An official opening ceremony was held on Wednesday, 2 October 2019, when UK Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific, Heather Wheeler MP, paid an official visit to Mongolia.

The Embassy’s new office address is as follows:

Level 19, Shangri-La Office
Olympic Street-19A, Sukhbaatar District,
Ulaanbaatar 14241, Mongolia

More details about the embassy:

E-mail: enquiries.mongolia@fco.gov.uk

Switchboard phone: +976 (11) 458133

Switchboard fax: ++76 (11) 458036

Published 17 October 2019

This was Minister Wheeler’s sixth overseas visit. As part of the visit, on 2 October, she led the official opening ceremony of the British Embassy in Ulaanbaatar at the Shangri-La Office (Level 19). The Embassy moved from its old address on Peace Avenue after 51 years of occupancy, to the Shangri-La complex in the centre of town.

Minister Wheeler also met the Minister of Environment and Tourism, the Minister of Mining and Heavy Industries, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Science, the Deputy Minister of Finance, and the State Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her discussions were broad-ranging and covered trade and investment, democracy, media freedom, climate change, the Illegal Wildlife Trade, and wider geo-strategic issues.

With a focus on UK-Mongolia relationship, Minister Wheeler held a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and answered questions from several Mongolian media outlets. Additionally, the Minister gave a keynote speech at the UK Programmes Alumni Reception. On 3 October, the Minister travelled from Ulaanbaatar to the Gobi desert to visit the Oyu Tolgoi mine.

HS2 Ltd’s Chief Executive, Mark Thurston, has written to the family of Captain Matthew Flinders to say that his remains can be reinterred in the local parish church of St. Mary and The Holy Rood. This follows a request made by the descendants of the Flinders family and the local community for his remains to be returned to the village where he grew up.

In January this year, archaeologists working on the HS2 project in Euston, London discovered the burial ground of the explorer as part of the archaeological works in advance of construction of the new high-speed terminus station. HS2 archaeologists were able to identify his remains by the ornate lead name plate placed on top of his coffin.

The Discovery of Captain Matthew Flinders

His final resting place will be in at the Church of St Mary and the Holy Rood in Donington, near Spalding, where he was baptised, and where many members of his family are buried. There is currently no set date for when his body will be reburied in at the church. However, the diocese of Lincoln has given planning consent to the reburial and, now HS2 have announced the news, the Parochial Church Council is expecting to work speedily to submit the details of a suitable memorial.

A specialist team from HS2 will transfer the remains to the Diocese of Lincoln for safekeeping until further burial arrangements can be made. Details of which will be announced at a later stage by the diocese.

Helen Wass, HS2 Ltd Head of Heritage, said:

It is fitting that the last voyage of Captain Matthew Flinders will be back to the village of Donington where he grew up and we are pleased to be playing our part in his last journey.

This local boy from Donington put Australia on the map due to his tenacity and expertise as a navigator and explorer. The Flinders name is synonymous with exploration, science and discovery, and HS2, through its archaeology programme, will ensure that we maximise the opportunities for further academic and scientific study.

Captain Flinders made several significant voyages, most notably as commander of H.M.S. Investigator which he navigated around the entire coast of Australia. This made him the first known person to sail around the country in its entirety, confirming it as a continent. He is also credited with giving Australia its name, although not the first to use the term, his work popularised its use. His surname is associated with many places in Australia, including Flinders Station in Melbourne, Flinders Ranges in South Australia and the town of Flinders in Victoria.

A package of measures to help people on lower incomes get onto the housing ladder have been confirmed today by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick today (17 October 2019).

As announced over the summer, the government is reviewing a new national model for shared ownership to make it easier for people to buy more of their own home, including allowing them to buy in 1% increments.

These measures are today being confirmed, giving thousands of social tenants an opportunity to purchase a stake in their home. In some areas, this will mean people can get on the housing ladder with deposits as low as £2,000.

This will help to fulfil the Prime Minister’s priority to level up the whole country, closing the opportunity gap and helping millions of young people into home ownership.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick MP said:

Many people want to own their home, but can’t see a route towards achieving that goal. This government is determined to help people realise that ambition and boost ownership for thousands of hard-working people up and down the country.

Owning a home is not just about the four walls around you, it’s about investing in your family, saving for the future and putting down roots in a community.

These measures announced today will mean more people, including residents living in new housing association homes, are given the opportunity to get on to the housing ladder.

For tenants in new housing association properties, there will be an automatic right to buy a share of their home from as little as 10%, with the ability to increase that share over time, up to full ownership.

The government will work with housing associations on a voluntary basis to determine what offer can be made to those in existing housing association properties, so that the new Right to Shared Ownership is extended as widely as possible.

In addition to this, further measures to make all shared ownership homes more affordable have been confirmed. This involves cutting the minimum initial stake from 25% to 10%, giving those on lower incomes the chance to own a stake in their property.

In August 2019, the government first announced a new national model for Shared Ownership, which proposed significant changes to help people to buy further shares in smaller increments – for example, of 1% or more – and to cut the fees charged.

Right To Shared Ownership

Currently a Housing Association tenant renting a £200,000 property cannot buy a share of that property.

Under Right To Shared Ownership, the tenant could buy an initial 10% stake worth £20,000, while paying subsidised rent on the remaining 90% of the property.

The tenant could make up this 10% stake through a £2,000 deposit and a £18,000 mortgage.

A new model for shared ownership

This will form part of the government plans to improve the overall model for shared ownership – making it easier for the public to save and buy equity in their home – so-called ‘staircasing’.

The new model will be more consumer-friendly and affordable and will mean people are able to buy small chunks of their home – in some areas for as little as £2,000 – in a simple, quick process.

In the previous model consumers could face a costly or lengthy process when ‘staircasing’ including high valuation fees to determine the worth of the property.

These costly fees will be made fairer and proportional and we have consulted on introducing a new streamlined valuations process to help further reduce these costs.

Smaller share purchases will make it easier for people to save the money required to buy additional shares, removing the need to secure mortgage finance or pay fees to the lender.

If they do need a mortgage, we want to make it easier to get one and will be introducing a preferred national model for shared ownership and encouraging more widely available mortgage finance.

For those ready to move on before they reach 100% ownership, we are streamlining the resales process, to make it even easier for them to sell their home.

After a selection process that started in August 2018 and concluded with an award ceremony in August 2019, the future leaders and decision makers of Paraguay are in the UK ready to start their masters’ degrees studies for the 2019-20 period.

They gathered in London on the 12th October for the Orientation event where they were welcomed with inspiring talks and networking activities, along with other 1,700 scholars from over 160 countries.

Since the reopening of the embassy in 2013, the number of scholars has increased thanks to agreements with partners such as BECAL – the local scholarships scheme – that allows more Paraguayans to access the UK’s world-class higher education.

The Chevening scholarships allow outstanding young Paraguayans to carry out postgraduate studies at British universities and courses of their choice with all expenses covered.

Applications to study during 2020/2021 are open until 5 November 2019 at chevening.org/apply

1. Jaqueline Cabañas – MSc in Electrical Power Engineering, University of Edinburgh
2. Paz Astigarraga – MPP in Public Policy – University of Oxford
3. Melisa Rivas – MSc in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Queen Mary University of London
4. Laura Duarte – MA in Special and Inclusive Education, University College London
5. Lucía Amaro – MSc in Psychoanalytic Developmental Psychology, University College London
6. Gabriela Cazenave – MSc in International Development: Environment Change and Development, University of Manchester
7. Eduardo Carrillo – MPA in Digital Technologies and Policy, University College London
8. Carolina Acosta – MSc in Public Policy, University College London
9. Victoria González – MA in Applied Linguistics for English Language Teaching, Queen Mary University of London
10. Samuel Acosta – MSc in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, University of Manchester
11. María José Villalba – MSc in Law and Finance, University of Oxford
12. Lucía Cazal – LLM in Master of Laws, London School of Economics and Political Science
13. Tamara Arietti – LLM in Master of Laws, London School of Economics and Political Science
14. Marlene Ortiz – MA in Housing and Urbanism, Architectural Association
15. Claudia Merlos – MSc Media, Communication and Development, London School of Economics and Political Science

Published 16 October 2019