内容摘要：In April, house buyers in England and Northern Ireland will start paying stamp duty on properties over £125,000, instead of over £250,000 at the moment.

In April, house buyers in England and Northern Ireland will start paying stamp duty on properties over £125,000, instead of over £250,000 at the moment.

Scotland official Mary Senior said: "It is an extremely worrying time for staff at the university, especially those in the areas targeted for voluntary severance."If the university is supposed to be pulling together as a community, workers are asking why the burden of job losses are falling disproportionately on a small number of academic schools."

The University of Aberdeen's future was described as being in "significant doubt" in its annual report in May last year.Uncertainties such as rising costs and falling numbers of international students were highlighted, and it warned a "material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt over the ability to continue as a going concern".However, the university said the report was setting out the potential risk if action was not taken, and that it was now on a firm financial footing.

About 350 staff at the University of Edinburgh have accepted voluntary redundancy as part of a cost-saving effort.In a letter to staff last month, principal Sir Peter Mathieson also confirmed academic promotions would be frozen for the 2025-26 period.

The university has claimed it needs to reduce costs by about £140m, but unions have called it a "manufactured crisis".

A ballot asking whether staff would consider going on strike is running until 20 May."It's causing a mini-pandemic," he said.

Mr Clayton added that he fully supported the strike action by the refuse workers and said he had provided his service for "as cheap as I possibly can" to people who are "desperate" for their waste to be collected.The history of Grangemouth has been built on fossil fuels – but now its future depends on its reinvention as Scotland's green energy industrial hub.

The site, on the south bank of the Firth of Forth, is home to the UK's oldest oil refinery, which dates back to 1924.It is being closed down by owner Petroineos, with the loss of 400 of the 2,000 jobs which are based at the sprawling industrial complex.