Daily Archives: 8 Nov 2020

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Developers building new homes with same fire-safety defects as high-rise flats

At Greenacres in Exeter, Paul Frost, 56, a snagging inspector, found his family’s five-bedroom detached Persimmon house lacked fire barriers after a 2018 blaze at a terraced house on the estate quickly spread next door.

After he pushed Persimmon to investigate, the housebuilder found more than a third of homes at Greenacres had the same defect, and it wrote to more than 1,000 people in the southwest, saying their properties needed checking.

Martina Lees, Senior Property Writer www.thetimes.co.uk 

Houses are now being caught in the building safety crisis that has paralysed the market for modern flats in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Fire risks similar to those in flats have been discovered at thousands of recently built houses. In one case, a bank asked a house buyer for an “external wall system” (EWS1) form, requiring an invasive fire-safety survey designed for tall blocks of flats.

One of the first analyses of the crisis by economists warns it could leave the property market “significantly weaker” than their already grim forecasts due to coronavirus. Capital Economics said up to 900,000 flats — 4.5% of England’s private property market — faced mortgage problems because their blocks lacked EWS1 sign-off. Without this, banks will not lend and owners cannot sell, leaving millions trapped.

Industry figures say a review of the EWS1 form, which flat owners had hoped would unblock the mortgage logjam, is “not EWS2” and will have limited effect.

The scandal is hitting houses too. At the Hamptons, a 650-home Berkeley development in Worcester Park, southwest London, missing fire barriers in cavity walls allowed a block of flats to burn down in 11 minutes in September. Houses on the estate have the same defect.

In one £600,000 terrace, contractors will need a month to fix fire-safety defects, including missing fire barriers. “I feel really nervous living in my own house,” said the owner. St James, the Berkeley subsidiary that built it, said “work will be completed as quickly as possible and signed off by an independent fire engineer”.

At Greenacres in Exeter, Paul Frost, 56, a snagging inspector, found his family’s five-bedroom detached Persimmon house lacked fire barriers after a 2018 blaze at a terraced house on the estate quickly spread next door.

After he pushed Persimmon to investigate, the housebuilder found more than a third of homes at Greenacres had the same defect, and it wrote to more than 1,000 people in the southwest, saying their properties needed checking.

Last year an independent review found Persimmon had overseen a “systemic nationwide failure” to fit fire barriers in its timber-frame properties. The company’s annual profit has topped £1bn in the past two years and it paid its chief executive a £75m bonus in 2018. “For it not to install cavity barriers that cost a few pounds — there’s no excuse,” Frost said. Persimmon is inspecting 16,000 homes and promised to fix those affected.

In Wales, it told hundreds of homeowners in Bryn, Llanelli, and Sketty, Swansea, of the same defects only a week ago.

On a Devon estate by another housebuilder, a retired couple must move out of their new timber-framed terraced house to allow faults, including missing fire stops, to be fixed. “You expect it to be safe. You don’t expect the next-door neighbour’s cooker to kill you,” the wife said. They also own an unmortgageable London flat in a low-rise block with no EWS1 form. “When you’re living in two £0-rated properties, that’s not good,” she said.

A Sunday Times campaign to end the hidden housing scandal calls for a fairer, faster process to replace the EWS1 form. The campaign revealed that 9 in 10 buildings have failed the checks. Leaseholders must then pay to fix cladding, insulation, balconies and wall structures. It can cost £75,000 per flat and take 5-10 years.

Even new-build houses with no known fire risks can be affected. In Birmingham, the sale of a terraced house stalled for two months after the buyer’s lender, TSB, wanted an EWS1 form, said Tania Rawle, 49, the owner. TSB’s valuer asked whether two small panels of cladding on the house, built 10 years ago, were flammable. “I had never noticed them before,” she said.

Fewer than 300 fire engineers can perform EWS1 checks. Rawle said she struggled to find one. “It’s a lender being ridiculously overcautious and potentially harming the flow of properties. And it’s bloody annoying.”

TSB said later that the valuer had requested the EWS1 “in error” and waived the demand. It does not require EWS1 forms for houses “as there is no government requirement”.

The form was designed to reassure lenders on flats in blocks taller than 18 metres (59 ft, or six storeys) after the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people in 2017, exposed a nationwide failure of building regulations. Since January, when the government tightened safety advice for all flats, some banks have refused to lend even on three-storey brick blocks without EWS1 forms.

Capital Economics said the forms could be required for up to 900,000 private flats — the number in modern blocks over three storeys . The “downside risks are significant” for housing transactions in 2021.

It said: “Problems may become more important next year, as any cladding delays cool housing demand on top of any weakness arising from a fragile economy and the end of the stamp duty cut.”

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8 Nov 2020

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Planning applications validated by EDDC for week beginning 26 October

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What transport in Exeter could look like by 2030

“On yer bike” – No Sidmouth or Seaton on the transport network – Owl

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com

Park and ride sites on every corridor into Exeter, enhanced rail services, and a new single ticketing platform to boost the convenience of non-car travel into and around the city are all part of the long awaited Exeter Transport Strategy.

More than 14 months the plan was due to be adopted by Devon County Council, the Exeter Transport Strategy 2020-2030 is finally set to be agreed by the council’s cabinet when they meet on Wednesday.

The strategy set out ambitious aspirations to support healthy, active lifestyles, a growing economy and a positive response to reduce the carbon emissions from transport in Exeter and has been updated to give greater emphasis on reducing carbon throughout the strategy.

The strategy outlines that the balance of travel for Exeter residents has already shifted to a point where the majority of Exeter residents now travel to work by sustainable modes but that they still account for 35 per cent of car-based commute trips to a destination in the city

However travel behaviour differs significantly for commuters living outside the city, with 80 per cent of trips into the city being made by car and in rural areas, where there is limited alternative to car, the car dominance is even more prominent with over 90 per cent travelling to the city by car.

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It recognises the importance of supporting essential business travel and maintain efficient public transport corridors but that as the city is built upon a historic road network, is constrained by limited road crossings of the River Exe and has limited scope for additional widening and capacity improvements and building extra physical highway capacity is probably not possible within the city.

Central to the strategy is ensuring there is a comprehensive, accessible and coherent cycle and pedestrian network in Exeter that connects residential areas with schools, key economic hubs, public open space and transport interchanges so that 50 per cent of trips within the city are being made on foot or by bike.

The Consistent Standard of Sustainable Transport providing a Connected City Region across Exeter

The Consistent Standard of Sustainable Transport providing a Connected City Region across Exeter

When they meet on Wednesday, Devon County Council’s cabinet are asked to support the adoption of the Exeter Transport Strategy and that the contents in the strategy provide the basis for developing transport projects, and infrastructure in the Exeter and Greater Exeter area.

The plan includes:

  • The transport strategy will facilitate decarbonisation of transport in the Greater Exeter city region by providing a sustainable and reliable transport system, allowing people and goods to move around the network efficiently
  • Creating a comprehensive, accessible and coherent cycle and pedestrian network in Exeter that connects residential areas with schools, key economic hubs, public open space and transport interchanges so that 50 per cent of trips within the city are being made on foot or by bike
  • Progressing opportunities to remove or reduce traffic on some routes to create “green lanes” and support active travel access from villages on the edge of the city
  • A new, high-quality strategic cycle link creating a city region strategic leisure network to encourage short to medium distance trips from existing settlements into Exeter and the Exe Estuary Trail
  • Supporting enhanced bus frequency on key interurban routes, with an aim of achieving 15 minute bus frequency or better on key inter-urban routes into the city from Cranbrook, Crediton, Cullompton and Newton Abbot. This level of frequency provides a ‘turn-up-and-go’ service where users will no longer feel the need to consult a timetable.
  • Enhanced bus corridors and improvements at key junctions, with particular focus will be given to enhancing Heavitree Road to achieve more reliable journey times on a key, busy public transport route to growth in the East of Exeter and achieving an improved environment for residents, pedestrians and cyclists
  • Delivery of the cleanest bus fleet with onboard WiFi allowing more productive travel and reduced transport costs with a greater influence on the routes being run.
  • The continued improvement of ‘Devon Metro’ rail services improving the connectivity within the city region so that the towns of Cranbrook, Crediton, Dawlish, Dawlish Warren, Exmouth, Honiton, Newton Abbot and Teignmouth are served by at least half hourly rail frequency.
  • New rail connectivity to Mid Devon, with a station at Cullompton, will also be investigated.
  • In combination, the enhanced rail, bus and active travel links between key settlements and Exeter form the basis of a Connected City Region network
  • Park & Ride sites on all key corridors of Alphington Road, A377 to Crediton, B3181 to Broadclyst and A376/A3052 to provide a realistic sustainable travel option for those trips from rural areas into the city that can’t feasibly be served by traditional public transport services.
  • Potential of Park & Ride to also provide frequent cross city connections as well as from the city centre out to employment and amenities at Marsh Barton and Sowton / East of Exeter will also be promoted, and bus priority to increase attractiveness of new Park and Ride routes to the city
  • Refine and optimise bus routes with enhanced bus priority at major junctions of Exe Bridges, Clyst St Mary and Countess Wear and “Red Routes” on key corridors including Heavitree Road, Pinhoe Road and Cowick Street.
  • To protect and enhance strategic rail, road and air connectivity into the city and South West Peninsula so that it retains momentum and continues to offer an attractive place for sustainable growth.
  • To work with and support the private sector to develop innovative solutions in the city and in securing external funding for new initiatives and to share data with partners to improve collaboration and support innovation.
  • To facilitate an accelerated change in transport conditions in the city and to be more dynamic in testing and trialling of new measures and highway changes.
  • To look into innovative car parking strategies in the city centre, which encourages longer stays in the evening and off-peak, whilst discouraging car travel at peak times
  • To expand the electric bike hire to provide the largest on-street electric bike scheme in the UK and will continue to expand and electrify the already well utilised car club fleet
  • Exeter has an extensive bus network which together provide core elements to build upon to create a single ticketing platform that is right for the attributes of Exeter. The plan aims to introduce a new single ticketing platform and shared mobility to boost the convenience of non-car travel into and around the city
  • Improved IT systems to improve real time information, journey time reliability and payment methods.
  • The emergence of electric bus funding opportunities, along with electric car club vehicles and bike hire unlock the potential for the delivery of the UK’s first zero-emission transport subscription service.
  • Improved resilience, capacity and journey times on rail mainlines as well as ‘working office’ capabilities on new rolling stock, as well as enhanced resilience of M5 J29 – J31 / Splatford Split and to improve access to Exeter Airport by sustainable modes

Dave Black, head of transportation, planning and environment, in his report to the cabinet said: “The Exeter Transport Strategy focuses on improving travel choices, creating better places for people and taking advantage of technology opportunities to influence travel behaviour in a positive way.

“The focus is to address constraints on sustainable transport networks to provide the basis of a connected city region, deliver interventions that contribute to improved quality of life and to utilise technological advancements to integrate services and engage with people to influence how and when they travel.

“The proposals aim to provide an ambitious, but realistic, transport strategy that is embodied in the three key themes.

“Greater Connectivity, which this focuses on travel into the city from outside Exeter’s boundaries, by providing a consistent standard of frequency of both rail and interurban bus routes and delivering strategic cycle trails between key settlements.

“To capture those from the rural hinterland with limited sustainable travel choices, there will be a Park and Ride on all key corridors into the city.

“Greater Places for People, which relates to travel within the city, and focuses on increasing the number of trips made on foot or by bike and urban bus corridors. This will be done through enhancing pedestrian/cycling networks to connect residential areas and villages on the edge of the city to economic hubs, reallocating road space for walking and cycling, creating more attractive public spaces and working with operators to provide a reliable low carbon network of buses.

“Greater Innovation will see the Council looking to work with private sector partners to test and implement innovative technology solutions to make travel easier, encourage mode shift and help the city’s transport networks operate more flexibly and efficiently.

“The strategy has been well supported by the public and is aligned to current priorities in supporting a low carbon economy and healthy lifestyles. An updated Exeter Transport Strategy will ensure a transport strategy that is aligned with current local and government policies and enables the County to be opportunistic when funding becomes available.”

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The plan recognises that outside of Exeter, the towns of Newton Abbot, Tiverton, Cullompton and Honiton will experience significant growth and the new town of Cranbrook will grow to a size similar to Tiverton during the current Local Plan periods, and additional travel demand within these towns and towards Exeter will need to be accommodated sustainably.

But that although car ownership has been rising, car usage is falling, which provides a great opportunity to promote shared mobility, such as car clubs / bike hire and other non-car travel modes, as a lower carbon alternative to car ownership.

“Devon County Council has a strong track record of delivering transport infrastructure in Exeter,” the plan says. “Nevertheless, the transition to a carbon neutral transport system will require an accelerated change and a key challenge will be how best to embrace innovation and invention to support this transition and ensuring the safety of all users in a complex highway environment.”

It says that for the three key themes of Greater Connectivity, Greater Places for People and Greater Innovation, at least 70 per cent of respondents during the consultation phase expressing a level of support for each theme, that there was strong support for Park & Ride, active travel networks, and the rededication of highway space for pedestrians and cyclists in the city centre.

It adds: “Looking forward over the next 20-25 years, the numbers employed in Exeter are expected to increase by another 25-30 per cent. With existing transport networks already at capacity in peak periods and a need to ensure increased demand does not lead to increased carbon emissions, providing capacity for future growth will depend on effective sustainable alternative travel choices and more sophisticated management of existing transport corridors.

“Technology will unlock new ways to manage the network, such as real time wireless methods of corridor control, which could optimise the operation of the network, providing additional capacity and reliability on core highway routes. This could support reallocating road space for an improved walking and cycling environment on other routes.”

When the cabinet meet on Wednesday, they will be asked to give final approval of the Exeter Transport Strategy 2020- 2030.

Opportunities to align the delivery of the strategy with planned maintenance and/or renewals will also be identified, and the integration will ensure better value for money and reduce disruption for users of the transport network.

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Test and trace needs radical reform in England, health experts say

The government faces renewed calls for the central NHS test and trace system to be scrapped in favour of handing responsibility for contact tracing to local public health teams.

Mattha Busby www.theguardian.com 

Weekly test and trace figures for England show it reached just under 60% of close contacts of people testing positive, the lowest since the service began. It comes as the Office for National Statistics indicated the steep rise in new infections was levelling off in England and stabilising at about 50,000 a day.

Sir John Oldham, adjunct professor in global health innovation at Imperial College London and former leader of large-scale change at the Department of Health, said “lockdown will be a letdown” unless trust was increased through radical reform of test and trace.

“I think this probably includes increasing the number of small labs to decrease turnaround time and, crucially, the results to go to local directors of health and for them to have teams to undertake the contact tracing,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“I’d probably get the resources for that by scrapping the failing central call centres. I think the whole system should be under the purview of public health, which gets us as close to the effective system we had before 2012 NHS reforms. I think they have demonstrated that they have the capability and effectiveness – they are running at 95% contact tracing; the national call centre is at 60%.”

Oldham suggested lockdown could be futile unless there was an effective test and trace system – “such as in South Korea, New Zealand, and Germany” – to keep numbers down after restrictions were relaxed. “This we’ve been continually promised but there has been a failure to deliver,” he said.

He added that trust was paramount as he advocated the use of local contact tracers. “The pandemic is seen as a political campaign with huge promises and slogans. The virus does not tweet back or send out press releases. We just need some truthfulness, transparency about the data and the outcomes and decision making … Greater understanding gives greater trust and greater adherence for what we want people to do.”

Thousands of people were tested in Liverpool on the first day of the mass pilot scheme on Friday. The programme aims to test up to 50,000 people a day once fully operational, said Matt Ashton, the city’s director of public health.

He said: “We are still working on the numbers but we think [there were] about 1,500-2,000 people per testing centre, so really good numbers and really good interest, so it was very encouraging.”

The scheme has drawn criticism from health experts, however, who have described it as not fit for purpose. Allyson Pollock, professor of public health at Newcastle University, said plans to test asymptomatic people went against advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies to prioritise testing for those who were displaying symptoms.

Meanwhile, Chris Lovett, the deputy director of public health for the City of London and Hackney, said his team of six were being asked to reach people in their area whom NHS test and trace had not been able to contact. Of 700 cases transferred in the past six weeks, just under half were reached and brought into the scheme, he said.

“Right at the beginning of the pandemic, our local mayor and many others did ask for local systems to take control of test and trace,” he said.

“At this stage, its going to be very difficult for us to mobilise all the resources necessary to take on the full contact tracing, but certainly working in much closer partnership with local organisations, the councils, the NHS, so we can ensure this important control measure works is what we’re committed to do.

“Our local residents have often said how important it has been to have that local contact, local knowledge and knowledge of what works for our communities.”

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Mr President, I have a Mr Johnson on the line… will you accept the call?

Tommy Vietor, a former Obama press aide, responded to Johnson’s congratulatory tweet last night by calling him a “shapeshifting creep”, adding: “We will never forget your racist comments about Obama and slavish devotion to Trump.”

Tim Shipman, Political Editor www.thetimes.co.uk 

When Boris Johnson discussed the presidential election with aides on Friday, he was upbeat about developing a special relationship with the winner. “Joe Biden is one of the few world leaders I haven’t insulted,” he joked.

No 10 officials laughed, but this weekend they are engaged in a diplomatic dance following warnings from those close to the president-elect that Johnson’s past will make that difficult.

Downing Street is wargaming Johnson’s first phone call with Biden to help achieve the best personal and political connection.

It is understood the prime minister will ask Biden to join him in seeking a bold outcome to the UN climate summit the UK is hosting next year and to set up a “D10 coalition of democracies” at the G7 summit in June, which Johnson is to chair.

The PM will point out that both he and Biden have vowed to “build back better” after the Covid-19 crisis.

In a tweet last night Johnson congratulated Biden and his vice president-elect Kamala Harris for taking charge of “our most important ally” and called for them to work “closely together” on “climate change” as well as “trade and security”.

But this weekend, one of Biden’s campaign team accused Johnson of making “racist comments” in the past, compared Britain’s immigration policies to Trump’s and criticised British ministers’ stance towards Black Lives Matter.

“They do not think Boris Johnson is an ally,” the Democratic source said. “They think Britain is an ally. But there will be no special relationship with Boris Johnson.”

A senior US politician who is expected to take a job in the Biden administration recently told a British friend those views were shared by Harris. “If you think Joe hates him, you should hear Kamala,” the senior figure said.

Biden’s ire dates to comments Johnson made during the EU referendum, when he wrote that Obama’s decision to remove a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office was a “symbol of the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British empire”.

Tommy Vietor, a former Obama press aide, responded to Johnson’s congratulatory tweet last night by calling him a “shapeshifting creep”, adding: “We will never forget your racist comments about Obama and slavish devotion to Trump.”

The source said: “Biden’s got a long memory and Boris is not in his good books. Biden and Obama are like family. Many of the people around Biden have been talking about Boris Johnson. The Kenyan remark has never gone away. They see Boris and [Dominic] Cummings like Trump and Bannon.”

Johnson’s relationship with Trump, and his past association with the alt-right strategist Steve Bannon, also make him an object of suspicion to Biden and to the Obama-era advisers who will form the core of his White House team, the campaign source said.

In fact, Cummings, Johnson’s most senior aide, has been withering in private about the president, telling colleagues months ago: “Trump is toxic” and urging ministers to keep their distance from him.

Aides said the mood in No 10 last week was one of satisfaction with the election.

But people around Biden, including Ben Rhodes, an Obama adviser now expected to take a national security role, have argued for Johnson to receive the cold shoulder.

In a TV address on Friday, Biden stressed tackling “systematic racism” as a priority. “Leaders who are not seen as allies on race, there will be big problems for those leaders,” the campaign insider said.

“He doesn’t want to work with people who project those views,” the aide said, and he was “shocked at the dismissiveness of black rights” after Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, called Black Lives Matter protestors taking the knee, “a symbol of subjugation and subordination” and said that he would kneel only before the Queen or when proposing to his wife.

Britain’s hardline approach on immigration has also unnerved some of the team. “They see some of the policies that Priti Patel [the home secretary] is doing as similar to what Trump is doing on the border here,” the aide said.

The outspoken attack was not a sanctioned briefing against Johnson. But in laying bare the full extent of the Biden camp’s private views of the PM it reveals the mountain he has to climb to develop a close partnership with the new president.

Biden’s priorities on the world stage will be to reconnect with the EU and Nato and rejoin the Paris climate accord. That leaves little room for Britain’s hopes of securing a free trade deal.

There is hope in Downing Street that Biden, having failed to win a landslide and control the Senate, may need to be more conciliatory. “I do wonder if a not-so-strong result will make life easier,” said a cabinet source, who also conceded, however: “There’s a group of people in the Democratic camp who want a very public rejection of everything that Trump stood for. There is always the risk that that includes Boris.”

Johnson’s aides, aware of the tensions, stress common interests. One said: “The PM and Joe Biden share common ground and have a similar outlook on key issues like climate change and on our foreign policy priorities like strengthening Nato and our commitment to build back better from the pandemic.

“We are in the same place on Iran and Hong Kong. We have shared security goals in the Middle East and addressing the challenges posed by China. It is hard to think of any substantive differences.”

Knowing political relations could be strained, backroom staff, civil servants and military leaders are trying to cement relations with their opposite numbers in the US.

The key figure in No 10 is John Bew, Johnson’s foreign policy adviser, who spent time in Washington as Kissinger fellow at the Library of Congress.

“He’s part of the circle around Henry Kissinger, which includes Democrats and Republicans,” a colleague said. “He has close links to senior Democrats around Biden. He will be a pivotal figure. He’s just very well plugged in.”

Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, is also understood to be contacting Ron Klain, tipped to be chief of staff.

Intelligence chiefs will be urged to help persuade Biden that Britain is America’s key security ally. “Our best card is going to be security, defence and intelligence,” a diplomat said. “That’s the main thing we bring to the table.”

The British embassy in Washington, under ambassador Karen Pierce, has good relations with Tony Blinken, tipped as Biden’s secretary of state or national security adviser. They are also working on Larry Strickling, who is helping to develop Biden’s global policy.

Whitehall is also discussing plans to butter up Biden by offering him a state visit next year, tacked on to either the G7 or the climate summit. “There have been informal discussions,” a source said.

Tory circles are awash with speculation about who Biden will send as ambassador. One Conservative with a friend in Biden’s circles, claimed: “I have heard there is a possibility that Obama could be asked as a thank you.”The Biden source said they had not begun to think about that: “We are still working on the cabinet.”