Our regular round-up of the top stories about charities in the mainstream media.
Shelter slams government as ‘reckless’ over use of council house sales
Shelter has said the government’s plans to pay for its right-to-buy scheme using money from the sale of council houses is “reckless” and could force the sale of over 20,000 council homes in a year.
According to the Independent, homelessness charity Shelter said that local authorities would have to raise £26m for selling council homes across the UK to raise the estimated £4.5bn annual cost of additional right-to-buy discounts.
Shelter said that Birmingham would be the hardest hit by the plans, followed by Leeds and then the London borough of Southwark.
Shelter’s figures have been dismissed as “misleading” by the Department for Communities and Local Government however.
Animal charity criticises Edinburgh Zoo’s latest attempt to produce a panda cub
A Scottish welfare charity has criticised Edinburgh Zoo for attempting to produce a panda cub through artificial insemination, saying “enough was enough”.
According to the BBC, Edinburgh Zoo has spent the last four years unsuccessfully attempting to impregnate its female panda Tian Tian using what OneKind has called “invasive and unnatural” procedures.
Libby Anderson, policy advisor at OneKind, said: "It is desperately sad that the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland has chosen to subject Tian Tian to further invasive procedures for a fourth year running in a bid to produce a panda cub”.
Walsall domestic abuse charity closes
The Walsall Domestic Violence Forum has been forced to close, due to a lack of funding, despite “long and hard fight over many years to secure the necessary funds” to continue.
According to the Express Star the charity, which was founded in 1992, closed down yesterday despite an increase in incidences of domestic violence in the region. Walsall North MP David Winnick described the charity’s closure as “devastating”.
Walsall Borough council has pledged to spend almost £900,000 on tackling forms of domestic abuse.
