“A meeting to discuss worries about rising business rates and other issues facing Sidmouth’s high street has been cancelled.
Businessman Steve Clark, of Rendevous, told the Herald that today’s (Thursday) event is called off as Sir Hugo Swire was not able to attend due to his Parliamentary commitments. …
Sir Hugo said he was unable to attend due to discussions on future trading post Brexit. …”
EDDC:
Headcount = 526 as at 1st April 2010
Headcount = 598.5 as at 31st March 2018
Doing more with less? Looks like doing less with more!
“The government’s free schools policy has come under renewed fire after it emerged that another of its studio schools, set up using millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, is to close this summer after a brief, troubled existence.
Plymouth studio school will be the 19th of its kind to shut its doors to pupils since the policy was introduced in 2010, at
an estimated collective cost of £48.3m
according to the National Education Union (NEU).
This week it also emerged that Isle of Wight studio school, which opened four years ago, will close in the summer of 2019 due to lack of demand.
The NEU says the latest closures bring the total to 66 new schools launched under the government’s flagship free schools policy that have either closed, partially closed or failed to open at all, at an estimated cost of almost
£150m
in startup costs and capital funding. …”
Rented properties energy rated F or G (properties are rated A = best, G = worst) have been told to bring their properties “up” to at least an E rating. This could cost landlords up to £1,400 per property.
Surely we should be looking for rented properties to be AT LEAST a Grade C!!!
However, of course the unintended (or is it intended?) consequence is that, landlords will raise rents to cover (or even over-cover) the costs involved.
Renters 1 – Landlords 101!
https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/300000-rented-homes-cheaper-bills-12302246
“The head of the NHS has suggested that pensioners’ housing wealth should be used to fund social care as he warned that the equivalent of 36 hospitals were “out of action” because of bed blocking.
Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said that given pensioners’ “relatively advantaged position” in terms of housing wealth, it was difficult to argue that working-age adults should fund the estimated £1 billion extra per year needed by social care services in increased taxes.
He was appearing in front of an inquiry by several Commons committees on the long-term funding of adult social care. …”
Source: Times, pay wall
“Plans to demolish the former Halse of Honiton site and convert it into a 32-home development are set to be rejected.
The Homes and Communities Agency submitted plans last year to build the new homes at Foundry Yard on a brownfield site that was recently vacated by Halse of Honiton, who have moved to a new site in Ottery St Mary. …
But East Devon District Council’s development management committee are being recommended to refuse the application when they meet on Tuesday, May 1.
The report says: “The site is considered to be an employment site and in assessing the proposal, it has not been demonstrated that a continued use employment use would significantly harm the quality of a locality whether through traffic, amenity, environmental or other associated problems.
“Furthermore, options for retention of the site or premises for its current or similar use have not been robustly explored, the site having been subject of a flawed marketing exercise that ruled out any such uses before marketing began.
Evidence from the Economic Development also indicates a strong demand for employment generating sites in Honiton coupled with a shortage in the supply of such sites. The release of the site for housing would therefore not comply with Strategy 32 of the Local Plan and the development would not be sustainable development as it would contribute to imbalances in the provision of housing and jobs in Honiton.”
The application submitted by the HCA had said: “The proposed development of the site creates an opportunity to provide a high quality residential development that integrates well with adjacent areas of Honiton.
“The development will be sustainable, providing much needed open market and affordable homes in a town centre location, with good connectivity.” …
The developer is also proposing ten of the proposed homes – or 30 per cent – to be affordable, five per cent more than the required provision of 25 per cent. …”
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/plans-former-halse-honiton-site-1495246
Where to start? Of course, sleeping rough for a TV programme is easy! A nice warm bed to return to (not to mention a nice MPs salary) AND a film crew to keep you safe! AND he forgets to say he did his TV programme in 1991!
“A Conservative MP and former army officer has said that sleeping rough is “a lot more comfortable” than military exercises, in a debate he led on tackling street homelessness.
Adam Holloway, the MP for Gravesham in Kent, told parliamentary colleagues in the Westminster Hall debate on Tuesday that if a person is “able-bodied and sound of mind” there are resources that make it possible to sleep rough.
He said begging was also part of the problem, allowing homeless people to make “quite a lot of money”.
Holloway, a supporter of the pro-Brexit campaign group Leave Means Leave, also said that a rise in street homelessness was driven by eastern European immigration, claiming that many migrants from that region preferred to sleep rough than pay for accommodation.
He said mental illness and drug addiction were “real ingrained problems” behind homelessness that needed to be tackled to solve the crisis.
Holloway, who told MPs he had spent a number of nights during the parliamentary recess in February sleeping on the streets as part of a television programme on street homelessness, said: “One observation I do have, if you are able-bodied and of sound mind there are all sorts of services – not quite 24 hours a day – that make it possible to sleep out.
“I’m 52, I was in the army; to be honest for me sleeping rough in central London is a lot more comfortable than going on exercise in the army.
“But if you’re mentally ill or you are old or you are personality disordered then it is a very different thing. Or if you’re drug addicted it is very difficult. We have to accept that some people are able to sleep rough because there are resources to do so.”
Holloway’s comments come after research revealed at least 78 homeless people died on the streets and in temporary accommodation this winter, bringing the number of recorded homeless deaths to more than 300 since 2013.”
“Public sector scrutiny “struggles to keep up” with the “increased complexity of modern government”, according to a think-tank.
The collapse of construction contractor Carillion showed the government’s failure to effectively evaluate the use of private providers in the public sector, the discussion paper released by the Institute for Government yesterday also said.
Five million public sector workers were responsible for delivering services, the IFG noted, but still “there are weaknesses in the UK’s system of accountability, which often struggles to keep up with the realities of modern government both nationally and locally”.
Because government has failed to keep pace with the “increased complexity of modern government”, it has not properly scrutinised public-private partnerships’ value for money, Accountability in modern government added.
The think-tank suggested often in government accountability is replaced by a “pervading culture of blame”.
This culture, the think-tank argued, has been evident in the roll out of Universal Credit – which combines six working-age benefits in one – and more recently in the Windrush immigration cases.
IfG said: “While accountability certainly involves apportioning blame when something goes wrong, it should also foster an environment that lead to improvement.
“This is what the public cares most about- preventing failures recurring, rather than simple retribution.”
Benoit Guerin, a senior researcher at the Institute for Government, said: “Accountability helps people know how the government is doing and where to go when things go wrong.
“A lack of accountability is worrying because it increases the risk of failure and decreases legitimacy of the state in the eyes of the public.”
He said the IFG hoped to start a debate on how accountability in the public sector could be strengthened with the aim of making recommendations for reform.”
https://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2018/04/scrutiny-public-sector-struggling
So growth doesn’t equal wealth – who would have guessed!!!
“… TotallyMoney’s research into the best places to make a living ranked Exeter ninth from the bottom of 59 towns and cities in the UK.
Featuring 59 UK towns and cities, the company analysed median take-home salary, average monthly mortgage repayment, cost of living, employment rates and business closures.”
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/exeter-rated-one-worst-places-1494891
Venue: Beehive, Honiton
Free places can be booked at:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/east-devons-time-for-a-change-peoples-conference-tickets-45482525458
Attendance needs to be monitored as the hall has a maximum capacity.
DETAILS:
All across East Devon people are worried about their HEALTH, their HOMES and their JOBS. Never has it been more important to involve yourself with local democracy in your district.
YOU CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE.
The EAST DEVON ALLIANCE is trying to help with all of this, an umbrella group of Independent people, who since 2015 have won 7 district council seats and 1 county seat. The EDA is free from the negative influence of national parties who – at East Devon District Council – have acquired the arrogant habits of a Conservative one-party state.
This conference is for YOU.
Speakers will include County Councillors CLAIRE WRIGHT and MARTIN SHAW. In two sessions you will be able to hear and then CONTRIBUTE on:
a) how did we get where we are now?
b) what can we do about it through democracy in our parishes, towns and district.
Please come. We are all volunteers but if we band together now to fight for hospitals, homes and jobs we have a chance to change the face of how where you live is run.
We are making no fixed charge for the event but a donation on the day would be much appreciated to cover the cost of venue hire. Thank you. See you there.”
Very difficult to do that when local maternity units such as Honiton are closed so many routine births AND emergencies have to travel 20-30 miles plus to Exeter:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/24/duchess-cambridge-new-mothers-royalty
* oleaginous = exaggeratedly and distastefully complimentary; obsequious.
And Swire at “the posher end of the Tory shires”. Perhaps that is where he belongs in future … just saying …
“… Not much of a Rudd support crowd was in attendance (it does not help her popularity with Tory MPs that her main backer is George Osborne, editor of London’s Evening Standard) but the posher end of the Tory shires was in attendance to prop up the former Cheltenham Ladies’ College bluestocking.
Sir Nicholas Soames (Con, Mid Sussex), gallant knight, shouted ‘well done’ at her. East Devon’s Sir Hugo Swire (Con) said ‘any attempt to lay blame at the door of the current Home Secretary is plainly absurd’. Laughter. Some took Sir Hugo’s remark for an attack on Mrs May. Hollingbery alert! Miss Rudd, in reply, hurriedly said the Windrush problem went back to 2005, when Labour was in power. …”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5649625/QUENTIN-LETTS-sees-humbling-Home-Secretary.html
Rudd’s statement on the Windrush scandal:
“… While Rudd had been on her feet, her parliamentary private secretary, Rachel Maclean, had been busy handing out a list of tame questions she would like Tory MPs to ask her. It hadn’t taken her long. Apart from four other Home Office ministers who had been instructed to turn up and were sitting miserable and stoney-faced beside her, there were fewer than 20 Conservative backbenchers in the Commons for this latest humiliation.
And even they were fairly muted in their support, with only Hugo Swire declaring his undying love. Shares in Rudd as the next prime minister have nosedived in the past week. Just about the only thing keeping her in post is the sense that if she goes, then May might fall with her. …”
by Jamie Snape:
“Today in Westminster MPs will debate a petition calling on the government to stop the privatisation of NHS services. Now, if I’m entirely honest, the date of a petition debate isn’t something that would normally appear in my calendar, however this particular debate I’m responsible for myself.
Until starting this petition I’d never campaigned on behalf the NHS, nor had I any connection to the plethora of local or national NHS campaign groups. So what drove me to begin the petition in the first place?
Well, it was after I’d encountered for myself the already privatised NHS services in my local area. Following this I was left with a clear understanding of what it means in reality, when our healthcare is provided by a profit-orientated business rather than an organisation focused on patient outcome like the NHS, and indeed what it is we are losing by privatising it.
As a parent, seeing my young children’s well-being affected directly and indirectly by NHS privatisation on more than one occasion, it motivated me to a degree that I might not otherwise have been.
So I began reading more about NHS privatisation, and why people like the late Stephen Hawking were so concerned. I concluded I could perhaps make a little difference myself by using a petition as a vehicle to help voice the concerns that many people have and that I share about creeping NHS privatisation.
This belief panned out, indeed a single post I wrote on Facebook about the petition was shared over 73,000 times, meaning it was very likely to have been read by more than a million people.
There are over 6,500 petitions on the parliament website right now, and it’s fair to say the UK public are petitioned out. Despite that, not too far short of a quarter of a million people took the time to sign this petition, which ultimately resulted in the scheduling of today’s debate in parliament.
NHS privatisation can mean so many things as there are so many aspects to it, so in terms of the debate itself, my hope is simply that I will observe a well-informed one. I hope that all the MPs involved demonstrate a real knowledge of the issues relating to it, such as the scale of current NHS privatisation.
What simply must be covered are the concerns surrounding the introduction of Accountable Care Organisations later this year, and their potential for leaving a back door wide open for a massive new wave of NHS privatisation.
If the debate centres around the small part of NHS privatisation, where a few people get bumped up the waiting list by having a routine operation performed by a private company, then I will of course be disappointed.
The concept of the NHS is erroneously referenced by many now in historic terms, especially when they are arguing in favour of NHS privatisation.
Personally, I see the NHS as something very much of the future, indeed I’m entirely certain that in years to come, a nation will only be considered civilised if it provides comprehensive free healthcare to all of its citizens.”
Source: Times (pay wall)
Western Morning News article, Saturday 21 April:
“Pristine protected areas of the South West could be at risk from housing developments plans, a conservation charity has warned. Even officially designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty would face developments due to “vague” proposed new planning guidance for local authorities the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) says.
The Government argues that the new rules, part of a move to open up land to solve the housing shortage, would still protect the environment.
However Justin Hague of the South Hams CPRE, said “this would be game over” for conservationists.
Some of the south West’s pristine and most beautiful landscapes could have houses built on them under Government plans conservationists have warned.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England says even officially designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty would face major development due to the “vague” new planning guidance for local authorities.
The proposals- which are being consulted on until May 10 – would end the fight to preserve the precious areas, said the chairman of the group in one of the most under-pressure parts of the regain.
“Not to sound too dramatic, but for countryside campaigners it would be game over” said Justin Hague, chairman of the South Hams branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. (CPRE)
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) would be handed “on a plate to the developers”
He is urging people to write to their MPs to build opposition to the proposed changes.
The controversy is over sections of the National Policy Planning Framework (NPPF) which sets out the Government`s Policies on proposed developments and how they are expected to be applied.
Changes are being but forward partly to help solve the housing crisis.
The aim is to “bring forward more land in the right places” for development, the Government says “Protecting and enhancing the natural environment “ is one of the three key objectives , the document states.
However conservationists are concerned by what they say is watering down of the NPPF policies protecting special areas of the countryside and coast which were put in place in 2012.
Their attention focuses on one section of the proposals, Conserving and Enhancing the Natural Environment.
In the existing document, reference is made to protected areas such as National Parks and AONBs as having the “highest status of protection in relation to landscape and scenic beauty.
The wording disappears under the new proposals.
Mr Hague said absolute tests that helped reinforce protection of the special areas would also go if new guidelines were agreed.
“The proposals say major developments will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances. But what is “major”? Is that 100 homes? In the South Hams in the AONB 10homes could have a huge impact.
“It massively opens the door for development in AONBs” he said.
“My concern is these proposed changes are buried in a huge document that few people have the time or interest to read.
Mr Hague said he had an “unprecedented” response since he expressed his concerns in newsletter to fellow CPRE members in the South Hams.
“Usually I get three or four responses” he said “This time I had 70!”
Mr Hague said the South Hams faced particular pressure for development because of the desire for second homes.
Developers were struggling to sell homes in less-desirable areas, even with the assistance of the Governments Help to Buy Scheme “
They would be able to sell those houses like hot cakes to second home owners if they were able to build in beautiful areas and on the coast” he said.”
The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership is obsessed with growth, mostly because it has promised an over abundance of it.
So, it is interesting to receive an email from their “Growth Hub” to see what it promises:
Well that’s nice – they offer advice. Always helpful, though Owl guesses it depends where the advice comes from.
Is it from those “business leaders” on the Board of the LEP? Or one of the board member councillors (though many of those seem to have had either little business experience, none at all, or so long ago that computers hadn’t bedn invented).
No, scroll down to the bottom of the email and you get:
Our mailing address is:
Serco Employment, Skills and Enterprise
Envoy House
61 Longbridge Road
Plymouth, Devon PL6 8LU
United Kingdom
A company which offers outsourcing services all over the world, particularly in the UK.
So what does Wikipedia have to say about Serco?
“The 2017 Paradise Papers revealed that Appleby carried out a risk assessment of Serco and noted it had a “history of problems, failures, fatal errors and overcharging” and had faced allegations of fraud and cover-ups.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serco
and an article in The Guardian saying that, in Australia, outsourcing with Serco is “an accident waiting to happen”:
and a Telegraph Business article headed:
“Serco recovery still on ‘long and winding’ road, says boss Soames”
“The boss of troubled outsourcer Serco has warned that its road to recovery will be “long and winding” as its strategy to concentrate on providing services to governments means it is exposed to political changes.
Rupert Soames said the business’s five-year plan remained on track, after its shares were hit when the company today announced that last year its revenues fell by 13pc to just over £3bn … .
“The number of zero hour contracts in the UK labour market rose by around 100,000 last year according to the Office for National Statistics.
The agency reported that in its latest survey of firms there were 1.8 million contracts that did not guarantee a minimum numbers of hours in the year to November 2017. The equivalent number in November 2016 was 1.7 million. …”
“Local councils in England are sitting on hundreds of millions of pounds of money designated for affordable housing.
A total of £375m is available, £100m of which has not even been earmarked for a specific project. This is despite a survey last year for the Town and Country Planning Association showing that 98% of councils described their need for affordable homes as either “severe” or “moderate”.
The cash has been accumulated under so-called section 106 agreements by which builders and developers give a council a ringfenced amount of money instead of building affordable homes within a development themselves.
James Prestwich, the head of policy at the National Housing Federation, which represents housing associations, said it confirmed the federation’s view that section 106 was flawed. “Affordable housing should be delivered within new developments, rather than developers simply funding its delivery elsewhere,” he said. “This would guarantee that affordable housing will be built alongside other homes.”
Some of the worst offenders shown up by research carried out by the Huffington Post are in London and the south-east. The housing minister Dominic Raab’s own local council, Elmbridge in Surrey, has £8m waiting to be invested.
Raab was criticised this month after he blamed high levels of immigration for increasing house prices. A review by the statistics watchdog found that his department had used an outdated statistical method to calculate the causes of housing pressure and their relationship with house prices.
The London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which has yet to find new homes for two-thirds of the Grenfell survivors and other families affected by the disaster, has £21m of dedicated reserves. It says £19m has been set aside for Grenfell families.
Two Labour-held councils also in London, Southwark and Camden, between them have more than £90m that could be spent on affordable homes. Altogether, just 14 councils account for two-thirds of the unspent cash.
Rough sleeping in London has risen by at least 18% over the past year; in England as a whole, it is up 15%. Although a shortage of affordable homes is only one of many causes that explains the continuous rise over the past seven years, its consequences have a series of knock-on effects.
A spokesman for Southwark said the money it had was already allocated and the projects for which it was intended would be completed within the next five years.
Camden has set up a new scheme for affordable home building, the community investment programme, which is intended to create 1,400 affordable homes over 15 years.
Tony Travers, a local government expert at the London School of Economics, said nearly a decade of cuts had left council capacity to manage big projects “hollowed out”.
“Average cuts of between 25% and 30% over eight years and the way they have protected children’s and adult social care services have led to bigger cuts in departments like housing and planning. There is no question that their capacity to handle major projects has been eroded.”
Owl says: Not to worry – those at the luxurious PegasusLife development at Knowle will be just fine!
“Britain’s planning rules are fueling a housing “crisis” for the elderly and disabled which is forcing the frail to live in dangerous conditions, a leaked report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission seen by the Telegraph has found.
The Commission’s report, due to be released next month, found a “severe shortage of accessible and adaptable housing” with only seven per cent of homes in England offering minimal accessibility features.
It warns that local councils are failing to build enough accessible homes to meet demand and were not taking action against developers who failed to comply with regulations.
The Commission, a human rights watchdog, said that at least ten per cent of all future housing should be built with a growing elderly and disabled population in mind and that local authorities must reduce the bureaucratic hurdles for adapting homes.
The report comes at a time of a growing social care crisis in Britain with many elderly and frail people stuck in hospitals, unable to be discharged due to inadequate housing.
At the same time, younger Britons are struggling to get on to the housing ladder with older people unable to downsize due to a lack of suitable properties.
Following an inquiry into the state of housing for disabled people in Britain, the Commission reported that the “acute housing crisis“ was leaving elderly and disabled people in unsafe homes and leading to accidents and hospital admissions.
The report’s executive summary, seen by the Telegraph, said that some people were forced into “eating, sleeping and bathing in one room” and to rely on family members to carry them between rooms and up stairs.
Local authorities told the Commission that developers are “reluctant to build accessible houses, as they see them as less profitable”, and often failed to comply with accessibility standards.
Disabled older people are being let down and this is a stark reminder that urgent action is needed, which is the least they deserve in a compassionate society.
Despite this, just three per cent of councils took enforcement action against developers who failed to meet these standards, the Commission found.
The report also said that people were forced to wait an average of 22 weeks between application and the installation of home adaptations necessary to live safely and independently, with some waiting for more than a year.
The Commission’s report said that better housing would help ease the health and social care crisis as it found that poor housing led to an “increased need for social care” and “avoidable hospital admissions”.
Responding to the report, charities warned that the lack of suitable housing was exacerbating the NHS crisis as elderly and disabled people were forced to stay in hospital for longer due to a lack of safe accommodation.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK said: “Providing accessible homes must be seen as core to reducing pressure on social care and the NHS.
“If these recommendations are implemented they will help many more older and disabled people to receive care and support at home.”
She added: “It’s vital that we build safe, accessible, high quality homes that work for all generations and that don’t undermine our ability to stay independent as we get older.”
George McNamara, director of policy and public affairs at Independent Age, the older people’s charity, said: “These are some of the most vulnerable people but they’re forgotten when it comes to housing policy. They are being discriminated against by a system that doesn’t work for them.
“This issue is only going to become more important as our population ages and people have a greater need for specialist housing that addresses all their health and care needs.
“Disabled older people are being let down and this is a stark reminder that urgent action is needed, which is the least they deserve in a compassionate society.”
Rob Wilson, former Government minister for civil society, said: “This isn’t a new problem, but this is a timely report and reminder that disabled people face enormous challenges with getting appropriate housing.
“Almost every local authority area faces the same difficulty in getting enough wheelchair accessible houses built.
“The Government’s drive to increase house building is very welcome, but clearly there is much more to do for those with these special requirements.”
Cllr Izzi Seccombe, chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said councils needed “greater planning powers and resources to hold developers to account”.
“Housing is too often unavailable, unaffordable, and not appropriate for everyone that needs it. This includes the availability of homes suitable for older people and people in vulnerable circumstances,” she said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Our new planning rules make clear that councils must take the needs of elderly and disabled people into account when planning new homes in their area.
“We’re also providing councils with almost £1 billion over the next two years to adapt properties for disabled and older people so they can live independently and safely.”
East Devon Watch 