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

It was a busy summer for the Labour government.

Andy Burnham hit the ground running, combining progress on 2024 manifesto commitments with his own priorities.

Here are seven of the most exciting breakthroughs and announcements from the past few weeks that you can use, whether you’re on the doorstep, sparring on social media, or debating in the pub.

1. Scrapping VAT on domestic electricity bills

Labour is cutting the tax from 1 October.

It’ll save the typical household around £45 a year once the next Ofgem price cap lands. Charities, care homes, and small businesses that already qualify for energy VAT relief benefit too, and Northern Ireland gets equivalent funding to match the cut.

2. Saving families £1,200 a year on school costs

Labour is easing financial pressures on parents as the new school term starts.

Free school meals are being extended to every child whose parents get Universal Credit, meaning more than three million children become newly eligible. There are also 1,400 new breakfast clubs and 9,000 more school-based childcare places opening this term, alongside new limits on the cost of branded uniforms.

The changes to free school meals are expected to lift 500,000 children out of poverty, while eligible working parents could save up to £8,000 a year through the wider childcare offer.

3. 159 new mental health centres

Labour is opening units designed to catch problems early, so fewer people reach crisis point.

Of the new mental health centres, 100 will offer help without a referral or a waiting list, and 59 will be emergency units.

Backed by £343 million of investment, the first sites will open from autumn this year, with further facilities following from March 2027.

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4. Cutting business rates for pubs, clubs, and music venues

Labour is cutting taxes for pubs, clubs, and music venues – again.

Pubs, social clubs, and live music venues get a further 20% cut to their business rates from April 2027, on top of the 15% reduction and two-year freeze already promised in January. Nearly 32,000 venues benefit, saving the average pub around £1,100 a year.

It’s worth about £100 million a year in total, paid for by reviewing reliefs for businesses like vape shops and cracking down on tax dodging by online marketplace sellers.

5. Restriction zones for violent and sexual offenders

Labour is preventing the most dangerous prison leavers from leaving a radius of a few miles.

From October, judges can order GPS-tagged ‘restriction zones’ for the most serious sexual and violent offenders, with any breach sending them straight back to prison. Victims will get a say in where the zones are drawn, giving them greater freedom to travel without the fear of unexpectedly coming face-to-face with their offender.

This comes alongside £700 million for probation and community services by 2028, including 1,300 new probation officers being recruited this year alone.

6. Ending subscription traps

Labour is forcing companies to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up.

From January 2027, businesses must give clear upfront pricing, send renewal reminders, and offer a 14-day cooling-off period to cancel after a trial or renewal. It targets the roughly £1.6 billion a year people spend on subscriptions they didn’t mean to keep.

Ministers are also consulting this autumn on banning fake discounts, like inflating a price before knocking a chunk off it in the ‘sale’, so shoppers can trust what they see.

7. Accommodation for every rough sleeper by Christmas

Labour is offering every person sleeping rough a route indoors by Christmas.

The government has committed £442 million of extra funding in total, with £102 million of that added this week on top of July’s £340 million commitment.

As well as changing the lives of those being given somewhere to sleep, solving homelessness has wider benefits. Research from Crisis suggests preventing 40,000 people from becoming homeless for a year could save taxpayers around £370 million.

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