Grant | Common News Update

Apr22021 by adminNo Comments

Glastonbury Festival gets grant as part of £400m Culture Recovery Fund

Entertainment

Glastonbury Festival will receive a £900,000 grant as part of the government's £400 million Culture Recovery Fund.The festival was forced to cancel two events due to the pandemic and has announced a global livestream this year, on the first weekend music venues can reopen. Its co-organisers Michael and Emily Eavis said they were "extremely grateful to be offered a significant award"."After losing millions from the cancellation of our last two festivals, this grant will make a huge difference in helping to secure our future," they said.The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said the money will help the event this year and carry it through to 2022. ...

Mar272021 by adminNo Comments

Green Homes Grant scheme to insulate houses axed

Science

Getty ImagesA much-promoted grants programme to help UK householders insulate their homes is to be scrapped within days.The Green Homes Grant (GHG) reached just 10% of the 600,000 homes the chancellor promised would be improved.The scheme will be stopped on Wednesday and the cash allocated to a separate insulation fund run by councils.The £300m previously allocated for the GHG will now go into a programme administered by local authorities, targeted at lower income households.Don't raid home insulation scheme, MPs urge ministersGovernment home insulation programme criticisedGreen plan to upgrade homes was 'botched', say MPsSome 19 million homes in the UK need to be insulated or the emissions from gas boilers will wreck the UK's chances of achieving its climate change targets.But the GHG sch...

Oct232020 by adminNo Comments

People told to self-isolate stopped from claiming £500 grant by flaw in contact tracing app

Technology

People told to isolate by the contact-tracing app are not able to claim government financial support, Sky News has learned, raising fears that low-paid workers will be forced to choose between health and hardship.A leading poverty charity said the situation was "ridiculous" and Labour accused the government of putting families at risk of destitution. Workers with low incomes on benefits are entitled to receive £500 if they cannot work from home while they self-isolate.But a hidden flaw in the process for claiming the payment means they can only claim the support if they are given a code by a human contact tracer.Someone who tests positive for coronavirus and receives their result through the app can get the payment because they will be referred to NHS Test and Trace for manual contact trac...

Jan152020 by adminNo Comments

Hugh Grant defends Harry: ‘The tabloids effectively murdered his mother’

Entertainment

Actor Hugh Grant has defended Prince Harry's move to Canada, saying that "the tabloid press effectively murdered his mother".Speaking in an interview for Andy Cohen's Radio Andy show on Sirius XM in the US, the star at first seemed reluctant when asked for his thoughts on "Megxit" and the decision by Harry and Meghan to step back from their roles as senior royals. But when asked for his opinion, he referenced the circumstances surrounding the death of Princess Diana, who was in a car being chased by paparazzi when she died in a crash in Paris in August 1997. Image: Meghan and Harry will be taking a 'step back' from being senior royals "I'm rather on Harry's side, I have to say," Grant said. "The tabloid press effectively murdered his ...

Jan22020 by adminNo Comments

Northern could lose rail franchise, says Grant Shapps

Business

The government has described Northern rail services as "unacceptable" as delays continue to plague its trains.Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he was "not prepared" to tolerate the commuter line operator's poor performance.He told the BBC: "There's a couple of ways that can go, but one is to strip the franchise."Northern said the late delivery of big infrastructure projects had disrupted its services.The RMT union described the comments as a "distraction" to draw attention away from rail fare increases coming into effect from Thursday.In October, Mr Shapps said he had taken steps that could lead to Northern losing its franchise. Giving evidence to the Commons' Transport Select Committee last year, the transport secretary said that he had issued a "r...