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 view from the rooms at the Radisson in Galle, Sri Lanka

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

The Eastern City BID Announces £100,000 Funding and Two-Year Partnership with Providence Row

The Eastern City Business Improvement District (BID) is proud to announce a two-year partnership with local homelessness charity Providence Row, accompanied by a £100,000 funding commitment. As part of this partnership, Providence Row has been named Eastern City BID’s Charity of the Year, marking a significant step in the BID’s ongoing efforts to support vulnerable communities across the Square Mile.

This new collaboration will begin with Providence Row joining as an event and charity partner at Leadenhall Live, the summer event series being hosted by The Leadenhall Building with the Eastern City BID as a sponsor. The partnership will provide a platform for Providence Row to raise awareness, engage with the business community and drive critical support for its frontline services tackling homelessness in East London.

“We’re delighted to be working with Providence Row, a charity that makes a tangible difference in the lives of people experiencing homelessness,” said Nick Carty, Chairman of the Board for the Eastern City BID. “This partnership is not just about funding – it’s about long-term support, collaboration and creating meaningful impact in our local area. 

“From the feedback we have received from our business community, we know they want to address the increasing challenge of rough sleeping and are passionate about providing support for the most vulnerable.  Additionally, they want to create opportunities for local workers to play their part through increased volunteering opportunities  and social enterprise involvement.  This is a community which drives change and this is a prime example of this.”

Founded in 1860, Providence Row, supports over 1,400 people a year with integrated services from their day centre based in Aldgate, including housing advice, mental health support, recovery programmes and employability training. Providence Row also provides a number of outreach services across neighbouring boroughs. The charity’s holistic approach aligns closely with the BID’s wider commitment to community resilience and inclusive growth. 

Tom O’Connor, CEO, of Providence Row, said:
“We’re thrilled to be named Eastern City BID’s Charity of the Year. This partnership will enable us to reach more people and strengthen our services at a time when homelessness and housing insecurity continue to rise. We look forward to working together to build awareness and mobilise the City’s support.”

The £100,000 funding will directly support Providence Row’s programmes over the two-year period, with further fundraising and awareness opportunities planned through events, campaigns, and joint initiatives with businesses in the district.

Eastern City BID invites all local stakeholders to engage with this partnership, beginning with Leadenhall Live where Providence Row will be hosting a fireside talk discussing its important work and upcoming campaigns on 10th July.

Notes to Editors:

The prevalence of homelessness is increasing across the country, but notably in the City which until recent years had been relatively unaffected: 

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.

Dave Swarbrick, a member of the folk band Fairpoint Convention, whose obituary appeared in The Telegraph 17 years before his death;
Dave Swarbrick, a member of the folk band Fairpoint Convention, whose obituary appeared in The Telegraph 17 years before his death;

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. 

Obituary writer Tim Bullamore, who has contributed epithets to major newspapers for more than three decades (picture by Johanna Rachel)
Obituary writer Tim Bullamore, who has contributed epithets to major newspapers for more than three decades (picture by Johanna Rachel)

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”. 

An Experience Like No Other: Premium Hospitality Packages for Catfish and the Bottlemen at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

After selling out shows in the UK, US and Australia, multi-Platinum-selling indie rock band Catfish and the Bottlemen have today announced their first ever headline stadium concerts, including a landmark performance at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday 3 August, 2025.

The news marks the next step in the band’s meteoric rise, following their epic return to the stage last summer, which saw them sell out Liverpool’s 32,000 capacity Sefton Park and two nights at Cardiff Castle, before making their second headline Reading and Leeds Festival performance, and extensive dates across the US and Australia.

Take your concert experience to the next level with one of our selection of world-class Premium Hospitality packages. Experience the show in a blend of comfort and style with our Lower East Side Premium Seats, or indulge in the pinnacle of luxury with access to The H Club, our most exclusive space. No matter what level of opulence you’re looking for, there’s something for everyone.

Premium Hospitality packages provide you with the best seats in the house, pre and post-show access and elevated food and drink options – so don’t miss out and book an experience like no other today.

Explore all of our packages and book your tickets here.

How effective procurement technology can improve employee retention

With many organisations facing a battle to attract and retain talented staff, it’s important that they are not frustrated in their ability to do their jobs by cumbersome procurement technology.
Business colleagues working together on a laptop.

Unemployment in the UK remains low, standing at 4.4 per cent in the three months to February 2025, according to government data. But this only tells part of the story; many sectors and job roles are suffering from significant skills shortages, with employers struggling to find – and retain – the people they need. Examples of skills that are in short supply include digital and technical, accounting and manufacturing, while sectors that struggle to recruit include teaching, healthcare and retail/hospitality.

With new talent hard to find, businesses need to do all they can to keep hold of the people they do have. Salary is important to employees, but is not the only motivator. Staff also value feeling appreciated, having a sense of fulfilment and being able to develop their skills and future career prospects.

But there are also more practical elements that can keep people in jobs. Many people leave roles because they are frustrated with the way things work, feeling they are unable to do the job to the best of their ability. This might be due to a company not having sufficient resources, or having inefficient processes that mean customers aren’t happy.

In the modern world, effective technology can be critical in terms of how well individuals are able to do their jobs, and whether they look elsewhere, and effective procurement systems have an important role to play here.

For those in positions where they need to access items quickly – for instance, office essentials such as IT equipment, furniture or stationery – having to go through long procurement processes or to source items themselves can cause issues. At best, this will add time and effort to any buying process; at worst, it could result in a business being unable to function effectively or missing out on important orders.

At a time when many organisations are under pressure to do more with fewer resources, giving people time back can be invaluable. International School of London, for example, turned to Amazon Business to help its teaching staff find resources themselves, giving them a single resource through which to purchase items.

“We had two key priorities in adopting Amazon Business: using technology to streamline the purchasing of learning materials, and giving time back to our educators,” says Joris Deckers, IT and Operations Officer, ISL Group.

“It’s ultimately all been about supporting the teaching and learning. That’s why we’re here!

With Amazon Business, we’ve approximately halved the steps that we need to take to make a purchase, so from an educator’s point of view it’s a much easier process.”

Having a more efficient process can also benefit other functions, such as those in accounts teams, who otherwise may have to wrestle with purchase orders from procurement or individuals buying items on purchasing cards or out of their own funds and claiming costs back through expenses.

Unity School Partnership uses Amazon Business to consolidate its purchasing. The platform integrates with its existing financial software, meaning information is automatically fed into the system.

“We use Amazon all the time,” says Michelle Curtis, senior finance officer at Unity School Partnership. “Whether it’s stationery, cleaning equipment, safety equipment – you name it, if we can buy it from Amazon we will.

“We previously had lots of purchase orders to load into IRIS Financials each week, which, across the Trust, could take several hours. When IRIS contacted us about trialling the pilot, it seemed like an easy decision for us. It’s an obvious time-saver and has simplified the process completely.”

Effective procurement technology affects the ability of almost everyone in a business to do their job more efficiently by ensuring they have access to the products and services they require when they need it. But it can also have an impact for those working in the procurement team itself.

According to Amazon Business’s 2025 State of Procurement Report, retaining or developing existing talent is a priority for 65 per cent of procurement decision-makers and 66 per cent of senior leaders over the next two years. Procurement is a sector that has traditionally suffered from talent shortages and often struggles to attract graduates who have the choice of other disciplines.

Providing internal customers with access to effective technology not only helps those working in procurement deliver a better service, but can result in getting more spend under management. In turn, this means having better access to real-time information on spending.

Armed with insights into previous buying patterns, and using predictive analytics to help predict future demand, procurement professionals can make better buying decisions, identifying opportunities where spend can be consolidated or even eliminated altogether. This means they have more chance of meeting savings targets and a greater sense of job satisfaction.

Many organisations already use technology to help improve procurement processes. According to the State of Procurement Report, 65 per cent use analytics or tools to help understand performance, and this has increased by 3 per cent in the past year. And more than half (56 per cent) use technology to automate previously manual procurement processes.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is less well established, but 42 per cent currently use this

to make better purchasing decisions, and 38 per cent plan to roll it out in the next three years in areas such as demand forecasting, spend analysis and automating the procurement process.

All this will free up time for procurement to focus on other, more strategic areas such as risk management. For procurement teams, it can help them to do their jobs better, making it more likely they will choose to stay with that organisation. In the current jobs market, that could be priceless.

To find out more about how Amazon Business can help you deliver a better service to staff and allow procurement teams to fulfil their potential, visit business.amazon.co.uk

World-Class Hospitality: Premium Hospitality Packages for Arijit Singh at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Globally renowned singer Arijit Singh is set to make history as the first Indian artist ever to headline a UK stadium by announcing a landmark performance at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Friday 5 September, 2025. 

Singh is a prominent playback singer known for his versatile voice and emotive singing style, cementing his reputation as a defining voice in the contemporary music scene and a leading figure in Bollywood soundtracks. The performance will be Singh’s only European date this year.

Arijit Singh adds to an incredible list of shows at London’s newest sport, leisure and entertainment destination this summer, with Beyonce, 50 Cent, Stray Kids, Kendrick Lamar, Imagine Dragons, Chris Brown, Post Malone and Catfish and the Bottlemen all performing at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this year.

Elevate your experience and have an unforgettable night with one of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium’s world-class Premium hospitality packages.

Experience a truly unique space in The Tunnel Club, with an all-inclusive food and drinks package and a post-show party to keep the energy alive. Or, indulge in luxury in The H Club, where you can relax in style and enjoy top-tier service.

Premium Hospitality packages provide you with the best seats in the house, pre and post-show access and elevated food and drink options – so don’t miss out and book an experience like no other today.

Explore our packages and book here.

Saudi Arabia’s Real Estate Surge: NHC Takes the Lead

Mr. Mohammed Albuty, CEO of the National Housing Company (NHC), affirmed that Saudi Arabia is undergoing a significant transformation in the real estate sector, driven by the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030. He emphasised that NHC is at the forefront of this transformation as the region’s largest real estate developer and the executive arm of the public sector.

Albuty’s remarks came during his participation at the “Capitals London” event, held alongside the Cityscape Global Exhibition, where he highlighted that NHC has played a key role in the success of raising the home ownership rate among Saudi citizens to 65% one year ahead of schedule, and aims to reach 70% by 2030. This progress has been fueled by the development of more than 600,000 residential units, half of which are expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

He added that the company is currently managing 39 high-profile projects across 17 cities in Saudi Arabia, with total investments exceeding $154 billion. To date, over 100,000 residential units have been sold through off-plan sales. NHC also manages a land portfolio in the Kingdom spanning more than 284 million square meters.

Albuty emphasized that enhancing quality of life is a core pillar of the company’s strategic plans. Sustainability principles are embedded across all stages of development, from planning and design to material selection and community management. NHC aims to reduce commuting times, provide interactive public spaces, promote healthy lifestyles that strengthen social bonds and a sense of belonging, and dedicate vast areas to green spaces.

Albuty also noted that NHC has successfully attracted international developers with direct investments exceeding $10 billion, through strategic partnerships with global real estate firms. Key partners include K. Hovnanian from the United States, Urbas from Spain, TMG from Egypt, CITIC Group from China, Emlak Konut from Turkey, and Kooheji from Bahrain. These partnerships encompass the development of major residential projects, in addition to collaboration with CITIC in areas such as supporting industries, logistics zones, and supply chains to enhance local content.

Mr. Mohammad Albuty concluded his statement by affirming that the Saudi real estate market is gaining increasing confidence from investors around the world. He emphasised that NHC is moving forward with a clear vision to become the main driver of real estate growth, contributing to the development of integrated cities that reflect customer aspirations and support the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030.

Mr. Mohammed Albuty, CEO of the National Housing Company (NHC)

To find out more about the NHC and it’s pivotal role in transforming the Saudi real estate landscape click here




A week in the life of 1 Lombard Street

Soren Jessen of Square Mile institution 1 Lombard Street on seven days in the City…

Monday
Dawn, and boxes of fresh fish on ice are arriving from Dorset. Chef checks the gills and the eyes for freshness and decides on the Fish of the Day for the menu. More boxes arrive packed with gloriously colourful vegetables and the sweet smell of just-picked herbs fills the room. Asparagus from Norfolk, Watercress from Hampshire, Tomatoes from the Isle of White and handpicked oysters from Colchester. Beef arrives carried in on shoulders and the place is alive with suppliers’ banter and news. The kitchen has become a bustling food market, and the chefs are lined up and ready to go. Breakfast kicks off with 1 Lombard Street‘s Eggs Benedict (150 eggs being gently poached) to make guests feel that they have earned their commute into the City, for the first day of the week. 

Tuesday
For some people it’s perhaps too early in the week to drink. Some guests are trying to stick to the 2-5 routine; the GP meant two days on and five days off (the booze) but some have reversed it in their favour. Still, it’s only Tuesday so it’ll have to be a light lunch at Lombard with fizzy water. The table next to them with a bottle of wine gets a disapproving (read envious) look. Perhaps they’re visitors? The City welcomes huge numbers of tourists these days. 1 Lombard Street is a complete barometer of City activity, and it is buzzing. Did you know that City jobs are at a record high, 25% up from pre-Covid? Non-drinkers aside, there’s a champagne reception for 200 guests at 6pm. Tables are whisked away, music is on and canapés are ready. It was meant to end at 10pm but the guests are still having whiskeys at midnight (and it’s only Tuesday). The Lombard team rolls back the tables, crisp linen and polished cutlery neatly placed and ready for tomorrow’s breakfast for 150 people. 

Wednesday
This is when true loyal patrons visit Lombard twice in a day. Breakfast and lunch – or lunch and a late afternoon cocktail (It’s 6 o’clock somewhere in the back of your mind). There is something quite smug about a midweek Martini and Lombard’s Dome Bar Manager recommends Konikstail Vodka with a hint of Noilly and a dash of orange bitters, finished with a lemon twist. It’s sophisticated and disciplined. Events are filling every space today, from breakfast through to lunch and dinner, upstairs and downstairs – the private dining rooms are full. One room has three different allergy notes, and another requires two digital screens. Lombard’s motto comes to mind: “The difficult we do right away, the impossible might take a little bit longer.”

Thursday
In the pre-lunch service briefing Elliot, Lombard’s flamboyant General Manager, goes through the guest table allocation and makes sure that the two tables from Rothschild’s are not next to each other and the government minister is at a discreet corner table. Allocating tables is like having a dinner party: it requires great finesse to ensure the best ambience in the Restaurant. Chef goes through the Fish of the Day dish and the staff taste and learn. There’s also a wine-tasting for all staff to try the new summer rosé wines… (yes, it is important to remind the new younger waiters to spit!). It’s always rewarding to have a supplier talk in depth and passionately to our team, everyone absorbed and learning the details of the vineyards and grapes. We’re planning a visit to the vineyard for the Management team.

Friday
The strangest day in the Square Mile. City folk are off to their country house or opting to end the week working from home, and the weekend visitors have not yet arrived. But the younger crowd find their way to Lombard in the evening for a special Steak frites and a glass of Lombard Claret and they continue in the Downstairs Lombard Club – open late, past midnight. Time for a Dorothy Parker Quote. “I like a martini, two at the most. Three I’m under the table, four I’m under the host.”

Saturday
The Party crowd comes into the City and there is a queue forming at the entrance to 1 Lombard just before 12pm. The restaurant is packed all day with Brunch and Bubbles (lasting well into the afternoon) and dancing to Lombard’s resident DJ. Staff get involved in the dancing, but not the bubbles.

Sunday
To put an elegant family finish to a pretty busy week, Lombard puts on the popular Sunday Roast. The spectacular Dome Bar is awash with a selection of Bloody Marys, from the Bloody Dane (Akvavit) to the Bloody Shame (Virgin Mary) and the Sunday Papers are spread out. Miles Davis in the background. Roast beef, pork or chicken with roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, honey roast carrots and parsnips cruise out of the kitchen, with sticky toffee pudding to follow – all washed down with a nice Claret.

How was your week?

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.