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The Lead's best bits of 2025 so far
Our editors share their top picks and favourite stories for you to enjoy this Easter weekend.
 • 
Natalie Morris
 and 
The Lead
The Lead Untangles: The weaponising of council finances by Reform
As election leaflets and social media posts appear claiming councils are 'bankrupt' we look into the numbers behind the claims
 • 
Jamie Lopez
 and 
The Lead
7:38
“We have all the potential in the world, right here, in Scunthorpe.”
Watch our exclusive full-length video report from Scunthorpe amid the debate over whether British Steel should be nationalised.
 • 
Hannah Sargeant
 and 
The Lead
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The academy chain where the CEO makes nearly half a million—and teachers recruited from Jamaica get under £30k
 • The Lead and Cherry Casey
The Tory leadership fiasco is not necessarily good news for progressives
 • The Lead and Dimi Reider
1
Almost everything Labour said about the freebies was a mistake
 • The Lead and Dimi Reider
Labour's first 100 days: Not half as bad as it looks
 • The Lead
1
From Clacton, to Washington, to Silvertown: the many engines of Britain's new Far Right
 • diyora shadijanova
From Gaza's skies to Cardigan Bay: The drone testing facility dividing a Welsh village
 • Olly Haynes

Housing

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The social housing tenants left traumatised by decades of neglect
Bristol City Council is one of many local authorities with thousands of tenants in mouldy flats and a £2.2bn black hole in housing budgets is expected…
 • 
The Lead
 and 
Matty Edwards
"I left and never went back": The rural towns that offer no way up
Many people living outside of cities feel left behind as the lack of opportunities widens the gap between town and country life.
 • 
The Lead Editors
 and 
Hannah Fearn
3
The Lead Untangles: Changes to the 'feudal' leasehold system and whether they go far enough
Ella Glover writes for The Lead on plans to end ‘unfair practices and unreasonable costs at the hands of landlords’
 • 
The Lead Editors
, 
The Lead
, and 
Ella Glover

Environment

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As water bills soar, activists fight to keep Britain’s rivers clean
Fed up of a lack of government action, campaigners are taking matters into their own hands against water firms.
 • 
The Lead
 and 
John Lubbock
Kemi Badenoch's net-zero denial is a dangerous gamble
It seems the existence and quality of the government’s net zero plans are dependent on whether Badenoch is Tory leader, writes DeSmog's Adam Barnett
 • 
The Lead
 and 
Adam Barnett
The Prime Minister must not forget the energy crisis raging in homes
As the Energy Price Cap - and bills for households - rises the pressure is on household budgets as much as it is fiscal ones
 • 
Zoe Grunewald
 and 
The Lead

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Scrap the Cap!

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Politics and culture with a campaigning heart, covering people, place and policy beyond the mainstream headlines
Recommendations
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