naomi grimley, bbc news.s, according to a new report. the rural services network, says people in the countryside are spending more on essentials like heating, transport and housing. joanne writtle has more. like many rural villages, welshampton, near ellesmere, doesn't have mains gas. great—grandad ian fletcher relies on heating oil, and the price has shot up. we've no other alternative. we've got to buy the oil or we freeze, basically, and can't cook. so, we've got to make sure we have the oil in at all times. he gets a small discount through a community bulk—buying scheme and has solar panels. the government has said householders off the gas grid will receive £100. the north shropshire mp says that's not enough, as oil prices have doubled in a year. for an average household, that's about £1,200 more and the government have only offered them £100, which isn't going to be enough to meet that challenge. and if we look at the impact of last friday's budget, where sterling has collapsed and oil is traded in doll

our global health correspondent, naomi grimley, has more.ered a worldwide public health emergency as cases multiplied on a scale not seen it before. sam, who has asked us to keep his identity private, fell ill with the virus in the first few weeks of the outbreak. since then, he's noticed a change in the social scene he's part of. lots of gay men are having a lot less sex, and are having sex with less people. some people i know have been avoiding going out to places like sex clubs. the idea of going out, meeting lots of people in the dark, and then you not swapping contact details with them, i think people are just thinking a bit about how much risk they are willing to take on. after an initial cluster of infections in the spring, the uk saw a steady crescendo in new cases throughout the early summer, but a peak was reached injuly and since then cases have been falling again. other european countries like france and germany have followed this pattern. at the moment, everything is looking very positive. one of britain's top infectious disease

naomi grimley, bbc news.ars has taken place, bringing down a building on the site of a former steelworks. up to 1.6 tonnes of explosives was used to level the basic oxygen steelmaking plant in redcar, with the blast heard up to eight miles away. there it goes. the site refined molten iron from the blast furnace until it closed in 2015. more than 40,000 runners are getting ready to race 26.2 miles across the capital this morning as the london marathon gets under way. our reporter charlotte gallagher is at the start line. you are not quite on your own, but i guess it will be getting very busy there this morning, charlotte. the ma�*am it will indeed, roger. you can probably see behind me the finishing touches are being made. there is lots of drilling, hammering going on. the course is being set out because thousands and thousands of runners are going to be setting off here in the next few hours and some inspirational stories. there is an 89—year—old man running. the oldest competitor today. we have also got some