“About twice as many local areas are classed as “education deserts” in the South West (6.4 per cent of local areas) and Yorkshire and the Humber (5.7 per cent) as in London (2.9 per cent).”

Nicola Woolcock, Education Editor www.thetimes.co.uk

More than 200,000 children live in an area with no good or outstanding primary schools, a report will reveal tomorrow.

One in every 25 primary age children — equivalent to 218,000 — lives in a local area containing only underperforming primary schools, according to research from the think tank Onward and New Schools Network, which supports new free schools.

It shows 306 areas across England where the only primary schools available are rated either inadequate or requiring improvement by Ofsted. The authors say this means that parents in these areas have far less choice, which limits their children’s educational opportunities.

The report will call on the government to “level up” opportunity by turning around school quality in these “education deserts”. It says that many have been underperforming for decades.

Using the nine statistical regions of England, it says that about twice as many local areas are classed as “education deserts” in the South West (6.4 per cent of local areas) and Yorkshire and the Humber (5.7 per cent) as in London (2.9 per cent). Among local authorities, the council areas with most deserts include Wellingborough, Arun, Ipswich, Cambridge and Scarborough.

In London and the South East, 86 per cent and 77 per cent of local areas contain only good or outstanding schools. This compares with 59 per cent in the East Midlands and 61 per cent in Yorkshire and the Humber, showing that good school access depends much on where families live.

There is one local authority with only underperforming secondary schools: South Derbyshire.

Rated 40th in the country for the proportion of pupils achieving five or more A*-C grades including English and maths in 1998, it has dropped 74 places in the past two decades.

Among local authorities, only Dorset has seen a greater fall in attainment ratings over the same period.

In a foreword to the report, Jonathan Gullis, the Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent North and a member of the education select committee, said getting schools back to where they were before the pandemic would be “nowhere near enough” and that a long-term, radical plan for school reform was needed.

“Levelling up has come to mean a wealth of different things, but ultimately it comes down to improving opportunity,” he said. “We all have talent but tragically opportunity is not distributed evenly. There is no part of society where this is more true, and more important, than in education.

“Progress scores in my constituency in Stoke-on-Trent, for example, are the seventh lowest in the country. This tells us that compared to their peers around England, young people in Stoke-on-Trent are falling behind.

“This isn’t their fault: out of the 15 mainstream secondary schools, only one is rated outstanding and a third are requiring improvement. Nor can ambitious parents or talented kids easily travel to attend a better secondary school near by.”

The Times Education Commission is consulting experts about whether substantial change is needed in the education system after the pandemic. It will release its full findings next summer.

Access to good schools across England

• The desert analysis uses “middle layer super output areas”, which are small units of geography. There are 6,791 of these areas in England, each with an average population of about 8,000 people. They have a median size of 3.04 sq km.

• The report shows what proportion of these areas in each region contain only good and outstanding schools and what proportion contain only schools that are inadequate or require improvement (RI). It revealed wide variations across the country:

East Midlands Good or outstanding 59%, RI or inadequate 4.7%

London 86%, 2.9%

East of England 66%, 4.6%

North East 76%, 3.7%

North West 75%, 3.3%

South East 77%, 4.4%

South West 63%, 6.4%

West Midlands 67%, 4.4%

Yorkshire and the Humber 61%, 5.7%

DOC WON’T SEE YOU NOW

THE number of NHS doctors retiring early has more than trebled since 2008, figures show.

It has gone from 401 to 1,358 in 2020/21 — with many citing pressure due to Covid as the cause.

Nick McDermott www.thesun.co.uk

Average retirement age fell from 61 to 59 in the period — but the overall number of doctors employed by the NHS jumped 35,000 to 176,000.

Almost half NHS trusts have seen staff leave early, a separate poll by NHS Providers revealed.

Saffron Cordery, its deputy chief executive, said “burnout” and the impact of the pandemic were among the reasons.

She said NHS staff were “incredibly tired”.

Dr Vishal Sharma, of the British Medical Association, said more than half GPs plan to retire before age 60 due to a “punitive” pension taxation system — and Covid had “made things worse”.

NHS chief Simon Stevens squirms and refuses to answer if he thinks Matt Hancock is ‘hopeless’ after Cummings claimed the Health Secretary ‘tried to throw Stevens under the bus’

And this – Owl

Thousands of leaseholders will be refunded unfair ground rents and allowed to buy the freehold of their property at a discounted price after a crackdown on property developers by the competition watchdog.

Jillian Ambrose www.theguardian.com

Persimmon Homes and Aviva have agreed to offer the refunds after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) uncovered “troubling evidence” that leasehold homeowners and prospective buyers were overcharged and misled by the UK’s biggest housebuilders.

Campaigners described the new commitments as “life-changing” and a “massive milestone” in the battle to secure a fair deal for property buyers, and called for other developers and freeholders to follow suit.

Aviva, an insurance group that bought freeholds from developers, has agreed to remove ground rent terms that are considered unfair and repay homeowners whose rents doubled.

Persimmon has agreed to offer leasehold homeowners the opportunity to buy the freehold of their property at a discounted price, and will make repayments to some homeowners who have bought their freeholds.

Dean Finch, Persimmon’s chief executive, said the company would extend its right-to-buy scheme to cap the purchase price of a freehold at £2,000 for any house leases sold from 1 January 2000 until the end of 2026.

He added that buyers who had already acquired their freeholds from Persimmon under the existing scheme, and who still owned the freehold, could apply to be reimbursed for the difference between the price paid and £2,000.

The housebuilder has also agreed to extend the timeframe that prospective buyers are given to exchange contracts after reserving a property, owing to concerns that a short time limit could pressure buyers into making a purchase they would not have if given more time to consider.

Aviva said it would contact about 1,000 leaseholders to confirm the next steps.

The watchdog’s investigation into unfair leaseholds found in October that leasehold homeowners and prospective buyers were being “trapped” by developers that offered misleading terms and charged excessive fees.

The CMA identified a range of abuses including homeowners having to pay escalating ground rents, which in some cases were planned to double every 10 years, leaving people struggling to sell their homes. Some prospective leasehold homebuyers had been misleadingly told it would be cheap to convert a leasehold to freehold, only to find that the cost had increased by thousands of pounds, with little or no warning.

“Another massive milestone,” the National Leasehold Campaign said in a comment posted on Twitter. “Persimmon & Aviva have eventually done the right thing at last, now other developers and freeholders must follow.”

The inquiry has focused on the UK’s largest housebuilders, and investigations into Barratt, Taylor Wimpey and Countryside are ongoing. They could face legal action if they do not settle with the regulator.

Andrea Coscelli, the chief executive of the CMA, said the voluntary measures agreed by Persimmon and Aviva were “a real win for thousands of leaseholders”.

“For too long people have found themselves trapped in homes they can struggle to sell or been faced with unexpectedly high prices to buy their freehold. Now they can breathe a sigh of relief knowing things are set to change for the better,” he said.

“It is good that Aviva and Persimmon have responded positively to this investigation, enabling these issues to be fixed for leaseholders. But our work isn’t done. We now expect other housing developers and investors to follow the lead of Aviva and Persimmon. If not, they can expect to face legal action.”

Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, said the government had introduced new legislation “that will protect future homeowners by restricting ground rents in new leases to zero”. He said he would “strongly urge other developers to follow suit in amending their historic practices”.

Owl was expecting Dominic Cummings to launch another broadside just before yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions. If it did happen it was another “damp squib”.

Why did Boris Johnson give him so much power?

Felicity Lawrence www.theguardian.com 

Dominic Cummings demanded senior civil servants pay half a million pounds to an external data team, according to leaked emails that show the prime minister’s then chief adviser urging officials to bypass government procedures.

On 22 March 2020, the day before Boris Johnson ordered the UK into full lockdown, Cummings instructed civil servants at NHSX, the government unit responsible for digital transformation in health, to grant the money to Our World in Data, a research project run by a not-for-profit organisation with Oxford academics.

“Someone please ensure that they have the 530k within 24 hours from now and report back to me it’s been sent,” Cummings wrote to the chief executive of NHSX. “No procurement, no lawyers, no meetings, no delay please – just send immediately,” he continued.

The funding request had the backing of the health secretary, Matt Hancock, who was copied in on the email chain at this point.

The emails, obtained as part of a joint investigation by the Guardian, BBC’s File on 4 and SourceMaterial, suggest it was Hancock who passed details of the proposed project to Cummings and other senior officials. “This is an NHSX lead. I support,” Hancock wrote.

The instructions from Cummings and Hancock caused disquiet among the civil servants tasked with carrying them out. Senior officials nevertheless felt compelled to act because the instruction had come from Cummings and Hancock, the emails show.

“My team can do this via DHSC and have the money in place by tomorrow, but it will mean your team waiving the normal grant-giving process. I don’t want to do anything untoward,” the NHSX chief, Matthew Gould, wrote to the second permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care, David Williams, asking for help and a “green light” to justify acting on the irregular request.

Cummings did not respond to a request for comment. He told a government committee last month that the national emergency justified circumventing normal procurement rules, arguing that “the procurement system is completely unfit for its purposes in Whitehall”.

After a flurry of communication between top civil servants, money for Our World in Data was approved within days and put on NHSX’s budget, the Guardian understands.

However, the emails suggest the proposed grant was neither urgent nor immediately necessary to save lives. And despite absorbing the attention of senior mandarins, the grant was not even wanted by the not-for-profit in the form being offered.

Following Cummings’ email, one civil servant wrote to Gould: “They are not keen for us to give them money urgently and have made clear they want to understand the implications of taking government money and agree it with their board of trustees.”

Another wrote to Gould: “I need your help please to progress this to a point where there is enough air cover to justify a decision to proceed,” adding that further checks were necessary before disbursing the grant.

“Ordinarily this organisation would not meet due diligence as they do not have a full year’s audited accounts ,” the civil servant wrote. “I’m sorry I couldn’t just ‘make this happen’, but I share your concern about doing anything untoward.”

The grant proposal was brought to Hancock’s attention by William Warr, a special adviser in No 10 who was previously based at Oxford University.

Our World in Data’s director Max Roser said he was contacted by Warr after the adviser saw a tweet about lack of funding posted by Roser on the evening of 19 March. Warr contacted him that day and by 22 March the proposal for the government to award a £530,000 grant was being pushed through by Hancock and Cummings on to NHSX budget.

Roser said he had never heard of Warr before and neither he nor his fellow researchers at Our World in Data had any previous connection with him. The group chose to follow its own due process and later applied formally to DHSC and was awarded a grant.

Jolyon Maugham, whose Good Law Project has successfully sued the government for acting unlawfully with other contracts, accused Cummings of “regarding the public purse as his private piggy bank”. Peter Smith, a former senior civil servant who specialised in government procurement, said: “There are good reasons for having rules and processes, whether it’s procurement or grants.”

He criticised Hancock and Cummings for putting senior civil servants in a position where they were required to break the rules and their code of conduct. “What a waste of time when we were at that position in the pandemic. I think it was unethical, immoral, and an abuse of power,” he said.

DHSC said Our World in Data had helped inform 100 million visitors to its website about Covid-19, and that officials carried out due diligence and followed appropriate processes before the grant was awarded.

Owl is catching up.

This is the latest follow up to Simon Jupp’s “promise” in the run up to the 2019 general election: “Exmouth will receive new funding from the Government’s new Future High Streets Fund. The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government, Robert Jenrick, has confirmed that Exmouth will receive funding to help secure up to £20 million pounds from the Government’s new Future High Streets Fund“. See this post.

Remember that Exmouth was placed in the lowest tier for the last round of funding and the earlier bid for Axminster failed completely.

Owl understands that all bids have to be “shovel ready” and it looks like a desperate County Council is “spread betting” its support for bids across the County in order to get something – anything.

Tim Dixon www.exmouthjournal.co.uk 

Town centre improvements will go forward for funding bid

Plans for town centre improvements for Exmouth will feature in a package of countywide projects to be put forward in a bid to get nearly £100m of Government cash.

Devon County Council’s cabinet, when they met at County Hall in person on Wednesday morning, June 9, unanimously agreed with the recommendation to give approval for the council to work with the relevant district councils to submit bids to the Government’s Levelling Up Fund.

Announced at the 2020 Spending Review, the Fund aims to support communities in order to regenerate town centres, enable investment in cultural facilities or upgrade local transport infrastructure.

A programme of schemes in Devon have been identified which cover a range of transport modes and spread the bids over a wide geography, with each scheme demonstrating a net gain in biodiversity, a reduction in carbon and air quality improvements.

The five schemes identified are:

Exmouth – Completion of Dinan Way and town centre improvements

Teign Estuary Trail and associated cycle links

Lee Mill – Slip road and associated local improvements

Okehampton – new rail station & transport hub

Cullompton – Town Centre Relief Road

The schemes for Okehampton, Cullompton and Exmouth will be submitted in the first round of bids, with the Teign Estuary Trail and Lee Mill to follow in later rounds.

Dave Black, head of planning, transportation and environment, in his report to the cabinet, said: “All the schemes will have a valid permission which will demonstrate a net gain in biodiversity, a reduction in carbon and air quality improvements. There is a wide range of schemes including a rail station, two strategic multi-use trails and highway schemes aimed at reducing the impact of traffic on sensitive residential areas and town centres.”

Backing the plans, Cllr Andrea Davis, cabinet member for transport, said: “All the schemes have widespread support,” with her adding that the Dinan Way extension would now be a bid submitted by Devon County Council in order to free up capacity for East Devon District Council’s plan for Exmouth town centre.

She said that the new Okehampton stations would be known as the ‘West Devon Transport Hub’ and that while Torridge and North Devon are not mentioned in the report, it is because those councils will be submitting non-transport related schemes for improvements to Bideford and Ilfracombe respectively.

Cllr Rob Hannaford, leader of the Labour group, said: “These are very good solid bids and many of them long standing and historic and clearly they are much needed,” while Cllr Alan Connett, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrat group, added: “These are a wonderful set of proposals and many ready for submission and to go. Collectively they will have an enormous benefit for residents and visitors across Devon as we emerge from the pandemic.”

Cllr Stuart Hughes, cabinet member for cycling, added that the Teign Estuary Trail would be submitted in a later round for the fund in order for a stronger bid to be put forward if it has planning permission.

Devon County Council has been supported by Teignbridge District Council in preparing the proposals to develop a 5km section of multi-use trail between Passage House Inn in Newton Abbot and the A381 at La Roche Maurice Walk, east of Bishopsteignton.

The Trail will also include a shared-use path connecting from the A381 to the junction near Morrisons supermarket, at the western edge of Teignmouth. However further design work is being undertaken on this link which does not require planning permission.

A planning application has been submitted for the next phase of the Teign Estuary Trail, although it is yet to be validated on the relevant planning portal for public comment.

Cllr Hughes added: “This is another important step in the development of the Teign Estuary Trail, which will have a positive impact on the economy and environment of the local area as well as benefiting local people’s health and wellbeing. We’ve seen that the majority of the public who responded to last year’s consultation supported the route and we’re keen to progress this next 5km of the route.”

The total cost of the programme for the five schemes is approximately £92m, the report says, which would include £74.3m in capital grant from Government, £12m from other contributions and a contribution of £5.7m from Devon County Council.

EXMOUTH

A bid which includes the Dinan Way extension will be submitted by Devon County Council.

Dinan Way currently forms a partial ring road around Exmouth, but it lacks the final connection to the A376, and as a result, traffic from Dinan Way has to use unsuitable residential road, and furthermore, goods vehicles accessing the Liverton Business Park, surrounding employment & retail area and the road to Budleigh Salterton are signed to travel through residential areas and past the school on the periphery of the town centre.

The Dinan Way extension proposals, which secured planning permission in 2017, will provide an improved pedestrian/cycle connection to the Exe Estuary multi-use trail and has potential for better bus services to Exeter.

This will form part of a wider bid covering Exmouth, with East Devon District Council leading on other proposals focusing on the regeneration of the town centre, including interventions utilising district owned land to enhance the existing town centre assets which could include new mobility opportunities, better accessibility and wayfinding and leisure and cultural attractions.