The best part of Sri Lanka just got a stunning new hotel
When the Australian cricket team finished a day’s play against Sri Lanka in Galle in February, they came for a well-earned break at the Radisson Collection hotel, fives miles down the seafront.
They liked it so much that when they won the series a few days later, they returned to celebrate into the early hours of the morning.
”They were a very nice bunch,” hotel manager Xavier Masson tells City AM. “They even brought the trophy along.”
It’s easy to see why they liked it. The property, which has been open since the end of January, has a prime spot on Sri Lanka’s southern coast, the island’s most in-demand part, with the best beaches, surfing and snorkelling. And this new property literally could not be closer to the ocean.
For the four days I was staying there, my only concern was that an overripe coconut might fall from the palm trees overhead and smash my mojito. On closer inspection, the trees had been harvested. I could indulge without fear.
Although Radisson is more well known for its business hotels, the company has been pushing to expand into the luxury market since the launch of its Collection Brand in 2018. There are 38 properties worldwide, although the majority are in Europe. This is the first in south-east Asia and the pacific.
Sri Lanka’s famous tea plantations are walkable from the property
The hotel has 106 rooms split across 11 different categories, ranging from plush to mega-luxury ‘The Hangover’ style penthouse suite (my labels, not theirs). I was staying in a deluxe room, which sells it short. This was an apartment, complete with a spacious indoor seating area, a dining table and even a powder room if you end up entertaining guests.
All of the rooms are decked out in relaxing white Italian marble. Every room in the property has a seaside view, except for the gym. This has views over the countryside behind the hotel (so I’m told, I didn’t make it myself). The only downside is that the ocean is actually too choppy in front of the property for it to be safe to go swimming.
If you want to go in the sea, the best option is Unawatuna beach, ten minutes down the coast. This offers snorkeling, surfing and scuba diving. The Radisson isn’t the only property in the area with a good view of the sea and a gym, but it does bring some new offerings to the area.
First is the truly exceptional seafood. There are two restaurants in the hotel, both of which specialise in fruits from the sea (ok, fish). The first, Namikaze, specialises in Japanese food, although it also offers cuisine from across Asia. A Michelin starred chef consultant was flown in from Dubai to train the team for two weeks in the arts of Japanese cuisine, and it showed. The sushi was divine, and I had always thought I didn’t like sushi much.
Still, you get the sense that the staff take more pride in The Catch. Here guests can choose from a range of fish, freshly caught each morning, which are laid out for your inspection on an open counter. Guests can then select from a range of cooking styles and choose the sauces to go alongside. Dining here is described by the hotel as an ‘interactive dining experience’… also known as a menu.
I went for a red snapper cooked Sri Lankan style, which meant it had a deceptively spicy black pepper sauce. I didn’t realise I was sweating until I put my fork down. The second selling point is the bar. Galle is traditionally a fairly quiet place. A book about the city in the hotel lobby is called As Quiet As Asleep, for instance, but the bar in the Radisson Collection is open until 1am, complete with DJ decks and mixologists.
Outside the main hotel building there’s also the Taboo beachside cocktail bar. This is where our Australian cricket friends were luxuriating in their triumph just a few weeks before. Masson, a Frenchman I met who works at the property, proudly tells me that the hotel boasts one of the biggest wine cellars in Sri Lanka, with 800 bottles.
Excellent food, good drink and fantastic views. Why would you ever leave? Well, if you can draw yourself away from the view there’s plenty to explore in the area. Galle Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is just a 20 minute drive down the coast. It’s a perfectly preserved walled town, built by the Dutch in the 17th Century after expelling the Portuguese from the area.
You can walk down every street in the old town in the space of an afternoon, and there are plenty of charming cafes, restaurants and shops. Turn inland from the hotel, and the Handunugoda Tea Estate is an interesting spot for tea lovers. Sri Lanka is famous for its tea, but this plantation specialises in something quite unique.
Read more: Help save the elephants on this Sri Lanka trip of a lifetime
Supposedly, in ancient China, white tea would be produced for the emperor without it ever having touched human hands. On the emperor’s command, virgins would head out into the plantation and snip the leaves into a golden bowl, using golden scissors.
Herman Gunarathne, a master tea-maker, has brought back this technique, although virginity is no longer a requirement for his pickers. “If my friends thought I was chasing immaculate women to pick my tea, they would think I had bats in the belfry,” he said.
Still, he insists on the absence of human contact. The pickers walk the plantation with a similar pair of golden scissors, painstakingly snipping the leaves into golden bowls. The tea is supposed to be amazingly healthy. An analysis done by Swiss boffins showed that it had more naturally occuring anti-oxidants than any other drink tested so far.
It was true, the tea tasted like clean leaving, but I was on holiday! In Sri Lanka! Give me sushi and Sri Lanka’s largest wine cellar any day.
Double rooms start from £178 in low season; from £307 in high season. To book go to radissonhotels.com or email info.galle@radissoncollection.com.
Read more: Why now is the best time to visit wild, untamed Sri Lanka
Obituaries: A dying Art. Who writes them and why do they matter?
“To look at the paper is to raise a seashell to one’s ear and to be overwhelmed by the roar of humanity,” the philosopher Alain de Botton once said. Clearly Mr de Botton didn’t make it to the obituary pages very often.
Every day newspapers devote a few pages to covering the lives of interesting and eccentric characters. They are a testament not to the roar of humanity, but the satisfied purr of a life well-lived.
Last month, Amanda Fielding, the “crackpot countess” who studied the benefits of LSD, appeared in The Times alongside Robert Shapiro, a Monsanto chief executive who invented the sweetener for Diet Coke. The only connection between them was a love of synthetic substances. The Telegraph made space for Luigi Alva, a Peruvian oil executive-turned-opera singer, as well as Clive Birch, the man credited with reinvigorating British local history.
In those four lives there’s an immense sweep of human experience, condensed into a handful of pithy anecdotes and biting one-liners. Ironically, it is often the obituaries section which is the most life-affirming part of a newspaper. This was not always the case: for much of the 20th century, obituaries were a dead zone in British newspapers, so to speak.
The scene was dominated by The Times, whose obituary pages featured a succession of aristocrats, generals, bishops and politicians. The stories were often perfunctory, simply listing the deceased’s honours and achievements. “For much of the century they were basically extended society notices,” says Dennis Duncan, an associate professor of English at UCL.
It all started to change in the 1980s, when Hugh Massingberd at The Telegraph and James Fergusson at The Independent began experimenting with new kinds of obituaries. They broadened the cast of characters who might appear in a typical obituaries page, seeking to make the stories more interesting. From this starting point, however, they then took different approaches. The Independent sought to “open up and demystify the obituary”, according to Fergusson, while The Telegraph set out to “subvert the traditional obituary from within”.
Under Fergusson’s editorship, obituaries in The Independent would appear with bylines. He also got subject matter experts – or “people who knew what they were talking about” – to write pieces, a move that can be unnerving for journalists. The Telegraph’s obituaries remained unsigned, but Massingberd turned them into brief character sketches, full of revealing anecdotes and thinly-veiled euphemisms.
As Fergusson wrote: “Once upon a time the activities of a deplorable peer would have been so downplayed by The Times that only a professional code-breaker with the wind behind him could have spotted them; now The Telegraph treated them so rumbustiously that the obituary could seem like an elaborate practical joke”.
The Earl of Carnarvon, for example, was described as a “relentless raconteur and most uncompromisingly direct ladies’ man”. And while the painter Adrian Daintrey may often have looked “faintly bemused and bewildered”, we are told “his interest in the fairer sex, wine and cigars remained undiminished to the end”.
‘Euphemism is still very much in vogue’
Euphemism is still very much in vogue among obituary writers. “If I say ‘generous with his affections’, it could mean he was a top shagger,” says freelance obituary writer Tim Bullamore. “‘Never knowingly left his own county’ could mean they were enormously dull. Someone who was ‘not burdened with self-doubt’ might be extremely arrogant…” The list goes on. However, the phrase ‘he never married’ – once used as code for gay – has largely been dropped.
Being in some way ‘interesting’ is now the only necessary qualification for someone to deserve an obituary. In fact, while being dead is strongly encouraged, it is not always required. In 1999, Dave Swarbrick, a member of the folk band Fairpoint Convention, appeared in The Telegraph’s obituary pages. It soon transpired that reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated.
Swarbrick saw the piece as he recovered from emphysema in a hospital bed in Coventry. “He read the obituary and didn’t quarrel with any of the spellings or the facts, apart from the obvious one,” his wife said. Swarbrick lived for another 17 years, and would sometimes sell signed copies of his obituary at his gigs.
Andrew Brown, The Telegraph’s current obituaries editor, said the team was doubly cautious to prevent another premature obituary. “We always try to get more than one person confirming the death. It is always a bit spooky to just have one person,” he said.
But sometimes it is not possible to find an extra source. Brown said he was writing an obituary for a famous author one quiet Sunday, with the only confirmation of death coming from the author’s executor.
“Are you sure he’s dead?” Brown asked sheepishly. “Well, I’m standing in his house looking at his coffin, so I’m fairly sure,” came the reply.
Although it is rare for an obituary to be published before someone’s death, major newspapers have thousands of obits stored away, should the moment arise. These storehouses are known as ‘the morgue’. Important politicians, 27-year old musicians and ageing celebrities are all likely to have obits ready for action. Inevitably, sometimes they have to be changed to reflect new information. ”I’ve had to rewrite Zelensky’s about three times,” says Bullamore.
But the storehouses are a vital hedge against the need for speed in a digital age. Like all forms of journalism, getting a story up fast is crucial. A big obituary can attract a lot of attention.
If an obituary is prewritten, there is also scope for the subject to contribute to it. Bullamore said he occasionally travels around the country for interviews specifically with an obituary in mind. These face-to-face meetings can add crucial details to a piece, bringing the character to life. Bullamore describes how he went to interview Sir Colin Davis, a famous composer, for his obituary. “He sat there doing his knitting and smoking his pipe… All through the recording you could just hear the clink of his needles. And when I stood up, I saw he had a full-length skeleton behind him. ‘What’s that?’ I asked. ‘Just a reminder’, he replied.”
Obituaries: Grieving widows tell the unvarnished truth
While prewritten obituaries are stored in the morgue, post-mortem obits are known as ‘live copy’. Obviously it is difficult for the subject themselves to contribute to these pieces, so writers often seek out their families.
Although this sounds like it might be awkward, Brown said that in his experience, the family often enjoyed telling stories about their loved ones in the prime of life. They can also be indiscreet: “Grieving widows tell you the unvarnished truth,” Bullamore says.
One thing that does not get much space in British obituaries is the cause of death. Usually, if it appears at all, it gets at most a line. The Telegraph briefly experimented with including more details, but this was abandoned after a jazz musician died from an exploding penile implant. Not a good breakfast read.
Most obituary writers insist that it is, for the most part, not a morbid profession. Obituaries, Fergusson says, are “celebrations for the most part, of small lives, lives well lived, the lives not of the great… but of people in most ways, except maybe one, much like us”.
Housing for servicepeople should be ‘defence policy priority’, Tories say
Housing for servicepeople should be a “defence policy priority”, the Conservatives have said as they unveiled their new defence strategy.
On Friday, Iran launched an attack on Israel in retaliation to Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. US President Donald Trump has refused to rule out US involvement, with the caveat that he is “not going to take [Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] out (kill!), at least not for now.”
While Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been busy trying to convince world leaders to exercise “restraint and de-escalation,” Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge presented the Tories’ defence plan to keep servicemen and women in the UK’s armed forces.
Cartlidge said the Tories “must always prioritise the men and women behind the uniform,” by prioritising rebuilding the defence estate, improving the housing available, and creating a housing association with “prudential borrowing power.”
Cartlidge argued the government must stem the net loss of service people, many of whom cite a clash between their families and their work. “For a party that believes in the family, it must be a defence policy priority for it to be possible to both serve in the armed forces and raise a family,” Cartlidge said.
The new Conservative defence policy involved ring-fencing the funding allocated to service family accommodation so it “cannot then be raided by HMT or other parts of MoD,” and “extending home ownership throughout the ranks.”
‘John Healey was right’
The shadow defence secretary criticised the Labour government’s promise to increase the ranks of the armed forces and reserves in the 2030s. This is “a long way off. Russians will have presumably noted that,” Cartilage added.
He suggested the government was focusing excessively on ramping up defence capabilities in the form of arms and other such gear. There is “no point in the Strategic Defence Review promising up to 12 attack submarines if you don’t have the crews to operate them or the engineers to maintain them,” he said.
Though Cartlidge did concede that his party was aligned with the government on some issues, including that rearming is necessary, such as by increasing the UK’s stores of munitions, drones, and other “autonomous and uncrewed technology,” which constitute a “revolutionary way to increase our mass and lethality.”
He admitted that there is no “silver bullet” to the “fundamental” issue of retention in the forces.
Eventually addressing the mounting conflict between Iran and Israel, the defence shadow secretary said “we don’t know what the United States is going to do,” but that Defence Secretary John Healey “was right … where he said we’ve got RAF Typhoons in the region. They are there if we need them.”
Council finances in dire straits, MPs say
Councils could run out of money in 2026 due to unsustainable book balancing methods, according to parliamentarians.
The hike in national insurance contributions (NIC), combined with spending on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), has squeezed local council finances, a new report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has found.
Despite Reform’s DOGE campaign, they declined to comment on these findings on potential council “wasteful spending.”
PAC chair, MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, said that while the government claims to be concerned about local authority finances, “the lack of urgent action … to address the fast-approaching cliff edge for under-pressure authorities would seem to suggest it is comfortable with the current state of affairs as normalised background noise.”
Clifton-Brown suggested that the government should use funds from its Spending Review cash splash to fix the longstanding issues revealed when scrutinising council finances.
He added that the government’s plans for sweeping reforms will be hindered by the fact that “local authorities do not have good and strong capacity to fundamentally change the way they work.
Jobs tax strikes in government’s ranks
Increasing the rate of tax employers pay on each employee’s earnings from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent, and almost halving the threshold at which they do so, is costing not only businesses, but councils as well, according to the PAC.
The Treasury put £15m aside for local authorities earlier this year to support them in paying higher taxes on their employees. The “jobs tax” uplift will have effects on “small charitable organisations, and knock-on effects to the markets, such as in Adult Social Care,” the PAC report argued. This could lead in private providers foisting cost increases to local authorities or walking back on contracts.
The report finds that – “unacceptably” – the government did not assess these tax raid’s impacts on councils in a rush to raise public funds in the Autumn Budget.
Clifton-Brown said that introducing these changes to NICs “without taking into account the likely effect on an already tottering local government sector” was a big mistake on the government’s part.
Bang for Buck? Who knows
The PAC report found that the local authorities spent £72bn on local public services in 2023-2024, but there was a lack of information as to whether this money is being spent effectively. Only a quarter of local bodies had up-to-date external audit assurance on their 2022-23 financial statements.
Only half of education, health and care plans were issued within the 20-week statutory limit in 2023, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government doesn’t track the outcomes of local authority spending.
A reason for the slapdash public spending has been, according to the PAC, an “overly complex” system, where policies compete against each other, and various funding streams overlap.
There are several hundred small funds with very specific purposes that are available to local governments, but securing these require local authorities to undertake substantial paperwork.
The PAC suggests these are consolidated in the upcoming Budget.
The government’s new Office for Value for Money is planned to make cuts to a bloated public sector.
But Reform UK says it’s not enough, instead preaching the transformation that DOGE’s “army of volunteers” will bring to local governments.
A stitch in time saves nine
Funding could be mobilised more effectively if councils were able to invest more in prevention rather than fixing problems post-facto.
Local authorities spend more on – more urgent – late intervention when it comes to children’s social care services, to the tune of £12.1bn. Early support only sees £2.8bn, despite an increase in children entering the care system.
This is true for preventative health services and tackling homelessness, too, the PAC said.
SEND
The PAC has warned the government is unprepared to help councils after a “short-term workaround” is no longer feasible. Since 2021, the government has allowed SEND-related deficits to be excluded from councils’ main budgets – but by 2028, spending on SEND could reach £2.9bn-£3.9bn a year. This loophole is in place until March 2026.
More plans on SEND reforms are expected by this autumn, but the PAC is demanding more urgent action.
Westminster upheavals: Labour MPs could resign, Lib Dems courting Tory MPs
Political intrigue is alive in Whitehall’s corridors, as Labour’s welfare reforms have landed a number of MPs on ‘resignation watch.’ On the benches opposite, Tories on the left of the party are being courted by Lib Dems.
Work and Pensions (DWP) secretary Liz Kendall has told the party she will be pushing through with controversial reforms to disability benefits.
More than 100 Labour MPs are reported to have concerns about the decision. According to Baroness Harriet Harman, there “might be” resignations, and confirmed there is a “watch list,” but frontbenchers are not on it.
The plan, which will be introduced to Parliament in July, is to restrict personal independence payments (PIP) and the health top-up to Universal Credit.
The government hopes this will save the Treasury £5bn, to be used on the government’s spending ambitions.
Last month, Parliament’s Work and Pensions Committee protested to Kendall. The committee called for these changes to be delayed until a full impact assessment can be carried out, with concerns that rather than encouraging people to return to work, the reforms could push many into poverty.
DWP responded that there was not enough time for a formal assessment to take place. In order for the changes to come into effect by 2026, they would need to receive final approval from Parliament in November.
“We need urgent action to help people who can work, into work,” Kendall said. She attributed her urgency to PIP caseloads and costs, which are projected to rise further.
Lib Dems try to poach Tories
The Lib Dems have told PoliticsHome they are in informal talks with left-leaning Tories.
These Conservative MPs are reportedly disillusioned with the right-ward direction the party is taking, some of whom cite the Tories’ stance on net zero.
On Friday, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch told the Scottish Conservatives she would strike the windfall tax on oil and gas.
Discord within party ranks goes both ways – not only are MPs being tempted to leave, but Badenoch has also warned that Tories that disagree with her decision to leave the ECHR could be barred from standing as candidates with her party.
The Lib Dems are also coming for Tories’ voters. Some polls had the Tories ranking fourth last month.
A Lib Dem source told City AM that the party is “on track to overtake [the Conservatives] in the next General Election.”
Though most new Lib Dem votes come from Labour, Steve Akehurst, pollster and Persuasion UK director said.
Starmer calls Israeli strikes ‘concerning’
Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear programme.
In what the Israeli Defence Forces called a “preemptive attack,” 200 fighter jets struck 100 targets, including Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility, according to Israel.
The PM called reports of strikes “concerning,” calling for Israel and Iran to “step back and reduce tensions urgently.”
“Stability in the Middle East must be the priority and we are engaging partners to de-escalate. Now is the time for restraint, calm and a return to diplomacy,” Starmer continued.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy made a similar statement.
“I’m concerned to see reports of strikes overnight. Further escalation is a serious threat to peace and stability in the region and in no one’s interest.
“This is a dangerous moment and I urge all parties to show restraint,” Lammy said.
The attack
Netanyahu said there would be “many more achievements” to come, suggesting there were plans for further strikes.
For Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Netanyahu and his ranks will have created a “bitter and painful” outcome for themselves. A military spokesperson said the US and Israel will pay a “heavy price” for the attacks.
The US is denying any involvement, with Marco Rubio, state secretary, calling the strikes “unilateral.”
President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform to write: “Two months ago I gave Iran a 60 day ultimatum to ‘make a deal.’ They should have done it! Today is day 61. I told them what to do, but they just couldn’t get there. Now they have, perhaps, a second chance!”
Hamish Falconer, the UK’s Middle East minister, also denied UK involvement; “The UK did not participate in the strikes overnight, and we are engaging with partners to urge de-escalation.”
In Parliament
The reactions of MPs and frontbenchers has been varied.
For Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, the ends justify the means. She said: “Iran is an enemy of the UK… we do not want Iran gaining nuclear weapons.”
“If Israel is stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons, they should not be condemned for that, that would be something that I support,” she added.
In a similar vein, Former PM Liz Truss thanked Israel for executing the strikes that saw civilians killed, according to Iranian state media.
Conversely, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey called on the UK government to lead the response on an international level. “The UK must work with allies to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions through diplomacy, not war,” Davey said.
Formerforeign secretary James Cleverly attributed the crisis to the global community neglecting to take firmer action to prevent Iran’s development of nuclear weapons.
“The international community has been too slow and meek in response. It was always clear to me that Israel would take kinetic action if others didn’t take effective diplomatic action,” Cleverly said.
He added that Israel should exhibit “discipline and restraint” so as not to escalate the conflict.
Independent MP Ayoub Khan, part of the pro-Palestine tranche elected in 2024, called the attack “reckless.”
“Classic Netanyahu move to distract from his looming corruption charges and political downfall. Desperation disguised as strategy,” Khan added.
Ellie Chowns, candidate for the Green leadership, said “Israel’s attack on Iran is an incredibly dangerous escalation,” adding that “It’s reckless, provocative and risks full scale war.”
Chowns then called on the UK government to “clearly condemn” the attack and support in de-escalating the crisis.
Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty asked that “given [the PM] considers them an enemy, what action against Iran would he support?”
In Gaza
Amid news of strikes on Iran, the conflict in Gaza rages on. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has released a statement warning that they have lost contact with all their colleagues on the ground in Gaza.
London Mayor brands ULEZ scrappage scheme a success
The London Mayor extolled the benefits of his controversial Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) scrappage scheme this morning.
A new report has found that the scrappage scheme has seen 35,094 cars and 17,964 polluting vans in London taken off the streets in exchange for grants.
According to City Hall, ULEZ has decreased carbon emissions equivalent to 1.5m round-trips between London and New York, or the equivalent of one year’s worth of all passenger car trips in Los Angeles.
Sadiq Khan boasted that air quality in London is improving at a faster rate than the rest of England, with deprived communities living near London’s busiest roads seeing the biggest benefits to their health.
Environmentally, the report found that 29 per cent of car and motorcycle scheme recipients elected to not spend their grants on a greener replacement vehicle, and other recipients have
What is the scrappage scheme?
ULEZ – introduced by Khan in 2019 – requires older, heavily polluting cars to pay a daily £12.50 charge to drive in the restricted area. The zone covers almost all of the area within the M25 motorway, encompassing all 32 London boroughs.
From January 2023 to September 2024, a joint City Hall and TfL initiative allowed individuals and businesses in outer London to scrap, donate or retrofit a vehicle that doesn’t meet emissions standards in exchange for cash – ranging from £1,000 to £11,500.
Some 88 per cent of scheme beneficiaries were in London’s outer boroughs, where travelling longer distances is the norm and there are fewer public transport facilities available.
From these vehicles, 680 were donated to support medical and humanitarian efforts in Ukraine in partnership with British-Ukrainian Aid (BUA).
Khan, said he is “proud” of the scheme, which has “made a huge difference to our air quality, and also encouraged many Londoners to take up more sustainable ways of travelling, which will make a lasting difference to our capital.”
ULEZ has its critics
While City Hall is eager to present the benefits of ULEZ, many vehicle-owners have responded negatively to the requirement that they pay to drive through the city, particularly as people feel the pressure of the cost of living.
TfL is also floating the idea of hiking up the congestion charge by 20 per cent, from £15 to £18, which has been poorly received by business groups.
Five Conservative-run councils took legal action against the decision to expand ULEZ in 2023, though the High Court dismissed their efforts.
Proponents of the scheme argue that – environmental case aside – clean air can lower asthma, cancer and dementia rates.
Celebrating City icon the Sky Garden, crowned world’s most ticketed destination
We are celebrating the best of the Square Mile this October with The Toast Awards! Voting is open now so make your voice heard by submitting your favourite City of London spots on the website. In the run up, we’re honouring some of our favourite City hotspots
Last summer, the City of London’s Sky Garden became one of the world’s most ticketed destinations. As we ramp up towards our Toast the City awards, we think that’s something to celebrate.
The Sky Garden, located at the top of the ‘Walkie Talkie’ building at 20 Fenchurch Street, was completed in 2014 and has since welcomed 11m visitors, with 1m being over the past year.
It comes as new roof terraces and viewing points continue to bring footfall to the Square Mile. The Lookout at 8 Bishopsgate and Horizon 22 at Bishopsgate are the most recent additions. They have welcomed nearly 0.5m people in less than a year.
“The spectacular success of these elevated public spaces show how tall buildings in the City not only provide the high-quality office space we need, but offer benefits to the community and boost the Square Mile’s economic growth and tourist appeal,” chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Planning and Transportation Committee, Shravan Joshi, said when the news was announced about the ticketing record.
As the interest continues to grow, the City of London Corporation has said it plans to bring even more viewing offerings into the mix, including 1 Leadenhall Court, 50 Fenchurch St, Seal House, Millenium Bridge House, and Citicape House in Holborn.
“It’s particularly encouraging to see school children and local communities enjoying the spaces, giving them a feeling of belonging to, and involvement in, the City, its environment, and history,” Joshi said.
The Sky Garden features restaurants as well as a bar and outdoor viewing terrace, open subject to weather conditions.
Visitors can visit the Sky Garden free of charge to take in the views from the rooftop atrium, and there are indoor gardens to wander between and take photos. It’s best to book the restaurants ahead of time.
Our Toast the City awards in October celebrate the best of the City. You can currently vote for your favourite restaurant, bar, coffee shop, public space or cultural institution on the website before our selection of judges whittle the nominations down into a short list. Judges include Michelin starred chef Tom Sellers and Fallow and Roe restaurateur James Robson.
Find out which venues are crowned best in the Square Mile in October.
Toast the City website material reads: “The City of London is a thriving hub for some of London’s most innovative restaurants, bars and cultural projects. The Toast the City Awards 2025 will recognise the institutions new and old – and the men and women behind them – that have helped build the Square Mile into one of the most vibrant areas of London, for workers and visitors alike
“We have enrolled some of the biggest names in hospitality to pick the very best pubs, restaurants, entertainment hot-spots, sandwich shops and outdoor spaces, all nominated by our readers. We will recognise the best-of-the-best and throughout the year we’ll be featuring interviews and profiles with nominees.”
Conservatives vow to end oil and gas windfall tax
Kemi Badenoch will call for an end to the oil and gas windfall tax, in addition to scrapping Labour’s ban on new oil and gas licences, as she seeks to bolster her pro-growth credentials.
The Tory leader is expected to announce her party will be “standing up for our oil and gas industry,” in an address to the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Conference on Friday.
Badenoch will be appealing to Scottish Conservatives with her case, as Scotland produces the bulk of oil and gas; in 2019, it produced £22bn-worth – 82 per cent of the UK total.
“For decades, Aberdeen and the North East have been the energy capital. Not just of the UK, but of Europe,” Badenoch will say, before vowing to “champion” the industry.
Windfall tax
The latest iteration of the tax came into effect following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was levied on companies that saw their profits balloon after oil and gas prices soared amid global supply shortages.
The tax has been raised to 38 per cent and extended to March 2030 by the current government. This is applied on top of the 30 per cent corporation tax on profits and 10 per cent supplementary rate that oil and gas companies pay if they operate in the North Sea.
In the 2023 to 2024 tax year, the levy raised £3.67bn.
Tories reneging on Tory initiatives
The 25 per cent levy was introduced by then Chancellor Rishi Sunak in 2022, and then raised to 30 per cent in 2023 by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. Hunt then extended it to March 2029.
This is not the first policy introduced by the Tories which Badenoch has called to scrap. She has also distanced herself from the Net Zero 2050 goal, set under Theresa May’s prime ministership, which Badenoch earlier this year said would be “impossible.”
Badenoch will argue that conditions have changed as when the tax was introduced, “the oil price was near a historic high, at the exact time as energy bills for the British people were sky rocketing.”
Labour ‘taxing industry out of existence’
Now, Badenoch claims “there is no longer a windfall to tax.”
BP’s net income in 2024 was at $8.9bn, a steep drop from the £28bn it reported in 2022. Shell saw profits fall to $23.7bn in 2024 from $39.9bn in 2022.
At £1,849, the average annual bill for typical gas and electricity remains high – 43 per cent higher than it was in the winter between 2021 and 2022.
The Labour party is “killing” the oil and gas industry by hiking this “regressive” tax, according to the opposition leader.
“If it is allowed to remain in place until 2030, as is Labour’s current plan, there will be no industry left to tax,” Badenoch will add.
Badenoch will mention job losses in the industry, as well as the cost of importing oil and gas “from the very same basin in which we are banned from drilling.”
Andrew Bowie, shadow energy secretary and MP for Aberdeen, said earlier this year: “If we shut down our oil and gas industry, we will not use any less oil and gas … we will be simply be relying on more imports instead.”
“If we are importing from Norway, we are shipping in gas from underneath the very same North Sea” he continued.
In lieu of the windfall tax, Badenoch will call for introducing “a system that rewards success and incentivises investment,” though she will not be including any details on what this might entail.
Tory environmentalists give Kemi the green light
The Conservative Environment Network (CEN) – which represents shadow cabinet members such as Victoria Atkins, Saqib Bhatti, Andrew Griffith and Kevin Hollinrake – has given its blessing to Badenoch’s announcement.
CEN director Sam Hall said: “Kemi Badenoch is right to call for the windfall tax to be scrapped. It has damaged energy investment in the UK, when we need more investment for the clean energy transition. Taxing energy companies to fund Ed Miliband’s ideological quango, GB Energy, encapsulates this government’s damaging and statist approach to energy.
“As the North Sea is a mature basin, ending the windfall tax and the ban on new licenses will only slow the rate of decline in oil and gas production.
“To safeguard our energy security, protect jobs and skills in the UK, and grow the economy, there should also be new incentives to encourage oil and gas firms to diversify into clean technologies and retrain their workers.”
Badenoch asks businesses to publicly back Tories
Kemi Badnoch courted the private sector by promising to reverse tax rises and slating “compliance culture” in an address to the UK’s biggest businesses.
The Tory leader invoked the adage that they are the “natural party of business,” while requesting her audience “speak up” in support of pro-business policies.
“Put your name to the cause,” the Tory leader exhorted at the Peel Hunt FTSE 250+ Conference in the Square Mile, where some of the UK’s wealthiest companies congregated on Thursday.
Tories back business from the back foot
The Conservative leader’s speech is part of her efforts to attract more support and funding amid claims by commentators and political opponents that the party is ‘dying.’
The party celebrated raking in £3.4m in donations in the first quarter of 2025 – outstripping other parties’ funding. They credited Badenoch herself for rallying donors, though it’s likely Conservative sympathisers were spurred into action following the party’s poor performance in recent local elections.
Badenoch acknowledged the disgruntlement amongst her party’s supporters. “It may not have been this bad, but I know you weren’t happy.”
“This time we are not shutting business out, we are bringing you in,” she promised.
She then cited the business credentials of her cabinet, who “have actually built things.” Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride set up a business in 1987, and Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith was COO of Sky group.
“I’m not a career politician,” the Tory boss said, in a bid to inspire the audience to see her as one of them. Previously, the former Business Secretary underwent a stint in elite private bank Coutts doing wealth management. “You can trust me,” she said.
She vowed that “when” the Conservatives are elected back into government, they would cut spending without leading to austerity.
‘Labour hate business’
Badenoch took a swing at increased regulation, criticising “compliance culture” for being “boring” and consisting of “pointless box ticking that warped business to serve government instead of servicing customers.”
She suggested the private sector was keeping the UK’s welfare system afloat. “We have 28m private sector workers supporting 28m others,” including retirees, public sector workers, and those “simply not working.”
A number of those include the disabled and ill.
She contrasted the government with her own ranks. “They think business hoards wealth and doesn’t create it, they think it is greedy and needs to be taxed more and more.”
For Badenoch, the government’s faults include: “increasing taxes that don’t raise revenue but do real, serious harm,” like the reforms to the inheritance tax – which she promised to reverse – the workers’ rights bill, and political short-sightedness.
She also criticised the Labour party’s decision to hike VAT on private schools, which Badenoch claimed was intended “to spite the rich,” in addition to policies resulting in the exodus of the UK’s wealthiest.
Labour creating a ‘zero-risk environment’
The government is creating a “zero risk environment” that is hammering growth, Kemi Badenoch has said, as she called on Labour to slash red tape.
“Government is saying ‘no you can’t do this, you can’t do that’”, Badenoch said.
“It is creating a zero risk environment – we cannot have zero risk.
“I see it as an MP each day – someone stands up, says ‘I’ve got a great idea, the constituent came in and said something bad happened to them so let’s bring in a new rule so that the bad thing never happens again.’
“Yes, that might be right to a point, but the law of diminishing returns kicks in – and now we have so much regulation for stopping anything from happening.
“You look at the regulators, it’s zero risk.”
Badenoch vowed to “slash pointless regulation that drives up costs, and end the constant reporting burdens that waste your time.”
The Conservative leader said transaction taxes such as stamp duty were “an issue” but stopped short of calling for them to be scrapped.
The remarks add further pressure to the government to speed up its expressed commitment to soften the regulatory burden on businesses.
Writing in City AM, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “Successive governments have shied away from this task, and instead layered regulation upon regulation on companies and investors, increasing complexity and cost.
“Sensible and proportionate rules are essential for a dynamic economy. But Britain today is a harder place to do business that it was a decade ago, and I’m determined to change that.”