Successful Campaigns

After over two years of campaigning and thousands of people signing this petition, the Chancellor has closed the holiday let tax loophole! Since 2019, nearly 36,000 homes around England have been lost to the tourist industry, and many more in Wales and Scotland. This announcement should help make more homes available for local people, which will make rents more affordable. Thanks to everyone to who got involved and helped us bring attention to this issue by signing the petition: you made this victory possible.

WHAT A CAMPAIGN WIN! 🙌 Thanks to each and every one of you that signed the petition, we caused the gov to open a consultation into the ban and more than 50,000 incredible people fed into it, sharing their views on a ban. It's now their move. Will they listen and take action to ban some of the most polluting single-use plastics sooner rather than later?? Visit our website to stay up to date on what's happening and find out how to get more involved with our vital plastic pollution campaigning work https://www.citytosea.org.uk/ With love from us and love from the oceans, Jo and the City to Sea team 🌊

13/07/21 We are hugely delighted to inform you our positive action against this fossil fuelled generator has worked! Plans for this generator have been withdrawn and replaced with a new planning application for a greener, battery alternative. Conrad Energy confirmed they submitted their new planning application for this last Friday 9th July. Read more here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-57780329

7/4/20 Good news - people power has delivered! Randox, the Northern Ireland diagnostics company which has developed a rapid test to identify Covid-19, has confirmed it is no longer selling its tests online for a high price and is now working directly with the NHS. On Saturday it was confirmed the new NHS testing centre at SSE Arena in Belfast would be using Randox test kits. We need to remain vigilant, but because of you and thousands of others who took action when it was most needed, Randox have been forced to act. This much is clear right now: by coming together and taking a stand, we can force people in power to sit up and listen. Thank you for taking action. More power to you, Nicola, Act Now Coordinator (a collaboration between Uplift and 38 Degrees)

On 4 November we handed in our petition to NSDC's Castle House, along with an envelope of the Sycamore trees' seeds and a letter from the trees asking for their legacy to continue. We had a huge crowd chanting 'FREE THE TREES' as local children handed in our total 6,081 signatures. It was a real magical community moment. Just twenty minutes after handing in the petition, NSDC formally voted to preserve the trees and Library Garden for good at an Extraordinary Council Meeting. Newark residents and visitors are in huge relief from the outcome. It's been such an emotional rollercoaster for our community, but team spirit, love and passion prevailed.

STOP PRESS: This morning (10th March 2022), Leeds Bradford Airport’s Chief Exec announced that he has withdrawn the airport’s planning application. This is a victory for our climate and our communities. It means that the airport cannot extend daytime flying hours nor remove night time flying controls. As they said in their own planning application, this means they don't have the capacity to increase passenger numbers above 5 million a year. Here’s the key sentence, in the Environmental Statement at para 1.1.4: “The Airport is forecast to continue to grow over the next decade reaching 7 million passengers per annum by 2030, assuming that existing operational restrictions imposed by existing planning controls are amended through the current planning application.” Well that can’t happen now! Make no mistake, this victory is down to people power - you and the thousands of other people who signed our petition, took action, donated funds and never gave up hope that we can make the right choices today to build a better tomorrow for everyone. We will keep a close eye on what the airport’s Australian owners do next and we will act again if they try to break any rules that limit any rise in passengers above five million. We remain vigilant and ready to continue the fight to protect our climate and communities. But for today, we’re celebrating success! A massive ‘thank you’ for backing the campaign. The GALBA committee

12/09/22 It's been almost two years since we started our campaign to stop the proposed merger between Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, and University Hospital Sussex, but finally we have received the news we have all been working towards. All work on the merger has been stopped and we have been informed that this is not a pause but a final decision not to go ahead with the merger now or in the future. Recent whistleblowing by consultants at USH and the subsequent CQC reports highlighting significant ongoing patient safety concerns have proved that merger with them would have been a disaster for QVH. We want to thank each and every one of you that has been involved in supporting us during our fight to save these internationally respected specialist services. We now need leadership put in place that understands and values this unique hospital and its staff. Not a leadership team that is willing to sell it off the highest bidder, instead a leadership team that will fight for its future by building on its strengths and working with like-minded organisations. Thank you all for helping us to get our voices heard!

The Jeremy Kyle Show has been axed by ITV after a huge public backlash around the show exploiting people for entertainment. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48279613

Pensions dashboard The government committed to getting the pensions dashboard off the ground. It means we’ll be able to keep track of all our pensions in one place, stopping us losing out on thousands of pounds. When news came out that the government was considering scrapping the dashboard, over 200,000 of us jumped into action. We signed open letters, emailed our MPs and our research, which proved how much people could lose without a pensions dashboard, was plastered all over the press. The government saw our messages in their inboxes and in the media - and yesterday they acted.