Richard Gannon whose 100-year-old mother Jessie has lived at Shandford, Budleigh, for nearly two years, is quoted as saying.: “It [moving] would her kill without a shadow of doubt and I’d expect several deaths quite quickly,” he said. “You simply can’t disrupt someone’s life at 100. It took her three months to acclimatise and she is now fine and happy.”

Owl has reported on the proposed closure of Shandford, Budleigh, a number of times. Now a home in Axminster is involved as well. Owl understands that the question of the Budleigh home being no longer viable was challenged at the public meeting called by Simon Jupp MP a few weeks ago on the basis of local knowledge.  Also queried was the question: on what authority were those making decisions on behalf of the community acting, the “Shandford Volunteer Group”? locals don’t see anywhere else in Budleigh where any assets released by a sale could be employed to provide residential care for the local elderly to better effect.

Simon Jupp has told residents’ relatives and friends of Shandford that he has asked Abbeyfield a number of searching questions. Owl understands they have not yet heard the result.

Owl fears time is running out.

Anita Merritt  www.devonlive.com 

New care homes are being sought for elderly people in Devon after a care provider has announced it is closing two homes.

Abbeyfield, a charity and registered housing association, has conducted a review of all of its 120 centrally managed nationwide and 22 were identified as requiring significant improvements and closure consultations were opened.

Of those, 19 homes have been confirmed for closure, including two in Devon – Abbeyfield House in Axminster and Abbeyfield Shandford in Budleigh Salterton.

In a last ditch attempt to save the latter from closure, a petition has been launched on In Your Area to try and stop 21 elderly residents, including some who are aged 100 or over, having to move.

Following a consultation last year, it was announced last month that long-established Shandford will close its doors on March 31.

Last October, Devon Live reported how devastated residents and families of those living at the feared its closure could result in the deaths of those who are very old and vulnerable.

Abbeyfield have said money from the potential sale of the site and legacy funds will be used ‘for the benefit of older people in Budleigh Salterton’.

It first revealed it was reviewing the service in January 2019, and then stated it would continue to be provided.

However, in September it began a consultation into the future of the home which employs 35 staff. It promoted a petition to be launched which was signed by hundreds of local residents.

Following the confirmation of its closure, another petition has been launched in the hope the decision can be reversed. It has been shared on In Your Area.

It has been instigated by Richard Gannon whose 100-year-old mother Jessie has lived at the home for nearly two years. She moved from sheltered housing in Axminster, which is also owned by Abbeyfield and has also been confirmed as closing.

Speaking last year he said: “It would her kill without a shadow of doubt and I’d expect several deaths quite quickly,” he said. “You simply can’t disrupt someone’s life at 100. It took her three months to acclimatise and she is now fine and happy.”

Explaining the reasons for the closure of Shandford, a spokesperson for Abbeyfield said:“The decision to close it was taken after an 18 month review into the viability of the home that was carried out by independent experts.

“This was followed by a lengthy consultation period which was extended to allow a local volunteer group to explore options for returning the home to trustee ownership. Unfortunately, they unanimously agreed that this was not a viable option.

“All decisions taken by The Abbeyfield Society are made with the best interests of residents at its heart. We firmly believe that the size and layout of the home is no longer suitable for the increasingly complex needs of current and future residents, and that it is impossible for us to complete necessary renovations to ensure the homer is fit for purpose in the future.

“The Abbeyfield Society will not make any financial gain from the sale of the property. All funds raised will be reinvested for the benefit of elderly people living in Budleigh Salterton and nearby communities, in line with the legal agreements made when Abbeyfield took ownership of the building.”

Abbeyfield have stated they only received one offer for the take-over of the home. 

A spokesperson said: “This was made by a group that wanted to turn the home into supported living, which would have been unsuitable as Shandford is a care home which requires different accreditation and very different regulatory standards.

“It would not have been suitable for the residents at the home who have specific care requirements.”

The care provider has also confirmed it is legally bound to find alternative accommodation for all residents and that they have been assessed by the local authority to determine their individual care needs and to secure a suitable alternative care home.

The spokesperson added: “The date we are aiming for is March 31, but we won’t be moving residents until Devon County Council can properly assess their needs and we find them a care placement can properly care for them. Their safety has to be the top priority so no sale would take place until we find them all suitable new homes.”

Abbeyfield has hired an additional manager to assist the current home manager to assist with additional duties and to support residents through the closure process.

The spokesperson continued: “The new manager is experienced and will help to ensure the safety and wellbeing of residents. Timescales for closure have been unaffected by his arrival and continue to be based on finding suitable alternative care placements for the residents.” 

Shandford had been run under trustee management until 2012 when the Abbeyfield Society took over. The former trustees of Shandford care home asked a volunteer group of local people to explore the viability of returning the home to trustee management as an alternative to the closure proposed by The Abbeyfield Society

The group included former professionals in areas including care home management, finance, medicine, property and law. 

A spokesperson for Shandford Volunteer Group said: “Abbeyfield delayed the closure to give the group time for their considerations and supplied confidential financial, property and other data so that due diligence could be undertaken.

“Sadly, we reached the conclusion after an exhaustive analysis that returning the home to trustee management was not viable, a decision which was taken with great reluctance but was, significantly, unanimous.

“Any proceeds from sale of the home and remaining legacy funds will revert to the original local charity and will be used for the benefit of elderly people of limited means in Budleigh Salterton and surrounding villages. The volunteer group is now focused on assessing the options for using these funds to best effect.”

“Abbeyfield and it’s member societies operate or support over 450 services nationally, with several Abbeyfield branded homes in Devon remaining open”.

The second Abbeyfield care home which is in the process of closing has eight residents who are being found new homes. The high cost of maintaining the historic building – built in 1797 – is one of the factors behind the proposal to shut it.

The main reason give by Abbeyfield is the building, partly because of its age and the small room sizes, requires significant renovations to bring it in line with best-practice standards.

A spokesperson said: “We do not see a viable way of completing these renovations while maintaining a sustainable service.”

The home has eight rooms and a bedroom flat. It’s supported housing allows elderly residents to live independently in their own space.

Abbeyfield and it’s member societies operate or support over 450 services nationally, with several Abbeyfield branded homes in Devon remaining open.

An example of disruptive thinking in Whitehall, and it doesn’t get more disruptive than this ! – Owl.

One of the Government’s most senior officials has made the incendiary suggestion that Britain does not need its own farming industry.

Glen Owen www.dailymail.co.uk 

One of the Government’s most senior officials has made the incendiary suggestion that Britain does not need its own farming industry.

In leaked emails obtained by The Mail on Sunday, powerful Treasury adviser Tim Leunig argues that the food sector is not ‘critically important’ to the economy – and that agriculture and fishery production ‘certainly isn’t’. 

In his astonishing remarks – which comes as the UK prepares to enter crunch post-Brexit trade talks with Donald Trump – Dr Leunig implies that the UK could follow the example of Singapore ‘which is rich without having its own agricultural sector’.

Dr Leunig is a long-standing colleague of Boris Johnson‘s No 10 enforcer Dominic Cummings, and his intervention exemplifies the radical thinking within Boris Johnson’s inner circle against bastions of the Establishment such as the Civil Service and the BBC.

A senior economic adviser to new Chancellor Rishi Sunak has argued that Britain could become ‘like Singapore’ and import all our food.

In his controversial comments, he also suggests farmers should not be given tax breaks denied to other industries.

Last night, a bullish Boris Johnson said: ‘We have the best negotiators in the business.’ And he vowed to ‘drive a hard bargain’ with President Donald Trump which would trade ‘Scottish smoked salmon for Stetson hats’.

Dr Leunig, an associate professor at the London School of Economics, who also holds advisory positions in the Education and Environment Departments, made his arguments in emails sent last week to the National Food Strategy, the Government’s wholesale review of the British food system.

He wrote: ‘Food sector isn’t critically important to the UK, and ag[riculture] and fish production certainly isn’t’. He pointed to figures suggesting that it adds just 0.5 per cent in extra value to the economy.

Dr Leunig then questioned the special tax breaks given to farmers, saying: ‘We know that supermarkets also make very little, and that lots of restaurants go bust.

When he was challenged by fellow members of the review’s advisory panel, he responded: ‘All I am saying is that, as a logical possibility, a nation (or region) can import stuff. We see that in many places for many goods and services. Singapore imports (almost) all its food, Germany all its oil, Japan all its planes and all its oil, Australia and New Zealand import all their cars, all their planes and all their oil, while Iceland imports oil, cars, planes and graduate-level education.’

Last night, a senior industry insider said: ‘The UK is a fantastic place to produce food and we have some of the highest standards in the world. In a trade deal with the US, we face the prospect of imports of food produced to standards that would be illegal for our own farmers to employ. Why would any adviser to Government seek to decimate our own farming sector?

‘Surely the first duties of any Government should be to defend and feed its people. It seems to me that a country that cannot feed itself is no country at all.’

But a Government spokesman said that Dr Leunig’s comments were ‘not Government policy’.

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss will tomorrow announce the UK’s negotiating objectives for a transatlantic trade deal, and is set to say it must ‘uphold our high standards on food safety and animal welfare’ as well as protect the NHS.

The National Farmers’ Union has been pressing the Government not to relax standards, saying it would be ‘morally bankrupt’ to allow chemically cleaned poultry, hormone-treated beef and genetically modified fruit and vegetables.

The union said it would be ‘insane’ to sign a trade deal on that basis.

Tim Leuing most controversial policy idea – until today – was to pull all Government support from ‘failed’ Northern cities and encourage the inhabitants to migrate South.

‘Barmy,’ said a furious David Cameron, who was Tory leader when Dr Leunig floated it in a think-tank report in 2008. ‘Rubbish from start to finish.’

Mr Cameron added: ‘I hear he is off to Australia. The sooner he gets on the ship, the better.’

But Dr Leunig was not planning to emigrate – and four years later he sailed into the heart of Mr Cameron’s Government as an adviser to Michael Gove.

He now holds an unusually powerful position in Whitehall, with footholds in the departments of Education, the Environment and the Treasury, where he became economic adviser to the Chancellor just weeks after Boris Johnson became Prime Minister last summer……….  

[Article continues in this vein – if you are at a loose end this weekend, read on – Owl]

More problems with Airbnb style letting in Big Towns and Cities as it distorts the rental market and homes are turned into hotels.

Councils have called for a national registration scheme for Airbnb-style holiday lets after it emerged that one in four short-term landlords in London is breaking the law.

Melissa York  www.thetimes.co.uk 

Homeowners in the capital are allowed to rent out their properties for short-term lets without planning permission for up to 90 nights a year, but the Greater London Authority (GLA) said that 23 per cent of those offering short-term lets ignored the cap.

Data from Camden council in north London suggested that 48 per cent of landlords are illegally letting their properties out as holiday homes. Councillors said that the problem was so pronounced that schools could not fill their classrooms and families were moving away from the area because of a lack of housing.

“Homes are being turned into hotels and it undermines our efforts to keep families in Camden,” Angela Mason, a council cabinet member for children and families, said.

The GLA report, which analysed data from the activism website Inside Airbnb, said the short-stay lettings site was responsible for 65 per cent of all such listings in the capital. The number of Airbnb listings has quadrupled in the last four years, from 18,400 to 80,800, according to the statistics.

The figures, presented to the all-party parliamentary group on short lets, also showed that landlords could make £109 a night by offering short-term lets, against an average market rent equating to £58 a night.

The GLA was joined by London Councils, which represents all 32 boroughs and the City of London, in calling for action at the national level to make it compulsory for all landlords to register on a single online database.

The Scottish parliament voted last month in favour of a new licensing scheme for short lets that will come into force in spring next year. All holiday homes will have to comply with safety standards and councils will have the power to require planning permission for listings that involve letting out entire properties.

Airbnb said the report showed that the majority of Londoners obeyed the law and that almost half of listings were shared for less than 30 nights.

Patrick Robinson, director of public policy at Airbnb, said: “We are now working with cities across the UK, including London, on proposals for a host registration system that we will put to the government later this year.”

Owl brings you latest: Honiton Town Clerk, Mark Tredwin, has penned an open letter pleading for changes in the way council staff are treated.

Hannah Corfield honiton.nub.news

Mr Tredwin is currently signed off sick amid claims of bullying.

The letter, which was sent to councillors today (February 28), highlights 18 examples of alleged bullying and calls for a change of culture at the council.

He begins by stating that it is ‘only proper’ to explain the full nature of his absence, which he announced at a council meeting on February 10, before walking out.

He wrote: “As a result of bullying, threats, intimidation and constant undermining of both my role and that of the staff by some members of this council, I am suffering from severe stress.

“The reasons have been the subject of much speculation and rumour on social media and the press and I would like to bring some clarity to the reasons for my being off.”

He stated that he had previously alerted council members that ‘behaviour aimed at himself and staff had not been acceptable’ and that the ‘demand to see appraisals accelerated his decline to the point where he had no choice but to visit a doctor’.

He made it clear that this was not ‘one isolated incident’ before outlining 18 examples of the type of behaviour he believes has led to him being signed off.

He then goes on to explain: “I have made repeated statements that this council should develop a corporate plan outlining its future plans.

“This has been rebuffed all along the way and members have allowed personal and dare I say it political agendas to get in the way of delivering positive outcomes to the community.

“Over the past two weeks I have read what has appeared in the press and online with great sadness and concern.

“This council is at great risk of further financial litigation and expenditure unless some form of radical change takes place.”

In conclusion, he said: “One thing I am certain of is that I want to come back and serve the community of Honiton as their town council clerk, once my doctor agrees that I am fit to do so.

“Can I actually do that, right now I do not know.”

We have approached the town’s mayor, John Zarczynski, for comment and are currently awaiting his response.

We will keep you updated.

Less than 3% of homes to be built on public land that has been sold to developers will end up being for genuinely affordable social rent, data published today reveals.

By Hamish Champ18 February 2020 www.housingtoday.co.uk

The left-leaning New Economics Foundation (NEF) think-tank said the release of figures published by the government last week was welcome, but the data revealed a poor outlook for those in need of affordable housing.

Its analysis showed that of plans for 131,000 homes on public land sold since 2011, just under 20,000 would be deemed affordable and 3,410 would be let for social rent.

The government was aiming to release enough land for 160,000 homes by this year as part of a five-year programme, but it confirmed last week that it had missed this target.

The NEF said that only 15% of homes built on public land under the scheme would be classified as “affordable housing”.

Hanna Wheatley, senior researcher at the NEF, said building social homes should be a priority for the government.

She added: “With public land, the government has a real opportunity to meet this need. But so far, they have made limited effort to influence what happens on public land, instead selling to private developers who build unaffordable homes.

“Public land should be used for public benefit and not sold to the highest bidder.”

Citing research by consumer group Which? the foundation said that in London, shared ownership – classified as a form of affordable housing – was still accessible to households that earned as much as £90,000 a year.

This seems to be the season of grand strategic reports. Here is the latest on regional inequalities, chaired by Lord Kerslake. These must have been started a couple of years ago and Owl wonders how the new disruptive regime of Boris and Dominic will react to them. 

Make No Little Plans: ACTING AT SCALE FOR A FAIRER AND STRONGER FUTURE

http://uk2070.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/UK2070-EXEC-SUMMARY-FINAL-REPORT.pdf

 UK 2070 Commission is an independent inquiry into the deep–rooted spatial inequalities within the United Kingdom. There is no longer any real debate about the scale of these inequalities. Whether in terms of health, housing or productivity, it is now accepted that the UK is one of the most regionally imbalanced economies in the industrialised world.

The Ten Point Programme of Action 

Action 1: A Spatially Just Transition to Zero-Carbon Ensuring there is an explicit spatial dimension in the UK’s plan to become zero carbon by 2050. 

Action 2: Delivering a Connectivity Revolution Creating a transformed public transport network between cities, within cities and beyond cities.

Action 3: Creating New Global Centres of Excellence Harnessing increased investment in research and development to create ‘hub and spoke’ networks of excellence across the country to complement London and the Wider South East.

Action 4: Strengthening the Foundations of Local Economies Empowering local leadership in towns and local communities to deliver increased local economic growth and wellbeing. 

Action 5: Rethinking the Housing Crisis Recognising housing as part of national infrastructure and ensuring that supply of new housing meets the needs of the economy.

Action 6: Harnessing Cultural and Environmental Assets Increasing the focus of policy and funding of assets outside of London.

Action 7: Implementing a Comprehensive Framework for Inclusive Devolution Allow different places to step up through different levels of devolution according to local ambition, need and capacity. 

Action 8: Future Skilling the United Kingdom Develop a national plan to raise attainment levels, especially in future skill needs for all areas to achieve the levels of the best performing places.

Action 9: Levelling-up the Playing Field: Fairer Access to Funds Triple the size of the Shared Prosperity Fund to £15bn per annum for 20 years with clear spatial priorities; and change the way major projects and local priorities are able to be funded and assessed. 

Action 10: Shaping the Future: A National Spatial Plan for England Task the National Infrastructure Commission to create a national spatial plan for England and linking to those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to guide investment and to support local and regional spatial plans.

A more interesting,  though highly individual, view can be found in this article by Simon Jenkins entitled: If the regions are to rise, London must take a hit. Note he doesn’t seem to mention the South West and Owl wonders how effective Great South West and Heart of the South West lobbying on our behalves has been.

Simon Jenkins  www.theguardian.com

[last two thirds of the article]

……Kerslake is aware of the need, but he does not address the issue obsessing my Mancunians. To them the issue was London, seen as exciting, creative, rich – an existential menace. Rulers since Elizabeth I have tried to reduce its appeal. She tried to send her courtiers back to their country estates, and failed. London has always been the goose that lays Britain’s golden eggs, and is still – now more than ever.

My economics tutor used to warn us that much of what he taught might one day be proved wrong, but he hoped at least to have showed us how to recognise nonsense. A case in point must be Kerslake’s solution to the north, which tallies with Boris Johnson’s old-Labour cliche of “levelling-up”. It lies in vast dollops of public investment in infrastructure, in interconnectivity, skills and “cross-governmental, ministerially led” coordination. This is the same language used by Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair – every prime minister– usually in the year after an election.

None of this addresses what Manchester understands, that you will not level up the north without levelling down London. The capital has to reduce its appeal to the north’s most precious resource, its creative talent and entrepreneurial zeal. This requires big regional cities to develop “creative critical mass”. They must treasure their heritage, their converted mills, their historic districts – anything to distract their young people from craving a move to London. This may involve sucking energy from their surrounding towns – as Leeds has from Bradford. Cities such as Frankfurt, Toulouse, Milan and Barcelona have established a cultural self-confidence that has succeeded in resisting the magnetism of their country’s capital. The only city outside London to come near such magnetism is semi-autonomous Edinburgh.

In the case of demagnetising London, the task is near insuperable, but it must be attempted. Revival will come from small steps, not giant infrastructures. These steps will never work if they depend on London, on its taxpayers, its civil servants, its government. Dependency economics has been the curse of Scotland and Wales. There is no such thing as public spending-led growth – as has conspicuously failed in eastern Germany. Growth comes from employers and investors being stimulated to exploit local skills and talents. They should pay local taxes and run local government. Northern cities will flourish only when London stops stealing their people, their ideas and their power.

If the regions are to rise, London must in some degree fall. It must stop gorging on infrastructure investment – as, mercifully, it may now do on Heathrow expansion. It should stop drawing ever more commuters into its centre, which is what Crossrail and HS2 (now running only to the Midlands) are about. It must stop cramming itself with students, the one truly energising factor in many northern city economies. London’s student fees should soar, and northern ones plummet. The capital should stop receiving the lion’s share of arts subsidy.

Kerslake rightly acknowledges that Britain must decentralise government power. But how many times must we hear this trotted out? Experience abroad advises accountable local mayors, delegated taxes, borrowing powers and no more reliance on begging from Whitehall.

I believe this will never happen until those with power are physically ejected from the capital. Civil servants and politicians (and journalists) must go north. The increasingly dysfunctional Houses of Parliament should abandon their billion-pound gilded temporary outposts in Westminster, and go north for five years. It would refresh them and it would certainly refresh the nation.

Demoting London to promote the regions would not necessarily mean a richer Britain, though the present imbalance must be damaging to national prosperity. Wealth is not the issue. Brexit has shown it is now subservient to populist slogans such as patriotism and group identity. One such “identity” is the north, and it has shown itself politically toxic. The north-south divide must be countered. This will happen only if the “levelling” is real. London should ready itself for a hit.