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

It was a busy week for the Labour government.

While the prime minister extended his polling lead, there was also plenty of tangible progress across government departments.

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

1. Cancelling parking fines for mistakes

Labour is giving drivers new rights to fight unfair private charges.

Drivers will get a guaranteed five minutes to decide whether to park and 10 minutes to leave once their session ends. Charges will be scrapped on appeal for honest mistakes, like stopping briefly to check directions, and for emergencies, breakdowns, and broken ticket machines.

For smaller slip-ups, like forgetting a permit, the most anyone can be charged on appeal is £20. The maximum charge is also frozen at £100.

2. Easier EV charger installation

Labour has scrapped the planning permission needed for cross-pavement chargers.

The change took effect on 21 October. It saves drivers up to £300 on installation and lets people without a driveway plug in at home for as little as 2p a mile.

Separately, two consultations will look at making it harder for landlords to refuse tenants’ charge point requests, and at requiring chargers in new and refurbished covered car parks.

3. £140 million for urgent care

Labour is expanding NHS emergency capacity across England ahead of winter.

The money pays for 14 schemes, including a rebuild of Queen’s Hospital in Romford, which was built for around 325 patients a day but regularly sees more than double that. Others include new urgent treatment centres and 40 extra ambulances for the East Midlands.

Another 25 new or expanded sites, announced in April, are opening in time for winter. Several are already open.

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4. Protecting abuse survivors from eviction

Labour is protecting survivors from losing their tenancy.

At the moment, survivors in a shared tenancy can face a choice between staying with their abuser or losing their home and support network. Under the new law, the abuser can be made to leave, and the survivor keeps the tenancy.

Where a protection order is already in place, survivors won’t have to prove the abuse all over again. It’s an amendment to the Social Housing Bill, which is still going through Parliament.

5. Tougher job protection for pregnant workers

Labour is making it harder to sack expectant mothers and new parents.

Employers will have to show they considered every reasonable alternative before dismissing someone in these groups. Tribunals will switch to a proportionality test for these cases, whereas at the moment they ask whether a reasonable employer would have acted the same way.

The protections also extend to people on adoption leave, shared parental leave, neonatal care leave, and bereaved partners paternity leave. It’s part of the Employment Rights Act, and the change takes effect in October 2027.

6. Extra £220 million for potholes

Labour is releasing fresh funding for councils to repair damaged roads.

The money is tied to performance targets, and further funding will only follow for councils that meet them. Nearly 7,000 miles of road will be resurfaced this year, which is 10 percent more than last year.

More councils are also doing preventative work, which stops the same stretch of road being patched over and over.

7. Fines for antisocial bus passengers

Labour is giving local leaders new powers to tackle vaping and loud music.

Authorities across England can set their own rules, and officers can issue fixed penalties of up to £100 for those who break them. Bus drivers won’t be responsible for enforcement.

The powers have been in force since 5 August, and this week brought guidance on using them. Separately, a new rail campaign urges passengers to use headphones, and those who refuse to stop when asked can be removed at the next station or fined up to £1,000.

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