jobs

A SAVVY entrepreneur ditched her boring desk job at ASOS and is now raking in as much as £56,000 in a single day.

Aimee Smale, has taken her fashion brand Odd Muse from a bedroom side hustle to a multi-million-pound empire.

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The twenty-eight year old has now cemented her place among luxury giants by flinging open the doors to her first UK flagship on London’s exclusive New Bond Street.

Humble beginnings

Just a few years ago, Aimee was slogging away in a £21,000-a-year admin role, feeling unfulfilled working from home during the pandemic.

But with a burning ambition, she started a clever side hustle, flogging £10 logos to Brits who’d started small businesses in lockdown.

Speaking candidly to Grace Beverley on the Working Hard, Hardly Working podcast, she revealed how the tenner-a-pop gig became a goldmine, saying: “I was making like 30 logos a day at one point. 

“Finishing ASOS, closing my laptop, staying up all night to just make logos. But it got me £12,000 for Odd Muse.”

Aimee’s dream was to have her own fashion brand and so she began saving to start what would become her own fashion empire.

Aimee ploughed her entire side-hustle earnings into ordering the first batch of stock, admitting she was “almost arrogant” in her belief that it would be a roaring success. 

She ordered 100 units of her now-iconic blazer, and her bold gamble paid off big time, selling out in days and breaking even instantly.

A significant moment for Odd Muse came when influencer Lorna Luxe purchased the blazer, leading to a massive surge in sales.

Aimee shared, “I remember saying to everyone – everyone would be like who do you want to wear your brand and I would say Lorna. Anyone in the world – Lorna.

“She literally bought it, put it on her story, and it changed the game for me.”

The success of the Ultimate Muse Blazer was followed by the launch of the Pearl Dress, which sold out within a minute.

The brand made over £100k in its first three months and is now a certified smash hit, turning over a whopping £5.2 million in 2023. 

Fashion visionary

Aimee’s vision was to create timeless, luxury clothes that young women could actually afford, offering an alternative to the world of throwaway fast fashion.

She previously told The Sun: “I just remember thinking fashion when I left university aged 21 was fast fashion, which is all we can afford, and the luxury sector is unattainable. 

“I just wanted to offer a fast fashion alternative and justify a price point that encouraged re-wearing and investing in your wardrobe.”

Flagship store opening

Now, Aimee has officially taken over one of the most prestigious shopping streets in the world, having opened her glitzy new store on October 3. 

Despite her mega-success, she admitted on TikTok she still gets terrified no one will show up to her events, a fear that was quickly squashed when 2,000 eager fans turned up to a recent sample sale.

The fashion mogul revealed she was even warned against the bold move onto Bond Street.

“I was told no… I didn’t need to take on New Bond Street,” she said. 

But Aimee was determined to create a space for her loyal fans, “inviting our community into a world luxury fashion previously didn’t think to invite them into.”

The shy girl from class is now the poster girl for her own business, using her relatable personality on TikTok to connect with thousands of customers worldwide. 

She credits this authentic approach for building a massive community, with a staggering 60% of orders now coming from the US.

Meanwhile, the company’s permanent boutique in London’s Covent Garden celebrated its second anniversary back in March.

From her bedroom to Bond Street, Aimee’s incredible journey shows what can happen when you have a bit of northern grit and a brilliant idea. 

As she puts it, seeing addresses from all over the world flooding in made her realise “Odd Muse was going to be something big.”

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NOTHING brings the country together like football.

But there are some people who have more than a little insight into the game and the hype surrounding it – the WAGs.

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Belinda Coleman was also once one of them, having a front row seat to all the money, the pleasures – and pitfalls – of life as a Premier League wife.

She was the spouse of the Welsh football coach Chris Coleman – but in 2011, their 19-year relationship came to a bitter end following cheating accusations.

The divorce ended in Chris, now 55, giving Belinda just two months to leave the two bedroom flat she shared with their four kids, Sonny, Christy, Faraday and Georgie – all whilst he planned his marriage to blonde TV presenter Charlotte Jackson.

Belinda previously lifted the lid on how their dream marriage turned into a nightmare – and how his flings led to their split after 19 years together.

Belinda then said. “He’s an adulterer and I just became bored of his indiscretions.

“His affairs were into double figures. And I’d even confronted three or four of the women. I never ranted at them. I just told them they weren’t the first and they wouldn’t be the last.

“And I told him if he wanted to be with them, he should just walk out and leave us alone to get on with our lives.”

Now, over a decade later, Belinda has revealed what life is like when your millionaire marriage ends, the money disappears, and you go from the A-list lifestyle to having the bailiffs at your door.

By 1991, when she met Chris, then a player with Crystal Palace, Belinda owned a flat of her own and was managing a hotel health club.

“I’d been invited to a match by a player who’d come to the health club for physiotherapy. The first time I spoke to Chris in the lounge after the match it was so natural. I had no idea this man would change my life forever,” Belinda told The Telegraph.

Just six months later the pair tied the knot – and according to Belinda, it felt like a fairy tale.

As Chris’ career began to climb, they went from a two-bedroom rental to purchasing a small house before Chris moved to Blackburn – ”and suddenly, there was so much money”, Belinda said.

There were luxurious holidays, shopping sprees galore and private school education for their four kids.

“I decorated our lovely home in the country, called the Old Stables, with all the top-of-the-range equipment I could find.”

But with so much money coming in, there was no planning for their financial future – something Belinda looks back at now and cringes at how ”financially irresponsible” the two were.

Meet the WAGS of the England footballers

England Wags range from childhood sweethearts to recently blossoming love stories.

Katie Goodland (Harry Kane’s wife)

The fitness instructor has been married to the England captain since 2019 and joined him in Germany with their four children after he joined Bayern Munich.

Laura Celia Valk (Jude Bellingham’s girlfriend)

The stunning Dutch model, 25, has more than half a million Instagram followers and is said to be absolutely smitten with the Real Madrid star.

Rebecca Cooke (Phil Foden’s girlfriend)

Foden’s childhood sweetheart and the mother of his two kids tends to keep out of the spotlight, but is a regular at England games.

Dani Dyer (Jarrod Bowen’s girlfriend)

England’s most famous Wag, former Love Island winner and daughter of Eastenders’ Danny Dyer.

Iris Law (Trent Alexander-Arnold’s girlfriend)

Dani Dyer isn’t the only actor’s daughter dating an England star. Iris’ dad is Hollywood legend Jude Law.

Megan Davison (Jordan Pickford’s wife)

Megan has been with Pickford since he was 14 years old. The couple married in 2022 and have one son.

Olivia Naylor (John Stones’ girlfriend)

The 33-year-old former beautician has stepped back from her role after giving birth to a baby son.

Read more about the Wags supporting England at Euro 2024 here

“I couldn’t be sensible about it because I couldn’t bear to think about it. There was a lot of guilt at having money when people I loved didn’t, so spending it as quickly as I could on myself and others seemed to make sense.”

Of course, there was also the pressure to look the part, which came with a hefty price tag – the scrutiny of Premier League wives and girlfriends was intense.

There were amazing times together, she explained – the fun of supporting their men at their games, the lavish getaways abroad, the luxurious parties and the fun of watching their children grow together.

But the lifestyle also came with lots of troubles to share, such as woman ”falling over” their husbands, which ”took a huge psychological and emotional toll” on Belinda.

As rumours of Chris’s infidelity became louder, with headlines everywhere, the trust between the couple crumbled.

While Belinda was trying her best to pretend everything was okay for the sake of her children, it was just a mask – and in reality, she was losing her mind.

It eventually led the mother-of-four to do things that she wasn’t proud of, including hiring a private detective and hiding a tracker in Chris’s car – something, she now thinks, created ”suffering”.

As for why the separation and then divorce meant swapping a millionaire pad for a two-bed flat, Belinda is frank.

“Despite once having millions, the money had run out. It was my fault too, of course, but suddenly I was facing financial ruin.”

Bailiffs knocking on door

But the worst was yet to come.

One day, Belinda, now 60, heard loud banging at the door – it was two men who turned out to be bailiffs.

Paralysed with fear, she didn’t dare to move, and when the two finally left, she collapsed.

Following their visit, Belinda’s car was repossessed, and then an eviction notice arrived.

Eventually managing to find a private rental she could just about afford, this was the first of 11 forced moves in ten years for Belinda and the children, Sonny, now 32, Christy 30, Faraday, 27, and Georgie, 25.

While she did eventually receive spousal and child maintenance, the money was nothing compared to her previous lavish lifestyle and Belinda felt as if she ”was depriving the children of the life they’d become accustomed to”.

On one occasion, she remembers, her card was declined at the supermarket checkout, despite calculating everything in the trolley to the penny.

Now raising four kids as a single mum, Belinda took whatever jobs she could fit around their schedule, working nights, weekends and 12-hour shifts.

“I packed boxes for a removal company, worked in a call centre and cleaned. One day in 2016, a year after our divorce was finalised, I drove through the wrought-iron gates of the Old Stables. I was there to clean the house we’d once owned.

Standing in the beautiful home, the memories of the happy times came flooding back and Belinda realised just how much her life had changed.

But she refused to feel sorry for herself. Instead, she appreciated being alive and having four wonderful kids, friends and family who loved her.

Then in 2019, during yet another forced house move, she was packing a book – and things in her life were about to change.

The sentence read: ”Sometimes the universe is just waiting for you to say yes.’’

For Belinda, it was a sign – a sign that if she truly wanted something different in her life, she needed to do something different.

This was the start of Belinda’s journey with manifestation, journaling, meditating, visualisation and expressing gratitude daily that turned her life around – as did winning a legal case.

On a whim one day, the mum-of-four wrote herself a cheque for the amount she believed was achievable from an ongoing legal dispute, placing it beside her bed and acknowledging it every day.

In the end, she ended up winning that case against the odds, and the money meant she could finally achieve the dream of owning her very own home.

”The house I bought was listed for exactly the amount I’d written on the cheque.”

Now a qualified motivational coach and NLP (neuro-linguistic processing therapy) practitioner, Belinda has written a book about her journey.

Wag to Warrior, Every Woman’s Roadmap to Overcoming Life’s Challenges and Rewriting Her Story is a book that Belinda hopes will help other women who are struggling, including other WAGs.

THE three jobs most at risk of being taken over by AI have been revealed.

British workers will be forced to compete with a surge of 100,000 virtual AI employees by the end of 2026, research by Agentic AI firm Gravitee has suggested.

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Software engineers, HR managers and customer service managers appear to be most at risk.

Almost half of company executives surveyed by Gravitee said more than half the work of these roles could be done by an AI agent.

It means companies could cut these jobs to slash business costs.

The other jobs at risk include salesperson, marketing manager and communications manager.

The AI firm surveyed 250 executives at large UK companies and all said they were planning to use AI agents in some way.

Most of the companies said they would ’employ’ between 16 to 20 AI agents to carry out tasks previously carried out by human employees.

Meanwhile 65% of the firms said they would be making job cuts over the same period, suggesting much of the work done by their current employees could be performed more cheaply by AI bots.

Still, nearly a quarter of companies said they plan to increase their headcounts to support the AI expansion.

Rory Blundell, chief executive at Gravitee, said: “Agentic AI will offer a huge productivity boom to firms of all sizes, with AI agents completing rote, repetitive tasks while workers are freed up to focus on more interesting challenges.

“However it’s clear that, at least in the short term, there’s a risk of widespread job cuts until companies know how to balance the investment with the return, which may be shortsighted. Not least because AI Agents, without proper governance, can cause widespread chaos and disruption.”

A report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that AI could hit three in five workers and even replace their jobs.

Companies and even the government have already begun to slash their workforce to make way for the technology.

The UK’s biggest accountancy firms – PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY – have reportedly slashed the number of junior roles available by up to 29 per cent, while the government is axing at least 10,000 roles in the civil service.

Amazon, Telstra, Salesforce and Fiverr have all announced plans for lay-offs in the last 12 months, with jobs going instead to AI agents. 

There were 315,550 available entry-level roles in November 2022 (when the popular AI tool ChatGPT was launched) across the UK, which dropped to 214,934 last month, according to the jobs site Adzuna.

The 40 roles most at risk

Similar research has previously been carried out by Microsoft, which revealed the 40 jobs most likely to be taken over by AI.

Researchers looked at 200,000 conversations between people in the US and Microsoft’s AI chatbot, called Copilot, as part of the study.

They found that the jobs most likely to be affected by AI are those in the communications industry.

Interpreters and translators are the jobs most at risk, followed by historians, and passenger attendants such as air hosts and hostesses or train ticket inspectors.

Sales representatives came fourth on the list, then writers and authors, and customer service representatives.

Other jobs on the list included radio DJs, concierge workers, teachers, public relations specialists and telephone operators.

Jobs that involve physically working with people, operating or monitoring machinery, or doing manual labour tend to be the least-impacted by AI.

This includes nursing assistants, sewage workers, painters and plasterers, roofers, cleaners, and massage therapists.

A TORY Peer insists Labour’s flagship workers’ rights package must be changed to protect people from being sacked or disciplined for online posts. 

Baron Young, who founded the Free Speech Union, says any messages more than a year old shouldn’t be used to reprimand employees and “cancel” people. 

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Bosses would have to be able to prove that “tangible” harm had been caused rather than “reputational” damage which is too vague. 

The Employment Rights Bill is currently in the House of Lords and will be debated when Parliament returns after the party conferences. 

The Peer is compiling a report on how laws affecting free speech should be changed or abandoned. 

The dossier should be published before the end of the year and could be adopted as party policy after that, he added. 

He said changes “would make it unlawful for companies to discipline, fire, penalise employees for things they’ve said online unless, first of all, they’re less than a year old. 

“So there’s a one-year statute of limitations on what the offence archaeologists can dig into to try and find reasons to cancel you. 

“In addition, the employer would have to show that the comment in question has caused tangible harm to the company. 

Lord Young of Acton was made a peer by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch in December. 

He previously founded a network of free schools, and has been a newspaper columnist for more than 20 years. 

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MORRISONS is to introduce a big change to its stores to make sure shelves are stocked faster by floor staff.

The supermarket giant is rolling out a tracking app for store managers so they can see how quickly staff are unloading food onto shelves.

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It said the new system, which was first reported by the Telegraph, would allow them to identify when employees may need additional training.

It comes as Morrisons tries to win back shoppers from rivals, as it is set to be overtaken by Lidl as Britain’s fifth biggest supermarket.

The latest data shows that the discount retailer makes up 8.3% of the grocery market share against Morrisons’ 8.4%, according to Worldpanel.

This is compared to Morrisons‘ 8.6% a year earlier, and 9.4% in 2022.

The supermarket said it had been tracking how quickly staff were working for some time now to make sure the right number of workers were on the shop floor.

But the new app will “help teams understand their own performance” and allow employees’ work to be monitored by store managers, rather than the company’s head office.

A Morrisons spokesperson said: “Along with a lot of our sector, we have used ‘time and motion’ data for some time now to help us allocate hours to a store and ensure we have fair, consistent and standardised ways of working.

“To support this, we have created an app to help teams understand their own performance.

“This will allow us to be fair and consistent in recognising colleagues, whilst also identifying opportunities to coach our colleagues and understand where additional support and training may be required.”

Earlier this year, in a move to improve customer service in stores, Morrisons changed its rules for staff so that only certain workers would be allowed to enter stockrooms.

The retailer said it wanted to ensure it had “the right colleagues in the right place to deliver the best service to customers at all times”.

What else is happening at Morrisons?

Last year, Morrisons slashed over 3,600 jobs and closed 17 stores as part of a major shake-up to its operations.

The supermarket’s workforce dropped from 104,819 to 101,144 in the year leading up to October 27, 2024.

Thousands of jobs were axed across Morrisons’ stores, head office, as well as its manufacturing and distribution operations.

The latest job losses come after the Morrisons shut 17 of its stores around the UK earlier this year, with the final store in Haxby, North Yorkshire, closing on May 14.

The 16 other stores were all axed in April.

As part of a cost-cutting overhaul, the grocer also shut more than 50 of its in-store cafés, 35 meat and fish counters, and 18 Market Kitchen food courts earlier this year.

It cited the need to cut costs amid rising financial pressure.

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MARKS & Spencer is making a major change to all of its stores this Christmas – with more staff set to work on Boxing Day for the first time in five years.

The retailer is ending its recent tradition of keeping most shops shut on the bank holiday as it gears up for one of the busiest trading periods of the year.

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The change will impact stores across the UK, as M&S looks to boost its post-Christmas operations and ensure shelves are fully restocked.

According to The Guardian, around a quarter of store employees will now be required to work on Boxing Day, while all staff must work at least one of December, 26, 27 or 28.

A document from Marks & Spencer seen by the publication revealed that last year, over 40 per cent of permanent staff and 30 per cent of seasonal workers did not work on one of those peak days.

The retailer said this caused knock-on issues with replenishing stock and maintaining store standards.

To avoid similar problems this year, it stated that “all colleagues must play their part to deliver a successful Christmas.”

Jayne Wall, operations director for Marks & Spencer, said: “Christmas at Marks and Spencer is very special and we are grateful to our hardworking colleagues who make our stores great places for our customers to shop.

“Like most retailers, we always have some colleagues in our stores and depots on Boxing Day to help reset.

However, this year we will have more colleagues working than previously so we are in great shape to welcome customers on 27 December.”

The change marks a significant shift for M&S, which decided to close most of its stores on Boxing Day in 2020 as a gesture of thanks after staff worked tirelessly throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

The retailer had continued the policy since then, saying it wanted to give employees a “much-deserved extended break with their family and loved ones.”

However, this year’s move comes after a turbulent few months for the business.

M&S was hit by a major cyber attack over Easter, which caused widespread disruption to its systems and operations.

The company has since faced staff shortages and logistical challenges, prompting the change in Christmas staffing.

Not all employees are happy about the decision.

Some have said they feel pressured into accepting additional hours during what is usually considered a family holiday.

One M&S worker said: “This has been an incredibly difficult year for colleagues dealing with the cyber incident and the company has been reluctant to give extra hours to stores, so many stores are dealing with low colleague numbers.

“After such a hard time many colleagues feel this is an extra slap in the face.”

Another team member is reported to have written on the retailer’s internal messaging platform expressing disappointment at the move.

They said: “Over recent months it’s been recognised that colleagues have gone above and beyond, doing everything asked of them to keep standards high and deliver excellent service during very challenging times.

“That’s why it feels especially disheartening that Christmas – such a precious time for family – is being disrupted for so many of us.

“Instead of feeling rewarded for our commitment, it comes across more like a punishment.”

HISTORY OF M&S

M&S was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds.

The first official Marks and Spencer store opened in Manchester in 1901.

Throughout the 1920s, M&SA gre rapidly, opening more and more stores across the country.

The retailer made its reputation in the early 20th century by selling only British-made products.

It began textile sales in 1926 and started selling food from 1931.

The St Michael trademark was introduced in 1928 as a guarantee of quality and value.

This was initially used only for a small range of textiles but was extended over the years to cover all goods sold by M&S.

M&S introduced its first in-store cafe in 1935 in the Leeds store.

It provided cheap, hygienic, and nutritious mass catering.

By 1942, M&S opened 82 cafes across its estate.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, M&S had 234 stores.

By 1945, over 100 of these had been damaged by bombs, and 16 had been completely destroyed.

BY 1960, M&S pioneered in the sale of fresh poultry following the invention of the cold-chain process.

In the 1970s and 1980s, M&S pushed into international markets including the US, Canada and France. 

In 1979, M&S introduced the Chicken Kiev to its food halls across the UK.

In 1992, Percy Pigs were launched.

The Autograph range of clothing was introduced in 2000, and the St Michael brand was slowly phased out.

In 2019, the group announced 110 store closures as part of its plans, affecting several longstanding high-street shops.

In September 2020, M&S partnered with Ocado to allow for home delivery of the chain’s full food range.

M&S has recently announced new stores and is freshening up a swathe of others in a boost for shoppers.

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ED MILIBAND is a “walking, talking cost-of-living crisis”, according to shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho.

The senior MP — who will tomorrow unveil Tory plans for cheaper utilities — vowed to get her Labour arch-rival SACKED as gas and electricity costs rose again this week on his watch.

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Experts have warned that Red Ed, who promised to cut energy bills by up to £300 a year before the 2024 General Election, will only drive prices higher with his Net Zero obsession.

Already, £1billion has been spent this year switching off wind turbines when it got too blowy for the network to cope.

Other sources, such as gas-fired plants, then had to be paid to be used as a replacement. The shutdown has pushed household bills up by £15 a year.

In an interview with the Sun on Sunday, Ms Coutinho fumed: “Ed Miliband is a disaster.

“Every decision (he) has made in government is going to send people’s bills up.

“He promised people £300 off their bills, and so far they’re already £200 up. People are rightly furious.

“I don’t know what he’s on. He is a walking, talking cost-of-living crisis.

“I’m going to make it my mission in this parliament to get him sacked.”

She continues: “I think he can’t add up because if you look at what he’s doing, gas at the moment is about £55 a megawatt-hour.

“He said he’s willing to pay up to £117 for offshore wind this year, and then he talks about cutting people’s bills. You don’t need a calculator to see that is just total madness.”

The top Tory also slated Energy Secretary Mr Miliband for “signing up to 20-year contracts” for offshore wind, adding: “We’re going to be saddled with these incredibly high prices for decades.”

Ms Coutinho is the face of the Conservative Party’s scepticism over a move to Net Zero.

At their annual conference in Manchester tomorrow, she will outline proposals to cut bills by scrapping green levies.

She said: “The most important thing the country needs — and we’re unashamed about this — is lower energy bills.

“Our priority for energy policy going forward will be simple: Make electricity cheaper.

“It will be good for growth, it’s good for cost-of-living — something we know lots of families are still struggling with — and, most importantly, it will be good for the whole of the UK to have much cheaper energy bills.”

Levies funding environmental and social projects add around £140 to annual electricity bills and £50 to gas bills, says innovation agency Nesta.

It comes as the UK energy price cap rose again this week by two per cent, meaning the average household paying for gas and electricity by direct debit will see costs increase from £1,720 to £1,755 per year.

Ms Coutinho’s stance marks a much harder line on eco-policies as the Tories try to stave off Nigel Farage’s party.

Reform UK promised to scrap the Net Zero target and told wind and solar developers they will end green energy subsidies if they win power.

It has prompted Mr Miliband to liken the Tories to a “Reform tribute act”.

But Ms Coutinho said: “That’s absolute rubbish, If you look at Reform, they’ve got the economics of Jeremy Corbyn.”

She claimed there was a huge black hole in Reform’s spending plans, adding: “That simply isn’t going to work for a country where you’ve got interest rates high, inflation is high. We need to be bringing those things down. So we need to live within our means.”

Tories have pledged to scrap the restrictive Climate Change Act 2008 brought in by the last Labour government, and the target of Net Zero emissions by 2050 enshrined by Tory PM Theresa May in 2019.

Ms Coutinho said: “We’ve got new leadership now and both Kemi and I strongly feel that the biggest problem that this country faces is that we’ve got the highest industrial electricity prices in the world and the second highest domestic prices. Now that’s just not going to work for Britain.”

Tories would also abolish quango the Climate Change Committee, which advises the Government on Net Zero.

Ms Coutinho said: “For too long, energy policy has been in the hands of people who are unelected and unaccountable — and that’s just not right.”

And she has left the door open to fracking.

A ban was lifted by Liz Truss during her short tenure in Downing Street – but this was abandoned by her successor Rishi Sunak.

Ms Coutinho added: “We’re a small dense island and it can be very disruptive. So it shouldn’t be done to communities without their say so.”

The shadow cabinet member admitted people are frustrated the Tories have taken their time to come up with policies after their disastrous loss at last year’s General Election.

But she insisted: “At conference, you’ll see a lot more from us. This is the moment where we’ll start telling people all the results of our work, and be able to explain what our plan is.

“The difference between us and Labour and Reform is our plans are real, they’re fully funded, they can be delivered tomorrow.”

She promised the Tories will bring forward plans the public can trust, adding: “People have really lost faith in government to be able to do the things that they want it to do. So we need to rebuild that trust.”

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MANCHESTER, Leeds and Oxford have been named as top powerhouses for business growth in the UK, according to a report.

The study, carried out by NatWest and data company Beauhurst, analysed growth across innovation, profit, headcount and turnover among mid-market firms nationwide.

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Manchester ranked highly thanks to its thriving creative and digital sectors, fuelled by MediaCityUK and a flourishing start-up scene.

Oxford stood out for its research-driven businesses, many of which began as university spinouts before scaling into significant mid-market enterprises.

Leeds, meanwhile, has built a reputation in health technology to complement its long-established financial services sector, strengthened by close ties to NHS Digital and leading hospitals.

While London remains the largest centre for profit, headcount and turnover in the mid-market, the report reveals other areas of the UK are increasingly standing out for their innovation.

Smaller authorities also made the list, with Slough and Telford & Wrekin both highlighted as growth hotspots.

Swindon has also emerged as one of the nation’s leading climate technology hubs, thanks to its cluster of renewable energy and clean-tech firms.

Andy Gray, managing director of commercial mid-market at NatWest, said: “The UK’s economic story is no longer written only in its biggest cities.

“Across the country, mid-sized businesses are scaling up, investing in people and creating high-quality jobs.

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“These boom regions demonstrate that entrepreneurial energy and economic resilience can flourish anywhere.”

Among the emerging centres of growth, researchers pinpointed South Cambridgeshire as home to a thriving cluster of university spinouts.

Aberdeenshire also performed strongly in the innovation category, reflecting its long-standing expertise in oil and gas, now being redirected into renewable energy, carbon capture and wider climate technologies.

Local firms there have benefitted from specialist engineering skills, proximity to North Sea projects and strong research links – helping the area reinvent itself as a hub for innovation in the UK’s energy transition.

The research focused on mid-market companies turning over between £25m and £500m annually – these businesses account for 26 per cent of employment and 30 per cent of UK economic Gross Value Added.

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The findings also project that, with the right support, mid-market companies could add an extra £115 billion in turnover and £35 billion of Gross Value Added by 2030 – despite representing just 0.5 per cent of businesses in the UK.

Henri Murison, chief executive at The Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said: “While London remains an important location for mid-market businesses, this new report from NatWest clearly points to the impressive growth and innovation that is taking place in the North.

“As the Autumn Budget approaches, we should be backing concrete steps towards adoption and diffusion of innovation in businesses that are seeking to scale up, providing more high skilled jobs in Northern towns and cities, and playing a fundamental part in delivering the UK Government growth mission.”

Louise Hellem, chief economist at the CBI, said: “This report underlines the vital role the mid-market sector plays in driving regional growth and strengthening our economy.

“These businesses are not just surviving, they’re expanding, innovating, and investing in their communities.

“To fully unlock the UK’s potential and develop high growth clusters, we should harness their strengths as part of regional growth plans, ensure they are engaged in shaping local skills plans and have greater access to finance to scale.”

ROBBIE Williams has revealed his life-changing health battle for the first time, admitting ‘you’re always looking for the cure.’ 

The music star said he’s been secretly living with Tourette’s syndrome. 

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Robbie, 51, has claimed that his Tourette’s are ‘intrusive’ while speaking on a podcast about it for the first time. 

The music legend starred on the first episode of the new season of Paul Whitehouse and Dr Mine Conkbayir’s podcast I’m ADHD! No You’re Not. 

He said: “I’ve just realised that I have Tourettes, but they don’t come out. 

“They are intrusive thoughts that happen, I was just walking down the road the other day, and I realised that these intrusive thoughts are inside Tourettes. It just doesn’t come out.

“Not only that, you would think that a stadium full of people professing their love to you would work as (a distraction), but whatever it is inside me cannot hear it. I cannot take it in.”

A VAST “mini-city” of 5,500 homes, schools and green space is set to rise on the edge of Birmingham.

Council chiefs gave given the go-ahead for the first stage of works.

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The Langley development, near Walmley in Sutton Coldfield, will eventually see around 5,500 homes.

There will also be schools, community facilities and green spaces, built across a huge swathe of land.

Described by developers as an “unparalleled opportunity to establish a new sustainable community”, the scheme promises to transform the area.

Ahead of the latest council planning meeting, permission was sought to begin “strategic infrastructure” works on the site.

These include demolishing Langley Park House, creating open space and play areas, carrying out major earthworks, and building new highway, cycle and pedestrian networks.

But concerns were raised over how future residents will travel.

Conservative councillor Gareth Moore argued that Labour’s transport policy risks being “outdated” and could turn the new neighbourhood into a “heavy car-use area.”

“Despite the best will in the world, the council is not going to change that,” he said.

“I’m really concerned that long-term this is going to build up problems because we’re going to try and discourage people from owning cars.

“We’re going to try and encourage everyone to walk, cycle and get the bus – but they’re not.

“They’re going to own cars and they’ll be parked all over the place. Yes, in 50 years’ time that might be different but the important thing is the here and now.”

A council report defended the plans, pointing to an “extensive network” of new walking and cycling routes across the site.

This is including segregated cycle paths, bus-only connections and a traffic-free bridge linking eastwards over the A38.

It said: “The intention is to not give equal priority to all modes through the road space allocation, instead encouraging sustainable travel which adheres to the objectives of the Birmingham Transport Plan.”

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Officials have previously stressed that prioritising active travel and public transport will help cut road danger, connect communities and tackle the climate emergency.

According to the scheme’s official website, the new development will also bring schools, leisure facilities and large areas of “well-connected green spaces.”

“We are committed to working with the local community to deliver a beautifully designed scheme that puts placemaking at its heart and provides long-term benefits for both new and existing residents,” it said.

With the application now approved, work can begin on laying the groundwork for one of the biggest housing projects Birmingham has ever seen.

This follows after reports of a huge new town with up to 25,000 homes is set to be built in the UK, as part of a government scheme.

The ambitious plans are set to ease Britain’s housing crisis, and the project is expected to create 30,000 jobs.

The Brabazon development, in South Gloucestershire, is set to become a “thriving new town, designed around people, nature and opportunity: the best place in the UK to live, work and play”, according to YTL, the group facilitating its construction.

Proposals for the project include 6,500 homes (which could rise to 25,000), and student accommodation big enough to house 2,000 people.

The new town will also have a 20,000 capacity arena, three new schools and community facilities, and is predicted to add £5 billion to the GVA.

A new train station, Metrobus links, cycle routes and walking paths will ensure the town is well connected to Bristol and over 3.6 million square feet of commercial space will house shops, businesses and offices.

Brabazon will also have an abundance of parks and green spaces, including a 15 acre park and lake, which will be the largest in the South West for 50 years.

The government has thrown its backing behind the development, as part of a £48 billion scheme to build 12 new homes across the nation.

Work has already begun on Brabazon, with 500 homes completed, and £400 million invested by YTL.

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SHE described her stint on Dragons’ Den as the “biggest and the most public rejection” ever – but Zara Saleem has had the last laugh.

The 37-year-old mum-of-two, who quit her underpaid £27k-a-year job, now has a business worth £5 million – and she started it all with just £500 at her kitchen table.

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But things haven’t all been smooth sailing for Zara, who has two daughters, aged eight and seven and her thriving beauty brand, Delhicious.

Not only did she deal with a huge plummet in sales during the coronavirus lockdown, but she’s also been faced with numerous rejections by top high-street retailers too.

However, now sales are flying for the award-winning skincare brand, which is approved by dermatologists and clinically tested. 

Opening up on her business journey, Zara exclusively tells us: “I had no money when I started – we had no more than £500.

“We started with just buying a small batch of ingredients and a tiny bit of packaging. Everything else that we could do for free, we did for free, including making the website. 

“The first year of revenue was very low. It was around £50,000 in year one. But now, we’ve made over £5 million since we launched.

“We’ve sold over 100,000 bottles of hair oil – we sold 10,000 bottles in three days.

“We are currently on track to make between £2 and £3 million this year and are hoping to scale the business to £8 million in the next two to three years.” 

Making products in the kitchen

It was when Zara found herself having to mark up to 150 school books a day that she realised being an “underpaid” teacher was no longer for her.

And it was when Zara, who is married to her co-founder Zak Ismail, 36, came face to face with skin challenges in 2018 that the mother began making products in her kitchen.

Zak helped out too and whilst on maternity leave, things really took off, as the beauty guru, who lives in Wembley, London, explains: “I had really dry skin and really ugly, scaly patches that were really painful. 

“I didn’t really want to use steroid creams and that’s when I started to experiment with ingredients that I knew had anti-inflammatory properties.

“I used to use black tea as a face toner, so I would brew the tea and add some oils, and I knew that it was a good anti-inflammatory.

“I formulated the body scrub in my kitchen and it had incredible results. Within a couple of days, my skin had almost completely cleared.”

We were really scared in the beginning but we took the risk. We were quite delusional

Zara Saleem

At the time, while Zara was employed as a teacher, her husband Zak was working in a corporate job. 

However, their lifestyle was far from lavish, as she adds: “I wasn’t living a luxurious life at all.

“The money wasn’t great – teachers are incredibly underpaid for the amount of work that they do.”

The GlossyBox deal that changed everything

Unsure of the brand’s future, Zara shares: “It was never really meant to be a proper beauty brand – I didn’t really have it in my head how far I could take it. 

“It was literally just me and my husband with the scrappy website that we made, hoping that we would get some sales.

“I had 20 bags of body scrub at the time and we had no sales coming in. 

“I was like, ‘if I sell a couple of body scrubs, I’m great,’ but I was very much at home with my two children under two.”

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But it was a huge deal with GlossyBox that really made the business take off, as Zara recognises: “Once we’d launched and started to get a couple of sales, I was adamant that I wanted to try and get some press, so I started to reach out to a couple of journalists.

“I went on the radio and then after that, we got approached by GlossyBox, who at the time were the biggest beauty box around, and beauty boxes around that time were really taking off. They wanted to place an order of 100,000 units.

“We were still making products in our kitchen. We had no manufacturer, we had no idea how we would actually be able to fulfil the order, but we took it on and turned our house into a factory.

“Our neighbours very kindly took our furniture in, we had our family and friends coming and filling body scrubs for us and we had a crazy four months where we hand-packed and made 100,000 body scrubs.

“I think it was at that point that we kind of thought, ‘this could actually be something.’”

Going viral on TikTok

After the success with GlossyBox, Zara and Zak turned to body balms – now one of their bestselling, award-winning products. 

Zara explains: “We made our body balms which went super viral on TikTok because they had incredible results for people with eczema and psoriasis. 

“Our fridge was full of balms and we couldn’t make enough because the minute we would put them online they were gone.

“We created waitlists. I think we had a waitlist of around 50,000 people at one point. It was actually insane. 

“We started hitting five-figure sales a month. We were growing, growing, growing and sales were pouring in.”

Whilst running the business, Zara returned to her teaching job, but shortly after, realised it was time to quit for good and focus on her business full-time. Soon after, Zak followed suit.

The couple were initially fearful to take the risk and Zara describes her actions as “delusional.” But in just three months, she had matched her monthly teacher wage.

The businesswoman shares: “We had no business background whatsoever. We were really scared in the beginning but we took the risk.

“We were quite delusional. I don’t think we thought things through enough to be honest.

“We were really lucky. We had a really supportive circle of family and friends who helped us get through. 

“Who knows, if anyone did doubt us, but it wasn’t to our face.”

Rejection after rejection

But things haven’t always been easy for this couple, as Zara shares: “When we first launched, we aimed to get into Boots and buyers rejected us straight away.

“They were like, ‘no you’re not ready’, and I agree with that now.

“We’ve had multiple rejections – every single retailer you can think of rejected us.” 

After sales plummeted in lockdown, just four years after launching the business, Zara decided to go on Dragons’ Den, where she asked for £50,000 for 15% of the business.

But Zara left the infamous den without an investment, as she shares: “I felt like the Dragons didn’t quite get the brand.

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“But also, what had happened was, we had a spike in our sales with the GlossyBox order, and then after that, it was lockdown, which meant that I had both of my very small children at home, so I had to step back because I didn’t have any childcare available.

“I had to make that conscious decision to not invest as much time as I could in the business and obviously to the Dragons that didn’t sound good.

“I think they just didn’t really get it and they thought we were a TikTok brand. It felt like a little bit more of an excuse as to why they may not have wanted to invest.”

Reflecting on her time on the BBC show, the mother admits: “Dragons’ Den was probably the biggest and the most public rejection I’ve had, which was really difficult.

“Even before it aired, I was really nervous because I felt like I’d let myself down, I felt like I’d let the brand down because I didn’t get the investment.

“It was a really tough experience and at the time, I felt like I doubted everything about the brand.

I thought it would be good if I could have secured the investment, not for the money but more for the guidance, because obviously I didn’t have a mentor and we didn’t really know what we were doing

Zara Saleem

“They didn’t think it would scale and they didn’t think it was investable because of that one dip.

“And actually, rejection is always redirection and it’s something you need to overcome if you truly believe in whatever it is that you’re building.

“And I do fully believe in the brand, I believe in the ethos and the values of it, so I guess that keeps me going.

“I wasn’t relying on Dragons’ Den for the success of the business. I thought it would be good if I could have secured the investment, not for the money but more for the guidance, because obviously I didn’t have a mentor and we didn’t really know what we were doing.” 

Expansion and £120,000 salaries

But despite walking away empty handed, it didn’t take long for things to pick up again for Delhicious. 

As well as being online for Debenhams, Zara says: “Retail was a big move for us – we always wanted to be on the high street. We are in store in Beauty Base and exclusively in store with Superdrug.”

Things have since expanded from Zara and Zak’s kitchen and now, Delhicious is a team of five.

Zara adds: “We’ve got all UK manufacturers now – that process took us quite a long time.

“Obviously when you’re making products at home, it’s a very different process – you’re making a couple of hundred to now making thousands at a time.”

“We used to pack every single order that used to come in. Now we have a fulfilment centre and it’s a very, streamlined process compared to how it was before, which was very hands-on by me and Zak literally seeing every order coming in, making the products, printing labels, and packing them ourselves.

“We’ve outsourced all of that so we can actually focus on the growth of the business.”

Being able to focus on the business growth has proved profitable for Zara and now, both she and Zak are on £120,000 salaries. 

Life-changing success

Reflecting on the company’s success, she acknowledges: “We’ve had six-figure months – we’ve done at least £200,000 in one month.

“It’s been so life-changing in so many ways. Financially, to have that ease of mind, it’s incredible.

“I’m not a big spender but if we want to go on a nice holiday, we can go on a nice holiday.

“We’ve recently done a big house renovation, which was amazing – it’s something we’ve always wanted to do.

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“Going from a £27,000 salary to then being able to be on six-figures now – I would never have been able to get that in teaching.

“We’re very, very blessed and very lucky, but we’ve worked really hard for it.

“I’m still very modest, I’m very conscious of the way that I spend my money, and that’s something that I pass on to my children as well.”

Now that Zara is her own boss, she has much more flexibility over her life, as she beams: “I absolutely love that I can do all the school drop-offs and pick-ups. I have a lot of flexibility over my time which is so nice.

“Of course, we still do work a lot. People get the impression that when you run your own business, you’re not working as much.

“We work a lot but it’s on our own terms – that was the one thing that I couldn’t get in teaching and it used to break my heart.”

Zara is now on a mission to get more women into the industry, as she continues: “I’m a really big advocate for women going into business. I think it’s such a great way for women to be independent, but still be able to be present in their other roles. We need more women in business.”

Discussing the future of the business, Zara concludes: “Hopefully we’re going outside of the UK now as well and hoping to be able to expand distribution and go to more multiple retailers as well. 

“We’ve definitely got our eyes on Australia and the US, as well as Kuwait and Dubai.” 

Unlock even more award-winning articles as The Sun launches brand new membership programme – Sun Club

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TRADESPEOPLE are struggling to expand their businesses because of growing costs, bureaucracy and hiring pressures, a new study suggests.

A survey of 850 tradespeople working across the UK by Checkatrade showed they were eager to contribute to the Government’s plan for growth, but challenges were preventing them from doing so.

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Four out of five of those surveyed said rising costs of materials and tools, plus increased levels of tool theft, were preventing them from growing their business.

A similar number blamed rising taxes, such as the increase in employer National Insurance Contributions.

In April the Government increased the rate of National Insurance contributions from 13.8% to 15%.

It also lowered the threshold at which employers start paying National Insurance from £9,100 to £5,000.

This has piled further pressure onto tradespeople already struggling to make ends meet.

Jambu Palaniappan, chief executive of Checkatrade, said: “The UK is a nation dependent on the trade industry — from carpenters to electricians, decorators to roofers.

“The 900,000 people behind it couldn’t be more important for propelling our economy.”

He said that the research shows how eager tradespeople are to contribute to the Government’s growth agenda.

As part of the plan the Government wants to improve the UK’s rate of economic growth and boost national productivity.

But while there is lots of optimism and significant opportunities for growth, there are still significant challenges tradespeople face.

Palaniappan said: “The Government needs to work with industry to close skills gaps, ensure apprenticeships work for small businesses, and do everything they can to reduce the burdens, the costs, and the taxes that can stifle tradespeople’s growth.”

What support is available?

If you are self-employed and are struggling with the higher cost of living, then there is support available to you.

Universal Credit

One way is to top up your income with Universal Credit.

You can apply if you need to top up your income and have low income and savings.

But you won’t be eligible if you live with a spouse or partner and have combined savings of more than £16,000 or your partner earns too much.

You can check if you are eligible and your claim is likely to be successful by using a benefits calculator.

Turn2us and Entitledto both offer calculators that can help you check whether you qualify.

You will need to attend a gateway interview with a DWP work coach so they can check that being self-employed is your main job.

They will also confirm if you are making a profit or are expected to if you’ve just started out.

This means you’ll need to provide evidence such as receipts, a business plan, copies of invoices, trading accounts or proof you’ve registered as self-employed with HMRC.

If you don’t have enough evidence, then they may decide that you’re not “gainfully” self-employed.

You will need to look and be eligible for other work while you get Universal Credit.

For more information and to apply visit the GOV.UK website.

Employment and Support Allowance

If you’re self-employed, then you can’t claim Statutory Sick Pay.

But if you’ve paid enough National Insurance, then you may be able to claim the new-style Employment and Support Allowance if you’re ill.

If you qualify for the benefit, then you can claim it regardless of your household income or savings.

But if you haven’t paid enough National Insurance, then you may be able to claim the limited capability for work and work-related activity element of Universal Credit.

To be eligible your savings must be less than £16,000.

If you live with a partner, then their income will also be taken into account as part of the claim for Universal Credit.

For information on if you qualify for Employment and Support Allowance and what to do if you don’t visit GOV.UK.

Cut your tax bill

You could be missing out on key tax allowances that could save you hundreds of pounds a year.

If you work from home, then you may be able to claim for costs associated with work, such as business phone calls, gas and electricity.

If you work from home between 51 and 100 hours a month, then you could get £18.

Meanwhile, if you work for more than 101 hours a month from home, then you could get £26 a month – or £312 a year.

If the amount of time you work from home varies month-to-month, then you can claim the relevant amount for that month.

To apply visit the GOV.UK website.

You may also be able to claim tax relief on your mileage if you drive a car or van for work.

You can claim 45p tax relief on every mile you do for the first 10,000 miles a year of business journeys.

If you travelled this distance in a year, you would get £4,500 in tax relief a year.

If you drive more than 10,000 miles, then you can claim 25p tax relief per mile.

You can also get an additional 5p per mile in relief if you carry a passenger.

You can log the number of miles you do and add reminders to report your mileage using apps including driversnote and Fuelio.

To use these apps just download them from the app store and create an account.

Read our helpful guide for more advice on how to cut your tax bill if you’re self-employed.

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].

Plus, you can join our Sun Money Chats and Tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories

A MAJOR supermarket with 340 branches is set to close a site tomorrow.

The supermarket specialises in frozen food but also stocks a wide-range of well known brands such as Muller, Birds Eye and McCain.

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Heron Foods was first established in 1978 after operating as a local butcher in Hull under the name ‘Grindells Butchers.’

After Anthony Grindell sold the business to his sister and her family, the name was changed and the chain started to grow.

The company now runs 343 locations across the UK, however it will suffer a huge blow.

It has now been announced that the Scunthorpe store is set to close its doors for the final time.

In the Heron Foods Scunthorpe Facebook group, one of the admins wrote to the chain’s loyal customer base to announce the news.

The post read: “Dear Valued Customers, we want to thank you for your continued support and loyalty to our Heron Foods store in Scunthorpe.

“It’s been a pleasure serving the local community, and we’re incredibly grateful for the relationships we’ve built over the years.

“We’re writing to let you know that our Scunthorpe store, located at Jubilee Way in the Parishes Shopping Centre, will be closing down.

“This decision was not made lightly, and we understand it may come as disappointing news to many of you.”

It was also revealed that the shop will close its doors for the final time before the weekend has even finished.

The post continued: “Our final day of trading will be the 27th September, and until then, we’ll continue to offer great value and service.

“We encourage you to visit us before we close to take advantage of our remaining stock and special offers.”

The account added: “While this location is closing, we remain committed to serving our customers across the UK. You can continue to shop with us at nearby Heron Foods stores.

“Thank you again for being part of our journey in Scunthorpe. We’ll miss you!”

Customers flooded the comments section of the post to express their immense disappointment at the decision.

One user wrote: “Shame you always have good bargains, going to miss you.”

A second stated: “Shame it’s shutting down always go in there every week.”

“Not good for the town yet again another good shop to close,” claimed a third concerned resident.

While this location is closing, we remain committed to serving our customers across the UK.

Shop adminFacebook

While a fourth commented: “It’s an absolute shame for the wonderfully helpful staff.”

And a fifth added: “Feel sorry for all the people that use the shop in the town that get their good bargains etc.”

However, the chain is launching a new site in Byker, Newcastle which is set to open its doors to customers on October 16th.

The company is also investing in a refurbishment in its Fulwell shop in Sunderland that is due to reopen at the start of October.

In August 2017, B&M purchased the chain in a reported £152million acquisition.

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AN INFLUENCER with dwarfism has urged people to think twice about the way they speak to “little people”.

Lucy Sleight has made a name for herself as someone to watch in the social media world, and has a whopping 20.7 million likes on her TikTok page.

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She uses her platform to share fashion and beauty advice, but recently shared a video in which she opened up about some of the things she finds most difficult about being somebody with dwarfism.

One thing she can’t stand is when people “full on get on their knees” to talk to her, as she said it gives her “second hand embarrassment” for what they look like.

Instead, she urged them to sit down while she stands up, so that they’re at similar heights.

And don’t even think about patting her on the head – or using her as an armrest.

“Like girl please!” she sighed in the TikTok, which she captioned “things I find patronising as a little person”.

“This hasn’t actually happened to me many times thank God.

“Because if somebody did I’d literally be like excuse me. Like who do you think I am?

“I am not an object!”

She can’t stand it when people call her “cute”, which happens a lot – especially when she’s out with her boyfriend, who also has dwarfism.

“I want to be gorgeous. I want to be beautiful,” she said.

“I want to be amazing. I want to be incredible.

“And I feel like me personally. I associate the word cute with like small things or younger things.

“Like I’d call my nephew cute.

“I’m 26. I don’t want to be cute!”

Lucy also took aim at people who call her “inspirational” just because she’s a dwarf, as she said she wants to be considered an inspiration to others because of the things she does with her platform – not just because of her condition.

And she can’t stand it when people “overcompensate” in the way they talk to her, and end up talking to her like she’s “three years old”.

“I just want to reiterate like I know all those things I’ve mentioned are like are harmless,” she concluded the video, which has had over 357,000 views on the social media site.

“People are being nice, but it’s just sometimes the way things come across.”

The comments section was immediately filled with people having their say on Lucy’s advice, as one wrote: “I hate it when people infantalise people with dwarfism or visible disabilities.

“All of these comments must be so infuriating and annoying.”

“What is wrong with people?” another sighed.

“I don’t see you as anything different.

“You’re a beautiful human with an amazing personality!”

“As a wheelchair user and someone with cerebral palsy, I relate to all of these! Drives me mad,” a third admitted.

A MASTERCHEF star has announced the closure of all of his UK pastry shops, after struggling to cope with climbing costs.

Graham Hornigold, who has also appeared on Junior Bake Off co-founded gourmet doughnut brand Longboys back in 2019, but just six years later, the business has gone bust.

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The brand’s three London sites, in Liverpool Street, Coal Drops Yard and Market Halls Canary Wharf have all closed their doors for their final time.

Writing on Instagram, the pastry chef explained: “You’ve probably noticed we’ve been a little quieter than usual.

“The truth is, with rising inflation, changes to NI, and product costs spiralling, the past few months have been incredibly tough.

“Like so many small independents across the UK hospitality industry, we’ve felt the impact hard.

“You may have seen that we made the difficult decision to close all Longboys sites in the hope of reopening. Sadly, we won’t be able to bring them back.

“But this isn’t the end -it’s a redirection.”

Graham added that himself and his team will “dust ourselves off and go again”.

Longboys was famous for its finger shaped doughnut and eclair hybrids, filled with creative flavours, such as Sticky Toffee Pudding and Raspberry Rose Lychee.

Commenting under the post, pastry fans shared their devastation at the closure.

One person said: “Gutted to hear this news!

“Look forward to your return soon.”

A second person said: “Your lychee raspberry donuts will be living rent-free in my mind forever.”

A third person added: “Sorry to hear this news. I enjoyed many visits to your Coal Drops Yard shop.”

More restaurant closures

And Longboys isn’t the only eatery that’s struggled to stay afloat.

Rick Stein’s Marlborough restaurant could be set to close its doors for good, just five years after being saved.

A spokesperson for Rick Stein Marlborough told Gazette and Herald: “We can confirm that we are proposing the closure of our Marlborough restaurant and are consulting with the team to explore whether this can be avoided.

“Our other restaurants and rooms continue to trade well, but this particular site has not delivered the same level of return.”

And last month, Channel 4 chef Dom Taylor announced he is closing his Marvee’s Food Shop in Ladbroke Grove, West London, due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

The Caribbean restaurant only opened a few month’s prior, in May, as part of the music and events space UNDR, near the famous Portobello Road.

The Los Angeles Film School is at the center of a whistleblower lawsuit from two former executives who allege the institution unlawfully collected government funds in an elaborate accreditation scheme.

Dave Phillips and Ben Chaib, the school’s former VP of career development and VP of admissions, respectively, allege in a federal lawsuit that the L.A. Film School violated federal employment requirements and accrediting standards. The lawsuit also names LAFS’ Florida counterpart Full Sail University, its main owner James Heavener and two other business partners as defendants.

The lawsuit, originally filed in L.A. federal court in June 2024, was recently unsealed after the Department of Justice opted to not investigate.

Representatives of LAFS could not be immediately reached for comment but have previously denied the claims.

In statement to Variety last week the school’s attorneys said that Phillips and Chaib are attempting “to resuscitate time-barred and erroneous allegations, which were already thoroughly investigated and settled by the Department of Education.”

For a university to be accredited and receive federal funding, the accreditation criteria state that a school must successfully instruct 70% of its students to land and hold jobs for which they are trained. The plaintiffs argue that graduates from the film school are unable to receive entry-level positions, citing an internal report which shows that most graduates earn $5,000 or less in their field of study. Only 20% of students were able to find work, the suit alleges.

LAFS receives over $85 million a year in federal financial assistance, including about $60 million in federal student loans, and more than $19 million in veterans’ financial aid funds. The Winter Park, Fla.-located Full Sail University, which teaches curriculum in entertainment-adjacent fields, also gets over $377 million per year in federal financial assistance, according to the complaint.

“For at least the last ten years, nearly all federal funds bestowed upon and taken in resulted from fraud with the institution using taxpayer funds to finance and facilitate multiple, temporary employment positions for LAFS graduates,” the lawsuit states.

Seeking to continue collecting government funds, the university is alleged to have spent nearly $1 million (between 2010 and 2017) to provide temporary employment from nonprofits and paid-off vendors. These jobs would usually last two days; LAFS would determine who would be hired, their schedule and wage. Students were led to believe these opportunities were “in-house production opportunities” and “post-graduate apprenticeships,” but instead, they were schemes planned and paid for by the school to remain an accredited university, according to the lawsuit.

Federal law prohibits higher education from “provid[ing] any commission, bonus, or other incentive payment based directly or indirectly on success in securing enrollments.” When LAFS was audited in 2017, the plaintiffs further allege that the school misled the Department of Education auditors, denied the existence of the incentive compensation system and failed to disclose their connection to vendors.

Beyond collecting these federal funds, the former executives argue that the school misled students and potential enrollees by overstating the availability of jobs and making untrue or misleading statements related to employment.

LAFS was created in 1999 and is located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. It offers a variety of bachelor’s and associate degrees in areas including film, film production and animation, with tuition ranging between $40,000 and $80,000.

Both plaintiffs, Phillips and Chaib, worked at the film school for 12 years and were members of the senior executive team. Phillips’ contract was not renewed in 2022.

The Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges recently renewed the school’s accreditation in 2023 for a five-year period.

FIRST it was Mondeo. Then Fiesta. Now Focus. 

Another much-loved Ford heading for the great scrapyard in the sky. 

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No matter. 

Kia is here to fill the gap by giving us two sensibly-priced, Focus-sized family hatchbacks called “4”. 

One petrol. 

One electric. 

Plus, an electric saloon thingy. 

The same thing happened with small cars. 

Ford axed the cheery Ka runabout six years ago. Yet Kia is still shifting the dinky Picanto by the boatload. 

I dunno. Them crazy Koreans giving people what they actually want. 

Right, let’s discuss the cars you see on these pages today. 

The yellow car is called K4. That’s a five-door petrol hatch from £25k. Well-equipped. Fizzy 1-litre or 1.6 turbo petrols. Seven-year warranty. As with any Kia. Undercuts a Volkswagen Golf by £3k. 

The blue car is called EV4. That’s a five-door electric hatch from £35k, before any electric car grant. Looks great. Drives sweetly.

The chassis could easily handle more power. Iron Man and Mickey Mouse integrated in the onboard computer. 

I’m serious. 

You can personalise the central screen and satnav with your favourite movie characters. The kids will love that. 

Then watch Netflix or play arcade games, if you ever need to stop to recharge. 

I say IF because the biggest 81kWh battery will do 390 miles by the official WLTP test. Closer to 320 miles in the real world.

Still more than most people do in a week. And way more than a Vauxhall Astra Electric can manage. 

Everything is super easy 

The regular EV4 has a 273-mile ­battery and recharges in a 30-minute tea-and-pee break. 

Driving impressions. You sit nice and low in this car. We like that. It rides nicely (multi-link rear axle). 

We designed this car thinking about the European customer because they love to drive

Kia engineer

Handles nicely (also multi-link rear axle). Accelerates smoothly. Everything is super easy.

If you want to feel more involved, use the braking regen paddles on the steering wheel to mimic changing down gears for a bend. 

I reckon the four-wheel-drive GT due next year is going to be a lot of fun. 

A Kia engineer told me: “We designed this car thinking about the European customer because they love to drive.” 

Too right. 

The cabin is copy-and-paste Kia’s other award-winning EVs. Which means a nice mix of screens and hard controls, cup holders and chargers for everyone, lots of recycled materials, and lots of S P A C and E. 

Like 10cm more legroom in the back than a Tesla Model 3. Like a wide-opening boot that swallows loads more stuff than a Focus, Golf or Astra. 

That’s the benefit of a ground-up ­electric car. It’s no bigger on the outside. But you get a next-size-up cabin. 

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Put simply, EV4 is a peach. 

Now for the car I’m less bothered about. The fugly EV4 Fastback. I reckon the designers were rushing to get to the pub. Either that or they finished it after they’d been to the pub. 

I’m sure someone will like it. 

It does have a bigger boot and the biggest battery as standard. 

But it costs £41k. 

At least Kia is doing Ford’s old job by giving everyone lots of choice. 

A FORMER flight attendant has revealed some of her shocking mile-high experiences – from love rat pilots to passenger deaths.

Alanna Pow joined the cabin crew when she was just 19-years-old and worked on short-haul flights for three years before leaving the industry behind.

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The 22-year-old, who is now a model with three million followers across social media @alannasworldx,liked her job but admits certain situations could be very challenging.

And she was left stunned by some of the things she witnessed.

“What happens on flights is crazy,” said Alanna.

“For one thing, passengers die on planes more than people think.

“On our way from Melbourne to Cairns, an old man was in the toilet for half an hour or so.

“We opened the door to check on him and his body fell out onto my colleague.

“He was unresponsive and his poor wife was on the plane.

“We have a defibrillator onboard so we tried to resuscitate him, but it was too late.

“So, we just had to lay the passenger’s body down on the floor until we landed.

“What flight attendants go through and what we have to be trained in makes me sad.

“I was only 21 at the time and it’s such a big responsibility.”

The adult model also revealed that romances between cabin crew, pilots and passengers are rife.

She herself admits to having flings with three pilots – and even once hooked up with a passenger who slipped her his business card in first class.

Alanna said: “Some pilots are so flirty that you get warned about them by other colleagues and they can do what they want, because they’re in charge of the plane.

“Most of them are cheats.

“I slept with three pilots and one had a girlfriend.

“Sometimes they would see my name on the sheet and invite me into the cockpit for take-off and landing.

“One pilot would come over to mine when he had layovers even though he had a girlfriend, which was really bad.

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“When you have stopovers, all the cabin crew and pilots spend it together.”

Alanna also shared two tips for passengers who want a smooth ride.

She said: “Always be nice to flight attendants.

“And always have cash on you in the right currency to bribe people if your bag is overweight.”

The model quit flying and joined OnlyFans in 2023 after rumours circulated that she was already an adult star.

She said: “Passengers and colleagues always assumed I was on OnlyFans before I was because of my body type and the photos that I posted on Instagram.

“They weren’t too crazy but because I had really big boobs they always were out.

“I love flying and I love traveling as every flight attendant would say, though it got a bit boring after one year because the flights I was on were domestic.

“And the early mornings and long hours are hard.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to a normal job.”

GAVIN & Stacey star Joanna Page says she did not complain about being groped by a TV presenter because she “did not want to make a fuss”.

The Welsh actress, 48, who played Stacey Shipman in the hit BBC sitcom has written about it in her new memoir Lush.

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She recalled the female producer of an entertainment show telling her the presenter could be “very handsy with the women”.

He started groping her and she had to knock his hand away.

Joanna said: “There are always going to be predators in an environment like this when you’ve got young, beautiful girls who are desperate to get a job.

“It is so hard to get that job.”

“Most of the time the people who are giving you those jobs are older men and they know that you want the job and there’s a million girls out there trying to get the job.”

She continued: “You don’t ever go, ‘Oh God, I’m going to report this’, because in those days you kind of didn’t, you just got on with it, it was what happened at work.

“It wasn’t every single job I went into, but in lots of different jobs there would be one type of thing.”

Mum-of-four Joanna, who is promoting her memoir Lush!, does not name the perpetrator ­­as she says: “The legal people said, ‘Be careful’.”

Earlier this year, Joanna and Natalie Cassidy were dealt a blow when the Beeb failed to recommission their show, leaving it axed just one year after launching.

A BBC spokesperson told The Sun earlier this year: “What started as a six month project turned into more than a year of joyous TV chatter, and over 80 heart-warming episodes.

“Though they both loved making the series, Natalie Cassidy and Joanna Page have very busy schedules and on the 21st May, the final episode of Off the Telly will be released on BBC Sounds.

“Thank you to Nat and Jo for their warm recommendations and insider analysis, and to the whole team for keeping listeners in the loop with what to watch.

“We look forward to working with Nat and Jo again soon!”

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1996. Wembley Stadium. I’m standing in a sea of England flags and fans, watching the Euros semi-final. As the crowd roars with one voice, it’s electric. Football’s coming home.

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It didn’t of course. But that day, England stood shoulder to shoulder. Beyond the stadium, across the entire country, we shared the highs and lows together.

Being there felt like we were part of something larger than ourselves. An England that belonged to our grandparents and our history, but also to our children and our future. And I felt like I was part of it.

That’s the power of our flag. To make us all feel like part of Team England.

Win or lose, north or south, black or white, old or young. Even Spurs and Arsenal were on the same team that day, cheering on our country.

So I know what a source of pride our flag can be, and what it means to people.

Which is makes it all the more shameful when people exploit that symbol to stoke anger and division.

I know people feel angry that the country they love doesn’t seem to work for them.

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People who feel like they’re doing everything right, but getting nothing to show for it.

Working harder and harder just to stand still, and worried what the future will look like for their kids.

I share that frustration. I’m determined to fix it. But a small minority see instead an opportunity to whip up hatred. To follow and old and dangerous playbook that sets people against one another.

That’s what we’ve seen in parts of the country. Police officers assaulted.

Loutish behaviour on the streets. And people made to feel like they are not welcome or safe here because of their heritage, religion or colour of their skin.

We’ve seen a nine year old black girl shot at in a racist attack. Chinese takeaways defaced. That sends a shiver down the spine of every right-minded Brit. This is not who we are.

When populist politicians, convicted criminals, and foreign billionaires take to the stage to encourage violence, make racist comments, and threaten our democracy, it casts a dark shadow of fear and violence across our society.

They want to drag our country down into a toxic spiral of division and hatred because it’s good for them. But their vile lies are not good for the country.

Here’s the truth. Over the past 15 years, trust in politics has been eroded. the economy became weaker and weaker. Opportunities disappeared as libraries, leisure centres, community spaces shut down during austerity.

Public services like our NHS neglected, neighbourhoods looking more and more tired as high streets shuttered up, anti-social behaviour blighting people’s lives.

Working people were left to scrap over fewer and fewer crumbs.

Now we’re at a crossroads. There is a dark path ahead of division and decline, toxicity and fear.

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A path that relies on destruction and disappointment, because when the damage is done and the graffiti cleaned away, it’s clear the populists  never had anything to offer – no hope, no future, no answers.

Or, there is the patriotic path of national renewal. Every one of us playing our part to renew, restore, rebuild the country we love.

That is the path we choose. 

Because this government is taking responsibility to reverse the decline.

We’re growing our economy so there’s more to go round for everyone, with 5 cuts in interest rates saving families up to £1,000 on their mortgage each year.

We’re building 1.5 million new homes, new towns, hospitals and schools and improving transport across the country. We’re delivering 5.2 million extra NHS appointments.

And we’re saving families £7,500 a year on childcare, giving hard working parents more cash and more time.

Of course we need to deal with the issues the country faces, like illegal immigration, head on.

But the way to be proud of our country again is to be part of the renewal, not the destruction. This is a struggle for the heart and soul of our nation.

But it’s not between ordinary people who simply want a better life for their families. It’s between patriots who care about our country, and populists who only care about themselves.

They want to control a current of tension and fear. I want the electricity I felt in that stadium almost thirty years ago, of a defiant Britain, a nation of decency and diversity, that still dares to stand together and believe in better.

Because this is the country that stood tall – with our allies – against the forces of fascism 80 years ago.

This is who we are. We’ve got the match of our lives ahead. And we need you on the pitch.