the right thing to do and this is the right thing to do and this is the right road to go down stop i don t think it s good to put pressure on just anybody. i think people need to look, study and understand and try to analyse in a calm way. i think if we do that we can see whether or not this does exactly what we as unionists here would like you to do. it s notjust about to good for unionists comments about the whole of northern ireland, but all the people here making sure that it works for all of them and business as well. 0k, thank you very much, to. the number of people sleeping rough in england last year increased by more than a quarter, according to figures released by the government. the rise in 2022 comes after 4 years of decreases those years included exceptional measures for rough sleepers introduced by the government in response to the covid pandemic to take people off the streets. ministers say they re spending 500 million pounds tackling the problem. 0ur social affairs c
michael buchanan, bbc news, bristol. thousands of schools in england, scotland and wales are facing further disruption this week, as teachers strike again over pay. the disputes across the uk started with below inflation pay rises for this financial year. in england, teachers received a 5% pay increase, and the government hasn t yet moved this. in scotland, a revised offer of 6 per cent has been rejected by unions. and teachers in wales were offered a 6.5 per cent award, plus a one off payment, but that s also been turned down. today, members of the national education union took action across northern england, as did members of the educational institute of scotland. parts of england and wales will also be affected over the next two days, as our education editor branwenjeffreys reports. feast your eyes, look at this. bacon butties for striking teachers, gathering in newcastle from the picket line, protesting about workload as much as pay.
having the heating on, we should be able to do that. mel eyers ending that report by michael buchanan. and michaeljoins me now michael, there have been some results released today from a survey about the impact of winter pressures on adults. this is carried out by the office for national statistics, they surveyed just over 4500 people across great britain in the four weeks to the 18th of december, but they were looking at was the impact of rising prices and nhs pressures and what they found perhaps will not be a surprise to many of these communities in devon, they found that nearly one in four people were struggling to heat their homes comfortably. 0ne struggling to heat their homes comfortably. one in seven were worried about running out of food before the next wage cheque for the next benefit payment actually came through. that was understandably leading to some health problems through really have the people said they were having symptoms of depression because of the pressures they
organised by councils, and the vacancy rates are as bad if not worse. that s why many are arguing a reform plan for that service is long overdue. well, one of the simplest ways to ease pressure on the nhs is to keep people out of hospital in the first place and a community in devon is trying to do that by focusing on keeping them warm. 0ur social affairs correspondent michael buchanan has been to see how it works. winter in north devon. on days like this, it s best to stay indoors, hopefully in the warm. good morning. mr adams? yes. my name is mel. mel is an energy adviser who s been sent to visit roger adams by his gp. i understand you ve got some health conditions that you feel the cold more. the pensioner takes 15 tablets a day for a variety of health problems, including asthma. these are energy efficient light bulbs.
michael, related to this there s been a survey about the impact of winter pressures? indeed, they are a surveyed just overfour indeed, they are a surveyed just over four and a indeed, they are a surveyed just overfour and a half indeed, they are a surveyed just over four and a half thousand people across britain in the four weeks up to do the 18th, so that is in the lead up to christmas and you may remember there was that cold start late november early december, so it looks at that, and they found around one four people are finding they are struggling to heat their homes comfortably, but at the same time one in seven are actually struggling to feed themselves, without number saying they had concerns that they would run out of food before their next wage was given or next benefit payment arrived, so they were cutting down on portion sizes or in some cases there were actually eating food that was out of date. all of those pressures