Opposition councillors have welcomed a change of heart by Southwark Council on fees charged for adult learners.

The council has said it will now scrap the controversial 'repeat fee' for concessionary learners, introduced by the Labour administration in late 2010 for people who had already been on a course before. It meant that people on low incomes were being charged more than 300% of the normal concessionary price for some courses, even if they were going on to do a follow on course.

Work on the new Elephant and Castle leisure centre is now underway, marking an important step towards returning lost sports facilities to the area. Residents will now want to be reassured that they are getting a good deal on the site.

When the deal on the neighbouring St Mary's Residential tower was originally agreed, the council talked a lot about the contribution the developers would make towards the construction of the new leisure centre, with council leader Peter John even saying "without the tower being built we would not be having a new leisure centre on this site because we couldn't afford to do it."

A new £2m scheme has been launched by the Coalition Government to help boost childcare businesses and help women back into work.

People who want to set up a nursery can apply for grants of up to £500 to help cover things such as legal and insurance costs, training, equipment and adaptations to buildings. The scheme is aimed to launch up to 6,000 new childcare businesses across England.

Southwark Council must "force its hand" to make the rebuild of Elephant & Castle shopping centre happen without further delay, say local Liberal Democrats.

The call for action comes after reports that the redevelopment is being put on hold for another year because of disagreement between the council and property firm St Modwen, which currently owns the centre.

Commenting ahead of tomorrow's Queen's Speech, Simon Hughes MP said:

This year's Queen's Speech must keep jobs, growth and a fairer society at the top of the agenda. Helping small businesses and supporting green jobs can give additional impetus to the economy. We all expect legislation to set up a new pensions system with much higher basic pensions, a new system for paying for social care for older people and new rules to prevent big firms from avoiding tax. These would all be major changes to the way Britain collects taxes and spends public money. If there is a proposed new law to sort out who is entitled to which benefits and which public services, this would be an important Bill which is well overdue. I hope that this year's Queen Speech will be widely welcomed.

Commenting on Kenny Jacket's resignation as Manager of Millwall football club after six seasons at The Den, Simon Hughes said:

"Millwall supporters owe Kenny Jackett grateful thanks for a very long and successful period at the helm. Obviously after Millwall's up and down season this year, Kenny's decision to resign is understandable. The Chairman and Board must now have the full support of all the fans as they rebuild the squad to start a strong climb up the championship in the season ahead."

Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander MP, has said people should check their new pay slips to see how much they've saved through Lib Dem Income Tax cuts.

This week millions of people across Britain will have received their first pay slip since the Income Tax personal allowance was raised from £8,105 to £9,440. When Liberal Democrats came into power in 2010 this was just £6,475 - meaning low and middle income workers will be up to £600 a year better off compared to what they were paying under the last Labour government.

More than 1 in 10 new children starting primary school in September will be put into temporary 'bulge' expansion classes because of a shortage of school places.

255 of the 2,173 reception year places for four and five year olds will be in expansion classes at existing schools because there aren't enough permanent places available in the borough.

Liberal Democrats in Southwark have called for reform of the council tax system following damning figures about non-payment in London.

New figures showed that across London local authorities have failed to collect £640m of council tax, with Labour councils having by far the worst record.

Labour-run Southwark Council has the 10^th worst council tax arrears in the city- and the 15^th worst in the country.