On May 20th, Boris Johnson declared that the UK would have a 'world-beating' coronavirus test, track and trace system in place by June 1st. Instead, four months later the UK is facing a testing crisis.

The British public are confronting the reality that we may be facing a second wave of coronavirus with a test and trace system that is just inadequate. It is unacceptable.

...actually applies to homes of any colour. Homeowners and landlords can now get funding to pay for energy saving measures and businesses are being encouraged to register their services.

The scheme means homeowners can obtain up to two-thirds of the cost of energy saving measures - up to £5000. Lower-income households could be entitled to claim as much as £10,000 to cover the cost.

Wiltshire Council has received £47,000 from the government to help rough sleepers.

It's part of £91.5m allocated to 274 local authorities to help support vulnerable people housed during the pandemic.

The funding will be spent on a range of measures that will provide support and accommodation, and ultimately reduce rough sleeping in the county.

Lib Dems Launch Campaign to Reject Government Planning Proposals

Wiltshire Liberal Democrats have launched a campaign to call on Wiltshire Council to pressure the Government to scrap its proposals to weaken planning controls. They say the proposed changes will do nothing to alleviate the housing crisis but will instead strip local authorities of the power to set local planning policies.

The Conservative Government published a White Paper, 'Planning for the Future' on 6 August, which set out proposals on reforms to the planning process.

The proposals will reduce or remove the right of residents to object to applications near them, grant automatic rights for developers to build on land identified as 'for growth', and remove section 106 payments for infrastructure, with financial contributions going to the government instead.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures show that the economy shed 695,000 jobs between March and August this year.

• The unemployment rate grew to 4.1% in the three months to July, compared with 3.9% previously.
• There were 156,000 fewer young people in employment in the three months to July. 16-24sffered the biggest drop in employment.
• Some 695,000 UK workers have disappeared from the payrolls of UK firms since March.
• More than 5m people (including furloughed workers) were still temporarily away from work in July.

Last week we officially welcomed our newest member - Director of Strategy, Research and Messaging Mimi Turner.

Mimi provided for us her perspective on the Party's strategic and campaigning position, as well as an initial summary of what we might do differently in future. There is much to be done but we are excited by the steps the Party is taking to get more Liberal Democrats elected and our newly elected Leader's listening tour.

From today, (Monday 14 September), small and medium sized businesses can apply for grants of between £1,000 and £3,000 to help them recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The grant can be used to pay for:

• specialist professional advice such as human resources, accountants, legal, financial, IT and digital etc
• purchase of minor equipment to adapt or adopt new technology so they can continue to deliver their business activity or diversify