Is Angela Rayner pushing up house prices?

By George

There is a popular movement to fly St George’s flags from lampposts. The St George Cross was used as an emblem of Henry II of England and Philip II of France during the Third Crusade in 1189. From 1218 it was used as the flag of Genoa, and in 1348 became a flag used by the English royal family. Some others using it today:

— Georgia: national flag incorporates a large St George’s Cross with a smaller one in each quadrant; Sardinia: St George’s cross with a Moor’s head in each quadrant; Barcelona: St George’s crosses in two quadrants, with stripes in the other; naval flags of Bahamas, Jamaica and St Kitts and Nevis; autonomous Caucasian regions of Abkhazia and Adjara; Swedish freemasons.

Property damage

Angela Rayner was accused of hypocrisy for buying an £800,000 flat in Hove when her department has blamed second-home owners for exacerbating the housing crisis. Is Rayner helping to price out local buyers?

— In 2022, Brighton and Hove council said the average price of its residential property was £467,622, more than ten times the average household income of £36,788.

— However, only 5,700 of the city’s 130,394 properties are either vacant or being used as a second home (council tax records do not distinguish between the two).

— A further 2,218 are short-term lets.

Qualified success

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson admitted that white working-class pupils are underperforming at GCSE. What’s the full picture of GCSE result and ethnicity? Percentages who gained at least a grade 5 in English and maths in 2024:

Chinese 78

Indian 70

Bangladeshi 57

Black African 50

White other (than British) 48

Pakistani 46

White British 43

Black Caribbean 31

Irish Traveller 17

Gypsy/Roma 7