Delivering in Government: your weekly round up of good news Labour stories

It was a busy week for the Labour government.

As the parliamentary session drew to a close, and campaigning in the local elections heated up, there was plenty of progress towards fixing the country’s underlying problems.

Here are the seven most exciting breakthroughs and announcements this week that you can use, whether you’re on the doorstep, sparring on social media, or debating in the pub.

1. Banning cigarettes for the next generation

Labour is making it illegal to sell tobacco to anyone born in 2009 or after.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill has become law, which means that from January 2027 the age at which cigarettes can legally be sold will rise by one year, every year. As a result, today’s children will never be able to buy them.

The new law also bans advertising, sponsorship, and discounting of vaping. Flavours and packaging will also be regulated to stop them appealing to children.

Alongside this, the government is putting record funding into local stop-smoking services to help the 5.3 million people who currently smoke to quit.

2. Extra funding to protect Jewish communities

Labour has announced an additional £25 million to protect the Jewish community in the wake of the Golders Green attack.

The funding will allow more police patrols and protection around synagogues, schools. and community centres. It comes on top of an already record amount of funding announced last year.

The government will also introduce new powers in the next parliamentary session that give it powers to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

3. Introducing Community Right to Buy

Labour has given communities the first chance to buy valued local assets when they go up for sale.

Under the new Community Right to Buy, if a local pub, shop, or community centre is put on the market, the community is offered the opportunity to purchase it before it passes to a developer or outside buyer.

The law also introduces Gambling Impact Assessments, which let councils block new gambling shops from opening on the high street, and bans upward-only rent reviews in new commercial leases.

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4. Protecting social housing stock

Labour is making it harder to sell social homes under Right to Buy.

New requirements will mean new homes can’t be sold under the scheme until 35 years after they’re built. Currently, they can be sold as soon as the tenant becomes eligible, which is after just three years of tenancy. That qualifying period is also being extended to ten years.

In addition, discounts on market prices will be capped at 15%.

Labour has already allowed councils to keep 100% of Right to Buy receipts so they can replace the homes sold.

5. McDonald’s backs the Youth Guarantee

Labour has secured a commitment from McDonald’s to run the largest work experience programme in the country.

From August, McDonald’s will roll out 2,500 paid work experience placements across the country, with 625 places ring-fenced for young people most at risk of dropping out of education and work.

It comes as part of the government’s Youth Guarantee, which aims to ensure every young person aged 16-24 has the chance to earn or learn.

Other employers on the scheme include the Premier League, Channel 4, and Pinewood Studios.

6. Neurodiversity training for DWP staff

Labour has put thousands of DWP health staff through training on autism and learning disabilities.

The programme tackles harmful assumptions about disability and requires staff to make practical adjustments for the people they assess.

It follows repeated criticism that the benefits assessment system treats disabled people as problems to be managed rather than people to be supported.

7. Faster access to new cancer treatments

Labour has passed the largest package of clinical trial reforms in over 20 years, giving cancer patients faster access to new treatments.

Trial set-up times have already fallen from 169 days to 122 days, beating the government’s target of 150 days from application to first patient.

The new law goes further, adding a fast-track route so less complex trials can start sooner and, for the first time, making publication of trial results a legal requirement.

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