Written by

Margaret Ellison came into journalism through adult education and local public service work rather than a traditional newsroom route. After studying Social Policy at the University of Kent, she spent several years preparing community briefings, council-facing reports, and plain-English guides on housing, care, transport, and neighbourhood services. Her writing is shaped by close attention to how politics is experienced away from television studios and party conferences. She has followed planning disputes, local consultations, environmental schemes, care provision, and the slow administrative decisions that often matter most to residents. For London Politics, Margaret brings an older and more grounded perspective to society, green policy, and local government stories, with particular attention to the public services and community spaces where policy becomes visible.

3 Articles
Rising Financial Hardship Across Britain
Society

Why Financial Hardship Remains a Political Problem

Financial hardship is often discussed through one headline figure, but household pressure is produced by several forces at once: earnings, housing costs, energy...

A Home Battery Revolution Is Reshaping the Power Grid
Green Policy

A Home Battery Revolution Is Reshaping the Power Grid

The proliferation of residential battery storage systems is beginning to alter how national electricity networks manage demand. As home energy storage technology becomes...

Europe Hit by Another Record Heat Wave
Green Policy

What Extreme Heat Exposes About British Infrastructure

Extreme heat is not only a weather story. For British government and local authorities, prolonged high temperatures test infrastructure that was largely designed...

Editor's Pick

Green Policy

Why Paved Front Gardens Matter for Urban Heat

Front gardens may look like a small part of Britain’s climate debate, but collectively they occupy a large area of urban land. As...

Society

Why Planning Reform Keeps Clashing With Local Control

Planning reform repeatedly returns to the same political problem: Britain needs more homes and infrastructure, but development decisions are made in places where...

Global Affairs

Afghanistan’s Hunger Crisis Deepens as Aid Funding Shrinks

Afghanistan remains one of the world’s most severe food-security emergencies. The World Food Programme says millions of people require urgent food assistance, while...

Voices

How to Read Political News More Critically

Political news is rarely difficult because every report is biased or unreliable. It is difficult because facts, interpretation, selection and emphasis are often...

Economic Affairs

Where Britain’s Green Jobs Are Actually Emerging

Britain’s low-carbon transition is creating new work, but not evenly. Offshore wind, grid upgrades, retrofitting, electric transport and industrial decarbonisation all require workers,...

Society

How Britain Measures Poverty

Arguments about poverty in Britain often sound contradictory because different statistics are answering different questions. A headline may refer to relative low income,...