September 2026 – Release Notes

Platform Update – 2026-09-06

The homepage has been rebuilt. Everything that matters on belayat.uk now starts on one page: what is happening today, what is on this month, jobs and rooms near you, and a way into the directory that does not begin with a search box and a guess.

• A homepage that changes every day
  Under the search bar there are now four tabs. News carries the day’s headlines from the UK Nepali papers with a short written summary, in Nepali or English. Events has what is on, and a Nepali calendar beside it. Jobs shows the newest adverts, nearest to you first if you tell us your postcode, with rooms underneath. 🇬🇧 Life gathers the new-arrival guides. It is the same page whether you arrive at belayat.uk in the morning or the evening — but it will not say the same thing.

• Today’s date, both ways round
  The top of the page shows the English date, the Bikram Sambat date and the tithi — “Bhadra 20, 2083 · Navami” — with the Devanagari alongside, plus the weather where you are. Tell it your town once and it remembers.

• A way into the directory
  Below the tabs: every category with a live count, so you can see at a glance that there are 428 restaurants and 17 jewellers before you tap. Then businesses near you with photographs, the towns with the most listings, and the searches people actually make — “Nepali groceries in London”, “Nepali restaurants in Aldershot”.

• Featured businesses
  A small number of listings appear in a featured section near the top of the homepage. Featured placement is what keeps belayat.uk free to use for everyone else. If you would like your business considered, get in touch.

• “More restaurants near Bourne”
  Every listing page used to end with “From the Same Lister”, which showed the same four entries on almost every page — nearly everything in the directory was added by us, so “the same lister” meant nothing. It now shows other businesses of the same kind nearby, which is what you were probably looking for.

• The Nepali Diaspora Digest
  Near the bottom of the homepage you will find the Digest — one weekly email with the week’s news from Nepal in a single read, for keeping up from abroad without drowning in headlines and group forwards.

• Faster, and lighter on your data
  The old homepage loaded ninety photographs at full size before you had scrolled anywhere. It now sends about a quarter of that and loads pictures only as you reach them — a real difference on a phone with a few bars of signal. Listings without a photograph now show a quiet icon for their category instead of an empty grey box.

• Fixes
  Some pages were serving month-old styling to anyone who had visited before, so recent design changes never reached returning visitors — fixed. The menu button on phones was white on a white bar and effectively invisible — fixed, everywhere. A link in the footer pointed at a page that no longer exists — removed.

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Platform Update – 2026-09-05

A follow-up to yesterday’s release. This one is mostly about making things easier to find: email alerts for jobs and rooms near you, a lot more of the directory reachable from the daily page, and the Nepali calendar readable whether or not you read Devanagari.

• Email alerts for jobs and rooms
  Narrow a search on the community board — by type, by postcode, by role — and you can now ask us to email you when something new matches. Weekly by default, daily if you prefer. We only email when there is actually something to send, and every message carries a one-tap unsubscribe (your email app will show its own Unsubscribe button too). You can pause or stop alerts without signing in.

• The Nepali calendar now reads in English too
  Plenty of us speak Nepali but do not read Devanagari. Dates, lunar days and all 180 festival names now appear in English alongside the Nepali — “Kushe Aunsi (Father’s Day)” rather than a script you might not read. The Nepali is still there, underneath.

• Dependant visa guide rewritten
  The old guide talked about “the dependant visa” as if it were one thing. It is not — the rules differ by route, and one change matters enormously here: since 11 March 2024, care workers and senior care workers cannot bring dependants at all. The guide is now organised by visa route, with the money, fees and health surcharge for each, in English and Nepali.

• A tidier job board
  Recruitment agencies were posting the same role dozens of times — one agency alone had 48 near-identical adverts. Each employer now shows at most three live adverts per role, and the newest replace the oldest, so the board stays current instead of filling up. Every advert also shows how long ago it was posted.

• Safer posting
  New accounts can post twice a day for their first week, which slows down anyone trying to flood the board. Posts offering rooms are checked for the patterns scams use before they go live, and anything flagged waits for a person to look at it.

• Fixes
  The menu button on phones was white on a white bar and effectively invisible — fixed. Emails were being sent in a character set that could not carry Nepali script, so Devanagari arrived as nonsense — fixed. Several listings were showing in the wrong town, and one restaurant had picked up the location of a same-named business in New Hampshire. Guides that had drifted since June were re-checked against GOV.UK and NHS sources, in both languages.

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Platform Update – 2026-09-04

A big update focused on the two things people ask us for most — somewhere to find a room or a job, and guides they can actually trust. We’ve added a free community board, signed-in posting with Google, and given every one of our new-arrival guides a full accuracy review against the latest Home Office rules.

• New: the Community Board
  You can now post a room to rent, a job or a notice free at belayat.uk/community. Posting takes about a minute — five questions, no long forms. Every post gets its own page so it can be shared and found on Google, and shows how far away it is from your postcode.

• Posts stay up for 14 days, then come down on their own
  Nothing is more frustrating than ringing about a room that went weeks ago. Posts expire automatically after two weeks, and you can put yours back up in one click from your posts, or mark it as gone.

• Sign in with Google
  You can now sign in with your Google account instead of remembering another password. Signing in is only needed to post — browsing is open to everyone.

• Report anything that looks wrong
  Every post has a Report link, and you do not need an account to use it. Scams targeting new arrivals are a real problem, so posts are checked before they appear and anything reported by a couple of people comes off the board straight away while we look at it. Please never send money for a room before seeing it in person.

• All 39 new-arrival guides re-checked and updated
  We reviewed every guide against current GOV.UK and NHS guidance. Several needed real corrections, including:

  • Health and Care Worker visa — care workers can no longer apply from outside the UK (this changed on 22 July 2025). If anyone in Nepal offers to arrange a UK care job and sponsorship for you, treat it as a scam.
  • Renting — assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 “no-fault” eviction were abolished in England on 1 May 2026. Our guide now explains the new rules.
  • Graduate Route — 2 years if you apply on or before 31 December 2026, but only 18 months from 1 January 2027. Worth knowing if you are finishing a course this year.
  • Driving — corrected: a Nepali licence cannot be exchanged for a UK one. You can drive on it for 12 months, then you must pass the UK tests.
  • Council Tax — updated to the 2026/27 average, which is considerably higher than our old figure.
  • Settlement (ILR) — still five years today, but a move to a ten-year baseline is expected in autumn 2026 and is intended to apply to people already here. Worth planning around.

• Events now show the right date and time
  Event cards were showing the listing’s expiry rather than the event itself, which put some events on the wrong day. They now show the real date and start time, with “Today” and “Tomorrow” where it helps.

• Maps are working again
  Our map provider began requiring a paid key, which left a watermark across every listing map. Maps now use an open provider and render cleanly.

• A Timeline of Nepal
  Our interactive timeline — roughly 2,700 years, from the Kirat kings and the Buddha’s birth at Lumbini through to 2026 — now has a proper home on the front page. Have a look.

• New businesses in the directory
  Including Mijju and Kingsland Records on Kingsland Road in Dalston. If you run a Nepali business in the UK and are not listed, add it free.

• One clear place to post
  The old “Create listing” button is now simply Post, and asks what you want to add — a business for the permanent directory, or a room, job or notice for the community board.

• Security and anti-spam
  We have strengthened sign-up and sign-in protection, hardened the site against automated abuse, and improved how contact details are shown so they are harder for spam bots to harvest.

• Newsletter paused
  We have taken down the newsletter sign-up for now. We were not sending it often enough to be worth your inbox, and would rather remove it than keep asking. We will bring it back when there is something regular worth sending.

June 2026 – Release Notes

Platform Update – 2026-06-15

This is our biggest update yet for new arrivals and the wider community — a full library of practical guides (now in both English and Nepali), easier local discovery, a weekly newsletter, and a brand-new way to post to the community via Telegram.

• New Arrival Guides — 31 practical guides
  We’ve launched a dedicated Guides section covering what every Nepali arriving in the UK needs to navigate — setting up your eVisa/UKVI account, registering with a GP, getting a National Insurance number, opening a bank account, sending money and cargo home, Council Tax, renting safely, and the main visa routes (Graduate Route, Skilled Worker, ILR and British citizenship). Every guide links to the official GOV.UK and NHS sources and is checked regularly to stay up to date.

• Guides now in Nepali too (अब नेपालीमा पनि)
  Every guide now has a one-tap English / नेपाली language switch, so you can read the same trusted information in Nepali. Just open any guide and tap नेपाली.

• Find Nepali businesses by town
  We’ve added dedicated pages for each town-and-category combination — for example “Nepali Restaurants in Aldershot” or “Nepali Grocery Shops in London” — each with a helpful introduction and the full local listings. This makes it far easier to find what’s near you, and helps these businesses get discovered on Google.

• Weekly community newsletter
  You can now subscribe to a weekly digest of new events and highlights from across the UK Nepali community, delivered straight to your inbox. Look for the sign-up box on our guides and pages.

• Post to the community via Telegram
  Share a room, job, event or notice in seconds using our new Telegram bot, @belayat_bot. Message it, answer a few quick questions, and your post goes to our team for review — the best posts get featured on belayat.uk so they reach far more people.

• More accurate maps
  We’ve corrected the map location for many listings, so businesses now appear in the right place and it’s easier to see what’s genuinely nearby.

• Smoother browsing & fixes
  We refined the listing cards and fixed a display issue affecting some category and search pages, so browsing is cleaner and more reliable across the whole site.

As always, thank you for being part of the belayat.uk community — explore the new guides and let us know what you think.

 

February 2026 – Release Notes

Platform Update – 2026-02-19

This update focuses on a more professional browsing experience, better SEO foundations, and a sharper focus for the platform going forward.

• Redesigned Listing Cards
  Listing cards across the site have been completely redesigned with larger images, cleaner typography, and a modern card layout with hover effects. Category badges and favourites are now neatly overlaid on images, and location is displayed with a map icon for clarity. The overall look is inspired by leading directory sites like Yelp and Google Maps.

• Ratings Made Discreet
  Star ratings previously took up space on every card even when empty. Ratings now only appear as a small inline indicator next to the location — and only when a listing actually has a review. This keeps the cards clean and focused.

• Consistent Design Across All Pages
  The new card design now applies consistently across both /listings/ category pages and /results search pages, giving users a seamless browsing experience throughout the site.

• SEO & Structured Data
  We’ve added schema.org structured data across the site: WebSite with SearchAction on the homepage, ItemList on category and search pages, and LocalBusiness on individual listing pages. Open Graph tags have also been added where they were missing. These changes help search engines better understand and surface our content.

• Focusing on What Matters – Businesses & Places
  We’re shifting our focus towards making the business and place-related listings on Belayat.uk more comprehensive and useful. While the AI-powered community listings served us well, we’ll be winding those down to concentrate our efforts on building a richer, more reliable directory of Nepali businesses, services, restaurants, and organisations across the UK. If you run a business or know one that should be listed, get in touch!

• Developer Workflow
  Behind the scenes, we’ve set up version control and a proper development environment, meaning faster and safer updates going forward.

As always, we appreciate your support and feedback as we work to make Belayat.uk the go-to resource for Nepalis in the UK.

 

July 2025 – Release Notes

Platform Update – 2025-07-12

We're thrilled to announce several new improvements and behind-the-scenes upgrades that make Belayat.uk more powerful, responsive, and helpful for our growing community.

• AI-Powered Community Listings – Updated Daily
  We’ve introduced a powerful new system that automatically sources and analyzes public community posts from across the web — helping us bring you the most up-to-date opportunities in jobs, housing, and services. 
  
  Using a combination of smart automation and AI, this system reads and interprets posts, tags them with locations, and organizes them into relevant categories so they’re easy to find. Whether you're a new arrival looking for a room or a longtime resident seeking local services, these updates ensure you’re seeing real, fresh listings posted by the community every day — all in one place.
  
  This behind-the-scenes upgrade helps us bridge the gap between scattered online posts and the clear, searchable experience you’ve come to expect from Belayat.uk.

• Smarter Listings, Smoother Experience
  Our interface has undergone multiple usability improvements and bug fixes. Listing cards are now cleaner and better organized, especially on mobile, allowing you to browse and act quickly without confusion.

• Blog + Digest Launch
  To keep you informed about key stories, trends, and moments from across the Nepali community in the UK, we’ve streamlined everything into a dedicated blog right here on Belayat.uk. Expect regular highlights—from local news and housing tips to inspiring community spotlights—all in one easy-to-access place. Explore the latest posts here.

We’re constantly working to make Belayat.uk smarter, more useful, and more connected to the Nepali community. More updates coming soon — as always, we welcome your feedback!

 

March 2024 - Release Notes

Platform Update - 2024-03-15

We're excited to announce some new features on Belayat.uk designed to make your experience smoother, safer, and more efficient!

• Streamlined Listing Process: Finding the right category for your ad just got easier. We've simplified the listing form by removing the clutter of nested categories. Now, you'll see the main categories like jobs, housing, and more upfront. Once you choose the main category, relevant subcategories will appear, making it a breeze to list your items or services.

• Never Miss a Beat: Say goodbye to expired listings! Our improved database automation now runs tasks in the background, ensuring your listings stay active and you don't miss out on potential connections. We've also automated user notifications for important actions, keeping you informed every step of the way.

• Enhanced Security: We take your privacy seriously. That's why we've implemented Captcha to prevent spam and bots, ensuring a safe and secure environment for everyone on Belayat.uk.

• Building a Stronger Community: We're fostering a more connected Nepali community in the UK! The forum section has been replaced with a brand new, social-focused platform at https://community.belayat.uk . This new space allows you to connect and engage with fellow Nepalis in a more interactive way.

• Search Made Simple: Finding what you need on Belayat.uk is now faster than ever. Our redesigned search bar puts the focus on location. Simply enter your town, city, or area, and we'll show you relevant local listings, saving you time and effort.

• Join the Community with Ease: Registration and login are a breeze with our new Google login integration! Now you can seamlessly join the Belayat.uk community using your existing Google account.

We hope these new features make your experience on Belayat.uk even better. We're always working to improve, so stay tuned for more exciting updates in the future!

Thank you for being a part of our journey towards excellence.

Warm regards,

Team Belayat

September 2023 - Release Notes

Platform Update - 2023-09-08

We are thrilled to introduce a series of enhancements and new features that are designed to elevate your experience on our platform. In this update, we have focused on making your interactions more intuitive and informative. Here are the key highlights:

• Better Search and Browse Experiences
  
  
  • Segregated Search: When you explore listings within a specific location or category, our new segregated search feature ensures that results are neatly grouped by different categories. For example, housing listings are now conveniently grouped together, providing you with a more organized search experience.
  • Enhanced Filters: We've placed a spotlight on filters to encourage users to utilize them effectively. You can now refine your search with ease, including options like search radius for pinpoint accuracy.
  • Contextual Information: To keep you informed, we've added contextual information pills at the top of your search results. These pills display the location, category, and keywords used in your search, providing valuable context for your results.
  • Improved "No Results" Message: We understand that sometimes your search may not yield immediate results. Our new "no results" message is designed to guide you effectively in such cases.
  • Radial Search: Our platform now supports radial search, ensuring that you receive relevant results not only for your specified location but also for surrounding areas. This feature broadens your options and enhances the accuracy of your search.
    
    
• Better Listing Details: Comprehensive Information: We've enriched listing details by including information about when a listing was last updated. Additionally, we've optimized the presentation of information, ensuring that long URLs are now displayed as domains for improved readability.
  
  
• Events Category: Introducing Events: We're excited to introduce the Events category, a valuable addition to our platform. While this feature is a work in progress, it offers new fields such as start and end dates for event listings. Events can be categorized into various categories, including Cultural/Festivals, Community/Networking, and Educational/Workshops.
  
  
• Business Listings Enhancements: Address Visibility: We've enhanced business listings by making addresses readily available to users. This improvement streamlines the process of connecting with businesses in your desired location
  
  
• Listing Flow Simplification: Streamlined Listings: To provide a more user-friendly listing experience, we've removed fields that were less frequently used. This simplification ensures a more efficient and straightforward listing process.
  
  
• Marketing: Mautic Integration: We've implemented basic Mautic integration to enhance our communication with users. Stay tuned for further developments as we work towards improved user engagement.
  
  
• Community Site: Community Hub: As part of our ongoing efforts, we've established a basic community site at https://community.belayat.uk. Please note that this site may undergo changes in the future as we continue to develop it.

We are committed to continually enhancing your experience on our platform, and your feedback is invaluable to us. Please feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions as we strive to create a better and more engaging platform for you.

Thank you for being a part of our journey towards excellence.

Warm regards,

Team Belayat

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May 2023 enhancements - Release notes

Platform Update - 2023-05-01