Taking to the podium for his speech at the virtual Conservative Party conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed one of society’s burning issues: “We need to fix our broken housing market… We will help turn generation rent into generation buy.”

Ruby Lott-Lavigna www.vice.com 

This is not the first time in recent years that a Conservative Party leader has tried to get to grips with the housing crisis during a set-piece conference speech. As far back as 2007, then Tory Leader of the Opposition David Cameron painted a similar picture: “All of the Shadow Cabinet here, they can tell the same story of young people who come to our surgeries, they show you their salary, they talk about local house prices and they just say: ‘I don’t see how I can achieve that dream.’”

In government, the Conservatives have spent a decade striving to help us realise that aspiration, with progress supposedly always being made, but the dream remaining just out of reach – so much so that it has become something of a mainstay of conference speeches. Every passing year that the crisis remains unsolved provides a new opportunity for fresh promises to be made.

The Coalition government came to power in 2010 and enacted a stamp duty cut. The housing problem still remained, however, and in his 2011 conference speech Cameron pledged a “new Tory housing revolution”.

“Unless they get help from their parents, do you know the average age of a first-time buyer in our country today? Thirty-seven,” he said.

The following year, it was déjà vu all over again, with Cameron asking, “You know the average age that someone buys their first home today, without any help for their parents? Thirty-three years old.”

“There are young people who work hard year after year, but are still living at home. They sit in their childhood bedroom, looking out of the window, dreaming of a place of their own,” he said. “I want us to say to them: ‘You are our people, we are on your side, we will help you reach your dreams.’”

By 2013, the housing revolution was still a work in progress. Cameron said: “In a land of opportunity, more people must be able to own a home of their own. You know that old saying, ‘Your home is your castle’? Well, for most young people today, their home is their landlord’s. Generation Y is starting to become Generation Why Do We Bother?”

But he could at least paint a picture of a young couple who had been helped onto the housing ladder by his new Help to Buy policy.

The problem still hadn’t gone away, though, and in 2014 Cameron pledged, “For those wanting to buy a home, yes – we will help you get on that housing ladder… but only if we take on the vested interests, and build more homes – however hard that is.”

Building homes had become a key political issue by this point. In 2015, Cameron returned to the theme of people still living with their parents: “When a generation of hardworking men and women in their twenties and thirties are waking up each morning in their childhood bedrooms – that should be a wakeup call for us. We need a national crusade to get homes built.”

By 2016 it was Theresa May’s turn, and she admitted that while Help to Buy was “the right thing to do”, something wasn’t working. “We simply need to build more homes,” she said.

In her 2017 conference speech – the one marred by a husky voice and collapsing backdrop – May tried to make the housing crisis a career-defining issue: “I will dedicate my premiership to fixing this problem – to restoring hope. To renewing the British Dream for a new generation of people. And that means fixing our broken housing market. For 30 or 40 years, we simply haven’t built enough homes…”

Theresa May, 2018 conference speech: “We will help you get on the housing ladder. And we will build the homes this country needs.”

She went on to announce that the government will lift a cap on councils borrowing to build more houses, which was welcomed by the industry.

Boris Johnson’s first party conference as leader brought pledges to build more homes by turning neglected areas into viable places to live. “… If the streets are safe, and if the transport links are there, and if there are good broadband connections, you enable new housing to go ahead, on brownfield sites that were never considered viable before, we enable young people to get a foot on the housing ladder.”

That year, the National Audit Office found that most of the people who took advantage of Help to Buy would have been able to afford a home anyway, while the Public Accounts Committee reported that the scheme did not make housing more affordable or address the problems in the sector.

The pandemic has revealed a previously hidden social problem: apparently young people don’t live in very good housing. Johnson told the virtual party conference: “When COVID struck, there were millions of people, often young people, who found themselves locked down in rented accommodation, without private space, without a garden, forced to use ironing boards for desks and bedrooms for offices.”

Britain cannot return to the “old normal”, said Johnson. In addition to the recent stamp-duty cut, the government will turn generation rent into generation buy, he pledged, by offering “the chance to take out a long-term fixed rate mortgage of up to 95 percent of the value of the home, vastly reducing the size of the deposit, and giving the chance of home ownership – and all the joy and pride that goes with it – to millions that feel excluded”.

The problem is, the Local Government Association has found that proposed changes to planning regulations would drastically cut the number of affordable homes being built. And the housing gap – the difference between the housing stock and the amount needed for everyone to have a decent home – is already at one million.

James Forrester, managing director of estate agent Barrows & Forrester, told industry website Mortgage Strategy that the Tories’ new policy – which will fuel further demand, without providing any extra supply – is “not only laughable, but quite frankly an insult to those who find themselves priced out of homeownership”.

Progress has been made on a ten point green action plan to help tackle climate change in Devon, councillors have been told.

Daniel Clark – Local Democracy Reporter sidmouth.nub.news

Cllr Claire Wright

Last July, Devon County Council’s Environmental Performance Board were mandated to look into how the ten actions that were proposed by Cllr Claire Wright could be addressed.

Over a year on, Cllr Wright, at last Thursday’s full council meeting, asked for an update on the progress on the actions resulting from the plan.

Cllr Roger Croad, cabinet member for environmental services, said that while the huge demands of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic have, inevitably, affected the way the council has been able to take forward its planned action, more positively though it has been recognised that environmental objectives must underpin the plans for COVID recovery.

He said: “Given the huge imperative to support the Devon Climate Emergency, the Environmental Performance Board has deliberately prioritised effort to progress our DCC carbon reduction plan, as well as assisting in the development of the Devon Carbon Plan and Climate Impacts Plan.

“For this reason, formalising this broader approach to enhanced environmental action through a refreshed suite of action plans has not yet occurred, although opportunities for action are being pursued with vigour.”

Examples of recent progress that had been made, Cllr Croad said, included the recruitment to a new Ecologist position to help provide the required capacity to take forward actions from the DCC Pollinators Action Plan, and that Local Nature Partnership work on October Dark Skies Week will raise awareness of the impacts of lighting on insects and promote actions that people can take.

He added: “Work is progressing well, with significant input from the county council, on the Development Phase of ‘Saving Devon’s Treescapes’, with the first tree planting events starting in October.

“The council is working closely with other local authorities, the Woodland Trust, Local Nature Partnership and others to secure national funding to progress a ‘Trees for Devon’ initiative, which aims to increase tree cover in the county.

“The draft Action Plan to reduce the councils’s own water consumption has been taken forward through the cleaning-up of DCC account held with Pennon Group, analysis of data over a 3-year period, identification of the top 10 sites for water usage from size of building and the establishment of a Water Resources Management System to carry out surveys on those identified sites.

“The authority is also committed to refurbishing county farm dwellings to reflect the decent homes standard. Twenty refurbishments have been completed and a further six are in progress during 2020.”

A Devon NHS trust has stopped all non-urgent blood tests after supply chain problems at diagnostics firm Roche.

By Rachel Schraer Health reporter www.bbc.co.uk 

Doctors are being told to “think carefully” before ordering any tests for their patients, amid shortages caused by a supply chain failure at a major diagnostics company.

Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche said problems with a move to a new warehouse had led to a “very significant” drop in its processing capacity.

A spokesman said Covid-19 tests would be prioritised.

But the backlog could affect tests including for cancer and heart disease.

One NHS trust in the south west has already advised its GPs to stop all non-urgent blood tests.

A memo seen by the BBC, sent to clinicians within a large hospital trust in London, said leaders were “preparing for a sustained disruption”.

“We urgently need all clinical teams to only send tests that are absolutely essential for immediate patient care, delaying testing where possible,” it said.

Thyroid and cortisol tests were unavailable, while certain cholesterol, liver function and inflammation tests were “severely restricted”.

In a statement, Roche said: “We deeply regret that there has been a delay in the dispatch of some products.

“We are prioritising the dispatch of Covid-19 PCR [diagnostic] and antibody tests and doing everything we can to ensure there is no impact on the supply of these to the NHS.”

It did not comment on the impact on other specific tests including for kidney, liver and thyroid function, sepsis and infection.

Tests rationed

Dr Tom Lewis, lead clinician for pathology at North Devon District Hospital, said his hospital’s trust had sent out communications that all non-urgent blood tests in the community should be stopped.

Without rationing these non-urgent tests, he said, they would run out of swabs in “three to four days”.

Even with rationing, essential equipment could run short by next week, he said.

A scientist at a major London hospital’s lab said they had already stopped doing thyroid tests, and expected an important test of liver function, and another for inflammation, to run out within the day.

All of the London labs are supplied by Roche, he said, with reagents – substances used to analyse test results – proving a particular problem.

Allan Wilson, president of the Institute of Biomedical Science, said if the problem continued for days “it probably will have minimal impact, but if it’s weeks then yes it could have a considerable impact on our ability to deliver tests,” across a whole range of conditions in the UK.

Which tests are affected?

The main issue appears to be with the supply of reagents – used to detect the presence of a substance whether that’s pregnancy hormones, blood glucose or coronavirus.

Because these have such wide application, the number of different diagnostic tests that could be affected is vast.

If you go to your GP with a hormonal imbalance, chest infection or sexually-transmitted infection (STI), your test will end up being processed in the lab using these materials.

If you’re admitted to hospital, you will have your electrolytes tested again relying on the same kind of materials. And your organ function may also be monitored in the same way.

Kit supplied by Roche is crucial in testing the health of your liver, heart and kidneys.

They also supply antibodies which are used in cancer diagnosis.

For NHS trusts which use the company as their main supplier of these types of diagnostic equipment, the work of whole departments could be at risk.

Roche initially told trusts it could take more than a fortnight to resolve the problem.

But a spokesperson later said they were confident there would be “significant improvements by the weekend” and that they would be “well on the way to resolution by the end of next week”.

Logistical issue

The company is one of the main suppliers of diagnostic testing equipment and materials in the UK.

The affected warehouse in West Sussex is Roche’s only distribution centre in the UK and covers the whole country.

In September it moved from another warehouse in East Sussex as part of its Brexit preparations, the BBC understands.

It is “not a problem with the volume of product available” but a logistical issue affecting their ability to distribute it, a spokesperson said.

Dr Lewis said perhaps most concerning was the shortage of electrolyte tests supplied by Roche, since these were “the key test” for critically ill patients, as well as being extremely commonly used by GPs to check people’s medications were safe.

One virologist in the Midlands tweeted that her service had not received Hepatitis C testing kits, and was now running short.

Materials used in cancer diagnostics could also be affected.

‘Unforeseen issues’

In a letter sent to NHS trusts, seen by the BBC, Roche said: “In September we moved from our old warehouse to a new automated warehouse capable of much higher volumes.

“However, during the transition we encountered some unforeseen issues and a very significant drop in our processing capacity. Since then we have worked around the clock to prioritise and manage orders as well as increase this capacity”.

The letter went on to advise local NHS services to “activate [their] local contingency plans” and “look to prioritise essential services only”.

But one clinician pointed out that local contingency plans often involve sending tests to a nearby lab, which in this case might also be affected.

An NHS spokesperson said:”Roche has alerted hospitals to an issue with their supply chain, and they will be working urgently to resolve this issue.”

Honiton and District Chamber of Commerce and Industry have cut all ties with Honiton Town Council – cancelling their membership with immediate effect.

Hannah Corfield honiton.nub.new

The unusual move to disassociate themselves from the town council comes after a meeting held last Wednesday (30 Sept), where it was unanimously agreed that they were ‘unfit’ for membership.

In an explosive letter, Vice Chairman Joseph M Furneaux-Gotch stated: “At a recent meeting the current behaviour of Honiton Town Council was discussed at length; including the allegations and ongoing incidents of bullying in the workplace, poor treatment of staff leading to numerous resignations and litigations; continued unnecessary litigation undertaken by the council; together with the lack of support and service given to Honiton Town recently.

“This in no small way is as a result of money wasted on unnecessary legal fees which continue to this day.

“The shroud of secrecy purveyed by the council in continuing the outdated principle of Part ‘B’ meeting for anything other than discussions regarding commercial tendering left us in no doubt of the need for action.

“It was agreed unanimously that Honiton Town Council, not being a body fit for membership of the Chamber of Commerce, should be excluded from membership forthwith.

“We are saddened to find this very unusual step necessary, but feel strongly the need to disassociate the Chamber from all and every activity of the current Honiton Town Council.

“Therefore membership of Honiton and District Chamber of Commerce and Industry is cancelled with immediate effect.”

Honiton Nub News has contacted Mayor John Zarczynski for comment and is awaiting response.

Building of cheaper housing could be almost halved in some areas of England, analysis suggests.

Robert Booth www.theguardian.com 

Close to half of affordable homes in some of the most expensive areas of England will not be built if ministers proceed with changes to the planning system, analysis by councils suggests.

The government’s proposal to scrap the duty of developers to build affordable housing on sites for up to 40 or 50 homes, would have led to 30,000 of such homes going undelivered over the last five years, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).

Some areas likely to be most affected are the least affordable and under greatest housing pressure, the cross-party grouping said.

Elmbridge in Surrey, where the average house price is over £760,000, has 486 affordable homes either built, under construction or with planning permission over the past five years. This would be reduced to 271 if the proposed 40 or 50-unit threshold were introduced, the LGA said.

Lewes district council in East Sussex could lose up to 37% of its affordable homes, based on past trends. Council leaders in Cornwall have complained the change could result in 300 fewer affordable homes in the county every year.

The warning comes as several Conservative councils voice objections to the planning changes, which they also complain will limit local power over developments. Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, defended the plans in an interview with the Guardian, telling rebellious shire Tories their party had a “moral mission” to build more homes.

The government admits lifting the threshold at which affordable housing must be included from sites with more than 10 homes to those with over 40 or 50 could cut affordable housing delivery by between 7% and 20%.

But its consultation on changes to the planning system states: “We anticipate that raising the threshold would make more sites viable for [small and medium-sized] developers and would increase the pace of their delivery as the need for negotiation would be removed.”

The LGA’s housing spokesperson, David Renard, who is the Conservative leader of Swindon borough bouncil, said the proposals were “of huge concern”.

“We need to build homes that are affordable to local people and help to reduce homelessness, rather than contributing additional funds to developers’ and landowners’ profits,” he said. “These current proposals risk allowing developers to game the system by only putting forward schemes for fewer than 40 or 50 homes, and so avoid building any affordable homes at all.”

Karen Randolph, portfolio holder for planning at Elmbridge, said: “We are strongly opposed to this approach. There is a significant need for affordable housing in Elmbridge, which coupled with limited land supply and reliance on small sites, means that every opportunity must be taken to secure affordable housing.” She said the average size of the development site in the borough was 0.11 hectares – around a quarter of an acre.

 Why have house prices in England shot up since the 1990s? – video explainer

William Meyer, the Liberal Democrat cabinet member for housing at Lewes district council said: “We have massive land shortage in Lewes and if small sites are going to be excluded it will make a difficult situation worse.” Lewes town is in the South Downs national park, which has a rule that half of any developments of more than 10 homes must be affordable.

But the change would affect other settlements in the district outside the park boundary, including Seaford and Newhaven. Meyer said building council housing rather than relying on private developers was the answer and that a cut in March to the cost of central government loans for that purpose had helped.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the LGA was overstating the risk, because its proposal to lift the threshold for affordable housing contributions was planned to only be in place for 18 months.

They added: “Our proposals will bring in a new, simpler infrastructure levy to ensure developers pay their way and deliver at least as much, if not more, onsite affordable housing than today.”

“God loves a trier and so does the British public, but they may sicken of someone who tries their patience with sheer incompetence in handling this disease. What they got in this speech was not even jam tomorrow, but jam in a decade’s time. Many would rather just have a Covid test tomorrow, not in a decade’s time.”

 The Waugh Zone www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

“You have his words.” Normally, when a political spokesman utters this line in response to reporters’ questions, it’s because their boss has said something so controversial or sensitive that they know it’s more than their job’s worth to expand on it. Go out and just play a straight bat, don’t add anything further and just repeat what the boss has said. Defence is the best offence, etcetera.

Equally normally, after a prime minister’s party conference speech there will be a briefing in which one-sentence big picture promises are fleshed out with detail, detail that was excluded because it would interrupt the natural narrative flow. We are normally given meat on the bones, the fine brushwork to fill in the sketch, the footnotes to the argument.

But after Boris Johnson’s Big Speech, his first at a party conference since his 2019 election victory, his spokesperson answered almost every single question about policy with – you guessed it – “You have his words.” The briefing was one of the most painful, excruciatingly content-free I’ve ever had to endure in doing 23 years of these things.

Here’s a flavour. What did he mean when he hinted at a social insurance for care homes? “I’m afraid I don’t have much more on that..you’ve got the prime minister’s words”. Yes we have his words, and they told us bugger all beyond a vague citation of Winston Churchill’s “magic of averages” reference to pooling risk.

Can you tell us more about his idea of one-to-one tuition? “You’ve got his words…” Any more detail on his 95% mortgage deposit idea, how long terms would last for example? “You’ve got what he said..” My particular favourite was the answer to a question for more detail on what the PM meant by “digital ID”. “I think that’s a reference to biometric passports,” the spokesman told us. “The passport is obviously a form of digital identity document….” Riiiight, OK.

The helpless, hapless spokesperson was only his master’s voice, of course, so it was no surprise that he sounded so vacuous. It’s worth remembering too that at his first party conference as Tory leader last year Johnson had not a single new policy and his press team didn’t even bother to hold a briefing afterwards at all.

But the 2019 conference was a pre-election sloganfest, a campaign rally in all but name, not a serious update for the nation in a time of crisis as this year’s should have been. With his own competence on coronavirus the most live issue, it felt as though he wanted to reassure the public he was a big, bold deliverer of new ideas.

Yet promises and competence can only be measured if there’s some substance behind them, rather than quarter-baked items plucked out of the ideas fridge. The sheer lack of any detailed plans may prompt even those who give him the benefit of the doubt to think the Emperor really does have no clothes.

Of course, Johnson is a wordsmith and he can still deploy them to good effect. One of his best lines was how much we miss and rely on ”all the gossipy gregariousness and love of human contact that drives the creativity of our economy”. It would be a huge mistake too not to recognise the deep well of goodwill and sympathy that many of those who voted for him (particularly Labour Brexit voters) still retain.

The passage on his vision for 2030 had a certain upbeat futurism about it and no one should underestimate his skill at political amnesia, socially distancing himself from previous Tory leaders as if they were in a different party. Today, he effectively laid into Cameron and Osborne and May and Hammond on the economy as much as, citing “12 years of relative anaemia” on growth. Ditto his attack on previous governments’ ”failure to tackle the deficit in skills, inadequate transport infrastructure, not enough homes people could afford to buy”.

Yet just as a half-empty Commons chamber has brutally exposed his blustering rhetoric in the absence of a heaving mass of noisy backbenchers, so too the ethereally silent reception for his conference speech (delivered to a camera in a bare room in Canary Wharf) cruelly exposed the duff applause lines, grinding gear-changes and occasional incoherence of his words.

To take just one example, the PM said “we are working for the day when life will be back to normal”, then said seconds later told us the virus was a “catalyst for change” and “after all we have been through it isn’t enough just to go back to normal”. Just weeks ago he was saying people had to go back to the office to save city centres, now he says “instead of being dragged on big commutes to the city” he wants people to “start a business in their home town”. It’s a laudable sentiment but it jarred with his ‘Save Pret’ lecturing of last month.

Similarly, the PM said he will “ensure” that the next Tory conference would mean people meeting “cheek by jowl” again, which seemed both a hostage to fortune and a reminder to those in the events industry that their industry is currently being lowered into the grave with little state help to pay for the burial.

The irony is that if Johnson had at least tried to expand on his policy ideas, he may have won round even some sceptics. The Sutton Trust has long pushed the idea of one-to-one state tuition to give poorer children a level playing field with those who can afford private tutors. If Johnson had backed up his “we must care for the carers” with a new national carers living wage that could have proved he was serious. If he had set out funding for the billions, not a few hundred million, needed for green energy, he could have sounded credible.

By contrast, what we got was a reheat of his speech just before “unlockdown”, when he talked of coming out of an Alpine tunnel into the sunlit pasture. The problem is that we are now hurling into another tunnel and for jobs and hospitalisations (up sharply again today), the dark is all that lies ahead this winter. Covid and even Brexit were dismissed in a few paragraphs, almost as afterthoughts.

God loves a trier and so does the British public, but they may sicken of someone who tries their patience with sheer incompetence in handling this disease. What they got in this speech was not even jam tomorrow, but jam in a decade’s time. Many would rather just have a Covid test tomorrow, not in a decade’s time.

The best way to reassure people about our future plans is to deliver in the here and now. Imagine if he’d promised billions on a detailed plan to fix Test and Trace (or at least help fund small, localised labs), and on paying people a healthy sum to self-isolate. Instead, all we had – as his spokesman repeated ad nauseum – were “his words”. Right now, words are not enough.

The scale of the government’s reliance on management consultants has been laid bare as analysis shows that spending with eight top firms has risen by 45% to more than £450m in three years.

Rajeev Syal www.theguardian.com 

Deloitte, the professional services firm, was the biggest winner, earning fees of £147m from public funds in 2019-20, compared with £40m two years earlier, amid a bonanza related in large part to Brexit.

The Home Office had the biggest increase in consultancy spending over three years, jumping 788% to £57m as the department dealt with security, immigration and border preparations for leaving the EU.

The results of the analysis of more than 11,000 government invoices came on Tuesday as Boris Johnson promoted the private sector, saying “free enterprise” must lead the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

In his speech to Conservative party conference, the prime minister sounded a warning about the extent of state intervention on schemes such as furlough and said: “There comes a moment when the state must stand back and let the private sector get on with it. We must not draw the wrong economic conclusion from this crisis.”

However, last week the minister in charge of curbing Whitehall spending, Theodore Agnew, wrote a letter to senior civil servants saying the civil service had become “infantilised” by an “unacceptable” reliance on expensive management consultants.

While 1% of civil servants are paid more than £80,000 a year, day rates for management consultants working in the public sector range from about £1,000 for junior consultants to about £3,500 for partners.

Research carried out by the data provider Tussell has identified how much each of the government’s ministries has spent with eight consultancies between 2017-18 and 2019-20.

The highest-spending department on consultancies in the last financial year was the Department for Transport, which has paid out £88m, a three-year increase of 156%.

The Cabinet Office, the department from which Lord Agnew and his close political ally Michael Gove oversee civil service expenditure, has nearly trebled its spending on outside consultancies over three years to reach £37m, the analysis showed.

The Department for International Development spent £67m on management consultancies in 2019-20 while the Ministry of Defence, which has been criticised in the past for its reliance on contractors, cut expenditure on consultancies from £93m in 2017-18 to £58m this year.

Deloitte appears to be the preferred consultants for the Home Office, having received £73m out of £110m spent on external advisers since 2017-18. Although many of the Home Office contracts are related to Brexit, the biggest Deloitte contract with the department is £60m, spent on the Emergency Services Network.

PricewaterhouseCoopers was the second biggest-earning consultancy from the public purse last year, receiving £106m, according to the analysis. It has earned a total of £294m over three years. The data shows that PwC was paid £32m by the Cabinet Office over three years out of a total departmental spend on the eight consultancies of £121m.

Over that period, PwC has recruited key figures who know the Cabinet Office well, including Gavin Barwell, Theresa May’s former chief of staff, and Philip Rycroft, the former permanent secretary who held senior positions across Whitehall.

The Ministry of Defence appears to have a close relationship with KPMG, having paid the firm £76m out of a total consultancy spend of £203m between April 2017 and March 2020.

Several senior figures have left the MoD to become paid advisers to KPMG, including Air Marshal Sir Simon Bollom who left his job as chief of materiel (air) in defence equipment and support in 2016 and soon after advised the management consultancy on RAF Brize Norton. He has now returned to the MoD as the chief executive of defence equipment and support.

Over the last year, EY earned fees across Whitehall worth £75m, while KPMG was paid £57m from government departments, according to the analysis.

The other four major consultancies – PA Consulting, McKinsey, BCG and Bain & Co – signed deals worth a total of £76m last year, the analysis showed.

Management consultants are typically brought in where it is thought specialist advice or expertise is needed, but there have been longstanding concerns over the extent of their use in the public sector.

Many senior civil servants or ministers work for consultancy firms at some stage in their career, so there are often strong personal links or relationships between staff on both sides.

Cabinet Office data reported by the National Audit Office last year showed a significant drop in spending on consultants after the introduction of new controls in 2010, from almost £2bn in 2009-10 to £400m-£700m in each of the following six years.

A spokesperson for Deloitte said: “We are confident that our work adds significant value to the public sector organisations we work with.

“Deloitte works closely with the Home Office, its agencies and police forces, assisting on their largest and most complex programmes and building and delivering new technologies.”

A PwC spokesperson said the firm follows all relevant rules and regulations when employing former politicians and civil servants. “We are brought in to provide specialist skills at speed where the breadth and depth of our experience makes a positive difference. We work alongside public sector clients to help tackle complex problems and situations where our expertise is needed,” he said.

A government spokesperson said they did not recognise some of the figures in the analysis. “We continue to take considerable steps to reduce unnecessary spending and protect taxpayers’ money,” they said.

“Ministers are concerned that the government is too reliant on consultants and have written to departments to make clear that services should only be procured when external expertise is essential and represents value for money. Where possible, we want to harness the wide range of skills within the civil service.”

KPMG declined to comment. EY has been approached for comment.

The University area of Exeter has leapt into the top ten of areas in England with positive cases of Covid-19 with a rise from 127 to 223 cases in today’s updated figures showing the country’s largest coronavirus clusters.

Colleen Smith www.devonlive.com

The numbers show how many confirmed cases have been found in each MSOA (Middle Super Output Areas) between Monday September 28 and Friday October 2.

Within a matter of days the number of clusters (areas with more than three positive cases) has exploded across Devon.

There are now nine clusters in Exeter, eight in Plymouth, 10 in Torbay and six in Teignbridge – others are also in North Devon, West Devon and mid Devon.

Exeter’s university area is in the Top Ten worst affected in the country

Numbers have grown since schools and university pupils have returned to campus. MP Ben Bradshaw has accused the Government of ‘forcing’ the University of Exeter to abandon its own ‘excellent’ coronavirus testing system as numbers continue to skyrocket.

The university has been using a 24-hour ‘Rapid Response’ system in conjunction with a company named Halo, which pledged to give results within 24 hours of a test.

This table shows the areas in England with the highest number of new cases up to October 2. Like Exeter many are in areas with a university campus. There was anger when hundreds of students were filmed in Exeter ignoring Coronavirus social distancing laws during Freshers week.

Today the nursery at Exeter College has shut until October 19 following a confirmed coronavirus case at the nursery at the rear of Queen Street in the city centre.

In Torbay the first coronavirus-related death in four months has been recorded as infections rise, particularly among younger people.

Director of public health Caroline Dimond reported that the elderly woman died this week – after figures were released showing no deaths in Devon and Cornwall. Ms Dimond said half of the most recent 118 cases were young people in the 15 to 39 age group.

Devon now has 40 Coronavirus (COVID-19) positive cases by Middle Super Output Area (MSOA) – and one of the top ten worst in England

Exeter

Pennsylvania & University 223

Central Exeter 55

St James’s Park & Hoopern 30

Cranbrook, Broadclyst & Stoke Canon 6

St Thomas West 4

Heavitree West & Polsloe 6

Mincinglake & Beacon Heath 5

Pinhoe & Whipton North 4

Clyst, Exton & Lympstone 9

“……..a terrible, expensive, time-consuming way to impose house building and worst of all threatened the destruction of the green belt”.

Да, Борис!

On the eve of the parliamentary debate on planning reform and house building targets, Owl is indebted to the work and researches of EDDC planners. Their excellent brief to Councillors draws attention, amongst other things, to the contrast between Tory policy in 2010 and now.

Housing requirements

There is already a standard Government method in place for calculating housing requirements across planning authorities in England, though this does not generate a high enough level of house building to meet Government aspirations. The white paper now advises that there will be “A new nationally determined, binding housing requirement that local planning authorities would have to deliver through their Local Plans.” 

This is quite a contrast to the position of the Conservative/Liberal democrat coalition Government when in 2010 Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles stated: “Communities will no longer have to endure the previous government’s failed Soviet tractor style top-down planning targets – they were a terrible, expensive, time-consuming way to impose house building and worst of all threatened the destruction of the green belt” .

For those contemplating taking part in the White Paper “Planning for the Future” consultation, which closes on October 29, Owl recommends reading the EDDC brief, to the 16 September strategic Planning Committee, pages 36 to 73. This provides a clear explanation of what lies behind the 27 questions and ideas on how to answer them from an EDDC perspective.

Some questions are not addressed such as  Q1 What three words do you associate most with the planning system in England? – A question, that in Owl’s opinion, trivialises a serious subject.

Not all questions have to be answered.

covid.joinzoe.com

On September 24th the NHS COVID-19 app launched across the UK, as part of the NHS Test and Trace service and NHS Wales Test, Trace, Protect service.

Since then we’ve had a lot of users of our COVID Symptom Study app asking us whether they should carry on logging daily they also have the NHS COVID-19 app.

The answer is yes! We need as many people as possible to download and use the COVID Symptom Study app daily as we head into the winter. The COVID Symptom Study app is a global public science project supported by the UK government and crowd-funding, with more than 4.2 million participants providing vital health data to help researchers and the NHS understand and beat COVID-19.

The NHS COVID-19 app supports the government’s efforts to control the spread of the virus through testing and contact tracing.

COVID Symptom Study app and NHS COVID-19 app compared

COVID Symptom Study app

• Large-scale scientific project to understand and map COVID-19, providing estimated national and local COVID-19 cases based on algorithmic prediction

• Asks users to log daily health updates and records a wide range of symptoms
• Triggers an invitation to book a test if people report symptoms (including but not limited to the classic three) that might be caused by COVID-19

• Does not use your phone’s Bluetooth, GPS, location or contacts and does NOT track you as you move around
• Does not have QR code check-in
• Users can log on behalf of family and friends, including children and the elderly
• Supported by the UK government and delivered by ZOE, with research led by King’s College London

NHS COVID-19 app

• Part of the NHS Test and Trace service and NHS Wales Test, Trace, Protect service
• Basic symptom checker asking about key Coronavirus symptoms including; fever, cough and loss of smell/taste to determine if eligible for a test
• Allows eligible people (based on the three classic symptoms) to book a test through the NHS
• Uses Bluetooth to alert users who may have been in contact with another user who has tested positive
• Notifies users if they’ve been in ‘close contact’ with someone who then tests positive for coronavirus. The alert will not identify the individual in any way. A scientific calculation, using an “algorithm”, has been developed by scientists to work out which app users are ‘close contacts’.
• Allows users to check in to venues using a QR code
• Keeps track of users self-isolation countdown and gives access to relevant advice
• Users must be over 16 and cannot use the app on behalf of others\Supported by the UK government and delivered by the NHS

Let’s take a closer look.

About the COVID Symptom Study app

The COVID Symptom Study app is a large-scale scientific research project. More than 4 million users are using the app to regularly log their health and report any new symptoms, making it the largest public science project of its kind anywhere in the world.

Data from the COVID Symptom Study app is enabling researchers to monitor the spread of COVID-19 across the UK based on user postcodes, identifying hotspots sooner than any other method. It has also provided powerful insights into the disease and its symptoms, helping to identify who is most at risk.

The COVID Symptom Study is the largest data set in the world supporting scientific investigation of “long COVID”, and is supporting trials of vaccines and medicines for the disease. We are also using the app to investigate other scientific questions, such as the role of diet, vitamins and lifestyle in COVID-19.

The COVID Symptom Study app also provides daily updates on the estimated number of COVID-19 cases in the UK and your local area. These are calculated in two ways: firstly, the number and percentage of new positive swab tests – we now have results on over a million tests; and secondly by using our computer algorithm, which can predict whether someone is likely to have COVID-19 based on their symptoms.

In addition to the three ‘classic symptoms’, the COVID Symptom Study app monitors other potentially important signs of COVID-19. This includes headache, fatigue, gastrointestinal symptoms, confusion or skin rash, which may be especially relevant in the older population as well as children.

If people report any symptoms that might be COVID-19, the COVID Symptom Study app triggers an invitation to book a test for the virus. Although we do ask users to input the results of any COVID-19 tests they have had, which are then used to inform scientific research, the COVID Symptom Study app is not directly connected to the NHS Test and Trace service.

The COVID Symptom Study app does not have any contact tracing or QR check-in facilities. It cannot access your phone’s Bluetooth, GPS, location data or contacts, does not track you as you move around, and can’t tell if you have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus.

The COVID Symptom Study app is a self-contained symptom reporting app created by doctors and scientists working in partnership with health science company ZOE. You can read more about how your data will be used, your rights and the steps we take to ensure it is protected in our privacy policy.

‍About the NHS COVID-19 app

The NHS COVID-19 app contains several tools aimed at controlling the spread of the disease.

Firstly, the NHS COVID-19 app has a simple symptom checker, allowing users to report if they are experiencing any of the three ‘classic’ symptoms of COVID-19: fever, cough, and loss of smell or taste. Users reporting any of the three key symptoms are invited to book a coronavirus test through the NHS Test and Trace website. If they test positive, they will be given advice on next steps and guidance on self-isolation timelines.

The NHS COVID-19 app uses Apple/ Google API exposure notification system which allows an app to measure the distance and duration between two devices, alerting users if someone they have been in close contact with later tests positive for the virus using random unique IDs. If any of those users later test positive for coronavirus, other app users they may have been in contact with will then receive an anonymised exposure alert with advice on what to do next.

Users are also able to use the NHS COVID-19 app to check in to venues such as bars and restaurants using a QR code and can use this to keep a record of where they’ve been.

The NHS app is based on Apple & Google’s privacy-preserving technology, and any data shared within the app is held on the user’s phone. It cannot access your phone’s location data, GPS or contacts. You can read the NHS COVID-19 app privacy policy here.

Use both apps to help us all get through the pandemic

We need as many people as possible to keep using the COVID Symptom Study app to monitor their health on a daily basis and contribute to vital research into the pandemic. You can also log on behalf of family and friends who aren’t able to use the app, including children and the elderly.

We need everyone to play their part to help us all get through this. We urge you to download and use both apps to help us get through COVID-19 over the months ahead.

‍

From the Evening Standard Oct 6

MP Halfon blasts Swire over ‘Jewish lobby’ comments

A SENIOR Tory MP has hit out at Sasha Swire’s controversial political memoir due to its references to the “Jewish lobby” in politics.

Swire, who is married to former Tory minister Hugo, caused waves last month with her book Diary of an MP’s Wife, a behind-the-scenes record of David Cameron’s government.

“Diarists are now allowed to talk about the so-called `Jewish lobby’ in Parliament with impunity with the recent book that has just come out,” Robert Halfon told a Conservative Party Conference fringe event yesterday. He chose not to name the book for fear of giving it more “publicity”.

Speaking more generally, the former education minister told The Londoner this morning: “People seem to be able to write things about the `Jewish lobby’ in a way that they would not dare with other ethnic groups. Jews are regarded as game sport.”

Halfon, who is Jewish, was speaking at a Board of Deputies of British Jews event called How Should We Be Combating Hate Online?

Swire’s book includes a reference to an “investigation into the Jewish lobby infiltrating Parliament”, and another use of the phrase.

Swire’s publisher was contacted for comment.

Another “Omnishambles” – No end in sight, they just keep piling up! – Owl

Francis Elliott, Political Editor www.thetimes.co.uk 

Business leaders awaiting a virtual Q&A with the prime minister and the chancellor were left staring at a buffering screen for almost an hour as technical glitches dogged the Conservatives’ “virtual conference”.

Some of the UK’s most senior industry figures were among those expecting to take part in an exclusive online question-and-answer session yesterday morning with Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.

The session, available to those businesses who paid for accreditation to the online conference, was delayed by at least 50 minutes.

The fact that it coincided with the government’s embarrassment over the data mishap that has delayed the tracing of tens of thousands of people possibly infected with Covid-19 did not go unremarked.

“The system has crashed meaning that various fee-paying business leader guests have spent the last 50 minutes looking at a screen with the Conservative logo and an uploading circle,” complained one industry leader. “It’s not a great advert for a government battling off allegations of technical incompetence in other areas.”

When the session did start it was repeatedly interrupted because of a “dreadful feed”, a guest said. Ministers’ “break-out” sessions yesterday afternoon were similarly bedevilled by technical glitches. “It’s been a complete shambles to be honest,” one disgruntled figure said.

Complaints over accreditation failures that left many frozen out of the first day of the conference have fuelled discontent. Although some have applauded a brave attempt to replicate the annual gathering, others say it has made painfully obvious the vacuity of much of the content of a conference which has a main purpose of raising cash from paying attendees and sponsors.

Cabinet ministers privately admit that participation in the event has been an afterthought and that planning has not been as meticulous as in previous years. The level of media coverage has disappointed Conservative Campaign Headquarters.

Yesterday’s buffering screens followed a notorious Zoom call last month with the prime minister and Tory MPs. Thanks to a technical failure Mr Johnson dropped off the call as he was seeking to defend his decision to break international law to change the Brexit deal.

MPs were unmuted and Michael Fabricant started singing Rule, Britannia! to fill the time. Colleagues did not join in.

The arch-Brexiteer Steve Baker quipped to the group that he could take over the call and chair it, to which Theresa May joined in the joke and said “no”.

The failures will sting at CCHQ which prides itself in being better at digital campaigning than Labour and the other parties. It was an early pioneer of social media advertising and spent considerable sums during last December’s elections on its digital content. One of Mr Johnson’s doorstep offers was better internet connectivity.

Lockdown was eased on a timetable with London in mind, leaving the north of England struggling to get cases down, according to northern leaders.

Charlotte Wace, Northern Correspondent | Kat Lay, Health Correspondent www.thetimes.co.uk 

Industrial areas, where most people do not have the option to work from home, and pockets of deprivation in which residents cannot afford to self-isolate have also played a role, health experts said.

According to Public Health England figures published late last week, the five areas with more than 200 cases per 100,000 population were in the north, where Covid-19 rates have remained stubbornly high despite local lockdowns. Newcastle upon Tyne had a rate of 250.5 per 100,000, Knowsley 246.7, Liverpool 239.3, Manchester 200.3, and St Helens 200.

The bottom end of the list featured southern councils: the Isle of Wight had only 4.2 cases per 100,000, Suffolk 6.1 and Dorset 7.7.

Admissions to hospital and deaths in hospital in the North West are rising rapidly and the number of coronavirus patients in the North West is eight times higher than those in the South East. Of 219 deaths in English hospitals in the week ending September 28, most were in the North East and Yorkshire, the North West and the midlands. Only 48 came from London, the South East, South West and East of England.

All ten of Greater Manchester’s boroughs have infection rates that are higher than those of Leicester when it went into local lockdown, despite weeks of restrictions on household gatherings.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, pointed to a table comparing cases in Greater Manchester with those in London. It showed that as schools reopened in June Greater Manchester still had a rate of 28.9 cases per 100,000 population, against 4.6 in London. When pubs reopened in July the figures were 13.4 and 3.2.

In a tweet on Saturday Mr Burnham said: “The timing of the lifting of national lockdown was London-centric. Please remember this the next time you see politicians pointing fingers at our people.”

Restrictions have also been in place for weeks in Lancashire but some boroughs still have high case numbers.

Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, insisted that localised restrictions were working and that, if ignored, they would be replaced by a blanket national lockdown. “If you look at places like Leicester or Luton who have had these restrictions and had them lifted, that shows there can be light at the end of the tunnel,” he told BBC Breakfast.

Sakthi Karunanithi, director of public health for Lancashire county council, said: “Hindsight always helps. We should have waited for a sustainable reduction in cases before introducing the lifting measures and just thinking about this as a blanket, ‘whole country in the same situation’ — which has never been the case — that has played a part.”

He added that existing measures did not seem “precise enough to target the behaviours causing the transmission”.

A further “massive disadvantage” had also been difficulties with the test-and-trace system that failed to give local health teams the resources to “blitz” the community with tests and support. “The underpinning issue is resources,” he said. “That argument has been made so many times but it feels like it is falling on deaf ears. They need to resource our efforts at a local level, properly supporting local teams to work with the national teams.”

Manchester says that a lot of its high case numbers are in student halls of residence but other parts of the region point to different factors.

Sarah McNulty, director of public health for Knowsley, said: “We know that we are a very deprived borough and the evidence tells us that means people have less choices. For instance, they are more likely to have low-paid front-facing jobs, and we don’t know if there are issues of having to work.”

Officials are starting to see more cases in the over-65s category, “which is a concern”.

More deprived areas nationally have been harder hit by Covid-19. The Office for National Statistics said that in July there were 3.1 deaths per 100,000 people living in the most deprived areas, compared with 1.4 per 100,000 in the most affluent.

At Westminster and around the country Tories are increasingly disillusioned with their leader. As one senior backbencher who voted for Mr Johnson in last year’s leadership contest puts it: “I’m not the only one who has got a severe case of buyer’s remorse.”

Rachel Sylvester www.thetimes.co.uk 

Boris Johnson should be addressing the Conservative conference this week as his party’s conquering hero, basking in the glory of having won an 80-seat majority at the general election and then got Brexit done. In fact, the prime minister, traditional darling of the grassroots, is fortunate to be speaking on a video link rather than in person because he might have received a less rapturous reception than normal. At Westminster and around the country Tories are increasingly disillusioned with their leader. As one senior backbencher who voted for Mr Johnson in last year’s leadership contest puts it: “I’m not the only one who has got a severe case of buyer’s remorse.”

By imposing tough coronavirus restrictions and threatening to break international law the prime minister has managed to unite Covid libertarians and constitutional liberals in opposition to his plans. There is also a more profound explanation for Mr Johnson’s increasingly dysfunctional relationship with his party. The Conservative leader is heading a government that is deeply unconservative and so it is not surprising that Tories from both left and right feel uncomfortable with his approach.

Conservatives instinctively want to conserve — the clue’s in the name — but this is an administration of disrupters. Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s senior adviser, is not even a member of the Tory party and treats its elected representatives with contempt. Munira Mirza, Mr Johnson’s head of policy, used to write for Living Marxism, the in-house magazine of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, had a picture of Vladimir Lenin on his office wall and shares his analysis that “sometimes history needs a shove”.

The risk-takers and radicals around Mr Johnson have rejected the traditional Tory respect for continuity and compromise in favour of creative destruction. Downing Street wants to “whack” the BBC, bash the impartial civil service, biff the judiciary and wage a “war on woke”. The prime minister and his aides float hair-raising “blue skies” ideas for wave machines in the Channel and “Operation Moonshot” mass coronavirus testing schemes.

What infuriates senior Tories most is that the Conservative emphasis on managerial capability and economic credibility has also been thrown out of the window by No 10. The extraordinary failure to report — and then trace the contacts of — almost 16,000 Covid-19 cases is only the latest “glitch” from a government that seems increasingly shambolic.

One veteran former cabinet minister and Tory peer denounces the “feckless incompetence” of the prime minister and his top team. “I am a Conservative but we don’t have a Conservative government,” he told me. “Conservatives believe in parliament, they don’t try to bypass it, Conservatives believe in the rule of law, they don’t announce to the House of Commons and the world that they are going to break the law. Conservatives believe in the Union and in trying to hold on to the best aspects of diplomacy like the Good Friday agreement. This is a bad English nationalist government with no idea of where it’s going.”

It is a political tension that also runs through the ministerial ranks. Jesse Norman, the financial secretary to the Treasury and biographer of the Conservative philosopher Edmund Burke — who favoured evolution over revolution — told the Bright Blue think tank at the weekend that “radical change” was “profoundly foolish”.

“Conservatism means acknowledging that institutions are wiser than individuals,” he said. “You could look at many institutions and call them relics of a bygone era, or you could see them for what they are: the product of innumerable compromises that contain a great deal of knowledge and wisdom. That we may fail to understand this is often due to our own limited understanding.” Whether deliberate or not, it was a clear rebuff to the Cummings approach.

In her book Twilight of Democracy, Anne Applebaum writes that all over the world the new populist right “is more Bolshevik than Burkean: these are men and women who want to overthrow, bypass or undermine existing institutions, to destroy what exists”. Many of them were her friends — including Mr Johnson, who was in the Bullingdon Club at Oxford with her husband, Radek Sikorski, the former Polish foreign minister. She describes the “burning resentment” harboured by right-wing ideologues in Poland against the old Communist establishment. “If you are someone who believes that you deserve to rule, then your motivation to attack the elite, pack the courts and warp the press to achieve your ambitions is strong,” she explains.

There is a similar political dynamic at work in this country. Lord Frost, the Brexit negotiator, was recently described to me as an “outsider-insider”, who had worked at the Foreign Office but was willing to challenge its assumptions. “His attitude is: these people never valued me and now I’m back and screw you, I’m in charge,” says one Whitehall source.

You could say that this is a government of outsider-insiders who harbour a grudge against an establishment that they think never took them seriously enough. Mr Johnson was dismissed as a joker, then had the last laugh by getting to No 10. Suella Braverman, the attorney-general, casts herself as the victim of a liberal progressive legal elite when she started as a young barrister in London. She was, she said, “the shy Tory in my chambers of ‘right-on’ human rights lawyers” who overcame the “social stigma” to become a Conservative. Priti Patel, the home secretary, lashed out at “leftie lawyers” thwarting the government’s attempts to control the asylum system. Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, describes herself as a “freedom fighter” standing up to the health and environmental police.

This is the myth the Vote Leave crew have built around themselves: that they are the plucky Brexit-supporting Davids taking on the Remain Goliath. Many of them are, in fact, part of the elite they purport to despise. Mr Johnson was educated at Eton, Mr Cummings’s father-in-law owns a castle, Rishi Sunak went to Winchester College. More importantly they are now in power. The outsiders have become the insiders, populating the corridors of power with their friends and political allies just as their predecessors did — their very own Brexit “blob”.

The anti-establishment radicals are the establishment these days and it turns out that they’re not very good at it. Being responsible for running things is, they have discovered, a lot harder than railing against the status quo. “It’s all very well bashing and dismantling everything but you have got to know what you are putting in its place,” one senior Tory says. “What’s your vision for how it should work? It’s easy to say what’s wrong, it’s difficult to put it right. The lack of competence is what’s really bothering everyone and the problem is now they’re in charge they haven’t got anyone else to blame.”

“It was offshore wind that puffed the sails of Drake and Raleigh and Nelson, and propelled this country to commercial greatness.”

Boris Johnson expected to shoot the breeze in his conference speech today.

[There is also the small matter of the Sizewell “C” nuclear power plant to consider – Owl]

Fiona Harvey www.theguardian.com 

Boris Johnson will promise to power every home in the UK with offshore wind energy within a decade, pledging to make the coronavirus pandemic a catalyst for green growth.

In a speech to the virtual Conservative party conference on Tuesday [today], he will say that the government will invest in a clean energy future to create “hundreds of thousands, if not millions of jobs” in the next decade.

The prime minister said the UK would “become the world leader in low-cost clean power generation – cheaper than coal and gas”, comparing the UK’s resources in offshore wind to Saudi Arabia’s oil wealth.

“We believe that in 10 years’ time offshore wind will be powering every home in the country, with our target rising from 30 gigawatts to 40 gigawatts,” he will say. “Your kettle, your washing machine, your cooker, your heating, your plug-in electric vehicle – the whole lot of them will get their juice cleanly and without guilt from the breezes that blow around these islands.”

The government has come under fire in recent months for failing to set out plans for a green recovery that would put the UK on track to meet its goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Apart from £3bn for insulating homes, there were no green measures in the Covid-19 recovery plan.

No 10 said the pledge was the first step in a 10-point “Build Back Greener” plan, which the prime minister would set out later in the year and includes new targets and investment into industries, innovation and infrastructure.

The prime minister made no mention of onshore wind, which is the cheapest form of wind energy, but has been subject to stringent planning regulations brought in under David Cameron, which have meant few onshore turbines have been built in the UK in the last five years.

Johnson will say that the government will invest £160m in manufacturing the next generation of turbines, including floating windmills capable of delivering 1GW of energy by 2030, over 15 times the current floating offshore volumes worldwide.

Downing Street said the initial investment would rapidly create about 2,000 construction jobs and enable the sector to support up to 60,000 jobs directly and indirectly by 2030 in ports, factories and the supply chains.

“Far out in the deepest waters we will harvest the gusts, and by upgrading infrastructure in places like Teesside and Humber and Scotland and Wales we will increase an offshore wind capacity that is already the biggest in the world,” Johnson is expected to say.

“As Saudi Arabia is to oil, the UK is to wind – a place of almost limitless resource, but in the case of wind without the carbon emissions and without the damage to the environment.”

In a tacit acknowledgment of how wind power has been controversial among the Conservative grassroots, Johnson said it had been used throughout key moments of British history.

“I remember how some people used to sneer at wind power 20 years ago and say that it wouldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding,” he will say. “It was offshore wind that puffed the sails of Drake and Raleigh and Nelson, and propelled this country to commercial greatness.”

Johnson said the target would help the UK reach its target of net zero by 2050 – a target which has been criticised by campaigners as under-ambitious.

Downing Street said new floating offshore technology would allow windfarms to be built further out to sea in deeper waters, boosting capacity even further where winds are strongest and ensuring the UK remains at the forefront of the next generation of clean energy.

The boost for offshore wind was welcomed by green campaigners, who urged him to go further with his plans by providing incentives for electric vehicles and other low-carbon infrastructure.

Caterina Brandmayr, head of climate at the Green Alliance thinktank, said: “A green recovery is the best way to create jobs in every part of the UK, to lead the world in tackling climate change, and to protect our precious natural world. The race is now on for the government and British businesses to replicate the success story of offshore wind in electric vehicles, smart grid technology and future-proofed homes.”

John Sauven, executive director at Greenpeace UK, said: “If carried through, [the commitment] would help cement the UK’s global leadership in this key technology. But delivering 40 gigawatts of power on to the grid by 2030 requires action in this parliament. We now need to see the prime minister’s newly found enthusiasm is followed through by knocking down all the barriers that the offshore wind industry faces in delivering its ambition.”

The UK is set to chair the next round of UN climate talks, Cop26, which have been delayed from November to next year because of the pandemic.

Later this autumn, Johnson is expected to accelerate the shift to electric vehicles, another step in the planned green economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision to end the sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 would put the UK ahead of France, which has a 2040 ban in the pipeline, and in line with Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. Norway will bring in a ban in 2025.

The announcement of the Build Back Greener plan is tentatively scheduled for November and is expected to follow the advice set out by the Committee on Climate Change, including support for the UK’s nascent clean hydrogen industry to help cut carbon emissions from homes and heavy industry.

Campaigners have launched legal action against the government over its decision to award a contract to a lobbying and PR firm co-founded by an ally of Dominic Cummings without a competitive tender during the pandemic.

David Pegg www.theguardian.com 

A group of lawyers is challenging the Cabinet Office’s decision to give the contract to Hanbury Strategy, which was co-founded by Paul Stephenson, who worked alongside Cummings as the director of communications during the 2016 Vote Leave campaign.

In legal papers lodged in the high court, the Good Law Project accused the Cabinet Office, headed by Michael Gove, of apparent bias and favouritism in giving the £580,000 contract to Hanbury.

Hanbury was the fourth Tory-linked firm known to have been awarded work during the pandemic under emergency procedures that permit public bodies to give contracts to commercial firms without asking other firms to bid for the work.

News of the legal challenge has emerged as the Guardian can report that the Cabinet Office is refusing to disclose any documents under the Freedom of Information Act that would explain what was discussed at an official meeting between Gove and Hanbury on 6 February.

The Cabinet Office said disclosure of the documents “would weaken ministers’ ability to discuss controversial and sensitive topics free from premature public scrutiny”. The only information that has been made public by the Cabinet Office about the meeting is that it was about “the Union and devolution”.

Hanbury was set up in 2016 by Stephenson and Ameet Gill, David Cameron’s strategy director in Downing Street, and gives political and communications advice to firms. Stephenson was one of the first people to be recruited by Cummings to work on the 2016 Brexit campaign, according to one account.

The Cabinet Office hired Hanbury on 16 March, just before the lockdown, to carry out polling to gauge public opinion during the pandemic. The work ended in July.

The Good Law Project, a not-for-profit group that aims to use legal methods to expose wrongdoing, is seeking to have the decision to give the contract to Hanbury declared unlawful.

The Good Law Project alleged that the government had clearly broken its mandatory obligation to make public the contract within 30 days, as required under official guidelines. The contract only came to light last month through a freedom of information request by the Guardian.

Government lawyers are resisting the lawsuit, arguing that the group has no legal right to take legal action as it is not a rival company that has lost out on the opportunity to win the contract. “It is merely a campaigning group with no special interest in the communications sector,” they said.

They argued the Good Law Project has initiated six other lawsuits against the government over the awarding of contracts to commercial firms during the pandemic. They “strongly contested” the group’s right to take any of these lawsuits.

In another lawsuit, the group is alleging that the Cabinet Office was also biased when it gave a £840,000 contract to a company owned by two long-term associates of Gove and Cummings, without putting the work out for tender. The contract to research public opinion about government policies was given to Public First, a small policy and research company.

The Treasury also awarded a three-month £68,000 contract to Hanbury to carry out polling without a competitive tender.

A government spokesperson said official guidelines allowed it to award contracts to firms without a competitive tender during national emergencies. The research conducted by Hanbury had helped to make official messages more effective, it added.

Hanbury has said its team included some of the UK’s leading experts in polling and data strategy.

Covid.joinzoe.com October 1

According to the COVID Symptom Study (CSS) UK Infection Survey figures, there are currently, 19,777 daily new symptomatic cases of COVID in the UK on average over the two weeks up to 27 September (excluding care homes). This figure is based on the number of newly symptomatic app users per day, and the proportion of these who give positive swab tests. The latest figures were based on the data from 8,377 swab tests done between 13 September to 27 September.

This week’s data shows that the number of new cases of COVID-19 in the UK has flattened across the UK in the last four days, with the highest numbers still in the North of England suggesting that the situation is slowing down. The CSS Infection Survey found that almost twice as many people under 30 were reporting positive tests (0.49%) compared to the prevalence rate for people above or equal to 30 (0.26%). This higher level of cases in younger people could explain why there is currently less pressure on the NHS compared to the first wave.

The CSS UK Infection Survey R values for the UK are; England 1.2, Scotland 1.3 and Wales 1.4. These R values have fallen since last week which reflects the slowing down of new cases being observed.  

Although new cases may be not rising, we estimate that 230,966 people currently have symptomatic COVID in the UK (prevalent disease), This figure does not include long term COVID sufferers.

The CSS UK Infection Survey has been running since early May when the COVID Symptom Study commenced its daily swab testing programme provided by the Department of Health and Social Care and has so far recorded over a million swab results from app users. The CCS UK Infection Survey estimates the number of current COVID-19 positive cases in the community based on the information logged by users in the app and the results from the swab testing programme.

It identifies differences in numbers within the regions throughout the UK, and tracks the change in estimated cases over time. It is the largest survey of its kind in the UK, bigger than the ONS’s COVID-19 Infection Survey and the research conducted by Imperial College London.

The COVID Symptom Study app is a not-for-profit initiative that was launched at the end of March 2020 to support vital COVID-19 research. The app was launched by health science company ZOE with scientific analysis provided by King’s College London. With 4 million contributors globally, the Study is the world’s largest ongoing study of COVID-19.

Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London, comments:

“We are confident that this flattening in the data looks real and that this might be an early sign of infection rates slowing down. This may be due to a number of factors including social distancing and the “rule of six”, but we can’t discount the role of less susceptible people and prior immunity in those exposed and the natural cycle of the virus. We are seeing nearly 50% of our cases are coming from the under 30s, which is more than in the spring, which may explain why the pressures on the NHS are less. We still need to continue to work together to make sure this flattening off isn’t a small blip. As we head into winter we all need to be cautious and pay attention to the advice we are being given around local restrictions, social distancing and avoiding gathering in large groups. ”

Eighteen affordable homes will be built in a Pembrokeshire village thanks to a grant funded by council tax premiums on second homes.

www.bbc.co.uk

A community land trust in Solva will work with the county council and a housing association on the project.

Councillor Bob Kilmister, cabinet member for finance, said the land trust project was “ground breaking and the first of its type in Wales”.

A football field earmarked for the development will be replaced elsewhere.

The 18 homes will be designed and allocated to residents by housing association Ateb, in collaboration with the trust, with rural development organisation Planed also involved.

Council leaders heard that the development would “seek to ensure the scale and design of the housing is acceptable to the community”.

Mr Kilmister said that the community fully backed the plan for “much needed” affordable housing in the area and welcomed the innovative scheme.

“It’s slightly more complicated because there is no ‘road map’ [for such a project] available and we have had to create one,” he said.

The cabinet member for housing, councillor Michelle Bateman, said it was exactly the type of partnership the authority wanted to be involved in, saying it added “another arm” to housing provision.

Pembrokeshire’s cabinet also approved the long lease of land owned by the authority alongside the A487 at Bro Dawel for the development, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A council tax premium of 50% on second homes in Pembrokeshire was introduced during 2017-18 while a 25% premium on properties empty for three years or more followed in 2019-20.

Sarah Wollaston www.independent.co.uk 

The government website strikes a reassuring note: the NHS Test and Trace service ensures that anyone who develops symptoms of coronavirus can be tested quickly to find out if they have the virus, and help to trace close recent contacts of anyone who tests positive to notify them that they must self-isolate at home.  

This rhetoric is far removed from the reality. Even the name is wrong. It isn’t an “NHS” operation at all, but was farmed out to private interests with little or no experience, and with predictable consequences. Yet from the outset there were clear warnings not to bypass the expertise of local directors of public health.  

The government are running out of scapegoats for the latest incompetence as we discover that, far from infections levelling out, results were somehow being lost in space. Perhaps this is what the prime minister meant by a moonshot?  

Even employing Johnson’s other metaphor, closer to planet earth, how can you “whack a mole” if you don’t know where the moles are surfacing? We now know that 15,841 confirmed cases surfaced over the past week without being counted, let alone passed on to contact tracing. Of those, almost 12,000 missed the timeframe where contact tracing and isolation would have had the greatest potential for reducing the risk of further spread. That, after all, is the whole point of test and trace. It also matters when it comes to understanding where the infection is spreading and which groups are most affected in order to prioritise local measures.  

The problems do not only relate to the issue of reporting, but also, for too many people, to simply tracing a test in the first place. I know of people still being directed from Devon to South Wales for example, only to find on closer inspection of the website that the test centre is in an area of local lockdown and only open to local residents. Few will risk driving 200 miles each way to a test centre, especially if they are feeling unwell, if they fear they will be asked to turn around when they get there.  

The same concerns apply to those being asked to increase the viral load of their own exposure to infection whilst driving an infected individual too unwell to get there themselves. Many people are simply deciding to delay or, more worryingly still, not to take a test at all, with serious consequences for areas where the disease may be accelerating unnoticed.

Overpromising and underdelivering has long been the hallmark of the government’s handling of the pandemic, be that on the failure to protect nursing home residents and staff, our dismal record on excess deaths and even on the roll-out of the contact tracing app.  

The sad truth is that the only thing “world beating” about test and trace, as for so many other aspects of their response, has been the government’s incompetence, and failure of ministers to be held to account.

Sarah Wollaston is the former MP for Totnes and immediate past chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee

Littering is an issue for communities up and down the country.

By Tom Gibbon www.inyourarea.co.uk

InYourArea

We’re asking you to take part in our quick questionnaire

Littering is an issue for communities up and down the country.

It’s also something we at InYourArea want taken far more seriously and is why we’ve partnered with Clean Up Britain for the Don’t Trash Our Future campaign.

But while most of us attempt to make the best of the difficult times we all currently find ourselves in, it seems a careless minority still hold the belief that others should clear up after them.

We’re asking you to take part in our quick survey below – or here – to help us understand if littering has got worse during the pandemic, particularly with discarded facemasks becoming a more and more common sight.

You can also help by supporting Don’t Trash Our Future and signing our petition. We’re aiming for 100,000 signatures so we can lobby for changes we and Clean Up Britian believe will help tidy up our country.

The campaign has two main aims – to raise the maximum on-the-spot fine for littering to £1,000 and to make it compulsory that councils enforce the law on littering in their areas.

You can sign the petition here.