Daily Archives: 6 Apr 2017

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6 Apr 2017

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Tory DCC candidate in Ottery thinks hospital closure is progress and it was just a “geriatric home”

From the blog of Claire Wright, Independent candidate for Otter Valley Ward and current DCC councillor:

“The Conservative candidate for Otter Valley Ward, Tim Venner, has hit out at residents attending the event at Ottery St Mary Hospital on Saturday, which showed local determination to save the hospital and its services, which may be at risk in the future.

The hospital had its general medical beds removed in 2015 but the building may now be at risk too.

Mr Venner, who is my Conservative opponent in the Devon County Council elections, tweeted: “Guess its (sic) good to spread gloom – stop hindering progress we need an evolving NHS fit for todday (sic) not 1970.”

It isn’t the first time Mr Venner has lashed out at local people trying to save Ottery Hospital.

After an event I organised at the hospital last May which Hugo Swire MP attended, Mr Venner referred to Ottery St Mary Hospital in a tweet as a “geriatric home.”

In a few days the Conservatives will no doubt send a leaflet around pledging their support for local hospitals and the NHS.

It is important that people are aware that in the Otter Valley, their Conservative candidate holds views that may be at odds with those set out in his leaflet.

The elections are on Thursday 4 May.”

http://www.claire-wright.org/index.php/post/conservative_candidate_for_otter_valley_attacks_residents_for_trying_to_sav

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6 Apr 2017

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Accountability, Democracy, Scrutiny, Sleaze, Spin, Transparency, Voting

MPs and conflict of interest: there’s no conflict if it is in their interests!

Hugo Swire says in his most recent blog that we should not worry about his mate George Osborne’s £650,000 job with a gigantic hedge fund (Blackrock). He says:

“… At Blackrock, his main job will be to advise on economic matters and to represent the company in a social capacity. As for abandoning his constituents, I shouldn’t think the hours he puts in will be any less than those of when he was Chancellor which, I might add, was also a second job and quite a considerable one at that! …”

https://www.hugoswire.org.uk/news/blog-greed-george-osborne

However, the Guardian newspaper has a different take on the matter:

” …the potential for conflicts of interest are enormous. Here is just one obvious example: BlackRock owns about 10% of AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical firm at the centre of a political storm when US rival Pfizer launched an unsuccessful £69bn bid in 2014. If, for example, BlackRock had wished the takeover to go ahead, who better to have on board to assess the potential political reaction – and advise on ways around it – than the former chancellor?

Add in the fact that the same man is now editor of the Evening Standard – the City’s evening newspaper – and his influence is magnified further. When deals that can generate profits measured in hundreds of millions are on the table, Osborne’s £650k is a mere trifle. …

…
BlackRock … by numbers

BlackRock has a stake in every FTSE 100 company, worth a total of £145bn.
That means it owns nearly 8% of the UK’s leading share index. Its investment in the FTSE 100 accounts for around 3.5% of its total assets of £4trn. Its biggest stake by value is its £9bn investment in HSBC, its smallest a £9.3m shareholding in medical group Convatec.

Other shareholdings worth more than £5bn are AstraZeneca, British American Tobacco, GlaxoSmithKline, and the two classes of Royal Dutch Shell shares.

In percentage terms, its top holdings are Next (nearly 14%), BHP Billiton (13.29%), information group Relx (12.88%), Land Securities (12.46%), building materials group CRH (12.46%), cruise company Carnival (12.19%), gold miner Randgold Resource (nearly 12%), easyJet (11.83%), technology group Johnson Matthey (11.83%), and Severn Trent (11.55%).

It is the biggest shareholder in more than half of the FTSE 100’s companies: Ashtead, Aviva, AstraZeneca, British American Tobacco, British Land, BHP Billiton, BP, Burberry, Centrica, Compass, Croda, CRH, Diageo, Direct Line, Experian, GKN, GlaxoSmithKline, Hammerson, HSBC, 3i, Imperial Brands, Intertek, Johnson Matthey, Kingfisher, Land Securities, Legal & General, Lloyds Banking Group, London Stock Exchange, Marks & Spencer, Mondi, National Grid, Next, Persimmon, Royal Dutch Shell A and B shares, Relx, Royal Mail, Randgold Resources, Sage, Shire, St James’s Place, Standard Life, Smiths Group, Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, Smith & Nephew, Severn Trent, Tesco, Unilever, Vodafone, Worldpay, and WPP.
(Source: Thomson Reuters)

Its joint venture infrastructure investments include a business park at Heathrow, windfarms bought from Centrica, solar farms in Derbyshire and Essex and a £75m loan to Trafford Housing Trust.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/06/why-worlds-largest-fund-manager-paying-george-osborne-650000-pounds

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6 Apr 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Devolution, Local Enterprise Partnership, Scrutiny, Spin, Transparency

Public ‘not excited by devolution’ says firm of consultants

Owl says: They missed the main point: we have sussed out that finance and decisions are being moved from elected, accountable local authorities to groups of unelected and unaccountable, greedy (and sometimes shady) business people. But then again this is a report from a consultancy firm – which probably is getting, or hopes for, los of business from Local Enterprise Partnerships!

“The public is becoming increasingly disengaged with devolution despite its political priority for the government, research from consultancy firm GK Strategy has found.

A state-of-the-nation report on devolution in England found that whilst the agenda continues to be a political priority for the government, the prospect of further powers and accountability being shifted to a local level has failed to capture the public’s attention.

Yesterday’s report states “devolution has so far failed to win over the hearts and minds of people” because of a consistent reluctance by Whitehall to relinquish control over public spending.

Researchers explain that where local authorities do have greater control, they are working with smaller budgets and having to do more with less.

The perception that devolution is “merely passing the buck” of spending cuts to local authorities may be another reason why the concept has failed to capture public interest. …

… According to the researchers, there are two likely reasons for the level of disengagement with the concept of devolution, both of which are closely associated with the specific roles of elected mayors.

Firstly, the two largest English cities outside of London – Manchester and Birmingham – both voted against having an elected mayor less than five years ago in a referendum in each city.

Secondly, the public lacks a clear understanding over the role of the mayor in relation to the devolution process and the elected councils.

Chief executive of GK Strategy, Emily Wallace, said: “Our research clearly shows that whilst devolution in England has been a project of successive UK governments and been broadly supported by all major parties, it has failed to capture people’s interest in the way other issues have.

“A number of factors lie behind this, but a common view is that devolution in England has been delegation of blame at a time of public spending consolidation, rather than delegation of power and responsibility.”

http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2017/04/public-not-excited-devolution

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6 Apr 2017

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Accountability, DCC, Democracy, Voting

East Devon candidates for county council election next month

http://eastdevon.gov.uk/elections-and-registering-to-vote/election-documents/devon-county-council-4-may-2017/

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6 Apr 2017

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Austerity cuts, DCC, Education (local)

1,060 of the extra 63,000 school places needed in England are in Devon

“Devon needs to add an extra 2,320 school places by September 2018 to meet demand – on top of numbers already planned – according to new figures.

The county is set to see primary pupil numbers rise by 17 per cent between May 2010 and September 2018, up from 49,808 in 2010 to a projected 58,278 in 2018.

Between 2010 and 2016, an extra 6,520 places were created in schools in the area, and a further 2,713 are planned but an estimated 1,260 are still needed by the 2018/19 school year to meet demand, according to Department for Education figures.

Secondary school pupil numbers are expected to rise by one per cent from 37,748 in May 2010 to 38,200 in September 2018.

Within Devon an extra 4,181 places were created between 2010 and 2016 to help meet demand, with another 145 planned, but 1,060 are still needed by the 2018/19 school year.

England is set to see primary pupil numbers rise by seven per cent between May 2010 and September 2018, up from 3.8m in 2010 to a projected 4.6m in 2018.”

http://www.devonlive.com/figures-reveal-squeeze-on-school-places-across-devon/story-30252477-detail/story.html

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6 Apr 2017

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Affordable and Social Housing, Austerity cuts, Developers/ Development, EDDC

Just as EDDC forms a housing development company …

“A slowdown in housebuilding last month dragged down activity in the construction sector, adding to concerns that the economy may be losing some momentum.

The Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index for construction in March dropped to 52.2 from 52.5 in February, falling short of forecasts. Although the index was still above 50, indicating growth, economists described the data as disappointing.

“The construction sector remains at the sharp end of the decline in corporate confidence and the renewed squeeze on households’ real wages, both of which are consequences of the Brexit vote,” Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Economics, said. “We continue to expect the construction sector to tread water this year.”

Signs of a slowdown in housebuilding will come as a setback to the government, which announced a white paper last month to help to boost new homebuilding and to fix what it called Britain’s “broken” housing market. The country is building about 100,000 fewer homes than the 250,000 it needs annually, which is helping to drive up prices.

The PMI’s sub-index on housing dropped to 51.7, its lowest level since August 2016.”

Source: Times (paywall)

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6 Apr 2017

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Accountability, Devolution, Hinkley C, Local Enterprise Partnership

“French government urges EDF to close aging nuclear plant as decision looms”

These are the people (with the Chinese) that we are trusting with Hinkley C!

“French Energy Minister Segolene Royal warned EDF’s board on Wednesday against trying to prevent the closure of France’s oldest nuclear plant, as a long-running conflict between the state-controlled utility and the government comes to a head.

EDF has scheduled a board meeting on Thursday to decide the fate of the 1,800 megawatt Fessenheim plant near the German border. Its closure was an election promise of outgoing President Francois Hollande in 2012, but the company has so far managed to put off a final decision.

Unions oppose the closure, saying it would cause job losses and France’s hardline CGT trade union urged its members to picket EDF’s headquarters during Thursday’s meeting to keep pressure on the board members.

“The board is going to have a debate and normally EDF’s chairman should give me a request (afterwards) to close Fessenheim as planned,” Royal said on CNEWS.

Environmental groups have long suspected EDF of playing for time, seeking to prevent the closure from becoming irreversible before the end of Hollande’s presidency next month.

EDF’s management has argued that safety issues would not be a reason to close the plant since the nuclear watchdog deemed it safe after the utility invested hundreds of millions of euros to reinforce security following the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

Fessenheim’s two 900-megawatt reactors each bring EDF about 200 million euros ($213 million) in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) per year.

The CGT union called on workers’ representatives on the EDF board to oppose the plant’s closure, saying it would be an economic and industrial waste.

“The Fessenheim plant is safe, and it is recognized as such by the Nuclear Safety Authority,” CGT said in a statement, adding that the plant contributes to French energy security.

France, a major electricity exporter in Europe, depends on its 58 nuclear reactors for more than 75 percent of its electricity supply.

“I’m warning the board members who are tempted to listen to inexact information and could harm the company’s interests,” Royal said.

EDF and the government have reached a 490 million euro compensation agreement covering costs associated with the closure.

The company also received some guarantees that could allow it to shut down the reactor by end-2018, when it starts production at its new generation EPR reactor under construction in Flamanville in northern France.”

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6 Apr 2017

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Accountability, Devolution, Hinkley C, Local Enterprise Partnership, Sustainability

“Energy projects including Hinkley Point threatened by Brexit, experts warn”

“Vital energy projects including the £18bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant and interconnectors used to import cheap electricity from Europe are under threat due to Brexit, energy experts have warned.

They said the projects, which are key to efforts to keep the UK’s lights on, could be at risk if the energy sector is denied entry to Europe’s internal energy market.

That looks increasingly likely, after the European parliament passed a resolution on Wednesday opposing “piecemeal or sectoral provisions” for individual UK industries.

Speaking at an event organised by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, experts said plans by French power firm EDF to build two new reactors at Hinkley Point C could be affected.

Antony Froggatt, senior research fellow at Chatham House, said EDF was already concerned that Brexit will make it harder to import skilled EU nationals to build Hinkley, which is slated to provide 7% of UK electricity.

“I was at a conference recently where EDF were saying their main concern about skills was specialised steel fitters for the construction of Hinkley,” he said.

“They said there were not enough in the country to build Hinkley and therefore this is the main area that they’re concerned about.”

He added that the staff shortage could be exacerbated by the building of the HS2 high-speed rail link, which will be competing with Hinkley to attract steel fitters.

EDF did not return requests for comment.

Froggatt and his fellow panellists at the ECIU event also raised concerns about the impact on plans for interconnectors, wires connecting the UK with the European electricity network.

Interconnectors are considered increasingly important as Britain turns to renewable energy, because they allow electricity to be imported to make up for shortfalls when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine.

Plans are in place to build 14GW of interconnectors between the UK and countries including Norway, France, Belgium and Iceland.

But building them could prove less attractive to investors if the UK cannot remain part of Europe’s internal energy market.

This is because the agreement allows electricity to be automatically traded on a short-term “intra-day” basis, improving efficiency and making it more lucrative to build interconnectors. …”