“Probably not the best PR for a wealthy businessman to be seen publicly boasting about how he is happily using taxpayers’ money to subsidise his staff wages.
So it’s a bit strange to see this tweet from the DWP quoting the MD and owner of pub chain Whiting and Hammond bragging about how so very little he pays his staff that his workers have to rely on Universal Credit to get by. …”
“Declining home-ownership and rising rents mean that one in six may have to choose between food and heat, warns Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
One in six pensioners is now living in poverty as a result of declining home ownership, soaring rents and the benefits freeze, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has warned. Pensioner poverty is rising, having fallen steadily for nearly two decades, the charity said. The figures prompt fears that many pensioners will be forced to choose between paying for heating and buying food this winter, as benefits remain frozen below inflation for the third year in a row.
The foundation’s chief executive, Campbell Robb, said: “Pensioner poverty is a problem that we thought had gone away.”
The incidence had halved over 20 years, but began rising again in 2012-13. By 2016-17, 16% of pensioners were living in poverty, rising to 31% among those in social housing and 36% among private renters. Poverty here is “relative poverty” – an income of less than 60% of the median among pensioners, after housing costs.
Robb said: “For middle-aged people who have been struggling over the past few years, who don’t have many savings and don’t own their own home, the prospect of being a pensioner is very challenging.” The “golden age” when people enjoyed rising home-ownership and well-paid work was coming to an end, he added. About 20% of all pensioners rent their home, and the proportion is growing.
The problem is compounded by the benefits freeze, in place since 2016. “As rent goes up faster than housing benefit, pensioners have a huge gap to fill,” Robb said. “This tips people into poverty, and forces them to choose between food and heating.”
Figures published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies this year reveal that relative poverty among pensioners has risen in the past five years, while “absolute poverty” – an income of less than 60% of what the median of the general population was in 2010-11 – has fallen by just 1%. By comparison, absolute pensioner poverty fell by 12% between 2002-03 and 2007-08, and by 3% between 2007-08 and 2011-12.
The foundation called on the government to end the benefits freeze and to build genuinely affordable housing. “These figures are part of a wider increase in poverty across all age-groups,” said Robb. “If we don’t tackle the causes now, we fear that we are going to see poverty – particularly among pensioners – rise even more.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/dec/09/pensioner-poverty-rises-bnefites-freeze
Owl says: the UK becoming more like Russia every day!
“Secret Scottish-based office led infowars attack on Labour and Jeremy Corbyn.
Explosive leaked documents passed to the Sunday Mail reveal the organisation’s Integrity Initiative is funded with £2million of Foreign Office cash and run by military intelligence specialists.
A secret UK Government-funded infowars unit based in Scotland sent out social media posts attacking Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party.
On the surface, the cryptically named Institute for Statecraft is a small charity operating from an old Victorian mill in Fife. But explosive leaked documents passed to the Sunday Mail reveal the organisation’s Integrity Initiative is funded with £2million of Foreign Office cash and run by military intelligence specialists.
The “think tank” is supposed to counter Russian online propaganda by forming “clusters” of friendly journalists and “key influencers” throughout Europe who use social media to hit back against disinformation. But our investigation has found worrying evidence the shadowy programme’s official Twitter account has been used to attack Corbyn, the Labour Party and their officials.
One tweet quotes a newspaper article calling Corbyn a “useful idiot”, that goes on to state: “His open visceral anti-Westernism helped the Kremlin cause, as surely as if he had been secretly peddling Westminster tittle-tattle for money.”
A message from the UK Government-funded organisation promotes an article that states: “Unlike Galloway (former MP George Galloway) Corbyn does not scream conspiracy, he implies it,” while another added: “It’s time for the Corbyn left to confront its Putin problem.”
A further message refers to an “alleged British Corbyn supporter” who “wants to vote for Putin”.
It is not just the Labour leader who has been on the receiving end of online attacks. His strategy and communications director Seumas Milne was also targeted.
The Integrity Initiative, whose base at Gateside Mill is near Auchtermuchty, retweeted a newspaper report that said: “Milne is not a spy – that would be beneath him. “But what he has done, wittingly or unwittingly, is work with the Kremlin agenda.”
Another retweet promoted a journalist who said: “Just as he supports the Russian bombardment of Syria, Seumas Milne supported the Russian slaughter of Afghanistan, which resulted in more than a million deaths.”
The Integrity Initiative has been accused of supporting Ukrainian politicians who oppose Putin – even when they also have suspected far-right links.
Further leaked documents appear to show a Twitter campaign that resulted in a Spanish politician believed to be friendly to the Kremlin being denied a job. The organisation’s “Spanish cluster” swung into action on hearing that Pedro Banos was to be appointed director of the national security department.
The papers detail how the Integrity Initiative alerted “key influencers” around Europe who launched an online campaign against the politician.
In the wake of the leaks, which also detail Government grant applications, the Foreign Office have been forced to confirm they provided massive funding to the Integrity Initiative.
In response to a parliamentary question, Europe Minister Alan Duncan said: “In financial year 2017-18, the FCO funded the Institute for Statecraft’s Integrity Initiative £296,500. “This financial year, the FCO are funding a further £1,961,000. Both have been funded through grant agreements.”
Politicians and academics have reacted with fury to news a covert Government-funded unit had been attacking the official opposition in Parliament.
Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: “It would appear that we have a charity registered in Scotland and overseen by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator that is funded by the UK Government and is spewing out political attacks on UK politicians, the Labour Party and the Labour movement. “Such clear political attacks and propaganda shouldn’t be coming from any charity. We need to know why the Foreign Office have been funding it.”
David Miller, a professor of political sociology in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol, added: “It’s extraordinary that the Foreign Office would be funding a Scottish charity to counter Russian propaganda which ends up attacking Her Majesty’s opposition and soft-pedalling far-right politicians in the Ukraine.
“People have a right to know how the Government are spending their money, and the views being promoted in their name.”
Source: Scottish Daily Record
“Cabinet Office mandarins are believed to have sounded out Interserve’s rivals about the possibility of taking on some of the outsourcer’s work.
The cleaning and building company is heading for a debt-for-equity swap with its lenders as it creaks under debts of £650m. The swap could wipe out shareholders.
Interserve is a significant government supplier, with long-term deals for schools, hospitals and motorways. Jon Trickett, Labour’s shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, last night called for a temporary ban on the company bidding for public contracts — “until they have proved they are financially stable and there is no risk to the taxpayer”.
Interserve said: “The fundamentals of the business are strong and the board is focused on ensuring Interserve has the right financial structure to support its future success.”
Source: Sunday Times
Roseanne Edwards, who is fighting to “Keep Our Horton General” in Oxfordshire writes:
“From our fellow campaigners who are fighting as hard as we are for their local hospital. It is a copy of what is being done to services in Oxfordshire. It is happening all over England.
The background their hospital is set against is the same politically inspired NHS reorganisation we are all victims of.
“Following the 2010 election which returned a Coalition Government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, the Department of Health was too busy with the torturous passage through the House of Commons and Lords of the Health and Social Care Bill, which became the Health and Social Care Act 2012, and took their eye off the ball, neglecting to commission training places in Universities for Doctors, nurses physiotherapists and other valuable and essential health professionals.
This resulted in a national shortage which we are seeing today, in A&E surgeons, paediatricians, nurses and other staff.
The outcome may have been intentional. Michael Portillo speaking on the BBC Parliament channel following the election, said that the Conservatives kept quiet about their intentions for the health service because they knew that if their plans became known, they would not be elected.
The intended change was to the fundamental foundation of what used to be the National Health Service, the Secretary of State’s duty to provide, which was removed and a system of contracting services out to tender to enable more profit making companies to siphon off the NHS revenue put in place with competition law operational.
Martin Barkley says that the Care Closer to Home model of service provision will be sustainable. This is government propaganda. What does sustainable mean? The funding for the health service is a matter of choice. Government chooses to fund it or not. This government and the Coalition, chose not to. Even when ‘Care Closer to Home’ is put in place and Dewsbury Hospital downgraded, completely as planned for spring 2017, the government could choose to reduce funding still further.
This is exactly what is happening with the mandatory and secretive Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) agenda, being worked up by the Councils, CCGs and Trusts, in West Yorkshire footprint number 5. The West Yorkshire STP has to save money as part of West Yorkshire’s share of the £22billion ‘efficiency savings.’
There is NO EVIDENCE to show that the cuts to hospital provision and services at home, are less expensive than inpatient stays. The pilots in Torbay were inconclusive. In fact they may prove to be more expensive. The expenditure of the National Health Service model as it had been and the treatment it carried out, was consistently found by OECD studies to be the most cost effective in the developed world, treating everyone according to need. This was the case even including the increased costs and associated difficulties caused by the marketised Foundation Trust system.
(The CCG CEP) Dr Kelly outlines what he describes as a “whole system change” in the NHS. What the describes, is chopping the services into tiny bits and letting private profit making companies provide the cheaper, less complex services, such as the dermatology he mentioned http://www.priderm.co.uk and the opticians on the high street. This denies revenue to the Hospital Trust, destabilising it. A new contract announced after the public meeting for Musculo- Skeletal services has gone toprivate company ConnectHealth:
http://www.connecthealth.co.uk
redirecting even more revenue away from the Trust:
https://www.northkirkleesccg.nhs.uk/news/patients-shape-musculoskeletal-service./.
The ‘Right Care ‘ initiative mentioned is an import from the US. What does ‘redesigning therapies’ mean? The Right Care programme, is looking at money. Is this the first step to withdrawing what was once available?
The Royal College of Surgeons has criticised the policy of withdrawing treatments now evaluated as procedures of limited clinical effectiveness (PoLCE) or procedures of limited clinical value (PoLCV). There is no national list of these, as CCGs are free to choose which ones to fund and which to not. The Royal College of Surgeons states that the growing list is “extremely detrimental to patients across the NHS, removing equality of access to treatment, creating postcode lotteries, lowering the standard of care provided in the NHS and potentially reducing the quality of life for some patients.”
Following the fragmentation described here, the architects of the STPlans want an Accountable Care Organisation (ACO) to put it back together, with the private sector cocooned and shareholding, in the provider structure.
Dr Kelly speaks of the Hospital Avoidance Team, going into hospitals to facilitate early discharge. What we have learned since the public meeting is that there is a postcode lottery with regard to what is on offer following a hospital stay and hospital nurses and other staff have to know where you live, because North Kirklees patients can not have what Wakefield patients get.”
Owl says: Has the message still not got through? Privatise, give your directors MASSIVE salaries and bonuses, look after your shareholders. Then, when it all goes belly-up either (a) get the government (ie us) to bail you out or (b) let your government clients (ie us) go to the wall!
“Interserve: Major government contractor ‘seeks second rescue deal’
One of the UK’s largest providers of public services is seeking a rescue deal as it struggles with £500m of debt, according to the Financial Times.
Interserve, which works in prisons, schools, hospitals and on the roads, said it might look for new investment or sell off part of the business.
Workers at the Foreign Office and the NHS are among Interserve’s tens of thousands of UK employees.
The government said it supported the company’s long-term recovery plan.
The Financial Times reported that the company was looking for a deal to refinance its debt which would mean lenders taking a significant loss while public shareholders would be “virtually wiped out”.
Its share price dropped to a 30-year low last month.
Despite lucrative contracts in the Middle East and its wide range of work in the UK, the company has continued to lose money since March, when it agreed an earlier rescue deal.
Its troubles have been blamed on cancellations and delays in its construction contracts as well as struggling waste-to-energy projects in Derby and Glasgow.
Interserve claims its prospects are improving, and says it will increase profits this year.
What does Interserve do?
From its origins in dredging and construction, the company has diversified into wide range of services, such as health care and catering, for clients in government and industry.
At King George Hospital in east London, for instance, Interserve has a £35 million contract for for cleaning, security, meals, waste management and maintenance.
Its infrastructure projects include improving the M5 Junction 6 near Bristol, refurbishing the Rotherham Interchange bus station in Yorkshire, and upgrading sewers and water pipes for Northumbrian Water.
But Interserve is also the largest provider of probation services in England and Wales, supervising about 40,000 “medium-low risk offenders” for the Ministry of Justice.
In a statement, Interserve said: “The fundamentals of the business are strong and the board is focused on ensuring Interserve has the right financial structure to support its future success.”
The company said its options included bringing “new capital into the business and progressing the disposal of non-core businesses “.
Interserve’s difficulties follow the collapse of Carillion in January 2018, which put thousands of jobs at risk and cost taxpayers £148m.
Government reassures over Interserve
Following that, the government launched a pilot of “living wills” for contractors, so that critical services can be taken over in the event of a crisis. Interserve is one of five suppliers taking part.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We monitor the financial health of all of our strategic suppliers, including Interserve, and have regular discussions with the company’s management. The company successfully raised new debt facilities earlier this year, and we fully support them in their long term recovery plan.”
Daily Express article today – heck that fence must be pretty uncomfortable!
“Under the terms of the deal Mrs May agreed with the EU that the UK will automatically fall into a ‘backstop’ EU customs union should the Government fail to agree a new trading relationship with Brussels during the transition period. The transition period is currently set at 21 months, though Mrs May has hinted it could be extended. Should the UK enter a customs union with Brussels it would struggle to sign comprehensive trade deals with third parties, and will still have to obey a significant proportion of EU legislation.
Tory loyalists Sir Hugo Swire and Richard Graham have tabled the amendment, which would give MPs a vote on whether the UK joins the customs union backstop or extends the transition period if a new trading relationship with the EU can’t be agreed.
It also requires the Government to push for “further assurances from the EU that the backstop would only be a temporary arrangement”.
Should the UK enter a customs union the amendment requires the Government to make plans to exit within a year.
Nikki da Costa, formerly the Prime Minister’s director of legislative affairs, suggested Ministers could be behind the move.
He told the Daily Mail: “I know a Government amendment when I see one”.
Cranbrook Town Council wants to block a kebab van from selling food in The town:
https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/the-fight-against-fast-food-continues-cranbrook-councillors-object-to-kebab-van-s-seven-days-a-week-trading-bid-1-5807445
Cranbrook has only a pub for eating out, which sells a mix of what is crudely called “healthy food” and junk food:
https://www.cranberry-farm.co.uk/our-food/?menu=513118
Cranbrook is installing outdoor barbecues at its “country park” where no doubt junk food will be cooked:
https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/plans-for-outdoor-barbecues-to-be-installed-in-cranbrook-before-easter-2019-but-council-is-looking-to-share-the-cost-1-5810127
Is it fair to try to stop the van? A poll says 58% want it.
EDDC liberalised street trading rules to encourage more street trading.
Confusing!
Text of address to Ottery Town Council by Philip Algar, a long-term campaigner for the Ottery hospital, including its in-patient beds:
“OSMTC 29th NOVEMBER 2018
As an interested member of the public, I have attended almost all the town council meetings over the last few years. During that time, I have seen the councillors confront many issues, some trivial and some serious. However, I have not seen a collective, note the word “collective”, and timely public effort by the council as a whole to support those of us who have been campaigning to save the Ottery hospital. I can think of nothing that is more important to the local people than having access to a well-located modern greatly-valued hospital and this, surely, justifies your collective support. Why has such support been missing?
Whenever the subject of the hospital’s future has been included on the town council agenda, the main speaker, often the only speaker, has been one councillor, who, quite correctly, has said that she does not speak for the council but for a group of which she is a leading member.
As recently as last August, I asked the council to adopt an official and supportive role but nothing happened and, as far as I know, my suggestion that the hospital should become a community asset, which was rejected by EDDC, was not challenged by this council, even although such status has, I am told, been granted to other hospitals. I had suggested in advance that it might be wise to devise a response in anticipation of a negative decision.
All this is why I shall no longer be attending your meetings which will be good news for many of you. Furthermore, the well-intentioned and hard-working unofficial groups have failed to make much progress with the official bodies and, apparently, admit this. That said, it would be helpful if they were more communicative with the public.
Given this lamentable situation, it was hardly surprising that three councillors, backed by a county councillor, suggested setting up a semi-official working group to solve the crisis. Three councillors voted in favour and six, according to the draft minutes of the meeting, abstained.
I was astonished to learn that, allegedly, some councillors construed this as a defeat for the trio. That is breathtaking and worthy of Private Eye. If this is true, it also exposes a level of ignorance that calls into question the competence of those involved. If it is not true, I withdraw this comment immediately.
Now, despite an objective explanation from Dr. Margaret Hall, explaining that, effectively, NHS groups, apparently, will only discuss matters with official groups or those under the aegis of the council, you still chose to organise this meeting, at an unusual time when so many residents are at work. I note the comments that this meeting was planned as councillors were attending a finance meeting. The claim by the abstainers, that they did not have sufficient information, has already been undermined by Dr. Hall’s contribution so why have another meeting?
This, presumably, is an effort to overturn the initial decision on the creation of a working group. The agenda also raises the possibility of supporting a decision that has already been agreed after a vote of three to nil, and which has now been explained by Dr. Hall. I find the possibility that organising a meeting to consider reversing the democratically-taken decision to be a truly ludicrous waste of time and totally unnecessary.
Those who were penalised by the decision to remove inpatient beds and now face the prospect that the hospital may not even become a hub, deserve much more from their councillors.”
End: 29.11.18
Multiple sightings of our esteemed MP lurking in the background – almost seeming to try to duck out of shot – of early TV news items featuring Amber Rudd spouting today’s riff on Brexit.
Swire has already been described as “a state sanctioned dissident” and Rudd is known to be quite prepared to do May’s dirty work:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2018/12/07/swire-state-sanctioned-dissident/
So, are they dirty working today WITH May or AGAINST her?
Be careful Mrs May – keeping your friends close but your enemies even closer has its failings. And Owl thinks he has never forgiven you for ousting him from his “job” at the Foreign Office, cosying up to the sheiks of the Saudi Arabian peninsula and his favourite islands, The Maldives. Which he still does but in the very much less prestigious ‘job” of Chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council.
Owl LOVES the comment from the DCC officer: ““I know this is not a popular thing to suggest, but the people who bought the houses bought them in full knowledge of the layby” but Owl thinks they expected the LORRIES to be laid by, not ladies being laid by lorry drivers!
“Two laybys that lorry drivers are using to ‘entertain’ female companions will be closed.
The laybys, right in the middle of Cranbrook, are also being used a public toilet, for boy racers to congregate and play loud music and swear, and the proximity to houses mean that lorry drivers can see into homes from their cabs.
Unanimous agreement was given by councillors to close the laybys and for Devon County Council’s Highways officers to come up with a solution.
Cllr Ray Bloxham, who brought the proposal to Friday’s East Devon Highways and Traffic Orders Committee, said that the laybys used to be in a rural location but now are right in the middle of Cranbrook, and homes are now located immediately adjacent to the laybys.
He said: “The two laybys in question are now principally used by HGVs for overnight parking as a free car park. This results in considerable disturbance to adjacent households and there have been a series of complaints about noise disturbance especially overnight from refrigerated units and from engines being started and left running during the early hours. There have been ancillary complaints about anti-social behaviour by drivers using the hedgerow as a toilet and other unpleasant behaviours.
“The complaints by local residents have been referred to both Environmental Health at East Devon District Council and to Highways, and the only solution that was put forward and supported by highways department was to close the laybys.”
He added that there was organised lorry parking less than a mile away in Clyst Honiton, but there is a fee for it, so they prefer to park for free.
A resident of Roman Way, which is just 15m away over a hedge from the layby, said that they are facing anti-social behaviour ‘night and day’.
She said: “There are privacy issues as from their cabs, they can see into our residences, while the anti-social behaviour is disturbing out sleep. One lorry driver ‘entertained’ a female companion in his cab overnight and she left at 5.30am in the morning – this is the kind of behaviour we want to end.
“Some of the drivers urinate and use the hedge as a toilet, and they leave litter there which attracts vermin, and at night you get boy racers there and they play music and swear loudly.
“It is a real nuisance and causes health risks to us and our children. It doesn’t support the healthy town concept and for us as residents, the issues are very real. If you lived in our home and had this every day and night, you would realise the issues that we are facing at the moment.”
Mike Jones, Senior Devon County Council Traffic Officer, said that the laybys were on the road so lorry drivers do have a place to stop. He added that the road is a diversion route for the A30 and the road does need marshalling facilities and laybys are a useful thing to have, before saying: “I know this is not a popular thing to suggest, but the people who bought the houses bought them in full knowledge of the layby.”
But Cllr Richard Scott said that was an inappropriate argument to make, as it would be the same as saying if you bought a house next to a field, then it could never be built on. He said that if that argument was used, then Cranbrook itself would never have been built.
Cllr Phil Twiss said that he fully supported the laybys being closed to vehicles, but said that as a cyclist who used the road, those laybys are a handy little refuge to stop and have a drink or check tyres. He said: “I agree that we should close them, but officers need to go away and come up with a practical solution.”
The East Devon HATOC unanimously agreed that the two laybys, located on opposite sides of the highway alongside the B3174 at Cranbrook, approximately 100m west of Parsons Lane, be closed to vehicular use, either by the introduction of a Traffic Regulation Order, or a different solution that the highways department could identify which meant moving the kerb line.”
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/laybys-cranbrook-being-used-lorry-2303961
Owl was under the impression that children have been in charge of EDDC for some considerable time …
“Year 6 children from Exeter Road Community Primary School were among the region’s schools to take part in a takeover day at the East Devon District Council Offices – getting a sense of life in local government, making decisions which impact on people’s everyday lives
In a mock council meeting, the children put on their best acting performances as they pretended to be adults in professions from butcher through to builder and debated what to do with a new plot of land. …”
https://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/children-east-devon-takeover-1-5810494
“Developers have dodged providing more than 10,000 affordable homes due to the government’s failure to close a loophole in the law, HuffPost UK can reveal.
Using ‘permitted development rights’, builders have sidestepped their duty to provide affordable homes when they convert non-residential buildings like office blocks.
The rules were designed to speed up the planning process, as they allow developers to transform a property without having to apply for town halls’ planning permission – something which could see council chiefs demand social housing as part of planning conditions.
Housing charity Shelter handed an analysis to HuffPost which shows that 10,340 affordable homes have been lost over the last three years in England as a result.
Polly Neate, chief executive, said: “With hundreds of thousands of people homeless today, it’s obvious that we need as many social homes as we can get. But despite this, the government is now considering new plans that could supercharge a social housing get out clause for developers.
“Developers shouldn’t have a license to dodge social housing when so many are without a home they can afford. Instead of creating a social housing black hole, the government should halt these plans and bring down the cost of land to build the social homes we need.”
The government says the rules simplify the planning process, but for every 10 homes built using the conversion rules, three affordable homes have been lost.
As the housing crisis deepens, ministers are now considering a new plan which could allow developers to further exploit the rules.
Using the same legal mechanism, developers may be able to demolish and replace commercial buildings.
Labour’s shadow housing secretary, John Healey said the government must act.
“We can’t make housing more affordable if we don’t build more affordable homes, but Conservative ministers are letting developers cash in without making any contribution to the community,” he said.
We can’t make housing more affordable if we don’t build more affordable homes Labour shadow housing minister, John Healey
“These changes have given developers a free hand to dodge their duty to build homes that are affordable to local people.”
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government underlined that more than 32,000 homes had been provided using permitted development rights.
“We’re committed to speeding up the planning system to help deliver the homes the country needs,” she said.
“By introducing additional permitted development rules we’re providing flexibility, reducing bureaucracy and making the most effective use of existing buildings.
“Our £9bn affordable homes programme is set to deliver 250,000 affordable homes by March 2022 and we’re scrapping councils’ borrowing caps, setting them free to build a new generation of council housing.”
Owl says: Bet May and her cronies HATE the National Audit Office!
“The boss of the business that leases cars to people with disabilities on behalf of the Motability charity is stepping down after it emerged he is set to receive a £2.2m bonus on top of his seven-figure salary.
Mike Betts, the chief executive of Motability Operations, came under fire earlier this year after MPs called his annual £1.7m pay package “totally unacceptable”.
A report by the government spending watchdog, the National Audit Office (NAO), published on Friday says as well as his “generous” remuneration, Betts is in line for a previously undisclosed performance bonus worth about £2.2m.
Following the report, Motability Operations announced that Betts would stand down from his position by May 2020, while the group’s chairman, Neil Johnson, would retire in April 2019.
In a statement, Motability Operations said: “After 16 years in the business, Motability Operations chief executive Mike Betts and the board of Motability Operations Group plc have agreed that, following the implementation of actions agreed as an outcome of the NAO review, and working to help the new chairman settle in, a suitable successor will be found, and Mike will step down from the board, no later than May 2020.
“The board is clear that recommendations made by the NAO will benefit from Mr Betts’ experience and skills to see them through.”
The Motability scheme enables disabled people to lease adapted cars using their enhanced mobility disability benefits – either disability living allowance or its successor, the personal independence payment. It currently helps about 614,000 people, many of whom would otherwise struggle to afford a vehicle.
The NAO is critical of the performance plan put in place for Betts and his fellow directors in 2008, saying that the targets meant to incentivise “excellent performance” were set at levels below what the company was achieving when the scheme was introduced.
The targets were “easily exceeded” and in the first seven years of the plan, five executive directors received “generous” remuneration of £15.3m in total, a near fourfold increase for what the NAO suggests was unexceptional performance. …”
Owl loves the description of Swire!
“The plain fact is that the Brexiteers and the DUP are unbiddable, unshakeable and unpersuadeable. The usual tricks of last minute concessions just aren’t working. Last night was a case in point, as the new amendment to give Stormont and MPs a say over the customs ‘backstop’ was tabled by state-sanctioned dissidents Hugo Swire, Richard Graham and Bob Neill. …”
Source: WUgh Zone, Huffington Post
Owl says: what a dreadful thing to make this issue an area for political point-scoring and petty feuds!
“Fighting for the future of Ottery Hospital should be ‘top priority’ says residents as they called for more support and transparency from town councillors.
The council chamber was filled to capacity for an extraordinary meeting re-examining a decision by the town council to support or rescind a motion to set up a hospital working group.
The proposal was passed at the start of the month, with many councillors abstaining as they said they did not have enough information.
Residents speaking at the meeting last Thursday said they felt there was lack of support from the council and were baffled to revisit the decision due to the weight and transparency a working group could show.
Stewart Lucas told members the council contributed hugely to the community but needed to listen to concerns as the town’s population continued to grow.
He said: “I for one believe the protection and the support of our local community hospital is an issue that should be right at the very top of the priorities of the council, and I feel the people of this town deserve to know that is a priority and that their feelings and opinions are valued and taken into consideration and that there is full transparency.”
Last week, health ministers gave firm reassurances the hospital has a ‘sustainable future’ but resident Ian Dowler said there needed to be more than a ‘glimmer of hope’.
Mr Dowler said: “Ottery does need to retain, not just the hospital services that it has at the moment but it needs to expand and utilise the space that’s there.
“With people living longer, Coleridge (Medical Centre) is bursting at the seams. Surely common sense would dictate that an overspill surgery be created at the hospital among other health departments, which would take some of the pressure off the RD&E?
“We need to take affirmative and positive action and no longer rely or applaud these sad and pathetic reasonings that all shall be well. It’s not acceptable.”
Councillors voted to defer making a decision until February to allow organisations involved in saving the hospital to meet and gather information.
Cllr Glyn Dobson said: “We all want to save the hospital, perhaps we want to do it in different ways. The health and care forum is doing a good job, there are five councillors on there and the results have come out this week in the Houses of Parliament that Ottery St Mary Hospital has a good chance of staying open.”
Owl says: prediction – watch all these motions get watered down or struck out by block+voting Tories!
“Pressure to provide more help to struggling families, affected by benefit changes and low wages, is mounting on council bosses.
A motion calling for action will be put forward to East Devon District Council (EDDC) at a meeting on Wednesday (December 12).
The move looks to bring two reports before the authority, from the UK Equalities and Human Rights Commission and the UN Special Rapporteur, which put a spotlight on the impact of benefits changes and spending cuts on people in the UK.
The motion has been proposed by Councillor Cathy Gardner, of East Devon Alliance.
She said EDDC was due to receive a report on the potential impact on residents in East Devon and the need for further support, helping those affected by the roll-out of Universal Credit (UC) and supporting homelessness prevention and food banks.
Cllr Gardner added: “Residents in East Devon are not immune from these effects and in fact the rollout of Universal Credit is already having an effect.
“We have seen two homeless people die since 2015, both in Sidmouth.
“An increasing number of people, some with children are relying on foodbanks in all our towns, including Sidmouth, Honiton, Axminster, Seaton Ottery and Exmouth.”
The news comes in the same week that organisers of the Sid Valley Food Bank said that more people were needing help every week. And the numbers of people needing help were higher than they had ever been.
Co-ordinator Andie Milne said the top five reasons were:
• Delays in benefit changing transferring to UC, which could be up to 5 weeks. • Repayment of loan provided in the case of delayed UC payment. • Low wages and difficulties paying private rent over the housing benefit cap. • Zero hour contracts – reduction in hours/sickness. • Low wage unable to have contingency funds for unexpected expenditure – very noticeable with families needing to but school uniform, coping with school holidays, car repairs, winter bills and household repairs.
Cllr Garnder said: “I’m calling for the council to review whether more support is needed by people in East Devon and whether it can be provided.
“If the council does not have sufficient resources, then we must call on Government to review funding and make changes to Universal Credit. EDDC have statutory obligations, especially for housing, and it’s likely that increased demand will not be met.
“There is an urgent need to provide more social housing as well as support families who are at risk of homelessness.”
Cllr Gardner said there currently were five verified rough sleepers in East Devon – including the gentleman on Sidmouth seafront.
She added there were 27 households in temporary accommodation via EDDC – made up of 16 singles and 11 families, eight single people and two families in supported accommodation in Honiton, eight singles and two families in B and B accommodation, one family in a private sector lease property and six families in the council’s own housing stock that is being used as temporary accommodation.
Cllr Gardner said EDDC was required to help families and individuals in need of housing and was doing so, but Government cuts would likely mean it would not able to provide all the support it does or would want to in the coming years.
An EDDC spokesperson said: “This is one of three motions that are on the council agenda and officers of the council will take any necessary action arising from the council’s consideration of the motions and the decisions that are taken.”
https://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/calls-for-help-for-struggling-families-1-5809034
Owl says: Actually the government just wants him to lie for their next manifesto – and then, when it all comes tumbling down, they will then probably fire him – for lying.
“The head of the NHS and the government are at loggerheads over how much the health service can be improved for the £20.5bn extra Theresa May has pledged to give it, the Guardian can reveal.
Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, has been having major disagreements behind the scenes in recent weeks with Downing Street, the Treasury and Department of Health and Social Care about how much the forthcoming NHS long-term plan can promise to boost care.
“Tension” and “difficulties” have emerged during detailed horsetrading between the two sides amid sharp differences of opinion over the extent of the document’s ambitions, well-placed NHS and Whitehall sources have told the Guardian.
Negotiations have left ministers “fed up” and “deeply irritated” that Stevens is refusing to include explicit guarantees they believe will reassure voters that the service will improve dramatically over the next five years thanks to the extra money.
The plan, which will set out how the extra money will be spent, had been due to come out earlier this week but was delayed and is likely to finally appear in the week after next, subject to events at Westminster and further discussions between Stevens and ministers about its contents.
Ministers have told NHS England the plan should include specific annual improvements it will promise to make every year between 2019-20 and 2023-24 in its most challenging areas.
They want milestones written into it spelling out how close in percentage terms the NHS will get every year to once again meeting key waiting time targets covering A&E care, cancer treatment and planned operations, and also by how much the service’s dire finances will be turned round.
However, Stevens has left ministers frustrated by telling them privately that their ambitions are not realistic. Allies say he believes the £20.5bn more by 2023-24 is not enough for hospitals to get waiting times back on track after years of struggling to meet them and simultaneously honour headline-grabbing promises May and Philip Hammond have made recently, ahead of the plan being published, to expand and improve cancer and mental health care. They also want the money to pay for care to be transformed, with a major expansion of out-of-hospital services.
NHS England set up 14 different “workstreams” in the summer to draw up detailed proposals for how key areas of care needed to change to improve the nation’s health and keep the NHS sustainable, given the pressures of the ageing and growing population.
Stevens’s realism about the limits of the plan’s ambition has been reinforced by that process identifying improvements that would between them cost £80bn a year extra, four times the £20.5bn May has pledged. That has forced him to order a drastic culling of those proposals that are too costly to include in the plan.
Stevens has also warned them that the NHS’s chronic lack of staff – it is short of 103,000 doctors, nurses and other personnel – will also make it hard to drive the measurable progress they are seeking. Gaping holes in the NHS workforce are “dreadful and getting worse”, one senior figure said.
“Simon wants one thing and the politicians want another. The Treasury want to pin him to the floor over the action he will take to get all the waiting time targets back on track over the next few years, and he is resisting that. He wants flexibility,” said one source close to the discussions.
The Treasury is particularly exasperated by Stevens’s stance. But allies of the NHS chief say that he does not want to have his hands tied, sign up to timescales for progress that are likely to prove impossible to meet and to open himself up to criticism in the future for not delivering them.
One ally said: “The Treasury are the ones who are especially looking for high-profile and concrete improvements in care that the government can sell to the public in return for the £20bn. There is a lot of anxiety [among NHS leaders] because everyone knows the extra money is barely enough to maintain current standards, let alone transform services.”
Stevens is understood to feel unable to make public his reservations about how much progress ministers should expect for the £20.5bn given that he welcomed the money – which May gave to mark the NHS’s 70th birthday in July – at the time as “a change of gear, a step up” after eight years of tiny 1% annual increases. Its budget will rise from £115bn now to £135bn in April 2023.
Another NHS leader said: “Ministers want all the key targets back to where they used to be, the £1bn annual deficit down to zero and a host of new commitments delivered, all within the 3.4% annual budget rises over the next five years that the £20bn involves. But the numbers, and the whole thing, just don’t add up. You simply can’t get all those improvements on those timescales on 3.4%. It isn’t deliverable. But that’s what the government wants.”
NHS Improvement, the service’s financial regulator, is helping to draw up the plan. It warned last week that hospitals had already overspent by £1.23bn by the end of September, halfway through the service’s financial year, and that it may take five years to restore waiting time performance.
Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents organisations across the healthcare sector, urged ministers and the public to be realistic.
“The NHS long-term plan is a vital opportunity to improve patient care and change the way we deliver services to the public. But we should not underestimate how difficult it will be to recover performance on waiting times and to move NHS trusts and other organisations back into the black.
“We must be realistic about what is possible within the extra £20bn – the last thing we need is to set local services up to fail. And, above all, we will need a plan for securing the staff we need to respond to changing healthcare needs.”
NHS England denied a rift, saying: “The NHS, patient groups, clinicians and government are working closely together to finalise the NHS long term plan ready for publication before Christmas.” The Department of Health and Social Care also said there was no dispute, and they were “working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to develop an ambitious long term plan for our health service.”
“The collapse of the construction giant Carillion has hit the headlines again as auditing failures among the Big Four accountants have come to light. For many, the real impacts (and horrors) of the collapse are only now emerging.
Oxfordshire county council has spent £1.7 million on an audit of the council’s ten-year services contract with the company. It reveals shocking levels of oversight — missing building certificates, fire safety issues, unmet planning conditions — and the scale of the damage done, in health and safety and in financial terms, is breath-taking, especially when you consider the council spent a total of £123 million with Carillion on 602 municipal projects.
We are still to find out exactly what happened behind the scenes, and the results of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) criminal investigation is hotly anticipated.
The news of the collapse in January was reported alongside photos of the directors’ properties, and details their extravagant pay deals. In June this year the FCA said it was “looking into” allegations of insider trading. Perhaps this was a result of a complaint made in February, by people who say they have been the victims of the directors’ crimes. Increasingly the police are failing to investigate financial crimes, through sheer lack of resources. Will the FCA be able to do any better?
The long story short goes like this: Carillion’s directors had a stack of duties and obligations because they ran a PLC. The huge pay deals are supposed to be there for a reason. One of their many obligations was to keep the market informed of the company’s financial situation. Dishonestly failing to do that is a crime called “misleading statements”. Making misleading statements is related to the crime of insider trading. The point of both crimes is the same: to keep the markets fair. The victims, or at least the people making a complaint against Carillion, are the bosses of a firm called Kiltearn Partners. Kiltearn is an institutional investor: a business which invests large sums in stocks and shares on behalf of lots of smaller investors, such as people putting money into a pension.
In January 2017 Kiltearn owned 10 per cent of Carillion’s shares on behalf of their clients. In March that year Carillion published its 2016 accounts, and everything was painted in rosy colours. Kiltearn staff had no reason to think they should be selling its shares in Carillion. Not until a couple of months later anyway. Because on July 10, 2017, Carillion told the market about a massive problem — there was an £845 million hole in its cash flow. It said it needed to make provision for this, and basically wrote it off. Unsurprisingly the share price tumbled, and Kiltearn was left with the feeling it had been had. Bosses called for an investigation into whether Carillion’s management knew, or should have known, about the cash flow issue — with this statement Kiltearn was reporting a crime.
If there turns out to be solid evidence that the Carillion directors have committed market crimes, it looks likely to follow there will also be evidence that they have committed fraud. It could even be a first prominent outing for “fraud by failing to disclose information”, a section of the Fraud Act 2006.
It will be interesting to see if the FCA has the skill and determination — and ultimately the evidence — to bring the directors to book. In the meantime, it is likely we will continue to see other victims of Carillion’s collapse emerge.”
The author is a barrister at 23 Essex Street
Source: The Times
Owl says: WHAT! The government WASN’T checking the accounts and investments of these people to begin with? Well, who would have guessed!
“The government will suspend golden ticket investment visas, which allow non-EU nationals to stay in the UK if they invest £2m, amid a crackdown on organised crime.
Just buying into UK companies, or buying government bonds, will no longer be enough for Russian oligarchs, Middle Eastern oil barons and other super rich investors to stay in the UK.
The tier 1 investor visas, which gave investors permission to stay in Britain for up to three years, are being scrapped at midnight tomorrow.
The changes will force applicants who want to come to the UK to hire British auditors to comb through their accounts and prove they control the investments.
Around 1,000 people applied for the visas in the past year. …
“I have been clear that we will not tolerate people who do not play by the rules and seek to abuse the system,” immigration minister Caroline Nokes said.
She added: “That is why I am bringing forward these new measures which will make sure that only genuine investors, who intend to support UK businesses, can benefit from our immigration system.” …
http://www.cityam.com/270279/visas-super-rich-investors-scrapped-amid-crackdown-money
East Devon Watch 