“Is this it?” – Lisa nandy

“The whole national fund is less than half of the annual budget for Manchester City Council for the next financial year, an institution that serves around 600,000 people.”

Link to summary and full report here.

www.independent.co.uk 

The levelling-up white paper lays out the problem of regional inequality. But it doesn’t offer a cost-benefit analysis for the cure – or the means to buy the medicine.

The consensus from economists and policy-makers is that it’s a start. However, years after the promise to level up the nation was sold to voters in the 2019 election, it is no more than a start.

Swathes of the 332-page document are dedicated to the history of economics rather than a meaningful action plan. That includes an entire page that republishes an infographic from a 2016 Guardian article on ancient history.

The rest of the paper explores the flagship policy’s 12 missions, which range from skills to transport and lay out how small amounts of cash have been given to different areas.

It has three main limitations: cash, local powers and timelines.

The levelling-up fund is worth £4.8bn for a UK population of about 70 million. It is helpful to put that number in some context in order to understand just how small it is in terms of a flagship economic, social and moral policy. The public and politicians will probably end up asking, “Where are the billions?” Economists are likely to be left asking, “Where are the trillions?”

There’s no easy like-for-like comparison, but the whole national fund is less than half of the annual budget for Manchester City Council for the next financial year, an institution that serves around 600,000 people.

It is not just that the investment involved is small. It is that while the missions the paper lays out are given a 10-year rolling deadline there is no clear long-term financial commitment from central government laid out in the document.

This is not a project that can be done quickly or on the cheap. The unified German government has been trying to level up east and west since 1990. It has spent around €2trillion and still not managed it entirely – unemployment remains stubbornly higher in the former communist east.

Boosting skills and industry requires long-term financial settlements. Programmes of study also need to be plugged into trade strategy. The paper falls very short on detail in these crucial areas.

It notes benefits of deals that have not even been successfully negotiated and does not – for instance – ask the question about how exactly the government and private sector will train workers who can benefit from exporting to countries such as those within the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

While politicians and politically-minded economists might disagree about whether levelling-up efforts should drive greater investment or more tax cuts and relaxed planning laws, the paper offers few next steps on either.

It leaves the question of radical changes to the planning process for another day, money to develop brownfield sites is siloed into multiple pots. There is also merely a promise to develop a separate white paper on health inequality.

Local councils often exhaust huge energy and resources into bidding for the small pots of money. The white paper might have been better off showing a radical shift not only in investment, but also the power to allocate that money more freely for local government. It falls short on a meaningful shift in devolved powers.

Like every government strategy paper of the past decade (possibly longer) it falls into a trap of suggesting hubs or clusters or zones as a magic bullet for an industrial strategy and a sprinkling – it really is a sprinkling – of money to create them.

If the government really wants the private sector to play a greater role in terms of cash and training and help build these clusters, it will take more than some fairly general points about making finance more available to small and medium firms. History suggests it will take billions of public funds over the long term alongside a clear and stable outlook for taxation and regulation.

Freeports make a fresh appearance. These zones have been possible in the UK even while it was an EU member. Some argue that more freedom in areas like tax breaks and regulation can shift the dial on their success, but few economist believe they will offer net economic benefits in a low tariff, industrialised and open economy like Britain’s.

In some areas, by laying out the scale of the problem and starting to work out how to measure it in a more accountable manner – with efforts such as the the Spatial Data Unit in order to illustrate progress on a range of inequality measures – it lays some ground for some detailed policymaking in the future.

Few people disagree that levelling up should be a government priority, both among people wherever they live but also between places. But if anyone had hoped that this was a Marshall Plan that would make the UK economy fit for the challenges of the 21st century, they will be disappointed. It does not give communities the ability to take back control and in economic terms it’s unlikely to have any short- or medium-term impact on prosperity.

www.highstreetstaskforce.org.uk 

Each selected local authority will be invited to put forward a high street or centre which can benefit from help to address local challenges and to develop strategies for positive change. The Task Force, which was appointed by government in 2019, will provide these locations with expert consultancy and training, working directly with local government and facilitating engagement with communities and civic societies.

The support, which will start in each selected location from Summer this year, begins with a visit from High Streets Task Force experts who will consult and collaborate with the local authority, businesses, and community groups, with the aim of unlocking the potential of each place.

Support for locations

In order to target high streets with the greatest need for support, regional indicators of deprivation and inequality have been analysed to produce the list of 68 local authorities noted below. This analysis also takes into account the effect of COVID-19 on high streets.

This new help for places continues the work of the Task Force, which has already directly supported 84 local authorities across England and provided further online resources that are available to all towns and cities responding to the impact of COVID-19.

Mark Robinson, High Streets Task Force Chair, said:

“Over the last 2 years, the Task Force has witnessed the resilience of high streets and the diversity of their communities. We’ve engaged over 4,000 placemakers so far and I’m delighted we’ll be supporting a further 68 local authorities to consider their own ambitious plans for recovery and long-term growth.”

“We know from our work that high streets thrive when businesses, councils and community champions work together. The Task Force aims to provide that impetus to partnerships and to help them learn quickly from other local success stories.”

Further 68 local authorities to receive support:

Local authority	–	–	–
Allerdale	Dudley	King’s Lynn and West Norfolk	Slough
Basildon	Ealing	Kirklees	Somerset West and Taunton
Bassetlaw	East Staffordshire	Lancaster	Southend-on-Sea
Bedford	East Suffolk	Medway	Southwark
Bolsover	Eastbourne	Newark and Sherwood	Stevenage
Boston	Fenland	Newcastle-under-Lyme	Stockport
Breckland	Folkestone and Hythe	North Devon	Tamworth
Brighton and Hove	Gloucester	North Lincolnshire	Telford and Wrekin
Bury	Gosport	North Norfolk	Thurrock
Camden	Gravesham	North Tyneside	Torridge
Cannock Chase	Greenwich	Northumberland	Waltham Forest
Carlisle	Hammersmith and Fulham	Nuneaton and Bedworth	Warrington
Chesterfield	Harlow	Reading	West Lindsey

Task Force approach to transformation

Support available to local authorities starts with a diagnostic visit to identify the needs of each selected location and to prescribe follow up products and services relating to relevant expertise and strategies, for example place branding, visioning, governance or spatial design.

Follow up products and services consist of up to 4 days of expert consultancy time, mentoring where there is a need to build local relationships, and specific workshops to support the development of place making activity or a local vision. Locations can also access footfall data and online training courses on the use of place data and sentiment.

The High Streets Task Force, which is led by the Institute of Place Management based at Manchester Metropolitan University, has appointed 150 independent experts from the professional bodies Design Council, Landscape Institute, Institute of Place Management and the Royal Town Planning Institute. Appointed experts work with places, bringing their insight into town centres and how to build capacity for change.

Matt Colledge, Director of the High Streets Task Force, said:

“Our approach to support is designed in recognition that every place is unique. Whether it’s local heritage, a town’s infrastructure and built environment, the broader needs of its community, or its unique culture, services and attractions. We start by meeting with local stakeholders to get a deeper understanding of their place, so we can offer advice that really helps.”

“Of course, places haven’t been waiting for the Task Force before getting started. They’re already well underway delivering investment and high street transformation, and – whether it’s through our data provision, training programmes or expert advice – we want to help ensure their work provides the greatest local impact.”

Visits to each of these newly selected areas will continue until mid-2024.

Cheshire West and Chester Council were part of the High Street Task Force Pilot programme, working with the Task Force in Ellesmere Port. Councillor Richard Beacham, Cabinet Member for Inclusive Growth, Economy & Regeneration said:

“We began working with the High Streets Task Force in Ellesmere Port, as part of its pilot programme in 2020. With their advice and support we began work to establish a framework to develop the vision for Ellesmere Port, based on the principles of partnership and working closely with the community to deliver on our collective ambitions for the area.”

“Ellesmere Port is a proud industrial town on the River Mersey and like many places has faced challenges with empty units and encouraging people to the town centre. Building on our work with the Task Force, we’ve recently supported a new programme of events, centred around our local market, and there is great positivity in the community about our future vision.“

The Queen’s cheddar cheese supplier has admitted more than 20 river pollution offences, including an illegal discharge of poisonous waste that killed hundreds of fish.

Rhys Blakely www.thetimes.co.uk 

The breaches occurred over several years at the Davidstow Creamery in Cornwall, which is owned by Saputo Dairy UK and produces Cathedral City cheddar. It is the only cheddar maker to hold a royal warrant.

The company, previously known as Dairy Crest, has admitted 21 environmental offences at the site, said to be the biggest cheddar factory in the world. They led to fish being killed in the River Inny in 2016 and 2018; each offence could result in an unlimited fine at crown court.

In the summer of 2018 hundreds of dead fish were found in the river, prompting the Environment Agency to designate a “major category 1” incident — the most serious. The bed of the river was found to be smothered in sludge that “appeared brown on the surface but was jet black in colour underneath”.

Martin Harmer, chairman of the Launceston Anglers’ Association, which helped to bring the pollution to light, said that the Environment Agency had been slow to take steps to protect the ecosystem. “As anglers we have been all too aware of problems on the River Inny caused by this site. Chronic and acute pollutions on the Inny have been going on for years,” he said.

“Saputo says it is committed to improvement at the Davidstow site but that will remain to be seen. We hope that this, along with the promise by the regulator of a permit review, will be a turning point for the river and give its ecology a chance to recover.”

The offences included “discharging poisonous, noxious and polluting matter, namely biological sludge” into the river. The anglers’ association found high levels of phosphate pollution and witnessed fish kills first-hand.

The charity Fish Legal investigated, and said it had found “shocking levels of environmental permit breaches”. Residents had complained of a “pungent fishy stink” wafting from the creamery, which had made people nauseous and kept them awake at night.

Saputo is expected to be sentenced at Truro crown court in May.

Last year it apologised to the Environment Agency and the public.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “We are pleased to see that courts are imposing higher fines but we would like to see them grow higher still. We also want to see the criminal courts applying penalties consistently and proportionately, and would welcome the most serious breaches by very large companies attracting sanctions based on a percentage of turnover.”

Anthony Mangnall (Totnes) and Sir Gary Streeter (South West Devon) are the latest MPs to publicly withdraw their support for the Prime Minister and submit a letter of no confidence.

Anyone else going to join them?

Maybe your MP is waiting for you to express an opinion to help them decide? Owl is sure they would value your opinion. 

simon.jupp.mp@parliament.uk

neil.parish.mp@parliament.uk

PS this now being called the “Cream Tea Coup”

Damning conclusion as Michael Gove publishes his “Levelling up” White Paper.

“We have not seen the evidence we would expect on the options that had been considered for achieving ministerial aims when government is spending such a large amount of money. This reduces our confidence that the interventions will have the best possible chance of delivering value for money.”

£18 billion spent to little effect. East Devon Watch has been following and criticising local efforts at “regeneration” and “productivity growth” from start of publication so Owl isn’t surprised.  

www.nao.org.uk

Supporting local economic growth

This report considers lessons DLUHC [Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities] has learned from implementing local growth policies, and how it has applied them.

Background to the report

Between 2011 and 2020, government committed some £18 billion of domestic funding to policies designed to stimulate local economic growth in England. This includes £12 billion through the Local Growth Fund, and £3.2 billion through the Regional Growth Fund. A further £10.3 billion was directed to the UK through EU structural funding committed between 2014 and 2020. However, the UK remains less productive than its main competitors and it shows regional disparities in economic performance that are among the largest in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (the Department), working with other government departments, is responsible for “raising productivity and empowering places so that everyone across the country can benefit from levelling up”. The Cities and Local Growth Unit is leading for government on a series of UK-wide place-based interventions for which spending was announced at the November 2020 Spending Review to support the regeneration of towns and communities. Government’s commitments through these interventions total £11.0 billion. Local authorities will bid for funding and deliver these initiatives at a local level. The Department is solely or jointly accountable to Parliament for all the funds examined in this report.

Scope of the report

This report considers the lessons the Department has learned from a long history of implementing local growth policies. It examines how it has applied these lessons to the one-year UK Community Renewal Fund and the following place-based interventions:

• Levelling Up Fund;
• UK Shared Prosperity Fund;
• Towns Fund; and
• Freeports

Report conclusions

The Department recognises that its spending decisions should be based on robust evidence about what works for stimulating local economies. However, it has not consistently undertaken formal evaluations of the impacts of its past interventions. As a result, although it has now committed both effort and money to evaluate new interventions from the start, its evidence base for effective interventions is limited. The Department therefore lacks evidence on whether the billions of pounds of public funding it has awarded to local bodies in the past for supporting local growth have had the impact intended. And it has wasted opportunities to learn which initiatives and interventions are most effective.

The Department decided to consolidate local growth funding, and the largest of its new interventions is the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund on which it has worked closely with HM Treasury. Given the limited evidence base, we would have expected even greater scrutiny and independent challenge in the development of the Fund. However, government considered it proportionate to consolidate the three standard stages for business case assessment into one. Also, we have not seen the evidence we would expect on the options that had been considered for achieving ministerial aims when government is spending such a large amount of money. This reduces our confidence that the interventions will have the best possible chance of delivering value for money. In view of this, it is even more important that the Department should follow through rapidly on its recent commitments to improve measurement and evaluation in local growth.

• Report – Supporting local economic growth (pdf – 518.81 KB)
• Opens in new window
• Summary – Supporting local economic growth (pdf – 126.03 KB)
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Remember that both Simon Jupp and Neil Parish dutifully voted last October against the Lords amendment imposing legal duties on water companies to clean up their act. – Owl

Ben Webster www.thetimes.co.uk 

Water companies will be required to increase investment to prevent raw sewage spilling into rivers and the sea under a new government strategy for the sector that places greater focus on the environment.

The strategic policy statement being laid in parliament today sets the priorities for Ofwat, the water regulator, and water companies and will affect spending for the period from 2025 to 2030.

It says that water companies will be expected to “significantly reduce the frequency and volume of sewage discharges from storm overflows, so they operate infrequently, and only in cases of unusually heavy rainfall. We expect overflows that do the most harm or impact on the most sensitive and highest amenity sites to be prioritised.”

Water companies have collectively cut investment in wastewater and sewage networks by almost a fifth in the 30 years since they were privatised, according to analysis of official data published in December.

They discharged raw sewage into rivers more than 400,000 times last year. They are permitted to spill sewage from storm overflows after heavy rainfall but many spills occur after dry weather and are illegal.

The strategic policy statement says: “The water industry’s environmental performance has stagnated and, in certain cases, deteriorated in recent years. Poor environmental performance is not acceptable and poorly performing companies need to rapidly improve.”

Water companies may seek to increase household water bills to fund the extra investment but an Ofwat source said it would press them to cover the cost by operating more efficiently.

The companies are collectively investing £3.1 billion in storm overflows in 2020-25.

Under the Environment Act, the government is required to publish a plan to reduce sewage discharges from England’s 15,000 storm overflows by September this year.

The policy statement also gives greater priority to addressing excessive abstraction of water from rivers, protecting chalk streams, and ensuring that water companies produce drainage plans that reduce the risk of homes being flooded.

The Angling Trust said the statement “could have been braver and bolder” and it was unclear how much improvement it would bring about in the state of rivers.

Ash Smith, of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, which has led the way in exposing illegal sewage spills, said: “This announcement is no more than window dressing to buy time for regulators and an industry that has been forced under the spotlight and is rapidly running out of excuses for profiting while allowing our vital infrastructure to fall into a black hole, reliant on illegal pollution to cope with under-investment over decades.”

Rebecca Pow, the environment minister, said: “We are the first government to set a clear expectation that Ofwat should prioritise action by water companies to protect the environment and deliver the improvements that we all want to see. I have been very clear of my expectations of water companies and where they do not step up we will take robust action.

“The priorities that we are setting out today build on the work that we have already undertaken to reduce harm from storm overflows, improve monitoring and reporting of pollution incidents making this more transparent, to tackle run-off from agriculture, and protect the health of our rivers and seas.”

An Ofwat spokesman said: “We will continue to allow significant investment in the environment, take action on companies that fall short on their performance and drive them to be more transparent on their delivery and impact on rivers.”

Owl is just asking having seen the following headline in today’s Times:

‘Prosecco-fuelled’ Downing Street party takes Boris Johnson’s tally to six

Footage of culture secretary Nadine Dorries struggling to defend Boris Johnson for making false claims about Keir Starmer has got everyone comparing the MP to a certain TV character.

Matt Bagwell www.huffingtonpost.co.uk 

The PM faced a huge backlash after he accused the Labour leader of failing to prosecute disgraced entertainer Jimmy Savile when he was head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Johnson made the false claims in the House of Commons on Monday following Labour’s criticism over the Sue Gray report into parties held in government during lockdown.

An extraordinary Channel 4 News interview with Dorries then went viral after presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked her why Johnson had spouted “fake news” and an “old meme repeated by conspiracy theorists” in his attack on Starmer.

Dorries repeatedly shook her head and rolled her eyes during the exchange, insisting: “I don’t know, I don’t know the details”, repeatedly saying “the prime minister tells the truth”.

For many viewers, it brought to mind Catherine Tate’s much-loved comedy character Lauren, a school girl whose catchphrase is “Am I bovvered?”

It didn’t take long for someone to get creative…

And here’s Catherine Tate as Lauren in action for anyone wanting to contrast and compare…

https://youtube.com/watch?v=c_9ywsMD7dg%3Frel%3D0%26enablejsapi%3D1

On Tuesday morning, a furious Keir Starmer slammed Boris Johnson for referencing Jimmy Saville and sinking parliament “into the gutter”.

The Labour leader branded the comment “a ridiculous slur peddled by right-wing trolls” in an interview with Sky News presenter Kay Burley.

A fact-check by the Reuters news agency in October last year concluded: “There is no evidence to suggest Sir Keir Starmer, then (director of public prosecutions) DPP of the CPS, was directly involved in the decision not to prosecute Jimmy Savile.”

It spells out how the claim gained traction online but that “the suggestion of a link between the handling of the cases and Starmer is baseless”.

Details to be published today in a 400 page “White Paper”, but there is no new money. – Owl

Peter Walker www.theguardian.com 

Central to the levelling up white paper are what are termed 12 “national missions” to be achieved, all by 2030, many of them phrased in fairly general terms. This is what the missions set out:

• To increase pay, employment and productivity in every part of the UK, with each containing “a globally competitive city” and a smaller gap between top performing and other areas.
• Public transport connectivity across the UK to be “significantly closer to the standards of London” including integrated ticketing and simpler fares.
• A “significant” increase in primary school children reaching expected standards in reading, writing and maths. For England – education policy is devolved – this will mean at least 90% meeting expected standards, with at least a one-third increase for this metric in the worst performing areas.
• A “significant” rise in the numbers completing high-quality skills training across the UK. In England, the target is for 200,000 more doing this, including 80,000 in the lowest skilled areas.
• A narrowing in healthy life expectancy between the UK areas where it is highest and lowest, with the overall average healthy life expectancy rising by five years by 2035.
• An improvement in perceived wellbeing in all parts of the UK, with a narrowed gap between areas with the highest and lowest levels.
• A rise across the whole UK of “pride in place”, defined as “people’s satisfaction with their town centre and engagement in local culture and community”, with a narrowing of gaps between areas with the highest and lowest levels.
• An increase in the number of first-time home buyers in all UK areas. The “ambition” is for a 50% fall in the number of rented homes deemed non-decent, including the biggest improvements in worst-performing areas.
• An overall fall in homicide, serious violence, and neighbourhood crime, focused on worst-affected areas.
• A devolution deal for “every part of England that wants one”, with powers “at or approaching the highest level of devolution and a simplified, long-term funding settlement”.

Last November Owl queried the press description that these car parks were being described as “four council-owned car parks”. This description followed from the fact that EDDC itself was listed as the applicant for planning permission for this work.

Owl has subsequently learned that this was because funding for the improvements has been secured through the South East Devon Habitat Regulations Partnership. The formal members of the partnership are: Teignbridge, East Devon District and Exeter City Councils, with Natural England. But the term is also used as an umbrella term to include other organisations such as The Pebblebed Heaths, Clinton Devon Estates, Devon Wildlife and RSPB.

The car parks are part of the Pebblebed Heaths Trust but Owl understands that formal ownership still lies with Clinton Devon Estates.

How the costs fall for this work is unclear.

Two visitor car parks on Pebblebed Heaths are to be closed for up to six weeks for improvement work. 

Philippa Davies www.exmouthjournal.co.uk

Four Firs Car Park on Woodbury Common and Joney’s Cross Car Park at Hawkerland will be closed from Monday, February 7. 

The work will include new entrance signs and information boards, and better surfacing. 

Further works will take place on roadside parking at Stowford (Colaton Raleigh) and Frying Pans (Bicton Common).  

The car parks are managed by the Pebblebed Heaths Conservation Trust, and funding for the improvements has been secured through South East Devon Habitat Regulations Partnership. The aim is to protect the rare wildlife on the heath while making access easier for visitors. 

Devon county councillor Martin Wrigley, who is also chair of the South East Devon Habitat Regulation Executive Committee, said: “The improvements to the existing car parks are much-needed due to increased use from people enjoying the Heaths.   

“The redesigned layout and improved surface means visitors will be able to drive and park more safely and the heaths will be better protected for the future.” 

Kim Strawbridge, Reserves Manager, Pebblebed Heaths Conservation Trust, said: “We would like to thank people for their patience while these car parks are closed and we would like to reassure people that all other parking areas across the heaths will remain open during this time.  

“We have been looking forward to getting this work underway so that people will be able to benefit from this first round of refurbishment work before the spring.   

“The Pebblebed Heaths are such an iconic part of the East Devon landscape, incredibly important for both wildlife and local people. Most people arrive by car so having entrance points to the nature reserve that are welcoming and do this unique place justice will make it clear to people that they have arrived somewhere special.”   

The car park improvements are part of a wider plan to manage visitor access to the Heaths and make sure the area’s wildlife and ancient monuments are safeguarded. The plans include measures to make the car parks more visible from the road, to discourage thefts from cars, fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour. 

goodlawproject.org

The Government has wasted more than £9.9 billion on PPE, which is more than it would cost to give every nurse in the NHS a 100 per cent bonus on their salary. 

The figure comes from the Department of Health’s Annual Report, which reveals it spent:

• £673 million on PPE “not suitable for any use”
• £2,581 million on PPE “not suitable for use in the NHS”
• £4.7 billion paying inflated pandemic prices for PPE we didn’t need to buy
• £750 million buying PPE which will pass its expiry date before we can use it.

It has also “written down” the value of £1.231 billion in PPE, which is still yet to be delivered.

The Department also reports that some of the PPE will need to be recycled and it’s now contracting “waste providers”. Some of it is too complex to be recycled and so will need to be burned.

Thanks to an FOI response, Good Law Project can also reveal that, between April 2020 and August 2021, the Government spent £677.6 million storing excess PPE. It continues to spend £500,000 a day on this.

Civil servants complained at the time that the need to service VIPs, the majority of which were introduced by Government Ministers, was interfering with good procurement. It is unlikely we will ever know the true cost of this taxpayer-funded feeding frenzy for the friends and associates of Ministers.

Sue Gray’s long-awaited report into lockdown-busting parties at Number 10 has finally arrived. And it isn’t exactly ‘War and Peace’.

Martin Williams www.opendemocracy.net

Gray’s report runs to just nine pages long – with fewer than 500 words of findings.

Concerns about its transparency had already been raised by privacy campaigners through openDemocracy. We revealed that Gray had, in previous roles, helped to block the release of information and shield Number 10 from scrutiny.

Gray says in the report that she was “told” by the Metropolitan Police that it would not be “appropriate” to make more than “minimal reference to the gatherings on the dates [the force is] investigating”.

The SNP’s Commons leader, Ian Blackford, today called the report “a fact-finding exercise with no facts”. Here are 11 key things that it doesn’t address.

The four events Gray *was* free to talk about

Twelve of the 16 gatherings that Gray looked at are also the subject of a police investigation. Gray was told not to reveal details about those events so as not to ‘prejudice’ the police investigation. But what about the other four?

There was a gathering in the garden of Number 10 in May 2020, where Boris Johnson was pictured drinking wine with colleagues. Then there was the Zoom quiz on 15 December, as well as two other gatherings, in late November and early December.

We may never know what Gray discovered about these events, because she writes: “I have decided not to publish factual accounts in relation to those four dates. I do not feel that I am able to do so without detriment to the overall balance of the findings.” No further explanation is offered.

What did Johnson do?

Although the report criticises “failures of leadership”, it makes very little mention of Johnson himself, and does not say whose leadership failed. We’re not told which events Johnson attended or knew about. Nor does Gray make a judgement about the prime minister’s personal failings. In fact, he is mentioned just eight times in the entire report.

How many people were at the parties?

It might be understandable to withhold incriminating evidence against named suspects until the police finish their investigation. But is there any legal reason why Sue Gray cannot at least tell us how many people attended each party?

Were the parties late, boozy, or paid for on government expenses?

Likewise, we’re not told anything about what happened at the parties – whether they were a few colleagues having ‘cheese and wine’ or giant alcoholic blowouts. Reports suggest that some events continued into the early hours, with attendees drinking and dancing. Sue Gray has nothing to say about this – yet it’s hard to see how disclosing this information could possibly prejudice the police investigation.

However, Gray, a former pub landlady, does hint at a general boozy culture in Downing Street, saying: “The excessive consumption of alcohol is not appropriate in a professional workplace at any time. Steps must be taken to ensure that every government department has a clear and robust policy in place covering the consumption of alcohol in the workplace.”

Who was actually there?

Allegations have been made that some of the parties were attended by people who didn’t work in Downing Street, such as senior journalists and friends of the prime minister. Gray might not be able to name them before the police have finished investigating, but can she at least confirm whether outsiders were present? No.

Was there any social distancing?

Even if the parties had been socially distanced, they would still have been illegal. That means that the question of social distancing is not really a police matter. However, knowing the facts about this could shed light for the public on the extent to which those at Number 10 felt that the rules in general did not apply to them. Yet the words ‘social distancing’ do not appear anywhere in Gray’s summary.

The role of the police

Police officers stationed at Downing Street have been strongly criticised for failing to stop the parties. But last week, it was claimed in The Telegraph that the officers had been “only too willing” to give “extremely damning” statements to Gray about the parties. Her report makes no mention of them.

So much as a single word from any the 70 interviews Gray conducted

As openDemocracy has reported, Gray has a reputation for blocking transparency. We now know that she interviewed more than 70 people about Downing Street parties – and yet her report does not contain a single quote or reference. Nor do we know who she interviewed, as not a single scrap of evidence has been published.

Were government guidelines breached?

Gray can’t comment on whether the law was broken. But there’s also the question of government guidelines, which are distinct from the law. This might include rules on social distancing, face masks or the way offices are set up to reduce the risk of COVID. It’s possible that some events were legal but against the government’s own guidelines. Gray says that: “Some of the events should not have been allowed to take place.” But she doesn’t tell us which ones, or what rules they broke. Likewise, she does not discuss ministerial rules – or whether she intends to refer the evidence to Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser, Lord Geidt, who could investigate this further.

What was cut?

Nobody was expecting this report to contain all the detailed evidence that the police are investigating, but it doesn’t even tell us what kinds of information she has redacted. Did she have a guestlist for each event? Does she have video or photo evidence? Who were the 70 people she interviewed? Whose WhatsApp messages were accessed? Was any information missing?

Whose decision was it to redact the report this extensively?

Before her report was published, Gray says the Metropolitan Police “told” her to make “minimal reference to the gatherings on the dates they are investigating”. We don’t know if she pushed back in the interests of transparency (when explaining the redactions, she does strike a tone of disappointment that she is not able to publish a fuller document), whether the police provided any further detail about what to withhold and why, or whether their requests for redactions were deemed proportionate by any third party. Nor do we know whether Gray was merely asked to withhold the information, or whether she was ordered to, by the police or otherwise.

What’s more, Gray’s report goes way further than this. Huge swathes of information are omitted entirely, including everything above. Did someone in government ask her to do this? Or was its Gray’s own decision to publish such a hollow report?

(The one’s you may not have read yet)

A party in Boris and Carrie Johnson’s flat is one of 12 events being investigated by the Metropolitan police over alleged lockdown breaches, it has emerged, as the Sue Gray report found “failures of leadership and judgment” in No 10.

Rowena Mason www.theguardian.com 

Gray, a senior civil servant, criticised the culture in Johnson’s Downing Street that allowed social gatherings to take place during lockdown, which were “difficult to justify”.

The findings were released on the government’s website in a shortened and redacted form, after the Met last week said it was investigating some of the gatherings.

Although Gray said she was not able to publish her full report, a string of Conservative MPs said the conclusions were still extremely serious for Johnson – not least because one of the gatherings under police investigation was in the prime minister’s apartment.

In the Commons, Johnson was challenged by Theresa May, his predecessor as prime minister, who said either he “had not read the rules, didn’t understand the rules, or didn’t think they applied to No 10”.

Andrew Mitchell, a Tory MP and former cabinet minister, said Johnson “no longer enjoys” his support.

And in a dramatic moment, Ian Blackford, the SNP Westminster leader, accused Johnson of having “lied and misled” the house of Commons and was ejected from the chamber by the Speaker.

Johnson had previously denied in the House of Commons that any party on 13 November, 2020, had taken place. Johnson was also present at another of the parties under investigation by police – in the Downing Street garden on 20 May, 2020.

Johnson rejected these criticisms in turn but promised that he would overhaul the structure of No 10 to address some of Gray’s criticisms. “I get it and I will fix it,” he told MPs.

In the report, Gray did not criticise the prime minister personally, or pass judgment on his past statements, but highlighted failures of leadership in No 10 and the Cabinet Office.

The 12-page report said: “At least some of the gatherings in question represent a serious failure to observe not just the high standards expected of those working at the heart of government but also of the standards expected of the entire British population at the time.”

It added: “At times it seems there was too little thought given to what was happening across the country in considering the appropriateness of some of these gatherings, the risks they presented to public health and how they might appear to the public.

“There were failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No 10 and the Cabinet Office at different times. Some of the events should not have been allowed to take place. Other events should not have been allowed to develop as they did.”

Gray listed 16 gatherings on 12 dates across 20 months in 2020-21 that she had examined for evidence of rule-breaking, of which 12 are being investigated by police. These include a gathering in the No 10 flat – thought to be a reference to the prime minister’s own residence even though he lives at No 11 – and a Christmas party in Downing Street, as well as several leaving parties.

The civil service chief said she had interviewed more than 70 people and examined relevant email information, WhatsApp messages, photographs and exit logs. She said some staff had “wanted to raise concerns about behaviours they witnessed at work but at times felt unable to do so”.

“A number of these gatherings should not have been allowed to take place, or to develop in the way that they did. There is significant learning to be drawn from these events which must be addressed immediately across government.”

Gray said her report was limited by the Met police request for her to make only minimal reference to gatherings they were investigating. She said she had decided not to publish factual accounts of the other four dates as she did not feel able to do so without detriment to the overall balance of findings.

However, she left the door open to returning to the evidence she gathered after the Met police had investigated, saying it was being stored and saved “until such time as it may be required further”.

Earlier on Monday, No 10 had said it was “unclear” whether she would publish a further, more comprehensive, report in the future.

Troubled South West construction giant Midas Group has confirmed that it wants to appoint an administrator in a move which has stunned the region.

Guy Henderson www.devonlive.com

The business, one of the UK’s largest privately-owned construction and property services companies, filed notices of intention to appoint an administrator on Friday, January 28.

This was for three companies: Midas Group, its construction arm Midas Construction, and its housing division Mi-Space.

Midas was recently ranked as the ninth largest private sector firm in the South West, by the Western Morning News, with a reported turnover of £291,267,008 and 498 employees.

But rumours have been circulating in recent weeks that the company was in financial trouble, after it announced a £2m loss in 2021 – its first deficit in 40 years of trading.

The company has important construction jobs ongoing throughout the region and has offices in Indian Queens in Cornwall, Exeter, Newton Abbot, Bristol, Newport in South Wales and Southampton.

However, concerns were raised when it emerged that work has ceased on three major Midas Construction hotel projects in Torquay, and that the Coal Orchard development in Taunton had been hit by a dispute with subcontractors.

Midas has now confirmed its intention to appoint an administrator – a process which can save a firm from liquidation and halts pending creditor action.

In a statement, Midas said: “On Friday January 28, 2022, the company filed notices of intention to appoint an administrator in respect of Midas Group, Midas Construction Ltd and Mi-Space (UK) Ltd.

“This does not mean that Midas has entered into administration and the company continues to operate, while the directors work to explore all available options to achieve the best outcome for the business and our people, our customers, supply chain partners and all our stakeholders.

“Midas is committed to pursuing an outcome that will achieve continuity for our live contracts and asks all our valued stakeholders to remain supportive of the group at this time.”

In 2021, Midas blamed much of its losses on the Covid pandemic and in its statement said: “As has been well documented, there have been issues relating to the Covid pandemic, ongoing shortages of materials and labour, and significant cost inflation, which are providing challenges in the construction sector and across the UK economy, which have had a direct impact on Midas’s own operations.

“Over recent weeks we have been working closely with all our stakeholders to attempt to resolve the situation and are continuing to do so.”

List of projects in jeopardy – and it’s long

Guy Henderson www.devonlive.com

Concerns are growing over the future of some of the South West’s biggest construction projects after Midas Group Ltd announced it intended to appoint an administrator.

The Exeter-headquartered firm and its subsidiaries Midas Construction Ltd and Mi-Space (UK) Ltd are involved in key building schemes across the region including in Plymouth, Torbay, Cornwall, Somerset and Bristol.

The projects include commercial and residential developments, for private and public sector clients, and are in various stages of completion.

But now the future of the schemes has been thrown into doubt after Midas filed notices of intention to appoint an administrator.

Midas was recently ranked as the ninth largest private sector firm in the South West, by the Western Morning News Annual Business Guide 2022, with a reported turnover of £291,267,008 and 498 employees. But rumours have been circulating in recent weeks that the company was in financial trouble, after it announced a £2m loss in 2021 – its first deficit in 40 years of trading.

The company has offices in Indian Queens in Cornwall, Exeter, Newton Abbot, Bristol, Newport in South Wales, and Southampton.

It has sought to reassure stakeholders, stressing it is still operating and said: “Midas is committed to pursuing an outcome that will achieve continuity for our live contracts and asks all our valued stakeholders to remain supportive of the group at this time.”

But if it does go into administration, which could follow in a matter of days, construction projects may well be affected. And if the company goes into liquidation or ceases trading, other firms would have to be brought in to complete the buildings.

Tim Jones, chairman of the South West Business Council, questioned whether the South West would have the capacity or ability to complete so many key projects.

He said: “We are entitled to worry about how any of these outstanding projects can be delivered as they are all pivotal as catalysts for growth.”

Here is a rundown of the key projects Midas is involved in:

Torbay – £40m hotels

Concerns about the financial health of Midas surfaced when work dried up at three major hotel projects in Torbay.

Midas Construction’s work stopped completely at Torbay Council’s £11 Premier Inn scheme at The Terrace in January 2022. The hotel was expected to be completed in late 2022.

And The Fragrance Group, which is ploughing £30m into two hotel builds on Paignton Esplanade, stated it was “increasingly concerned” about lack of process on the sites. The 160-bed Mercure Hotel was expected to open in February 2022, with the Ibis Styles hotel to follow this year.

Plymouth – £22m Barne Barton rebuild

Construction was due to start in spring 2022 after Midas was appointed to build 204 homes as part of the £22m regeneration of the Barne Barton area of Plymouth.

The UK’s largest provider of affordable housing, Clarion Housing Group, is transforming what was once Britain’s largest naval estate into a “sustainable and vibrant community” and Midas was selected to develop a 4.65-hectare site within the neighbourhood via its Mi-space company. The homes are supposed to be ready by early 2023.

Midas was also chosen to carry out hard and soft landscaping, including the creation of a one-way home zone to provide people-friendly streets, together with a public square, open spaces and green areas for people to enjoy.

Bodmin – £6.3m STEM Centre

Midas’ work on Cornwall’s £6.3m “shovel-ready” STEM centre is due to be completed by Spring 2022.

The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and Health Skills Centre for North and East Cornwall, called the Ottery building, is being built in Bodmin by Truro and Penwith College and is designed to train the aerospace, space, creative, energy, mining and health sector workers of tomorrow.

The project, on which work started in February 2021, is being supported by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), which is meeting £3.78m of the costs through the Government’s Getting Building Fund (GBF) for “shovel-ready” projects.

Penzance – £5.8m Creative Cluster

Work started in late 2021 on a hub for creative businesses. The Penzance Creative Cluster being built by Midas Construction at Causewayhead is intended to provide up to 30 modern studios and flexible workspaces for creative sector businesses, from high tech digital companies to visual and performing artists.

The £5.8m project is an important part of Cornwall Council’s wider strategy to regenerate and reinvigorate Penzance town centre.

Liskeard and Bodmin – 146 homes

Building work on 46 homes in Liskeard reached a major milestone with a topping out ceremony in October 2021. The Maudlin Farm scheme, on land south of Lake Lane, is being developed by Treveth, the partnership company set up by Cornwall Council to deliver new homes and commercial development to benefit people who live and work in Cornwall.

It will feature 35 homes for private rent and 11 affordable homes, including seven affordable rent and four shared ownership properties, available from spring 2022. Construction is being carried out by Mi-space which started on the project in March 2021.

Mi-space is also involved in Treveth projects to deliver 100 homes at the former St Lawrence’s Hospital site in Bodmin. The scheme, called Park Lanneves, is expected to see the first homes available in the summer of 2022.

Redruth – £1.9m school extension

The £1.9m project at Pennoweth Primary School, part of the Crofty Multi-Academy Trust, is being carried out to meet growing demand for places and will enable the school intake to increase from 315 to 420 pupils.

Midas Construction was chosen to build the new single storey extension which will provide new teaching rooms and a new small hall in addition to creating an accessible and sustainable building for the expanding school. With work now under way on site, the aim is for the transformation to be complete in time for the start of the new school year in September 2022.

Paignton – affordable homes

Work began in December 2021 to develop nine affordable rent homes including one adapted home at Totnes Road, Paignton.

TorVista Homes and Torbay Council aim to increase the supply of affordable homes within Torbay with the homes due for completion in November 2022.

Mi-space was appointed to build the homes and commenced demolition of the two derelict homes on site in December.

Taunton – Coal Orchard flats

Work has also ground to a halt at the Coal Orchard development in Somerset after subcontractors reportedly walked off site in the days leading up to Midas’ notice of intention to appoint an administrator. Midas Construction is involved in the multi-million pound project to build flats, work spaces and leisure business units on a plot owned by Somerset West and Taunton Council.

Gloucester – £11.8m student accommodation

An £11.8m scheme which will provide additional student bed spaces in the heart of Gloucester city centre is being developed by Cityheart Limited with Midas Construction as the contractors.

The Blackfriars Residence project, in Barbican Way, is the second phase of the Blackfriars Residence scheme and follows the success of the first phase, a 295-bed development, which opened its doors to its first cohort of students in 2018.

The latest project involves the creation of a further 190 bedrooms over two blocks, with 128 student spaces in one block and 62 in the second.

Midas Construction is due to complete the second phase in summer 2022 with the residences will be available for students from the University of Gloucestershire and Hartbury College and University.

Yeovil – town centre refresh

Work has been ongoing in Yeovil to improve the look of the town centre and make it easier and more accessible for shoppers.

Westminster Street was the first area in the town centre to see improvement work under the Yeovil Refresh public realm enhancements. Midas was appointed to undertake the scheme where construction works were due to end in late 2021 with other parts of the town to follow in 2022.

Wincanton – £10m care home

Care provider Cornerstone Healthcare chose Midas Construction to build the £10m Cale View scheme, in Wincanton.

The 74-bed home will provide care for adults of all ages, with challenging behaviours associated with complex neurological and mental health conditions. It is due to be completed in 2022.

Fleet – 60-bed care home

The first of a new generation of care homes is to be built in Fleet, Hampshire, by Midas Construction on behalf of Principle Care Homes.

Heron Manor, on Reading Road North will see the creation of a 60-bedroom care home which will provide residential and dementia care and include features such as a physiotherapy suite, exercise studio and hydrotherapy pool. It is scheduled to open in Spring 2023.

During the past five years Midas has built 15 care homes, on behalf of private operators and local authorities, with a combined value of £100m and providing a total of 627 bed spaces.

Bristol – £10.6m office refurbishment

Midas Construction began work on the £10.6m office and retail refurbishment of the former Tower House, in Fairfax Street, close to The Galleries, with the new look building set to be renamed The Fairfax and opening in early 2022.

The development aims to offer a mix of office and social space, providing a cultural hub. The revamp of the 14-storey, 71,000sq ft office building will see substantial refurbishment across all floors, which includes offices, a café and retail units on the ground floor, one of which will be a yoga studio.

Swindon – £50m housing scheme

Nationwide Building Society’s £50m Oakfield project, delivering 239 homes, is being delivered by Mi-space. Work began in 2021 and is scheduled for completion by Spring 2022.

Southampton – £14m engineering centre

Midas Construction has started work on The Engineering Centre, a £14m project which will enhance collaboration for the University of Southampton Science Park and businesses within the Enterprise M3 LEP area. It will also house the Future Towns Innovations Hub (FTIH).

The building, due for completion in early 2022, will provide specialist laboratory facilities that will support a range of sectors such as eco-hydraulics, electronics, transport research, aerospace, energy, unmanned systems and a number of hydraulic flumes. Wave force tanks and anechoic chambers designed to deaden sound are among the elements to be developed by Midas Construction.

Camberley – power tools HQ

Midas Construction has been appointed to build a new warehouse and GB headquarters for leading global power tools company STIHL.

The project will see the creation of a 11,285sq m purpose-designed facility off the A331 in Camberley, Surrey.

The investment follows sustained growth for STIHL GB and will allow the business and its workforce of 95 employees to move from existing premises nearby in the Yorktown area of Camberley. The Southampton-based Southern Division of Midas Construction began preparatory work on site in December 2021.

This is the reaction of some viewers to the BBC Countryfile programme on Sunday. This was the first  time that Countryfile devoted a whole programme to just one landowner, in this case Clinton Devon Estate.

COUNTRYFILE viewers weren’t impressed with one aspect of Sunday’s instalment as Matt Baker visited a dairy farm.

Charlotte McIntyre www.express.co.uk

Matt Baker took a trip to Otter Farm on the Clinton Devon Estates in the latest edition of Countryfile. The BBC presenter spoke to Youngstock Manager Alice heading up the calving team but fans of the rural show took to social media to share their “disappointment” at one of the processes being implemented on the farm.

Alice showed Matt around the farm and introduced him to some newborn calves. 

“What time were these born?” Matt asked and Alice replied: “This one was born nine o’clock last night and the other two four o’clock this morning.”

“They’re doing very well but obviously not with mum,” Matt pointed out.

Alice explained: “Ideally we take them off as soon as possible.

Countryfile: Matt quizzed Alice on how she and her team manage the dairy farm (Image: BBC)

“We let the mother cow lick the calf because it’s really important to release the pheromones in the cow’s brain, it helps with pain relief.

“But after that, we take the calf away to make sure it has its colostrum that it really needs.”

Matt remarked: “And that term colostrum, that really special milk with all of the antibodies.

“That’s really key to the [calves]. How do you get it to them?”

“With a cow, there’s no immunity passed through the placenta so it’s 100 percent dependent on the colostrum,” Alice answered. 

“But with cows, they produce so much milk that the colostrum gets diluted away within a matter of hours.

“So we take the calf away, put it somewhere nice and clean and cosy, milk the cow and then feed the calf the colostrum.”

“How long do they stay in this barn?” Matt queried.

“They’ll be in here for 14 weeks and then after that, they go outside and enjoy the sunshine on their backs,” she replied. 

Countryfile viewers took to Twitter to slam the process of taking calves away from their mothers.

Jane Ward tweeted: “Why on earth would you remove calves from their mums? Profit? Profit? Profit? #countryfile.”

Sarah Hutchison remarked: “Very disappointed to see #countryfile showcasing the practice of removing calves at birth. Calves should be with their mothers until weaning.”

“Naively thought that calves were kept with the mother cow until they were at least 6 months old Face with cold sweat #countryfile,” Mary Hinge said. (sic)

Michelle Gray wrote: “Calves should be with their mums #countryfile.”

“Dairy farming is so cruel on the mother cows and calves #countryfile,” @Bufferb2012 shared. 

“I get it. I’ll sort it.”

First announcement, hot off the press: there will be a new “Office of the Prime Minister” to replace the “Prime Minister’s Office”.

PMO becomes OPM.

A re-branding exercise, what genius thought that one up?

Order the new stationary immediately! (And what about a new paint job for the flat?)- Owl