Chancellor insists UK recession won’t happen as fears mount
MOUNTING HOUSING costs were pushing more than half a million Yorkshire families to stress or depression, with many taking on debt to stay in their own home, new research revealed during this week in 2008.
Worried families were spending less on food, selling possessions and borrowing from friends and family in order to meet mortgage and rent payments.
Around 380,000 were forced to pay bills using credit cards in the previous year, while around 150,000 families needed to take out loans, according to housing charity Shelter.
The gloomy findings, included in the charity’s report Breaking Point, gave the clearest indication to date of how this region was being hit by the combination of the credit crunch and rising inflation. Campaigners said the situation would only get worst unless the Government stepped up its housebuilding drive and better protected those in danger of losing their homes.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Alistair Darling renewed calls for pay restraint in the public and private sectors to head off the danger of an inflationary spiral.
In his Mansion House speech, Mr Darling acknowledged that “times are tough”, but insisted the UK would avoid recession. He told City financiers: “Our economy will continue to grow”.
Four British soldiers were killed in the deadliest attack on UK forces in Afghanistan since hostilities began in 2001. It was the first time a female British soldier had died in action in the troubled country and took the UK’s death toll over a bloody 10-day period to nine.
The troops were taking part in a planned operation east of Lashkar Gah in Helmand Province, when their vehicle was caught up in an explosion.
Three were killed in the blast, and the fourth was pronounced dead on arrival at Camp Bastion.
A fifth soldier was wounded but in a stable condition.
Potatoes are far more nutritious than pasta, according to a campaign launched by farmers to encourage more young people to reconsider the humble spud.
The trend for eating pasta as a replacement starch on a plate meant many younger people were missing out on vital nutrients such as potassium and iron, said the Potato Council.
Those aged 19 to 35 living together in ‘pre-families’ were 27 per cent less likely to use potatoes when cooking simple adult meals then the average British household, according to a study by the Oxford Partnership earlier in the year. Women aged 19-35 were found to be consuming less iron and potassium than their body needed.
The Potato Council said one portion of potatoes could provide up to 19 per cent of the recommended daily iron, while pasta supplied only seven per cent.
Nutritionist Fiona Hunter said: “Potatoes offer more nutrients for your money than either pasta or rice.”
The unprepossessing exterior of Number one Aspinal Street in Mytholmroyd near Halifax opened its doors to reveal the terraced home where the late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes spent the first eight years of his life.
The house had been transformed into a writers’ retreat and holiday home, after a £70,000 renovation by The Elmet Trust, which was set up to celebrate Hughes’s life and work.
Fellow poet Simon Armitage, also a son of the Pennines, performed the opening. It was expected that Hughes fans from around the globe would flock to the house when visiting the landscapes which had inspired him.
– Sheena Hastings
Mr Darling acknowledged that “times are tough”, but insisted the UK would avoid recession.