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Hope and community fighting austerity and loneliness in Stoke-on-Trent

People in Stoke-on-Trent have been facing the pressure of Conservative-implemented austerity cuts, de-industrialisation and a cost-of-living crisis. But where there is community, there is help available.
By Martha Bird
Inside Stoke-on-Trent's battle with monkey dust

Austerity and deprivation are just two contributing factors for the rise of monkey dust in Stoke-on-Trent - and more needs to be done to tackle these root causes
By Jessica Bradley
Stoke the embers - how the ceramics industry is firing up for the future

At the height of production, Stoke-on-Trent supported 70,000 jobs in the ceramics industry, earning its moniker the Potteries.   
 
By Antonia Charlesworth Stack
Government cut Stoke-on-Trent Council to the bone then offered 'payday loan'

In 2010 Stoke-on-Trent had central government funding of £95 million a year. That’s now £27 million. It lost £270 million as a result. 
 
By Kevin Gopal
Six towns, one city: The changing face of Stoke-on-Trent

Stoke-on-Trent's identity as both a city and the Six Towns can be confusing for non-Stokies. Here, Sarah, who directs the Six Towns Carnival, examines those identities as the area has changed over the decades
By Sarah Chevolleau
The strange Royal arrangement that keeps Bibby Stockholm afloat

The Mayor of Portland is taking the government to court for mooring the Bibby Stockholm in her town without permission. The government's reply is that the barge is actually on Crown land - all seabed 12 miles out from any British coast. We went to the opening hearing to find out more.  
By John Lubbock and Daisy Steinhardt
Why are MPs being blocked from seeing what's really happening on the Bibby Stockholm?

Six Labour MPs have been trying for months to get on board the Bibby Stockholm to check the disturbing reports smuggled out by residents. They are being repeatedly denied.
By Lauren Crosby Medlicott
Rishi’s asylum backlog triumph isn’t what it seems

Asylum requests withdrawn without the applicants’ knowledge. Requests declined, but still eligible for protracted appeal. Appeals rejected but without offering people anywhere else to go. And requests granted in swathes that risk overwhelming both asylum seekers and local authorities. Experts are looking at Rishi Sunak’s apparent success in cutting down the asylum backlog - and they are sounding the alarm.
By Lauren Crosby Medlicott
״A child protection crisis”: The UK's shocking neglect of asylum-seeking kids

It’s hard to imagine any other setting in which the fate of more than 150 missing children is dismissed with a shrug by the state - but a system of forced MRI and X-ray tests to uncover mythical adults pretending to be kids gets passed into law. 


 
By Lauren Crosby Medlicott
How much does the Red Wall really care about immigration?

Conservatives have brandished migration fears as key to retaining Labour strongholds they won in 2019. But recent polling and interviews paint a more complex picture on migration - and while many voters are back to pre-Brexit positions, many are also saying they won't bother to vote in 2024 at all. 
By Ella Glover
Bibby Stockholm: A needless death, foretold

The warnings were ignored, the concerns played down. And now a man has died. He will not be the last person to lose their life on the Home Office barge. 
By Natalie Morris
The real threat to traffickers: Ryanair, not Rishi

The prime minister's brutal tightening of rules around seeking asylum is a boon to modern slavers and human traffickers. But the rules can changed as radically in the opposite direction - with much more promising results. 
By Dimi Reider
Lift the ban on work, migrant groups tell Cleverly

A record number of asylum seekers in the UK have become eligible for work permits after being strung out for over 12 months. But far from being a pull factor for economic migrants the policy is a shambles, NGOs say—as they call on the new Home Secretary to pull the plug. 
By Samir Jeraj
High net migration? Bring it on

Migration numbers have hit a record high. Why aren't Tories celebrating this as a win for Brexit? 
By Natalie Morris & Dimi Reider
Endless limbo: waiting for work

With delays in the system rife, asylum seekers spend many months in forced idleness until their cases are decided. Here are three people's stories.
By Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi
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