NCP, which runs car parks on Deane Road, King Street, Topp Way, the Octagon Theatre and elsewhere announced today that it had called in the administrators PriceWaterhouseCooper.

The 95-year-old company, owned by Japan based Park24, was reported to have been struggling with losses nationwide.

A Bolton Council spokesperson said: “We are aware of the situation regarding NCP and the intention to appoint an administrator.

“All NCP car parks in Bolton are open and operating as normal.

The NCP car park on Deane Road (Image: Newsquest)

 “We are in close discussion with NCP, and the public will be informed if there is any change to NCP car parks in Bolton.”

The Bolton News understands that in Bolton’s case all of the NCP car park buildings are owned by the council, meaning the sites are not at risk of closure.

This could give the council the option of either bringing in new operators or taking over the running of the borough’s car parks directly.

NCP operates about 340 car parks across the UK including in major towns and city centres, airports, hospitals, and train stations.

The company said that it was hit by a fall in demand around the time of the Covid pandemic and that it has still not yet recovered to historic levels.

NCP said this has also partly come about because of a change to commuting and consumer driving patterns which have impacted occupancy across its car parks.

In January 2024 Bolton Council finalised a proposal to write off around £1.2M worth of debt that NCP owed to it after around 100 days of often heated debate.

This was out of around £4M of debt the company owed to the council that had built up since the Covid crisis.

A majority of councillors voted for a motion to reject the debt write off proposal at a town hall meeting in November 2023.

But a final decision to agree the debt write off was agreed by the council cabinet the following January.

Falling into administration has now put 682 jobs across the country at risk.

PwC joint administrator and partner Zelf Hussain said: “NCP has faced a challenging trading environment over several years, with changing consumer behaviours impacting volumes, and a high fixed cost-base leading to trading losses.

“Our priority on appointment is to ensure continuity of service while we undertake a detailed review of the business.

“All sites are open, staff remain in post, and trading continues as normal.

“We will be engaging with landlords, employees and other stakeholders as we explore all options, including the potential sale of all or part of the business, to secure the best possible outcome for creditors.”

At the 2026 Oscars ceremony, actor Sean Penn joined a small coterie of male performers who have three Academy Awards to their name. But the 65-year-old, who was named Best Supporting Actor for his brilliant portrayal of a racist military officer in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, wasn’t among the stars gathered at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre on Sunday night.

“Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening, or didn’t want to, so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf,” Succession star – and last year’s Best Supporting Actor winner – Kieran Culkin quipped after opening the golden envelope.

So where was Penn on one of the biggest nights of his acting career? According to a report from the New York Times, the actor, who previously earned Oscars for Mystic River in 2004 and for Milk in 2009, chose to skip the ceremony in order to head to Europe.

open image in gallery

Advertisement

His plan “as of late last week”, anonymous sources told the paper, was to visit Ukraine, although they “did not specify what he would be doing there or where precisely within the country he would be going”. On Monday, an AFP reporter spotted Penn leaving a car in Kyiv, and he has since been photographed in a meeting with president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Swapping a glitzy Hollywood party to spend time in a country torn apart by war – it’s not exactly your usual A-list behaviour, but it is certainly quite typical of the unusual turn that Penn’s life and work has taken in recent years.

This is, after all, the man who lent one of his Oscar statuettes to Zelensky, promising that it should remain in the capital city of Kyiv until Ukraine wins the war against Russia – and who previously debated melting down his two little gold men to make “bullets they can shoot at the Russians”.

open image in gallery

Advertisement

What is perhaps particularly notable is, where other celebrities’ activism has notably waned in the years since Russia invaded in 2022, replaced by other splashier and more of-the-moment causes, Penn has remained stalwart, persisting as one of America’s loudest voices in the defence of Ukraine.

So how did Penn, the star who was once best known for his tumultuous marriage to Madonna in the late Eighties, become such a passionate supporter of Zelensky? It’s worth noting that this is not the first cause that Penn has taken up. Far from it.

open image in gallery

His activism has roots in his family’s liberal politics. His father, the actor and director Leo Penn, was blacklisted from Hollywood in the Fifties after refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), the organisation designed to root out alleged Communist sympathisers.

Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day

New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.

Try for free

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day

Advertisement

New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.

Try for free

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

Penn Jr, meanwhile, emerged as one of the film industry’s most outspoken activists in the early Noughties, when George W. Bush went to war in Iraq in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Penn, sceptical of the existence of “weapons of mass destruction”, took out an ad in The Washington Post in 2002, in which he called on the then-president to change his mind.

Months later, he travelled to Baghdad “to personally record the human face of the Iraqi people so that their blood – along with that of American soldiers – would not be invisible on my own hands”, as he put it in a powerful statement to the press.

A few years on, he operated a rescue boat during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, managing to pick up survivors who had been trapped in their homes. Then, in 2010, following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, he set up and ran what would become one of the country’s biggest refugee camps. It was an endeavour that, unlike many celebrity brushes with humanitarianism, won praise from experienced aid workers for making a tangible difference, and Penn was later named as an ambassador-at-large for Haiti to recognise his hands-on work.

open image in gallery

Not all of his ventures have been as well received, though. Penn has been criticised for his past defence of controversial South American leaders such as Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, with whom the actor became close friends, and Cuban president Raul Castro. And in 2015, he embarked on a bizarre trip to Mexico to interview the drug lord El Chapo for Rolling Stone magazine; the circus surrounding the venture overshadowed Penn’s aim to “contribute to this conversation on the war on drugs”. “I have a terrible regret,” he later reflected on the whole debacle.

His work has also attracted many of the usual barbs prompted by A-list activism, namely that his ventures are prompted less by genuine altruism and more by a desire to be at the heart of the story, like some sort of real-life Hollywood hero (who can pop home to Malibu for a bit of rest and relaxation whenever he fancies).

His involvement in Ukraine initially began when he was searching for a lighter directing project to pursue, after planned documentaries about the exiled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi didn’t pan out.

The story of Zelensky – an actor and comedian who had starred in a TV series about an ordinary bloke who ends up as president after his rant about government corruption goes viral, and had then himself successfully won a presidential election on an anti-corruption platform – seemed like good material for a film.

“We thought we’d follow this kind of interesting story that would have been a light-hearted take,” Penn said at the time.

The Covid pandemic meant that filming ended up being delayed, and it wasn’t until late 2021 that Penn finally headed to Ukraine. He and Zelensky eventually met on 23 February 2022; their initial encounter wasn’t filmed, the actor has said, so that the politician could figure out whether he could trust him or not.

What neither of them could have predicted was that on that night, Russia would invade Ukraine. The following day, which the pair had agreed would mark the start of filming, would be the first day of the war.

open image in gallery

Inevitably, the project moved in an entirely different direction. What had been intended as a lightly comic portrait of a celebrity-turned-politician would morph into a depiction of a nation thrown into conflict. Zelensky, though, kept his planned appointment with Penn on 24 February.

It seems as if this second meeting stoked an abiding admiration on the American’s side. “I saw a very big change in him from one day to the next,” Penn recalled. “At that moment, he was the significant target. But he wasn’t going anywhere. That day, he found out that he was born for this.”

The fact that Zelensky chose to stay in the capital city, rather than accepting offers to leave his country for his own safety, seemed to especially impress Penn. “President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people have risen as historic symbols of courage and principle,” he said in a statement released a few weeks later. “Ukraine is the tip of the spear for the democratic embrace of dreams. If we allow it to fight alone, our soul as America is lost.”

Penn’s documentary Superpower premiered at the Berlin Film Festival the following year. The unabashedly pro-Zelensky movie – “If it’s propaganda, I’m proud,” he told one audience – shows the star traipsing through the rubble and meeting with civilians who have had their lives turned upside down.

The response was mixed. While The Independent’s Geoffrey Macnab praised Penn and his co-director Aaron Kaufman for their “sprawling and uneven but also heartfelt and inspiring” effort, other critics questioned the star’s apparent need to place himself at the heart of the story once again.

The Guardian’s two-star review described it as “a queasy-making examination of the celebrity-blighted news cycle where somebody like Penn is the de facto messenger of tragedy”. Was the film more concerned with Sean Penn, real-life action hero, than it was with the heroism of the Ukrainian people? Or was the actor doing vital work in keeping the Ukraine conflict front of mind for American viewers?

open image in gallery

Penn, perhaps to his credit, kept up his friendship with Zelensky long after the cameras stopped rolling. In late 2022, he made headlines for handing over his Oscar statuette to the president, telling him to bring it “back to Malibu” after a Ukrainian victory. “It’s just a symbolic silly thing, but if I know this is here with you then I’ll feel better and stronger for the fight,” the actor said. Zelensky, in response, presented him with a very different accolade: Ukraine’s Order of Merit.

Then in 2025, following a tense moment between president Donald Trump and Zelensky during a White House meeting, Penn doubled down on his praise for his friend, hailing him as “constantly, extemporaneously genuine” in his desire to secure freedom for Ukraine. “I think the last significant moment that we [Americans] were bridging a division was in support of Ukraine and its head of state,” he said. “And if we lose track of that, we really have to ask ourselves if we’re losing track of the value of democracy.”

Just a few weeks later, Penn headed to Ukraine to meet with special forces, and at the Cannes film festival in May, he posed on the red carpet with soldiers, along with U2’s Bono and The Edge.

With his latest visit to Kyiv, the latest member of the Oscars’ three-timers club shows no erosion of his own unique form of activism. Where other actors might have opted to pledge support for Zelensky in their winner’s speech (and be praised for their “powerful” words on social media), Penn clearly prefers a more hands-on approach.

“It’s his personal visit, that’s how he sees it, that he needs to be in Ukraine,” a senior Ukrainian official told AFP on Monday. “He just wants to support Ukraine.” Whether he offers up his latest trophy to Zelensky remains to be seen.

Keeleigh Goodwin attended Club Chemistry in Canterbury, Kent, which is closed until further notice amid an investigation into a fatal meningitis outbreak in the county

A mum has warned other parents after her daughter caught meningitis by – she claims – sharing a vape in a nightclub.

Khali Goodwin says Keeleigh, 22, was lucky to survive after being rushed to hospital following bouts of sickness, headaches and fatigue. Keeleigh was diagnosed with meningitis B, the bacterial strain which is not covered by the vaccine teenagers get when they are in Year 9.

She remains in hospital and the incident has “absolutely frightened the life out of her,” Khali said. She also claimed her daughter, who lives in a houseshare in Canterbury, caught meningitis by sharing a vape at the nightclub Club Chemistry in the city. Authorities said yesterday anyone who attended Club Chemistry across three consecutive nights at the start of the month should seek urgent treatment. Its owner said more than 2,000 people attended on March 5, 6 and 7.

Mum-of-six Khali said: “She did say that one of her friends also has sort of the same symptoms, obviously not as bad, but they’ve been sharing a vape. I think sharing vapes is a major way of it being passed.”

READ MORE: All the important facts parents of teens or students must know about deadly meningitisREAD MORE: Club Chemistry staff member in hospital with meningitis

Health bodies do not list vaping as a transmission route of meningitis. However, authorities do say the infection is spread via saliva and droplets, so it can be transmitted via shared utensils, cutlery, cups and even toothbrushes.

It is also spread by sneezing, coughing and kissing. Not everyone who carries the virus or bacteria that cause meningitis in their throat are showing symptoms or sick. Andrew Preston, a professor of microbial pathogenicity at the University of Bath, said: “If you share a contaminated vape, it’s going to go into the back of throat, but to cause the disease, it then has to cross from within the nasal pharynx over that quite strong barrier.

“So I wonder if the vaping itself has caused weakening of the barrier, and the bugs are then able to move across when normally they can’t. That’s pure speculation.”

Khali, from Herne Bay, Kent, told The Sun she believes her daughter would have died had her flatmate not seen her lifeless at home. She said: “Luckily she lives in shared accommodation. The girl who found her rang an ambulance, which got there really quick. If it wasn’t for that girl, she wouldn’t be here. She was really bad.

“I never, in a million trillion years, ever thought it would be this. Never. She had a lumbar puncture and CT scans and stuff… and when it came back I said, ‘How? How has she got that, she’s protected?’ But it didn’t come out until 2015, this vaccine.”

It is believed Keeleigh, who works in McDonald’s in Canterbury, will spend at least one more week in hospital to recover. Her mum continued: “She’s said she can’t see herself ever going out again. It’s absolutely frightened the life out of her.”

Keeleigh visited Club Chemistry on March 12. Louise Jones-Roberts, owner of the club, said: “I’m devastated for the families affected. It’s so incredibly sad. I just really hope people know the symptoms and no more lives are lost.”

Afghanistan and Pakistan have been fighting since last month

Advertisement

Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of intentionally attacking a hospital in an airstrike that has reportedly left 400 people dead. Pakistan dismissed the accusation said the strikes did not hit any civilian sites.

The incident on Monday, March 16, is one of the latest since the conflict between the neighbours that sparked last month. The fighting has been marked by repeated cross-border clashes and air strikes inside Afghanistan.

The broader Middle East, meanwhile, has been drawn into a widespread regional conflict after the United States and Israel carried out joint strikes on key Iranian sites on February 28. Iran has retaliated, plunging the region into war for over more than two weeks.

Ensure our latest news and sport headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source.

Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said, in a post on X, that the air strike had hit the hospital at about 9pm local time.

Fitrat said that large sections of the 2,000-bed facility were destroyed and the death toll had “so far” reached 400 people, while about 250 people had been reported injured.

Local television aired footage, posted on social media, of security forces using torches as they carried out casualties while firefighters fought flames among the ruins of a building.

Afghan officials just hours earlier said the two sides exchanged fire along their common border, in which four people in Afghanistan were killed, as the deadliest fighting between the neighbours in years entered a third week.

Afghan government spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, condemned the strike in a post on X and accused Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors”. He said the deceased and injured were patients at the hospital.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesman, Mosharraf Zaidi, said the allegations were baseless and no hospital was targeted in Kabul.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information, in a post on X, said the strikes “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban” and Afghanistan-based Pakistani militants in Kabul and Nangarhar, saying the facilities were being used against innocent Pakistani civilians.

It said Pakistan’s targeting was “precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage is inflicted”.

The presenter is embarking on a 1,000km charity tandem bike ride from Weymouth to Edinburgh to raise funds for Comic Relief.

Greg has raised more than £190,000 and will be passing through County Durham on Wednesday, March 18, if all goes to plan.

His journey will take him north along the Durham coast from Hart to Seaham, passing through areas including Blackhall Rocks, Horden, Easington, and South Hetton.

(Image: COMIC RELIEF)

This leg of the challenge will see him cycle across former colliery land, now converted into scenic paths and viewpoints.

After reaching Seaham, the route continues into Sunderland via Ryhope and Hendon, moving from coastal scenery to city streets as he approaches the centre of Sunderland.

Supporters can track Greg’s progress in real time using Comic Relief’s official GPS tracker, which provides live updates of his location along the route.

The “Where’s Greg now?” page updates regularly as his GPS signal moves.

So, readers will be able to see when he’s closing in on Hart, Blackhall Rocks, Horden, Easington, South Hetton and Seaham.

Alternatively, you can track Greg on our page here:

This allows fans to see when he is nearing their area and find the best time to head out and show their support.

This is the radio host’s third major challenge for Comic Relief, despite previously saying he would not take on another.

In 2016, he completed five triathlons in five days, and in 2018, he cycled between and climbed the UK’s three highest peaks: Scafell Pike, Snowdon, and Ben Nevis.

Jamie Docherty, 34, was jailed for five years after threatening and stamping on a female police officer’s head in an attack outside of a hospital following his arrest

A man has been jailed after threatening to stab a female police officer, before stamping on her head, following his arrest.

Jamie Docherty was sentenced to five years in prison after admitting to attacking PC Rebecca Martin-Palmer outside Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in 2025.

Docherty, 34, was in hospital on August 13 last year following an alleged assault. The High Court heard that he had previous convictions for violence, disorder and other offences.

Ensure our latest stories always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as your Preferred Source in your Google search settings.

The court heard that after ordering her not to touch him, he was “in the officer’s face” with clenched fists, according to the BBC.

Martin-Palmer was then hit in the face with a plastic container before Docherty threatened to stab her.

Prosecutor Alasdair Shaw said Martin-Palmer pressed her emergency button for back-up. Shaw then told the court that Docherty shouted she was going to die as the officer continued her efforts to restrain him.

After she fell to the ground, he stamped on her head.

Docherty ran inside the building and despite her injuries Martin-Palmer continued to try and catch him.

He then threatened her by pressing a mobile phone to her neck, claiming it was a high-powered taser.

After the arrival of other officers he was eventually handcuffed.

The court in Glasgow heard that the officer received injuries to her nose and bruising and is yet to return to police work following the incident.

Due to a guilty plea, Docherty’s sentence was reduced from seven years. Lord Arthurson said in court on Monday, March 16: “Your assault was sustained, exceptionally violent and was to the danger of the officer’s life.

“The courts will continue to regard such deplorable attacks on police officers as offending of the utmost gravity and deal with the perpetrators with considerable severity.”

Superintendent Ross Aitken said: “This was a despicable act and Docherty will now face the consequences of his actions. It was a vicious and terrifying attack against an officer simply trying to do her job.

“The bravery and professionalism she has shown throughout this process is admirable and I would like to thank her for her efforts. By the very nature of the job, police officers and staff find themselves dealing with volatile and dangerous situations to protect the people and communities we serve. However, being assaulted is not part of the job and it will not be tolerated.

“We take a zero tolerance approach to violence against emergency service workers and are committed to holding those responsible to account.”

Tings N Wings, based in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, is a small, family-run fast food retailer that first opened back in 2021.

It is known for its “epic” wing flavours, smashed Angus burgers, and buttermilk chicken burgers and tenders.

At one point, the fast food retailer had three sites across the UK in Welwyn Garden City, St Albans, and Clacton-on-Sea.

Tings N Wings said it is focused on “dedication to quality” when it comes to food.

Its website continues: “We pride ourselves on serving our customers a menu completely free of preservatives and artificial flavourings.

“Each and every sauce is made entirely from scratch. We use only the best available real ingredients.

“Our quality is our identity – it’s who we are as a company. It’s what guides us and it’s what sets us apart. We will never change.”

Tings N Wings has received rave reviews from customers across the UK, since opening five years ago, being described as “THE BEST”.

Others have said they make the “best fried chicken about” and the “best wings in town”.

Tings N Wings set to close after entering liquidation

Tings N Wings launched a petition in October 2025, requesting support to help keep its final store in Welwyn Garden City open.

In January, the company was handed notice that it was to be struck off the Companies House Register and dissolved in less than two months.

In February, this strike-off action was suspended, according to Companies House .

However, Tings N Wings has now voluntarily entered liquidation.

Giles McCarthy of Netchwood Finance Ltd was appointed as liquidator on March 5, according to the London Gazette.

Turbulent start to 2026 for UK high street

It has been a rough start to 2026 for the UK high street, with several retailers entering administration and others announcing widespread store closures.

Major high street retailers, including River Island, Primark, and Poundland, have already been forced to close stores in 2026, while Revolution and BrewDog have shut the doors to 21 and 38 pubs, respectively.

Several other retailers have fallen into administration recently, including:

Meanwhile, four UK travel companies have closed in the opening weeks of 2026:

EcoJet Airlines, billed as “the world’s first Electric Airline”, has also entered liquidation after just three years, resulting in the cancellation of all planned flights.

UK delivery company Yodel is set to be phased out over the coming months after being acquired by InPost.

Tesco also recently revealed plans to cut 380 jobs in stores across the UK, while it’s been reported that Morrisons is looking to sell some of its in-store pharmacies as it continues to cut costs.

It’s not been all bad news for the UK high street, with several major brands announcing new store openings for 2026, including Aldi, M&S, Superdrug, and Lidl.

Which recent shop closure has affected you the most? Let us know in the comments below.

“Given the importance of secure English language testing for the UK’s immigration system and the protection of our borders, we cannot endorse the proposed approach by bidding for this tender while retaining our commitment to responsible, trusted and secure assessment,” it said.

A further 250 people have been reported as injured in the wake of the blast

Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of killing at least 400 people in an airstrike on a hospital in Kabul.

The strike, which Afghan officials say happened late on Monday evening (March 16), marks a dramatic escalation in conflict that began late last month and has already seen repeated cross-border clashes and airstrikes, as well as air strikes inside Afghanistan.

Pakistan has strongly rejected the allegations it hit the hospital, insisting its military targeted only military infrastructure and did not civilian sites or facilities.

Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as your Preferred Source in your Google search settings.

Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said the strike hit the hospital in the capital at around 9pm local time. In a post on X, he said large sections of the 2,000-bed facility were destroyed.

Fitrat said the death toll had so far reached 400 people, while around 250 others were reported injured.

Footage shared by local television stations on social media appeared to show security forces using flashlights as they carried casualties away from the scene while firefighters worked to extinguish flames among the ruins of the building.

Fitrat said rescue teams were still working to control the fire and recover bodies from the site.

The strike came just hours after Afghan officials said forces from both countries exchanged fire along their shared border, leaving four people dead in Afghanistan.

The latest clashes mark the third week of what has become the most serious fighting between the two neighbouring countries in years.

Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the reported strike, accusing Pakistan of targeting hospitals and other civilian sites.

“We strongly condemn this crime and consider such an act to be against all accepted principles and a crime against humanity,” he said in a post on X.

Pakistan has dismissed the accusations.

A spokesperson for Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described the claims that a hospital had been targeted as baseless.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the military had carried out “precision airstrikes” on what he described as military installations in Kabul and the eastern province of Nangarhar.

He said the strikes destroyed technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities used by the Afghan Taliban government.

“All targeting has been done with precision only at those infrastructures which are being used by Afghan Taliban regime to support its multiple terror proxies,” Tarar wrote on X.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information earlier said Afghan claims were “false and misleading” and accused Kabul of attempting to stir public sentiment while concealing what it described as support for cross-border militant groups.

The strike came as the United Nations Security Council called on Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership to step up efforts to combat terrorism.

Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan of allowing militant groups — including the Pakistani Taliban — to operate from its territory and carry out attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies those claims.

The conflict intensified in late February after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to earlier Pakistani airstrikes that Afghan officials said had killed civilians.

The clashes disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar last October following earlier fighting that left dozens dead.

Pakistan has since declared it is in what it described as an “open war” with Afghanistan, raising concerns among the international community.

Officials have warned that the instability could allow militant organisations such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State group to strengthen their presence in the region.

Pakistan claims its forces have killed hundreds of Afghan Taliban fighters during the fighting, while Afghan officials say Pakistani casualties have also been significant.

Both sides have rejected each other’s casualty figures.

Key changes to the rules around savings are coming in soon

Martin Lewis has issued a caution for savers as you could be missing out on greater returns. The advice from the consumer champion comes as major changes to savings allowances are just around the corner.

During a recent question time edition of his BBC podcast, Mr Lewis was questioned by a man about whether he could open a junior ISA for his nieces and nephew. A key benefit of ISAs is that these accounts are completely tax-free. The financial specialist initially told the uncle that regrettably he wouldn’t be able to open the account himself, as a junior ISA can only be established by a parent or guardian on behalf of a young person. Mr Lewis said: “You as an uncle can’t do it, it generally has to be the person who has the guardianship or the parentship of the child, to be able to open their ISA, so you will have to do it through them.”

This should be your focus

Nevertheless, if you are creating a junior ISA to save up for your little one, Mr Lewis had a firm word of caution regarding which type of account to go for. He said: “I tend to almost always get questions about cash junior ISAs.

“I think junior ISAs are one of those areas where you really, really want to be always be focusing if you possibly can on investing.” Mr Lewis explained there is a straightforward reason why, given how the account operates.

He explained: “You’re generally locking money away for 18 years that cannot be accessed. The rule of investing is if you’re locking money away for more than five years – and if you’ve got emergency funds and you haven’t got any high debts, which hopefully children won’t – then you should look at investing over savings because on a balance of probabilities, it will outperform.”

You can deposit up to £9,000 annually into junior ISAs on behalf of a child for whom you have parental responsibility. This sum can be allocated as preferred between cash ISAs or stocks and shares ISAs.

A junior ISA is held in the child’s name, but whoever opened the account manages it. When the child turns 16, they can become the registered contact for the account, and upon reaching 18, the account converts to an adult ISA, allowing them to access the funds. Mr Lewis continued in explaining that money placed into a junior ISA is in the “sweet spot” as you are saving funds which you don’t require and the sum has a lengthy period to grow.

Change to ISA rules

Several significant changes are approaching for ISA allowances. Distinct from the junior ISA allowance, adults can presently save up to £20,000 annually into ISAs.

This can be divided as preferred between cash ISAs and stocks and shares accounts. From April 2027, this is set to change, with the maximum deposit into cash ISAs being capped at £12,000 each tax year.

The remaining £8,000 must be allocated towards investment-based accounts. People aged 65 and above will be exempt from these new regulations and will maintain the existing allowance.