It’s 2028 and you’re getting a taxi home from a night out. So far, so normal, the only difference is that this one is flying.

Sounds futuristic but it’s far from unrealistic according to Vertical Aerospace, which is aiming to have its taxis soaring across London’s skyline within two years.

The Bristol-based firm successfully tested its electric flying taxi above the Cotswolds last year.

Uber has slightly tempered its ambitions to 2030, although its partnership with Joby Aviation is set to bring flying taxis to Dubai already later this year.

It joins cities in China and the United Arab Emirates which harbour similar ambitions.

Uber’s chief product officer Sachin Kansal revealed he would be ‘very disappointed’ if the 2030 milestone wasn’t hit.

‘London is going to be a very high priority market,’ he said.

‘We know our users (there) would love a feature like this, which will help them escape a lot of the traffic and be able to get from their home to the airport within a few minutes rather than hours.’

How fast would a flying taxi journey be?

To put that in perspective, a 10-mile journey across central London could take as little as 10 minutes in a flying taxi – compared to in excess of 90 minutes during peak times.

‘To me, the number one advantage of being able to take that ride is time,’ Sachin explained.

‘Of course the aircraft itself is going to be an amazing experience, but being able to save an hour is going to be amazing.’

Joby’s electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) will launch like a helicopter before tilting forward to cruise like a plane to travel at speeds of up to 200mph.

It will carry a pilot and four passengers, cover up to 100 miles on full battery, which takes up to 10 minutes to charge from empty.

And it won’t be priced beyond the means of ordinary Londoners.

How much would flying Uber trip cost?

Fares would be comparable to Uber Exec, the premium tier of the Uber app. In central London, a 10-mile Uber Exec journey typically costs between £50 and £70 depending on traffic and demand.

Like with Uber, customers will be able to book shared trips or an entire aircraft. They will travel via ‘vertiports’ — landing pads on rooftops, car parks, or repurposed helipads.

Under Uber’s model, passengers can take ‘stitched’ journeys where a car takes them to the ‘vertiports’ and another picks them up when they land for the final leg of their journey.

On top of this, they are significantly quieter than conventional aircraft. Joby claims their eVTOLs are around 55 decibels when flying overhead, roughly equivalent to a loud conversation in a restaurant.

So far, no infrastructure exists to accommodate eVTOLs – although not many ‘vertiports’ would be needed to serve London, according to Sachin.

‘My expectation would be that we would pick a few spots that give us enough coverage in the city as well as on the outskirts … which could be starting points,’ he said.

‘You just need a clearing to get enough angle to come in, you need enough space, and you need charging infrastructure. And all of that is very creative.’

What happens next with flying taxis in UK?

Joby is currently testing the taxis out in Dubai – which promises to be the guinea pig before the models expand to the US and then London.

Despite the ambitions, significant hurdles remain.

Before any commercial service can begin, aircraft must receive certification from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

The regulator must approve their safety, and operators must secure licences covering pilot training, routes, and maintenance.

Local authorities could also block the building of ‘vertiports’, especially if locals raise concerns about issues like noise.

Jonathan Nicholson, from the CAA, said we were ‘very close’ to seeing flying taxis ‘as long as it is safe we will seek to enable it’.

But there are also broader concerns over public confidence.

Autonomous cars have yet to be rolled out on a large scale in the UK. Until this is normalised, it remains to be seen how popular self-flying taxis will be.

Until these hurdles are overcome, the dream of beating London traffic by air remains just that.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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The number of potholes reported this year to date has more than tripled compared to the number reported this time last year

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Pothole reports in Peterborough have increased significantly since last year, according to Peterborough City Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment & Transport.

Speaking at the Full Council Budget meeting on Wednesday (February 25), Councillor Angus Ellis (Lab) said 2026 has already been a bad year for drivers across the city.

He said: “This year is worse than last year; up from January last year to where we are today, there were 231 reports. This year, so far, there are 787.”

Cllr Ellis suggested recent harsh weather conditions had been the driving force behind the exponential increase in road surface damage. “The cold weather followed by the extremely wet weather has created perfect conditions for potholes to form,” he said.

The councillor said road maintenance teams were working hard to get on top of the situation. “We have already fixed 2,431 by the end of January,” he said, “but there is more to do.”

Cllr Ellis highlighted how highways maintenance company M Group have deployed their specialist pothole-fixing utility vehicles – known as ‘Dragon Masters’ – to help resolve the issue.

“Since Monday, they have been fixing potholes,” he said, “and they’ve put an extra crew out there to fix potholes during the night.”

Semenyo’s winner silenced a raucous and rowdy crowd with a real poacher’s finish, reacting quickest to latch on to Rayan Ait-Nouri’s cross and converting with aplomb.

“We made a lot of passes that we needed to do to survive without much intention to attack,” said Guardiola.

“The reaction was amazing – unbelievable with the goal we scored. A complete game in a tough, tough place, and 10 games left in the Premier League. Time to be decisive.

“Now we are building these players and they have a long, long time here. It is important for the future for the club.”

Semenyo is taking the goalscoring burden off Haaland’s shoulders – only his team-mate with 29 and Brentford‘s Igor Thiago (19) have been involved in more Premier League goals than Semenyo’s 18.

Since signing for City, Semenyo has scored four league goals and provided one assist, a goal contributions record which is bettered only by Chelsea pair Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro, who have six apiece.

In late November Haaland had scored 58% of City’s goals, taken 30% of their shots and had 57% of their expected goals (xG).

He had scored 19 goals in all competitions. Burnley‘s Maxime Esteve was City’s second highest scorer in the league thanks to his two own goals in the game at Etihad Stadium.

Now, while Haaland’s impressive haul of 29 goals for the campaign still leads the way, Semenyo – and others – are silencing those who feared City were too reliant on the Norwegian’s goals.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump, whose fierce denunciation of military adventurism abroad fueled his unlikely rise to the top of the Republican Party, risks becoming ensnared by that very type of conflict.

The U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran Saturday cemented Trump’s decade-long transformation from a candidate who in 2016 called the Iraq War a “big, fat mistake” to a president warning Americans to prepare for potential casualties overseas and encouraging Iranians to “seize control of your destiny.” The strikes were also at odds with Trump’s warnings during the 2024 campaign that his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, was surrounded by “war hawks” eager to send troops overseas.

Trump justified the action as necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons or developing missiles capable of reaching the US, less than a year after he said airstrikes “obliterated” their capability. US intelligence has also said Iran’s weapons capability was substantially degraded.

For Trump, memories of the false pretenses underlying the Iraq War could lead to pressure to prove his assertion that Iran’s weapons production posed an imminent threat to Americans. And for Republicans already facing a challenging election year weighed down by economic anxiety, the shift could force a reassessment of how the attacks fit into the “America First,” isolationist-leaning movement the party has embraced during the Trump era.

While Trump might benefit from an early rally-around-the-flag effect, that could be hard to sustain for weeks and months, if not longer, a far different scenario from the swift effort to remove Nicolás Maduro from power earlier this year in Venezuela.

Success on day one is one thing. The days after are inherently unpredictable.

“The question is whether Iran’s goal is simply to outlast America and whether Trump has strategic attention deficit disorder, which will allow the Iranians to rise from the ashes and claim victory,” said Michael Rubin, a historian at the American Enterprise Institute who worked as a staff adviser on Iran and Iraq at the Pentagon from 2002 to 2004.

Many Republicans get behind Trump

Many Republicans were quick to line up behind the president, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn and state attorney general Ken Paxton, who are fighting a competitive Senate primary election on Tuesday.

“Hopefully lives will not be lost needlessly, but this always entails risk,” Cornyn said Saturday at a campaign stop near Houston. “But we know that Iran will not stop unless the United States and our allies stop them.”

Others, like Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, praised the military and were critical of Iran while noting that Americans will have questions that “must be answered.”

And there was outright opposition from some who have long criticized overseas entanglements, including Sen. Rand Paul, the Republican of Kentucky, who lamented the start of “another preemptive war.” Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who was once a close Trump ally, rejected the president’s warning of Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

“It’s always a lie and it’s always America Last,” she wrote online. “But it feels like the worst betrayal this time because it comes from the very man and the admin who we all believed was different.”

Little advance preparation for Americans

The administration did little in advance to prepare Americans for such a dramatic action.

Vice President JD Vance told The Washington Post this week there was “no chance” that the U.S. would become involved in a drawn-out war as it did in Iraq. During his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, Trump dedicated just a few lines to Iran, arguing the country and its proxies have “spread nothing but terrorism, death and hate.”

That stands in stark contrast to the lengthy runup to the Iraq War.

President George W. Bush, for example, named Iraq as a member of the so-called axis of evil in January 2002. Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered a now-infamous speech to the United Nations in February 2003, making the case for war based on the inaccurate assertion that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The invasion, which ultimately dominated Bush’s second term, didn’t begin until March 2003.

“We just have to be honest that there is a sense that this was not sold to the American public sufficiently,” Andrew Kolvet said Saturday on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” an online program founded by the late conservative activist who was close to Trump. “Perhaps there will be an opportunity on the backend of this.”

Kolvet was willing, however, to give Trump leeway, noting these are the types of challenging decisions presidents are entrusted with.

“President Trump has earned a big, long leash,” he said. “Not an unlimited one. But a very long one to make tough decisions.”

Polling suggests that many Americans share Trump’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear capabilities, even if they’re less confident in the president’s response. About half of U.S. adults were “extremely” or “very” concerned that Iran’s nuclear program poses a direct threat to the U.S., according to a poll this month from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Most Americans, 61%, said Iran is an “enemy” of the U.S., which is up slightly from a Pearson Institute/AP-NORC poll conducted in September 2023. But their confidence in the president’s judgment when it comes to relationships with adversaries and the use of military force abroad is low, the new poll shows, with only about 3 in 10 Americans saying they have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of trust in Trump.

Democrats sense an opening

Democrats sense a political opening on the issue. In Maine, Gov. Janet Mills and Graham Platner are competing for the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in the fall. They both issued statements on Saturday pressing Collins, the only Republican on the ballot this year in a state won by Harris, to step up her oversight of the administration.

Collins was one of three Senate Republicans who backed an unsuccessful push last month for a war powers resolution that would have limited Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks on Venezuela. Democrats said Saturday they would quickly seek a vote on a similar proposal for Iran.

“If we’ve started a war where we begin to lose American lives, that starts changing the political calculus,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean.

But he noted that Democrats have vulnerabilities of their own, particularly if there’s a domestic terror attack while the Department of Homeland Security is closed as they demand changes to how immigration operations are conducted.

For now, Trump isn’t offering much of a detailed strategy on what comes next. In a social media post Saturday evening, he said bombings could continue “as long as necessary.”

___

Associated Press writer Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

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In its cold open, Saturday Night Live skewered President Donald Trump over his surprise attack on Iran — portraying it as both a blatant violation of his campaign promise and a desperate attempt to distract from the Epstein files.

The latest episode began with Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, played by Colin Jost, appearing at a press conference to address the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, which began during the early morning hours on Saturday.

“I launched this attack after me and my Board of Peace decided we were bored of peace,” Johnson’s Trump told the audience, referencing the committee of world leaders established by the president last month.

“As we all know, Iran has been two weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon for like the last 15 years or something, so we had to act now,” Johnson’s Trump continued, adding, “War, what is it good for? Distracting from the Epstein files!”

The SNL star then mocked the Republican president for seemingly abandoning his campaign-trail stance, where he had vowed to end “forever wars” and claimed former Vice President Kamala Harris was “guaranteed” to start World War III.

“A year ago on the campaign trail I promised no new foreign wars,” Johnson’s Trump said. “But listen, wars [is] plural, right. I’m allowed to do one. [I] can do one foreign war, and possibly one civil…”

Soon after, Jost’s Hegseth took the stage, carrying an energy drink, which he promised was non-alcoholic.

“They asked for someone to volunteer to oversee this half baked operation, and I didn’t walk. I ran,” he said, sparking laughter from the audience.

He then addressed the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who died following the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes.

“Bottom line, all of you should be thanking us we took out a horrendous horrible leader who was oppressing his own people,” Jost’s Hegseth said. Johnson’s Trump quickly chimed in: “Don’t get any ideas!”

The hastily assembled cold open came just hours after Trump announced a major military operation in Iran. U.S. and Israeli forces bombarded government and military sites across the Middle Eastern nation, killing hundreds of people, according to state media. In response, Iran launched retaliatory strikes across the region, sparking fears of a broader war.

Trump has vowed to continue the strikes for weeks — if not longer.

President Donald Trump has said the US believes reports that the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been killed in a US and Israeli missile strike

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Reports emerging this evening (Saturday) suggest that Iran’s Supreme Leader has died following missile strikes launched across the Middle East.

On Saturday (February 28), President Donald Trump stated that the administration considers reports regarding the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to be “a correct story”. This evening, Number 10 has announced that Britain will convene an emergency session of the UN Security Council.

The session has been requested by France, Colombia, Russia and Bahrain following Saturday morning’s strikes by the US and Israel on Iran. The operations, which targeted locations in Tehran and elsewhere across the nation, triggered Iranian retaliation with strikes reported across multiple Gulf states including the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Saturday marks the final day of the UK’s rotating presidency of the Security Council before the position transfers to the United States. The session is anticipated to commence at approximately 9pm UK time, reports the Irish Mirror.

Imagery circulated after the US-Israeli operations included photographs depicting significant damage to Khamenei’s Tehran compound. The US and Israel characterised the operations as “pre-emptive” action against a Tehran administration pursuing nuclear weapons development.

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Negotiations between the US and Iran focused on addressing Tehran’s nuclear programme concluded on Thursday without reaching agreement, though talks were scheduled to continue at a future date. In response to the strikes, Sir Keir Starmer assembled the Government’s emergency Cobra committee on Saturday morning, followed by consultations with European and Gulf partners.

In a unified declaration alongside the leaders of France and Germany, the Prime Minister criticised Iran’s response and called upon Tehran to “refrain from indiscriminate military strikes” and “seek a negotiated solution”. Addressing the nation from Downing Street, Sir Keir clarified that the UK had not participated in the strikes, but had later deployed aircraft “as part of co-ordinated regional defensive operations to protect our people, our interests and our allies”.

He noted that security measures had been enhanced for British installations across the Middle East and the Government was “reaching out to UK nationals in the region and doing everything we can to support them”. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has instructed UK citizens in certain Middle Eastern areas to “shelter in place”.

This guidance applies to Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, where a blaze has erupted at the upmarket Fairmont Hotel in Dubai’s Palm district – an incident Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper denounced during a conversation with her Emirati counterpart. Several hundred thousand British citizens are presently believed to be in the Gulf region.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch voiced her backing for the strikes on Iran, branding the Tehran administration a “vile regime” that “carries out attacks on the UK and on our citizens”, has attempted to develop nuclear weapons and “brutally repressed pro-democracy protests only months ago and murdered thousands of its own people”. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called on the Prime Minister to dismiss the possibility of permitting British bases to be utilised for “future unilateral US strikes”.

He stated: “The Iranian people deserve to live free from a brutal regime. Donald Trump’s unilateral and illegal military action won’t deliver freedom, peace and security. It will only unleash more bloodshed.”

However, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage suggested Sir Keir ought to “change his mind” and permit the US to conduct attacks from British bases, including Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands. The Government has reportedly previously declined American requests to utilise the Diego Garcia base for strikes against Iran amid fears it would violate international law.

Senior Labour MP Dame Emily Thornberry, chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Press Association there was “no legal basis for this attack”.

This popular pizza spot is shortlisted in the 2026 UK Italian Awards

Cardiff’s love affair with pizza and pasta didn’t begin with soft launches and ring light-carrying influencers; it started with suitcases. When Italian families arrived in Wales in the late 19th century, they didn’t just bring ambition; they brought recipes, handed down over generations.

This has happily resulted in a buzzing dining scene that has lasted for decades. This mass migration has left a lasting legacy, with you still able to find Italian-run cafes, ice cream parlours, and fish-and-chip shops to this day.

It’s no wonder then that several Welsh restaurants and cafes have been shortlisted for the 2026 UK Italian Awards’ Best Restaurant in Wales, where one will go on to be crowned Wales’ number one at a posh ceremony in London on March 30.

As well as the 12 shortlisted for the country’s top Italian dining spot, restaurants have also received nominations for best pizzeria, best front of house, best pasta restaurant, best tiramisu and best café, and I am keen to try them all, for journalistic purposes.

One of the shortlisted spots just happens to be within my general stomping ground, and so I was dispatched to investigate. I get all the important assignments here, forget the Senedd elections, this is the real scoop.

Located at the corner of Pen-Y-Lan Road and Albany Road, Scaramantica Pizzeria has been making waves on the Cardiff foodie scene since opening in 2021 and is now shortlisted for ‘Best Pizzeria’ at the UK Italian Awards.

The site, formerly Da Mara, is nearly always busy. In summer, patrons fill the large suntrap terrace area, where you can sip spritz in a lively neighbourhood setting.

However, as it was a drizzly Tuesday, I wasn’t expecting big numbers, but I was pleasantly surprised when I rocked up a little after 6pm to find it already half full. A welcome sign for an industry that’s struggling.

Friendly staff seated us inside and presented us with Neapolitan-style pizza-heavy menus. If pizza isn’t your bag (and why not), there are limited other options, including pastas and salads.

You really should come here, though, for the authentic oven-cooked Neapolitan pizza, renowned for its soft, airy dough, San Marzano tomatoes, and creamy mozzarella di bufala, which hails from Naples.

As a travel journalist, I’ve travelled all around Italy, feasting on a huge variety of pizza, from Roman-style pizza al taglio to square Pizza Siciliana and oven-baked calzone.

Naples’ freshly made wood-fired Neapolitan pizza wins hands down. I can’t get enough of its puffed-up, slightly charred crust and fresh toppings. For the latest restaurant news and reviews, sign up to our food and drink newsletter here

Naples, the birthplace of pizza, is a buzzing city well known for its exceptional pizzerias. Legend has it that in 1889, Raffaelle Esposito, a maestro of Neapolitan pizza-making, crafted the iconic margherita pizza in honour of Queen Margherita’s visit.

Today, talented ‘pizzaiolos’ (pizza makers) skillfully stoke their roaring wood-fired ovens to handcraft thousands of Neapolitan pizzas, satisfying the insatiable appetites of locals and travellers.

I have visited Naples several times and made it my mission to indulge in pizzas from iconic spots like Gino Sorbillo, Starita, Pizzeria Di Matteo, and Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba. Follow my new TikTok for more pizza and travel inspiration.

The reason this is relevant is that I have found it tricky to get decent Neapolitan pizza outside Naples. If the dough overproofs, suddenly, instead of a beautifully risen base, you’ve got a slack, collapsing blob.

Food nerds inform me that too many bubbles form during fermentation, the gluten network breaks down, and as it cooks, it just can’t hold itself together, so all that promise deflates into dense doughiness again. Tragic.

So the real question became, will this pizzeria live up to my very high expectations? Neapolitan pizza should be soft and floppy (but not too floppy, right?) and, importantly, it’s chewy, not crunchy, with a slightly saucy top, charred leopard spots, and a famously puffy, airy crust edge.

It’s blasted in a wood-fired oven at around 900 degrees and cooked in about 60-90 seconds, which gives it that signature softness and lightness.

The dough is simple water, salt, yeast and finely milled flour, but it’s treated like a science experiment, fermented for anything from 12 hours to a few days.

On top, typically, creamy buffalo mozzarella and sweet plum tomatoes. The result is bright, savoury and beautifully balanced.

Scanning the menu, I could see the danger of option paralysis. There’s a sizable range of Neapolitan pizzas on the menu ranging from a simple Margherita with tomato sauce, fior di latte mozzarella and basil to more indulgent options like ‘lasagna pizza’ with fior di latte mozzarella, Spanish chorizo, minced beef, basil and ricotta cheese, and ‘Parma Fig’ comprising Fior di latte mozzarella base, Parma ham, figs, rocket and honey.

As a hungry carnivore, I convinced my long-suffering husband that we should opt for the Quattro Carni (£16.95), with a tomato sauce base, Fior di latte mozzarella base, cooked ham, Italian sausage, chicken, and pepperoni. Be still, my beating heart!

I also decided that we should order the spinach and mozzarella Arancini (£8.50), because you can never have too much mozzarella in one meal, right?

Our friendly waiter also recommended a crowd-pleasing bottle of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC from Italy’s Abruzzo region. As our waiter explained, smooth Italian red is the perfect accompaniment to a pizza or pasta, and I agreed most fervently as I poured a rather large glass.

If I were a wine expert (which I am not), I might have swirled the wine in my glass and observed vibrant flavours of blackberry and plum, wrapped in velvety tannins, with a lovely smooth finish.

Acting like, I didn’t spend my formative years pooling pound coins with my gal pals for a bottom of pre-gaming Blossom Hill. We were all in class in the early noughties.

As usual, I digress, back to pizza. Ours arrived promptly, unsurprisingly given that Neapolitan pizza is cooked quickly at blazing temperatures.

At first glance, things looked promising; the crust was light, airy, and perfectly puffed up and charred. Excellent.

The first bite revealed that it was soft in the middle and chewy on the crust, and struck a careful balance among crust, sauce, and cheese. The mark of a top-tier Neapolitan pizza.

It was the second bite when I realised there were a lot of meaty toppings. While I do appreciate a generous topping, I briefly feared I had bitten off more than I could chew.

It was, to be clear, an excellent pizza. The dough had that soft, slightly chewy centre with a pillowy rim. The Fior di latte was creamy and indulgent. The meats were very tasty indeed, especially the pepperoni, which I would have liked more of, because I am greedy.

But halfway through our very filling feast, a thought dawned. Perhaps I need to calm my carnivore instincts. This is not the Bronze Age. I do not need to fill up to make it through winter.

The trouble with meat feast ordering is that toppings can overwhelm the core ingredients like tomatoes and delicate Fior di latte.

Luckily, this was a well-loaded Neapolitan, and the Fior di latte and tomato base was not overpowered by four different types of meat. Phew!

However, I suspect I shall return and order something far simpler, opting for tomatoes. mozzarella, olive oil and fresh basil. A handful of ingredients, working in perfect harmony. For research purposes.

While our meaty pizza was filling, our arancini accompaniments were small balls of cheese-filled perfection. These delightful balls were stuffed with spinach and mozzarella, breaded, and fried until crunchy and golden. Magnificent.

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Despite declaring myself completely full, I panic-ordered the Tiramisu ‘to share’. Husband gave me the look of a man who has never been permitted to share a dessert in a decade of marriage. Consistency is key to a happy married life, I’m told.

Ours had all the key components of a classic Tiramisu, but I personally would have preferred a better balance of slightly bitter coffee and sweet cream. Other than that, it was a welcome sweet treat after a carb fest.

So, does Scaramantica live up to the hype? This pizza lover certainly thinks so on a damp Tuesday in Cardiff; it transported me to the backstreets of Naples, minus the Vespas and Maradona street art.

Next time, though, I’ll channel my inner minimalist and order the simple margherita, for a proper pizza comparison test the readers deserve.

Until then, I’ll mostly be practising my “just one slice” self-control, and preparing to bravely continue my food-based investigations. Journalism, after all, is a tough gig.

People have been warned about what to look out for, and what to do if they think they are affected

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The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued a warning online, urging people to be vigilant about an “invisible danger”. Speaking on X, the official body said there are four key actions individuals across the UK should be taking, regardless of whether they reside in a flat, house or bungalow.

It states: “Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colourless, odourless gas that you cannot see, smell or taste – but it can kill. Make sure you understand the symptoms, learn who is most at risk, get fuel-burning appliances checked and get a CO alarm.”

The alert arrives as temperatures plummet. When this occurs, windows tend to remain closed and heating systems activated, creating conditions for a potentially unseen threat to enter homes. It emphasises again that whilst you cannot detect it through sight, smell, or taste, it can prove fatal, reports the Mirror.

In England and Wales, around 20 individuals die annually from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, with many more requiring hospital admission as a consequence. In England, 68% of carbon monoxide fatalities occur during autumn and winter months owing to the cold weather and heating usage.

This combination of increased fuel-burning appliance operation and reduced ventilation can allow carbon monoxide to accumulate to hazardous concentrations.

What are the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning?

Since carbon monoxide is invisible and odourless, recognising the warning signs is vital. Look out for:

• headache
• dizziness
• feeling or being sick
• feeling weak
• confusion
• chest and muscle pain
• shortness of breath

The guidance warns: “An important warning sign is symptoms coming and going, especially if they get worse when you’re in a particular room or building and improve when you leave or go outside. If you notice this pattern, it could indicate a CO problem.”

Where does carbon monoxide come from?

Everyday household appliances can generate carbon monoxide if they’re not fitted correctly, are defective, or haven’t been properly serviced.

These include:

• gas boilers
• stoves burning wood, kerosene, natural gas, or propane
• heaters using wood, oil, or natural gas

The specialists emphasise that using portable generators, barbecues, or camping stoves indoors such as in homes, caravans, or tents, can cause carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. CO can even seep into tents from a smouldering barbecue outside, so always bring a CO alarm when camping.

Adequate ventilation is crucial. If you operate vehicles, generators, or engines in a garage or shed, ensure a window or door remains open. While cooking, use an extractor fan or open a window to stop CO from accumulating.

How to stay safe

There are several simple measures you can implement to safeguard yourself and your family. It recommends that you familiarise yourself with and remember the following:

• Install CO alarms – the most crucial step to protect your home. Only 46% of homes in England had a CO alarm in 2020, leaving millions at risk.
• Use BS EN 50291-1 compliant alarms in every room with a fuel-burning appliance (gas boiler, coal fire, wood stove). This also applies to temporary homes like caravans and boats.
• Test alarms regularly and replace batteries when needed. Landlords are legally required to install CO alarms in any living space containing a combustion appliance.
• Use ventilation wisely – adequate airflow helps maintain low CO levels. Kitchen extractor fans considerably reduce carbon monoxide. Always ensure sufficient ventilation when cooking, using open fireplaces, wood stoves, or other fuel-burning appliances.
• Ventilate enclosed spaces when operating a generator or vehicle in a garage or shed.
• Service your appliances annually. Have all gas appliances serviced every year by a Gas Safe registered engineer and get your chimney swept annually. Don’t wait until something goes wrong
• Watch for warning signs. ‘Floppy’ yellow or orange flames on gas appliances instead of crisp blue ones, soot marks around appliances, or increased condensation inside windows can all indicate a problem.

What should I do if I suspect CO poisoning?

If you think you might have carbon monoxide poisoning:

1. Stop using any appliances you think might be producing CO
2. Open windows and doors to let fresh air in
3. Go outside immediately
4. Get medical advice as soon as possible
5. Do not go back into the affected building until you’ve received professional advice

If you suspect a gas appliance is leaking carbon monoxide, contact the free National Gas Helpline immediately on 0800 111 999. The service operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The UKHSA concludes by emphasising: “Every carbon monoxide death is preventable. As we head into the colder months when risk is highest, take time this week to check your CO alarms.”

It adds: “Book appliance services if they’re due, and make sure everyone in your household knows the symptoms to watch for. These simple actions could save your life or the life of someone you love.”