Is this Michael Gove’s idea of “levelling up” through devolution?  

“There are concerns over whether there are enough mechanisms to hold powerful local politicians to account day to day. In areas that are staunchly Labour or consistently Tory, would there be enough incentives for mayors or governors to deliver for their constituents, or will they just be able to cling on for term after term?”

American-style governors could level up England

Henry Zeffman www.thetimes.co.uk

Swathes of rural England could elect powerful American-style governors under Michael Gove’s plans to “level up” the country.

Devolution is at the heart of his attempts to flesh out Boris Johnson’s domestic slogan, with an ambition for every part of England to have a local leader with equivalent powers to London by the end of the decade.

Residents of some rural areas where the term mayor is deemed inappropriate could elect governors instead.

The proposal is contained in a draft of the levelling up white paper being written by Gove’s new Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Though Downing Street announced in May that the paper would be published by the end of this year, it has been delayed to early next year, The Times has learnt.

Government figures insist that the delay is simply a reflection of a busy few weeks of announcements before the Christmas break, though there have been tensions about how far-reaching the paper’s proposals should be.

One idea being considered by Gove but yet to receive the green light is a statutory levelling-up quango, which would monitor every aspect of government policy for its impact on regional inequalities.

Plans to “extend, deepen and simplify” devolution, though, are fundamental to Gove’s aims. He has identified an absence of local empowerment as a core reason for regional disparities: the UK is one of the most centralised major economies. Top-down government, Whitehall sources believe, has failed to utilise local knowledge and meant that policy can often benefit commuters or new arrivals in a local area rather than its long-standing residents.

London has had mayors since 2000 but a new generation of Conservative mayors, such as Ben Houchen in Tees Valley and Andy Street in the West Midlands, has helped some in government warm to extending devolution.

Gove wants the devolution deals to cover areas with a strong identity and community, which in practice means many will be county deals. Any area negotiating devolved powers will have to have a population of at least 500,000.

The devolution deals will see counties or other areas given more powers over policy areas such as transport, housing or health, and given money to deliver the services that would otherwise be run from Westminster.

Not every area will be forced to have a directly elected mayor, or governor, but those that agree to do so will be given the most powers.

A government source told The Times: “Levelling up is about empowering local leadership and allowing communities to take back control. The white paper will set out ambitious plans on devolution so we can see more Andy Streets and Ben Houchens delivering for communities across the country.” The plan for a new tier of local leaders is likely to meet resistance from councillors wedded to the existing system.

An idea being considered is to form a levelling-up quango that would monitor the progress of levelling up against a series of core missions, such as improving living standards and boosting local pride. The independent oversight body would take inspiration from the Office for Budget Responsibility, which provides independent analysis of public finances.

The body would also have an important role collating and publishing new data on regional disparities in the UK.

Michael Gove’s plans for the levelling up white paper make clear his belief that wider devolution will help him give meaning to Boris Johnson’s slogan (Henry Zeffman writes).

It is, in effect, a bet that expansion of elected mayors, and governors, will reduce regional inequalities and drive growth around the country. Whether the smattering of metro mayors supports that is arguable.

The idea is that devolving powers to locally-accountable leaders will improve local quality of life, as well as giving somebody with a high profile the ability to promote an area in Westminster.

If the eventual model for the whole country is London, then the government can point to the London Plan, which under three mayors of two parties has given coherence to the revitalisation and regeneration of large parts of the capital. The most prominent mayors have brought a new kind of civic leadership too: be that Andy Burnham in Manchester rebuking the government for its regional tiers system or Johnson throwing himself into the hosting of the 2012 Olympics.

Ben Houchen, the Tory Tees Valley mayor is praised by party colleagues in Westminster for turning a traditional Labour area deep blue. He has brought his local airport back into public ownership.

But there are questions about local enthusiasm. Turnout in the last London election was 42 per cent; in Manchester 35 per cent; in the West Midlands 31 per cent.

There are concerns over whether there are enough mechanisms to hold powerful local politicians to account day to day. In areas that are staunchly Labour or consistently Tory, would there be enough incentives for mayors or governors to deliver for their constituents, or will they just be able to cling on for term after term?

The Grim Reaper knocks on No 10.

The emergence of the Omicron variant shows that the world is “closer to the start of the pandemic than the end”, one of Britain’s most senior scientific figures has warned, as he lamented a lack of political leadership over Covid.

Michael Savage www.theguardian.com

Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust who stepped down as a government scientific adviser last month, said the progress in combatting Covid-19 since its emergence was “being squandered”.

Writing in the Observer, he said rich countries had been taking “a very blinkered domestic focus, lulled into thinking that the worst of the pandemic was behind us”. He said while he was cautiously hopeful that current vaccines would protect against severe illness from Omicron, that may not be true for future variants.

“The longer this virus continues to spread in largely unvaccinated populations globally, the more likely it is that a variant that can overcome our vaccines and treatments will emerge,” he writes. “If that happens, we could be close to square one.

“This political drift and lack of leadership is prolonging the pandemic for everyone, with governments unwilling to really address inequitable access to the vaccines, tests and treatment. There have been wonderful speeches, warm words, but not the actions needed to ensure fair access to what we know works and would bring the pandemic to a close.”

He said that the urgent action needed had not changed – “wearing masks indoors, increasing testing, social distancing, isolating if positive (with support to do so) and vaccination will all help to drive down transmission and protect against illness.”

Farrar’s intervention came as a major charity raised concerns about the government’s booster jab campaign, which it sees as the best current method of combating the virus. Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said the programme was “frankly in a mess”. She said: “It’s way behind where it should be, and to hear this week that as many as one in five care home residents have not yet had their boosters was nothing short of alarming.”

She spoke out after some targets for GPs were suspended to allow them to concentrate on administering jabs. Routine health checks for the over-75s and for new patients may be deferred under the new guidance.

“Against this context we agree that the top priority now is to turbo-charge the booster programme, to ensure as many older and vulnerable people as possible get their jabs, and fast,” said Abrahams. “In the end this situation is another demonstration of how underpowered our GP system has become. Unless and until we invest more heavily in it we will continue to see these hard choices arising whenever a crisis comes along, and that’s certainly not in any one’s interests, least of all older people’s.”

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, called on all eligible people to have a booster before spending time with family this Christmas. “It’s absolutely crucial that everybody who is eligible gets their booster jab to top up their immunity before spending time with loved ones,” he said. “While our brilliant scientists learn more about the new Omicron variant, we need to do everything we can to strengthen our defences, and vaccines are the best way to do that.”

On Saturday Downing Street announced that it was introducing pre-departure tests for people travelling to the UK. From 4am on Tuesday, travellers will have to complete a lateral flow or PCR test 48 hours before entering the country. Nigeria has been added to the red list, and from 4am on Monday arrivals will have to quarantine in hotels. Officials said the moves came as evidence emerged that the Omicron strain had been reported in more than 40 countries, with apparent community transmission in places such as Norway. They also said there was evidence that the incubation period was shorter than for other variants.

Labour had been pushing for the introduction of the tests. A Downing Street source said that new evidence about the spread of the variant and its characteristics had driven the decision. It will cause further frustration for the travel industry, which has been heavily affected by Covid restrictions.

The sudden spread of Omicron has dismayed many scientists. “What has really surprised me has been the rapidity of the increase in numbers of cases being reported from South Africa,” said Prof François Balloux of University College London. “Cases are doubling at a rate I have never seen before. It is very worrying.”

Early estimates have suggested this rise is being driven by the fact that the Omicron variant can infect between three and six times as many people as Delta, over the same time period. It is an alarming figure that has been balanced by early reports which have suggested the variant is, at present, less likely to lead to hospitalisation.

However, scientists last week warned caution should be taken with such data. “It is already a tight situation. Even if Omicron is less likely to cause severe illness, it may still cause more hospitalisations and put further strain on the health service, because so many more people will become infected,” said Prof Rowland Kao, of Edinburgh University.

There is also evidence that more than one in four (27%) British workers would turn up for work with symptoms of the Omicron variant because they needed the money, including 23% of those whose job puts them at increased risk of infection. Also, 16% of workers say they would be able to work from home, but are not allowed to by their employer, according to polling for the Royal Society for Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA). Just 31% say they would get support from their employer beyond statutory sick pay.

“To secure the economic recovery, workers must be economically secure,” said Anthony Painter, RSA’s chief research officer. “In the short term, we need to see an ‘auto-furlough’ system and more generous sick pay, but long term, both the Conservatives and Labour must spell out how they will address the deep economic insecurity Covid has only exposed.”

Saturday saw further demonstrations in Europe against various governments’ coronavirus measures. In Austria, the first country in the EU to announce that it is to make vaccination against Covid mandatory, more than 40,000 joined a protest in Vienna.

The Dutch city of Utrecht saw several thousand demonstrate against restrictions that were introduced last weekend. Protesters carried banners reading “Medical Freedom Now!”. Many protesters denounced what they see as increasing pressure from the Dutch government to get vaccinated if they want to participate in regular society.

In Frankfurt, Germany, police broke up a demonstration of several hundred people for failing to wear masks or maintain social distancing, using batons and pepper spray after they were attacked by a group of protesters. In Berlin, small groups gathered to protest after a large demonstration was banned.

Former health minister Stephen Brine claimed to have consulted Parliament’s revolving door watchdog before taking a £200 an hour job with a drug company. In fact, ACOBA refused to discuss the job with him because he’d already started it. Read the story here.

A few weeks ago Owl posted: water profits surge as leaks wash away public trust. Since then, the Pennon Group (owner of South West Water) has published its latest half-year results showing profits are up, as was expected.

On “Improving river and coastal water quality” the bullish Pennon half-year report claims “our best ever performance” on bathing water (“100% water quality standards achieved at our bathing beaches”); and that they are “focused on reducing our impact on river quality by one third by 2025”.

Owl reads all this with “interest” considering Owl recently reported, according to the 2021 Water Quality report by Surfers Against Sewage, that: South West Water also produced a “notably poor performance for the third consecutive year”, with 406 discharges in the bathing water season on to popular beaches. Owl also reported a correspondent quoting Luke Pollard MP, shadow environment secretary, saying in October “Not one English river is in a healthy condition and there has been zero improvement since 2016.” 

Owl has also previously drawn attention to the fact that, though South West Water may not have found the resources to make any headway in reducing sewage pollution, it has found the time and effort to write a “green jobs” report on behalf of the Great South West.

The report, Levelling Up the Great South West: A G7 Legacy, analyses every parliamentary constituency in Devon and Cornwall and says that they deserve as much political attention as those in the electoral battleground of the so-called “Red Wall” in the North of England and Midlands. 

Owl has also questioned whether South West Water can be considered to have any authority or credibility to take the lead on “green” issues. Owl wonders who commissioned such a study?

Is South West Water emulating Sir Geoffrey Cox MP in the priorities devoted to “second Jobs” compared to the day job? In the case of  South West Water surely sorting out Clyst St Mary’s “turds in streets” has priority?

Owl wants everyone to remember, as well, the beavers who have to swim around in all this.

This special scrutiny meeting should be worth looking out for!

Too many sewage incidents in East Devon

Joe Ives, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

“Turds in the street” should be a thing of the past in East Devon – or at least that’s the hope for 2022.

East Devon councillors say they’ve had enough of surplus sewage spewing into road, so they’ve summonsed South West Water to explain what’s going wrong at a special meeting of the council’s scrutiny committee.

The water company has been under the spotlight after it was revealed that the company made 42,000 raw sewage discharges into Devon’s rivers and coastal areas last year.

It has been particularly bad for residents of Clyst St Mary. The village has flooded with sewage at least 11 times this year, with South West Water offering portable loos to the worst affected households, some of which were left without working toilets for up to 60 hours at a time.

The situation attracted criticism from local councillors and East Devon’s Conservative MP Simon Jupp.

Addressing the scrutiny committee, Councillor Eleanor Rylance (Lib Dems, Democratic Alliance Group, Broadclyst) said: “We actually have turds in the streets in some places when it rains, and that’s really not on. 

“This is 2021 we cannot be running a local area that has this sort of thing happening. We can’t have poo in the streets, we can’t have poo in the rivers and we can’t have poo in the sea. We need to find out why it’s happening and get it sorted out.”

Councillor Jess Bailey (Independent, West Hill and Aylesbeare), who suggested the meeting with South West Water and got unanimous agreement from committee members, said the issue was a “matter of massive public concern.”

“Having clean water in our rivers and on our coast is absolutely fundamental to East Devon, both for wildlife and tourism.”

Speaking recently about concerns over flooding in East Devon, South West Water’s engineering director Matt Crabtree said: “We are committed to delivering a permanent solution which will involve detailed works and upgrades to our network.”