses let’s bring in Sky News correspondent Amelia Harper and Amilia he revealed what he wanted to do and emanu the he called the freedom encyclopedia tell us more about that yeah that’s right well this 20-year-old
Will have to spend 13 years behind bars in a young offenders Institute for writing and sharing a howto bom making manual this is a student uh a student from Liverpool from the Norris green area he wrote a uh Freedom encyclopedia on weapons and bombs that he said was
Dedicated to Misfits and social nobodies so there was a 5-week trial earlier uh last month and he was convicted of one count of repairing acts of terrorism by actually making this encyclopedia four counts of possessing documents useful for terrorism and two counts of disseminating terrorist Publications he
Was cleared uh of uh planning an attack but the court had heard that his main motivation for his actions was a hatred for the government now during the sentencing the uh judge Mr Justice Goose had said he was a very dangerous uh individual and referred to the fact that
During the trial he had called himself uh the UK’s first homegrown terrorist now his actions were discovered by uh uh Security Services actually after an investigation into the purchase of chemicals uh online and as part of the court process we heard that uh under the name Destro the Destroyer he’d recorded
Dozens of videos in his home in Liverpool ready to be released on the day of the attack uh and also he wrote in a in a plan about wanting to kill 50 people and the method of doing that was attacking government buildings and politicians uh houses so he will for his
Actions now have to spend 13 years in a young offenders institution Amilia thank you very much let’s go to Westminster now where MPS are voting this evening on amendments to the government’s controversial Rwanda bill which could face more challeng is from backbench MPS we can chat to our chief political
Correspondent John Craig who’s in the central Lobby for us this evening and John this is being called parliamentary ping pong because it’s going back and forth from the commons to the laws it’ll go back there again but I I gather they’ve just voted for the first time
This evening yes big uh majority for the government 78 328 to 150 they’re on the second now there’s going to be 10 votes in all that’s because the House of Lords over the last week or o passed 10 Amendments uh to the very controversial Rwanda Bill
Uh they one they’ve just uh uh rejected from the Lords is one where um uh the House of Lords were challenging the claim in the bill that ruanda is a safe country that was uh denounced by the likes of Kenneth Clark the Archbishop of Canterbury and others when it was
Debated in the House of Lords so we will presumably get lots of big government majorities here there might be a mini Rebellion on the Tory back benches because uh Sir Robert Buckland a former government law officer now chairs the Northern Ireland select committee he said towards the end of the debate he
Was considering rebelling on some of the 10 amendments that are going to be voted on but um government majority of 78 well that’s a very healthy majority richy sunak was in the chamber don’t often see him in the chamber for votes in the evening but he was obviously there to
The troops I’m told he didn’t stay there very long but what’s going to happen once the Lord the commons throws out all these Lord’s amendments is that it on Wednesday it will go back to the House of Lords and they will have to decide are they going to send it back pass all
Those amendments again or ones similar to them or just a few of them I’m told by senior government figures if the Lords were to send back say another 10 Amendments uh then they that would delay things and it wouldn’t get to onto the statute book by Easter which would
Frustrate the government because the prime minister’s been talking today about flights to Rwanda taking off in the spring so um yes it’s ping pong well I suppose we’re on the Ping then Wednesday we get the pong if you don’t mind me saying so but uh uh this is what
Happens when the House of Lords uh reject bills passed by the commons the Prime Minister has talked about the will of the people many Tor MPS speaking in the debate were accusing the Lords of wrecking amendments well they certainly are wrecking amendments really the uh Stephen kinnick for labor was talking
About improving the bill but in actual fact the Lords RI the guts out of the bill and uh the government is determined to overturn all these amendments passed in the Lords which they have just started doing and the next stage is back to the Lords on
Wednesday John you can call it pong if you like Others May argue against that appreciate it all to come on the UK tonight could flying taxis take to the UK skies in the next couple of years we speaking to one of the companies that’s hoping to fly you from A to
B also ahead we’ll have all the details as nosing and Forest adopt four points for breaking premier league rules we’ll chat to the flatmates who woke up to find a blooming good Banky had appeared on their wall overnight sleep is so important it’s it’s essential to maintain our physical
Health our cognitive function emotional regulation mental health it really is very very far-reaching and the impact is huge looking at in on our mental health the impact on our mental health we know that when we’re sleep deprived we might feel more irritable frustrated maybe a bit more Moody also our stress and
Anxiety levels are on the increase there’s a very strong connection between Stress and Anxiety and sleep deprivation in that the more stressed and anxious we are the more likely that is to affect our sleep and consequently the more sleep deprived we are the more that is potentially going to increase our Stress
And Anxiety levels um and also simply the the energy to be able to be productive in our day keep organized in our day exercise it’s got huge huge implications there’s so many things that we can do to improve our sleep so I I would just pulling out a few of the main
Tips I would say first of all regulating your wake up time as much as possible we all have an internal body clock our Cadian Rhythm that detects our sleep wake cycle and if we’re waking at very fluctuating times then that’s going to leave us feeling quite groggy and impact
On our sleep cycles almost leave us in a permanent state of of a feeling of jet lag so really trying to regulate our wakeup time as much as possible obviously that’s not always possible especially people like you guys that are often working shift work as well but in
In as much as possible also allowing ourselves time and I talk about permission and giving ourselves permission to have wine down leading up to bedtime we talk about this for children all the time the importance of a bedtime routine but it’s really important that we as adults we have that
Same wind down time that we allow ourselves to be able to ease into sleep rather than jumping into sleep because that could really exacerbate sleep Problems Now the prospect of flying taxis in the skies above the UK might be a little bit closer than you previously thought as part of the government’s Aviation action plan we could see the first piloted taxis in the skies in two years and they could go pilot less by 2030 well Nathan
Is head of public affairs at vertical Aerospace and joins me now I bet you’re quite excited about this aren’t you yeah very excited about this map um we’ve been working on this technology for a long time vertical alone has been going for eight years uh and we’re finally
Getting closer to the point where we can bring these to Consumers and to passengers around the country and around the world uh these are fully batterypowered uh flying uh flying taxis they’re much more than just flying taxes I should say they they’re also looking at how we get Goods around uh we’re
Looking at Emergency Services applications but yes flying passengers around is also one of the use cases that we’re looking at but really excited to be bringing it uh to the UK and and to many other markets around the world within the next few years well we’ve had
Big planes taking his places for decades now but only quite recently we’ve also had Air Traffic Control nightmares so just how safe is it so it’s that’s a really good question and uh it’s one thing that we’re working very closely with the regulator on in the UK we’re aiming for uh a safety
Objective we’re targeting levels as safer as any other form of uh any other form of Commercial Air transport so when you’re getting on your Airbus aircraft taking you on holiday to Europe it’s a very very safe way of traveling and that’s exactly the same standard that is
Expected of us both by the regulator and our C and our customers here in the UK uh and so we’re working closely with the regul over the course of the next few years to prove that the technology is safe to prove that it can fly across people’s across cities and over people’s
Homes uh so we can really get this technology in the sky it sounds convenient but what about the people living underneath there are plenty of people who live under flight paths at the moment sorry to take this negative T by the way but we need to need to challenge this I’m sure you
Understand people live under flight paths now in big cities and they don’t like the planes but what about all these other things and I know it’s not just your uh craft either but other things like drones that can now fly out of sight that’s the plan they’re going to
Disrupt people’s lives aren’t they something buzzing overhead constantly well we are acutely aware that for the success of this particular product uh not only in the UK but all around the world it will require support from the public uh and that’s why we’re committed to making this aircraft as quiet as
Possible we expected to be um similar to having a background conversation or or cars and the reason or with background traffic and the reason we can make it so quiet is because of the electric propulsion system which is not like a gas turban engine that you’d be familiar
With in with a traditional aviation in either an airplane or a helicopter um this is much much much more akin to a car driving past so it is significantly quieter obviously cleaner and that is it is zero missions in operation and also a lot safer than other forms of
Transport tell us about the pilotless aspiration now look we’ve been hearing about driverless cars for quite a while now but still they’re not passed to drive on our roads every day can we really expect to see pilotless craft in our skies before the end of the day decade well interestingly the technology
Challenge with pilotless aircraft is easier than it is with Automotive however we don’t believe that passengers will accept a pilotless aircraft certainly at the point of entering to service um and and for some time to come so it’s very much our technology road map yes in the future
You might see pilotless aircraft yes they might be autonomous but we’re certainly focused on having our aircraft with a pilot in it from day one okay final couple of questions I’m I’m assuming you’re doing a lot of testing right now have you actually flown in your vehicle yet and if so what’s it
Like me personally yeah or I I personally haven’t no unfortunately only test pilots can um can fly in the Prototype aircrafts under under regulatory rules um but they assure me two two years is it well so up until the point of certification um which will be
Which we’re targeting at the end of 2026 you can’t carry passengers that’s just that’s the process for all Aviation it’s the same if you’re in a a new airb aircraft only test pilots would be flying it up until the point of certification so it’s not unusual I
Understand why you would say that but it is not unusual now look anybody out there trying to get a taxi home this evening going on certain apps and there are more than one will be more than aware with surge pricing and also how fewer these vehicles are out there when
You really want one it’s so annoying what’s the cost going to be for jumping in one of your things and getting flown home so firstly I I should point out that we’re just a manufacturer so we’re building an aircraft and selling it to customers uh and those customers tend to
Be airlines not exclusively Airlines we work with big helicopter operators and emergency services companies as well so ultimately be up to them how much they charge but you we would expect it to be a premium service at the point of entry into service because we have you know
There will be a lot of demand but limited Supply but really this is a much cheaper aircraft to operate than anything on the market it’s low maintenance cost that’s cheaper to build so over time we would expect it to be comparable with uh compete against ground transport will really appreciate
You taking the time I wish they were only ready in half an hour when I’m done for the evening I’ve got a long drive home sadly a bit too soon thank you very much indeed thanks still to come on the UK tonight we’re talking to a midwife about what
More can be done to help the 30,000 women who experience birth trauma every year Warre’s 40th anniversary I can’t believe that I co-founded it 40 years ago with my mom Virginia McKenna and my dad Bill Travis and and what a great way to to celebrate with these two young Lions Zar and jam as you rightly say they came from a zoo but actually from a an
Ostrich farm and it was Ukrainian animal activists who first alerted everyone to the situation managed to get them the animals away from the ostrich farm and Via various route through Poland and then uh into Belgium to a halfway house and then we’ve been able with the help of incredible people you know British
Airways holidays uh cargox DHL our team at Shamari in South Africa it’s it’s been an incredible team effort to get them to South Africa where they will live the rest of their lives it’s not complete Freedom it can never be complete Freedom these animals have been
In captivity uh too long and it would be too difficult and too dangerous to return them fully to the wild but they will have a life worth living the Lions do need all sorts of paperwork in fact it’s one of the biggest challenges that that anyone who moves uh animals from
One country to another wild animals from one country to another especially when it’s difficult to get the original paperwork when you have a country like Ukraine which was face which is facing so many challenges you have to have the export paperwork the health paperwork the veterinary paperwork to get them out
Of the country and then you have to have the reciprocal paperwork in South Africa and hats off to both the Ukrainian and the South African authorities for Expediting the paperwork to allow this move to go ahead because without it it can’t well they will have an in closure
It’ll be about the size of a football field it’s natural uh South African bush which uh at least ancestrally they would have evolved to live in uh they’ll be looked after 365 days a year we have a an incredible expert team down there led by Glenn and Katherine and Dr Johan
Zuber who is a a world-renowned veterinarian uh along with the other big cats that we’ve rescued and they will have a quality of life Welcome Back to the UK tonight the first ever parliamentary inquiry into the trauma experienced by thousands of mothers every year during childbirth will publish its findings next month our
Correspondent Shaman Freeman po has been speaking to one mother who was left with lifelong injuries after giving birth a warning that her report contains graphic descriptions of her injuries when Jill gave birth to her son in 2011 her life changed in ways she could never have imagined I remember saying to
My mom I’ve gone in to hospital perfectly healthy a working police officer and I’ve come out disabled without my job you know all I wanted was a baby she got her baby and to Jill he was perfect but her birthing experience was traumatic and her injuries lifelong
I was left with a missed fourth degree tear which is when you’re split into two completely I had erecto vaginal fistula which is an extremely rare complication so I had a hole between my rectum and my vagina so I was uh pooing out of my vagina ultimately 7 days after the birth
I was fitted with an emergency colostomy which is the sto which I still have graphic details shared frankly because Jill knows that she’s speaking on behalf of many other women and now women in positions of Power are using their own stories to generate change and obviously it was not looking
Good it was the most terrifying experience of my life my honorable friend give way yes I give Way Stafford MP Theo Clark shared her emotional birthing story with Parliament before leading the first cross party inquiry into birthing trauma I actually thought it was really important to share my
Story and I’m really struck there seems to be a real taboo around talking about the issues with um child birth and what I really hope with this inquiry is it we’ll come up with very practical recommendations to the Prime Minister and say you know this is what moms are
Telling us they need the department for Health and Social care said we are committed to making the NHS the safest place in the world to give birth that’s why birth trauma support is among the top priorities for the Women’s Health strategy in 2024 a priority for Jill to who set up a
Charity to help others raised £10,000 as a result of doing that the most important is to show my son that his birth didn’t ruin my life I don’t want anyone to suffer like I did continuing the push for change for expectant mothers when the unexpected happens Shan Freeman power Sky
News joining me now is Leah Hazard an NHS Midwife and author Leah thanks for joining us on the UK tonight look I’m a dad so I can only empathize with what Ms have to go through giving birth but is there ever a birth that isn’t traumatic in some
Way yeah thanks for having me I mean I think the fact that you’re even asking that question whether a non-traumatic birth is Possible shows how bad things have really gotten you know that we’ve forgotten the the fact that we can actually be safe healthy empowering dignified but sadly in our current NHS
In an extremely overstretched and underresourced maternity service birth trauma is r and rather than providing individualized care to everyone who comes through the door what we’ve got is more of a kind of industrialized assembly line and that is a a ripe environment for trauma how does that manifests itself then you say an
Industrialized assembly line are we talking about favoring C-sections over natural birth that kind of thing it’s not necessarily that at all although that’s that’s an entirely fair question and I think oftentimes in the media and in reports you’ll see what’s called a natural birth ideology pitted against um interventions like cesarian
Section it’s not at all that cesarian section is inherently bad or wrong the problem is that the service is so overstretched that we don’t have the time to give the proper individualized holistic care that people need and unfortunately sometimes interventions are applied in a kind of blanket manner
When perhaps they could have been avoided and you know it’s not even necessarily the intervention itself that can be traumatic we know that actually it’s not the the mode of delivery that causes um postnatal mental health difficulties it’s actually whether that F that person feels that they have
Agency over their birth experience um that they’ve been a a partner in their own care and that it’s been collaborative and sadly that’s not always happening yeah I I wanted to come at it from that point of view there seems to be quite a bit of societal
Pressure on moms to be to do it a certain way way is like you say in inverted commers As Natural as possible and if they are then having an epidural or even gas and air that somehow they’re not doing it right is is that your experience I mean I think sadly that
That is true to some extent that there is a lot of pressure on women and birthing people to do birth a certain way and I can absolutely tell you as a midwife of over 10 years experience that there is no right or wrong way to give birth you know whatever way you give
Birth is your way it’s the right way it’s an and inherit to you um so it’s really important not to stigmatize people for the choices they make and also to point out that in many cases we think our choices are not really true choices they’re just one of several
Quite restricted options and that’s really not okay either what are the Alternatives then right now well the alternative the main alternative would be an adequately funded maternity service I mean over the last 14 years we’ve seen the conservative party systematic degrade and underfund the maternity service in
The NHS uh they’ve promised more money um it hasn’t really translated yet unfortunately into adequate numbers of staff and improved levels of safety even this most recent tranch of an extra 35 million pounds of maternity funding is you know really kind of offering crumbs to what what is a massive problem and
The Tories have promised 160 midwives over three years it’s just absolutely laughable I mean the government isn’t here to defend itself they would point to that as an investment they would probably also say that this goes back way further in terms of investment Beyond uh the current government’s um
Investment they would also say they are carrying out an inquiry so what do you hope the inquiry found finds Well I mean certainly many people like the like Jill Castle who was featured in your segment have been very generous with their time and their experience and that’s really difficult
And vulnerable to give that kind of testimony so I hope that that’s respected and honored not only with recommendations which are all well and good with genuine action and with the funds and the resources to back up that action look final couple of questions to you Leah I also hear from midwives I
Speak to them friends who are midwives say they’re really struggling with the workload and then you also hear that there are no midwives coming through the system because they are put off by hearing about that from existing uh people working in mid with so it’s a problem from both
Sides it’s absolutely a problem from both sides there is a recruitment and a retention problem in mid midy now and you know it’s often compared to trying to fill a leaky bucket we we have to make the system and the working conditions better so that people don’t
Leave and also so that the profession is um appealing to those who who might be interested in serving Lee I appreciate you joining us join us from Scotland it’s important to say that this inquiries looking at the situation across the UK despite obviously differences in devolved Powers Leah Hazard there Midwife and author
Joining us to talk about this okay next the uh River test in Hampshire one of only 200 chalk streams in the world is under threat because of the amount of untreated waste that’s being dumped there sewage fungus is suffocating suffocating Aquatic Life killing tiny fish and threatening the river’s entire ecosystem environmental
Camp campaigners and residents are protesting the decision by Southern water Sky science correspondent Thomas Moore has the story The River test in Hampshire a rare chalk stream famed for its pure water but this is raw untreated human waste pouring into it from a sewage plant and
It’s been going on for weeks only by collecting a sample of the riverbed can you see the damage it’s done this is from a healthy stretch of water and you can see it is just crawling with life here isn’t it I mean there’s case ctis here there’s shrimps going about snails
And this from an area affected by sewage it’s got one shrimp there one shrimp there and one shrim not much there at all no it’s just just killing it just completely killing the river system an ecosystem which is fragile anyway with you know changing climate and you know
The extreme weather patterns we have coming through um and this IND you know doing the sample was giving a clear indicated that the sewage coming in that side is killing our invertebrates chalk streams are heavily protected home to trout and salmon but the extreme nutrients in the sewage are
Fueling rapid growth of alien life gray Tufts wafting in the current this is sewage fungus it’s a gelatinous slime of viruses bacteria and other organisms It Coats the plants it sucks oxygen out of the water and it suffocates the life that should be in the river it’s United
Here today to raise their voices outside the sewage Works local people and River campaigners demanded an end to The Dumping they say claims by the water company that they have to stop it backing up into customers homes just won’t wash yes it might have been a damp
February a very damp February but that doesn’t mean that they should be putting raw sewage directly into the river it just doesn’t it’s unforgivable there has been so much rain that water underground is being forced into sewers through cracks and Joints scientists have been warning for many years that climate
Change would bring wetter Winters but Southern water says it could be 2030 before all the pipes are fixed I understand understand the frustration and we share many of their their their outcomes of what they want to see happen but there are a series of steps we must
Take it is a large complex issue we are in some extreme conditions right now rivers around the country are being polluted by sewage campaigners want to make this an election issue forcing water companies to clean up their act Thomas Moore Sky News in Hampshire all to come here on the UK
Tonight we’ll speak to two of the residents who work up to find a new Banky artwork on their wall in North London in football notingham Forest had docked four points for breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability Rules Happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday mol happy birthday to [Applause] you independent United Kingdom these last few years have seen some huge stories and these stories have been driven by politics by politicians the people in power you must stay at home and it’s my job to figure out how these decisions made by politicians impact all of us in our everyday lives this is the
Worst thing I’ve ever been through in my life people turn up here with their child stuff in a black sack and just say don’t want to and that is what it is it’s it’s first class poet is this an example of the welfare state failing we take you to the heart of the
Stories that shape our world these are stories that affect us all millions of children are now having to catch up some stories have changed all of our Lives because like the residents the staff are being in Ed politicians they make decisions all of the time and it’s our
Job to hold them to account I wonder if you will take this opportunity to apologize to those families but in the end the real power doesn’t actually lie with the politicians the real power lies with the people I’m Nick Martin I’m the people and politics correspondent at Sky News welcome back you’re watching the UK tonight we’ll take a look at the new bank SE that’s sprung up in North London in a bit but first Nick is here with the sport and uh Nick the big story today in football is that notingham Forest have been deducted Four Points by the Premier
League and this is around the financial fair play situation tell us more yeah strictly speaking by an independent panel appointed by the the Premier League where they they make the point that it’s it’s not the league themselves but um basically they’ve spent more money than they should There Are Rules
You’re allowed to spend a certain amount more money uh than you take in but you can’t just spend what you like uh they’ve spent 34 a half million pounds more than they should have done so they’ve been uh docked Four Points it would have been six points but the panel
Accepted that they’ admitted the offense straight away and that they were fully Cooperative so it is four points Forest say they’re they’re really upset and one of the points they’re making it’s an important point that affects um other clubs as well potentially is how are you
Meant to as a promoted club that came out from the championship last season how else are you going to compete with the mighty clubs of the Premier League unless you spend a lot of money that that’s what they did but on the other hand the the counterargument is the
Rules are the rules they they knew what the rules were and they broken no question puts forest in the relegation Zone loosen just above them and everon above them we’ve also been docked points as well what happens next well um they’re Consulting lawyers Forest about whether they should appeal or not
They’ve got a week to decide on that they have to have it all decided by May the 25th which is 6 days after the the Premier League season so you could play the last day of the Premier League season not being sure even at the end of
The games who’s going up and who’s not so they’ve got the the possibility of appealing also Everton May yet get a further punishment because they face separate charges in addition to the ones which they’ve already been deducted points and the big elephant in the room Manchester City this won’t be for this
Season but Manchester City faced more than a hundred charges different charges every Everybody stresses um for breaching Financial rules as well so it’s all a bit of a mess but you have to have rules and for have clearly broken them um the other main sport story today is about one
Individual goal I’ve spotted an opportunity found the space and slotted it home it’s what I do this Sports bulletin is brought to you by Vitality every week across the UK 85% of school age students take part in approximately an hour of sport a week organized Grassroots sport has lower
Numbers but it translates to millions of girls and boys between the age of seven and 20 playing sport but there is a problem a big problem without doubt every year we seem to be seeing more and more young people coming through with significant knee injuries and primarily we’re talking about ACL ruptures the
Numbers are staggering and extremely worrying for every one person that was having an ACL reconstruction in uh the late ’90s there’s now 29 children having those surgeries so the number of injuries is without a doubt 29-fold yeah evidence of a problem comes from multiple sources other surgeons and
Doctors are waving a warning flag we increased by 29 folds amount of operation devastating injuries that are that that can cause complete change of their life trajectory and early risk of arthritis people are committing to uh one or two sports at most at the moment uh if they
Are going to be part of the local community and they they spend less time developing other skills that would be naturally developed when they are participating in multiple Sports they’re on screens sedent and then suddenly they’re in yeah I’ll give it a go anyone got gloves in my size I need
Four now look gather that SJ likes to leave you with something a bit weird and interesting here on the UK tonight and uh just this evening we are going to uh just talk about a Banky that’s uh appeared on a wall well for residents in finby park in North London that became a
Reality over the weekend after this tree mural popped up on the side of a block of flats crowds of course have been Gathering throughout the day to view the new Banky artwork a green splatter effect shape behind a cut back tree The elusive artist confirmed the work was in
Fact his on Instagram I’m joined Now by Bonnie and Amy who live in the flats that have the Banky on the outside good to see you both when did you uh when did you first realize what was going on outside then tomorrow was it yesterday yesterday
Yeah so yesterday I got up in the morning and went for a run and saw people looking at the wall but didn’t really think anything of it and ran off in the opposite direction and then you got back yesterday yeah I went got went out out got back in the afternoon and
Then saw people taking pictures and I literally po my head around the corner and just saw all the green everywhere when did you realize it was a Banky did you just assume at first GL this that has to be a bank SE or did you wait for people to confirm
It yeah well you showed me the photo didn’t you and I said that must be a Banky but we weren’t really sure were we straight away no there were Street artists um experts that out here and they were saying it’s definitely a bank SE yesterday afternoon but then no one
Kind of knew until this morning when he confirmed it himself look I know that part of London there are quite a few bankses around there and some have been inadvertently destroyed by the council in previous years down the road in in Stoke Newington is it that big a deal to have one these
Days I think it’s quite cool um I’ve never kind of lived this close to bank before I’m not from London so I think it’s a really great thing for the community to have the amount of people that have been on Hay Road today is just absolutely fantastic um so I think it is
A big deal for the community I know it looks like it’s just some PA on the wall but I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for the community and kind of put Hy road on the map it’s a very good answer the the next question though is that someone’s going to mean we’ve seen
Bankies get nicked when they’ve been on you Street furniture and even on on walls as well any worries that someone’s going to try and lift that somehow I mean I don’t know how they would they’d have to take the wall off the building so I’m not too sure they
Yeah they might try so it’s a bit of a challenge but I guess we’d have to see really I mean it’s more someone might vandalize it more than anything um but I think our landlord did ring us and say the council are sending people down here
Police will be kind of patrolling a bit just to kind of check it out and just make sure it’s okay for security purposes so fingers crossed it’s fine I mean it it it’s kind of a departure from his previous works and obviously we just seen there that people taking a photo of
It it works with the tree in front of it does that tree grow leaves and when it does is it going to obscure the painting behind it how’s it going to work so we’ve lived in the flat for 3 years and when we first moved in the
Tree was massive and it had loads of leaves on it my understanding is that the council cut it about a year ago um and my understanding from what I’ve seen today is that there’s pretty good evidence that that tree isn’t going to grow any more leaves which I believe is
Why he’s kind of made the statement um about the leaves not growing back and kind of what that means we’re doing as a society to our environment it works it works it’s good to know that look Bonnie Amy thank you both so much for taking the time and uh
When I swing by I’ll have a have a look at the wall of your flat next time appreciate it great great thank you let’s take a look at the weather now