“Now you see it, now you don’t!” Catch phrase of the trickster. – Owl

The government response [to pollution] appears to be to change how incidents are classified, rather than greater effort to tackle the cause of them.

The Environment Agency has told its officials to cut back on inspections of bathing water pollution incidents and rely instead on water company assessments.

Adam Vaughan, Environment Editor www.thetimes.co.uk 

England has more than 400 designated bathing waters from beaches to lakes in the Cotswolds and The Serpentine river in London. However, some are regularly hit by sewage spills including those that have plagued the Isle of Wight, a Cornish cove and beaches along the southeast coast in recent weeks.

Despite rising public concern over the issue, the country’s environment regulator has privately issued guidance that weakens its inspection regime when people report pollution incidents.

One UN campaigner said the shift was “like asking an arsonist to assess fire damage” and a “hammer blow” to clean water efforts.

Previously, for the two most serious of four categories of incident, “cat 1” and “cat 2”, Environment Agency officers would attend and investigate in person after a member of the public reported pollution.

However, in August, shortly before heavy rains led to a series of shocking sewage spills from Seaford in East Sussex to beaches in Devon and Cornwall, the regulator issued supplementary guidance to staff on how to classify bathing water incidents.

Officials have now been told that their usual presumption “that an impact has occurred” can be overturned if “appropriate information to demonstrate no impact has been provided by the water company.”

A source at the agency said: “It used to be: incident reported, someone from the EA on site, then contact the water company to see what they have to say about it. You’re now missing that ‘someone on site’.”

Lewis Pugh, an endurance swimmer who recently became the first person to swim the Red Sea in a bid to increase action at the Cop27 climate conference, said: “Asking water companies to assess their own pollution is like asking an arsonist to assess fire damage. Our beaches are already amongst the most polluted in Europe.”

Pugh, 52, who is the UN Patron of the Oceans, continued: “This is a hammer blow for what remains of our efforts to protect Britain’s coastal waters from pollution. It’s offensive to swimmers, surfers, beach walkers and our precious wildlife.”

The motivation for the new guidance, leaked to Greenpeace’s investigative unit Unearthed and seen by The Times, appears to be concern within government that a growth in bathing water incidents looks bad. Last year there were 126 incidents in bathing waters, most of them caused by sewage. The figure is more than twice that of recent years.

The government response appears to be to change how incidents are classified, rather than greater effort to tackle the cause of them. The document circulated to Environment Agency officers, sensitive enough to be marked “controlled content,” said: “Judging the appropriate classification for bathing water incidents has been recognised as of particular concern.”

Experts working with the water sector said the shift was in line with how regulation on water pollution has changed in recent years. “This is part and parcel of the overall approach which has become apparent over degrading inspections, or heavy prioritisation attached to attending only the worst incidents,” said Alastair Chisholm, director of policy at the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management.

The water companies “have always” provided impact assessments of pollution events, but the guidance suggests the agency will have to place greater reliance on them, Jo Bradley, formerly a water quality adviser at the Environment Agency, told Unearthed.

The regulator received an increase in its government funding this year. But even its chairman has admitted that cuts in recent years have hampered its ability to undertake inspections. James Bevan told the House of Lords in October “the amount of resource that we have had over the last decade or so … has affected our ability to regulate in certain ways”.

Jim McMahon, the shadow environment secretary, said: “It is astonishing that the Environment Agency would even consider asking water companies to mark their own homework given their record on sewage discharges. What’s next, putting Matt Hancock in charge of counting votes for the next bushtucker trial?”

Failure by water companies to properly self-report pollution incidents has been a growing source of controversy, and has led to an investigation into water companies’ sewage treatment plants by the sector’s other main regulator, Ofwat. The regulator wrote to the chief executives of all the wastewater companies last month to raise concerns over firms’ draft improvement plans, which are meant to ensure the “best outcome for the environment”.

“This summer has underlined how important it is for companies to step up and improve their performance. These plans are a chance for them to address some of the key challenges the sector is facing, including storm overflow spills, pollution incidents and sewer flooding,” an Ofwat spokesperson said. “Unfortunately, the draft plans companies have submitted fall short of our expectations.”

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “There has been no change to how we classify and assess pollution incident reports. We are promoting a precautionary approach which assumes a water quality impact has occurred unless proven otherwise, providing bathers with the best information on any risks associated with using affected bathing waters.”

However the agency went on to implicitly admit there had been a change in guidance as it said the document issued in August provided a greater consistency of approach. In the past fortnight, Environment Agency staff with the Prospect and Unison unions have both voted to go on strike over below-inflation pay offers.

Closure of Digger’s Rest in Jupp’s constituency features in National Press

‘We are not even full for Christmas’ – England’s restaurants count their lost bookings

Joe Middleton www.theguardian.com (Extract)

More than a third of hospitality businesses are at risk of failure in early 2023 due to cost increases, the UKHospitality survey found. Figures from the Insolvency Service showed that the number of restaurants and food outlets across the UK entering liquidation has increased by 46% in the three months to September.

While Hunt’s autumn statement included a £13.6bn package to support business rates payers, industry experts were critical of the lack of focus on economic growth.

Arwen Beaton (right) publican at the Digger’s Rest in Woodbury Salterton, Devon, with Daniel Kelly. Photograph: Emily Whitfield-Wicks

“It’s absolutely heartbreaking, we worked so hard and we have walked away with nothing to show for it after almost three years,” said Arwen Beaton, publican at The Digger’s Rest in east Devon after closing its doors for the last time. The thatched pub nestled in the picturesque village of Woodbury Salterton was taken over by Beaton, 48, and her partner Daniel Kelly, 42, in April 2020 at the start of the pandemic.

The couple offered free food delivery to vulnerable people and opened a shop selling essential items to locals, before reopening after lockdown.

“At the beginning of this year we were in a good place, we had somehow got through Covid and everything was looking positive and then we were hit with massive cost increases,” said Beaton.

Energy costs at the pub “tripled”, food prices went through the roof with key items such as cooking oil more than doubling and the pub operator which owns the premises increased the rent by 10%.

Beaton said that for the first time customers were “talking about their finances at the bar” and footfall began to decline as they went from seeing regulars once a week to less than once a month.

In August, The Digger’s Rest was 30% down on the previous year’s takings , forcing it to close its doors for good on 7 November.

Beaton said that three other pubs within a five-mile radius also shut up shop in recent weeks, adding that rural pubs in particular were “part of the community” and when they are gone “you will struggle to get them back”.

Emma McClarkin, the chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said the industry remained on a “knife-edge” and it was “very disappointed” that a 12.5% rate of VAT was not implemented.

Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of UKHospitality, welcomed the business rates support but said the chancellor failed to outline “any plan for economic growth” and there is “nothing to give firms confidence, let alone invest”…

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said it had “provided an unprecedented package of support including VAT cuts, business rates holidays and government backed loans worth around £400bn”.

A hotel in Exmouth has been confirmed to host an unspecified number of asylum seekers within the coming days. East Devon District Council said it has been informed by the Home Office that an unnamed hotel in the town will be temporarily housing asylum seekers who are beginning their asylum application.

Shannon Brown www.devonlive.com

A number of hotels across the country are being used by the Home Office to house asylum seekers temporarily, following a backlog of asylum applications yet to be processed.

This comes after an investigation into the Manston processing centre in Kent found there to be 4,000 people temporarily housed there – over double its 1,600 capacity. It has since stood empty, since the people being held there were moved to hotels across the country, including one in Cornwall.

According to East Devon District Council, asylum seekers would be arriving in Exmouth within the next few days. Their accommodation will be funded by the Home Office, the council confirms, adding that it was not consulted on the decision.

A statement from the council said it will consider the best way to facilitate support needs for the visitors, in collaboration with its partner organisations including Devon County Council and NHS Devon.

Councillor Steve Gazzard, Exmouth Town Council’s chairman, said: “Exmouth extended an extremely warm welcome to our Afghan families in 2021 and I hope the community will once again help these asylum seekers to feel safe, respected and understood as members of our diverse community.

“The town council will be working with its partners to support the new arrivals and more details will be provided next week on ways in which you can potentially help.”

Councillor Roger Croad, Devon County Council’s cabinet member with responsibility for communities, said: “We are aware of the Home Office’s commissioning of the hotel, as short-term emergency accommodation for asylum seekers who are at the start of the asylum application process. This is one of many across the country that the Home Office is utilising for this purpose.

“We don’t know how long those placed here will remain in Devon, but we and our district, parish and town councils partners in Devon, and with excellent support from NHS Devon colleagues and the voluntary sector, are well placed to provide care and support to individuals. We are extending our hand of welcome to those new arrivals, and with a duty of care, will do all we can to support them.”

NHS Devon’s chief medical officer Dr Nigel Acheson said: “The NHS in Devon has well-established processes in place to ensure our doctors and other health professionals can provide essential care to support very vulnerable people arriving in our country as refugees or asylum seekers. Local people can continue to access health services as normal.”

On Wednesday Home Secretary Suella Braverman faced the Commons Home Affairs Committee over whose fault the conditions at the Manston processing centre were. The Home Office has now been threatened with five legal actions over the site.

Speaking to MPs on Wednesday, Ms Braverman said: “I’m not going to point the finger of blame at any one person. It’s not as simple as that.”

When pressed further, she said: “I tell you who’s at fault. It’s very clear who’s at fault. It’s the people who are breaking our rules, coming here illegally, exploiting vulnerable people and trying to reduce the generosity of the British people. That’s who’s at fault.”

However, MPs said there is a “shortage of safe and legal routes” to the UK for asylum seekers after the Home Secretary struggled to explain how an orphaned African child fleeing war and religious persecution, who has a sibling living legally in the UK, would be able to make a claim from abroad.

In the exchange on Wednesday, Ms Braverman replied: “Well, we have an asylum system and people can put in applications for asylum.”

Tim Loughton a Conservative member of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, then asked: “How would I do that?”

To which Ms Braverman said: “You can do it through the safe and legal routes that we have.”

But Mr Loughton replied: “I’m not Syrian. I’m not Afghan. I’m not Ukrainian… What scheme is open to me?”

“Well, if you are able to get to the UK, you’re able to put in an application for asylum,” Ms Braverman added.

Mr Loughton asked: “I would only enter the UK illegally then, wouldn’t I? How could I arrive in the UK if I didn’t have permission to get on to an aircraft to arrive legally in the UK?” At this point, Ms Braverman asked Home Office officials to step in and respond further.

A Devon MP has raised concerns over sewage discharges in the House of Commons after his son became ill swimming in a local river. It comes as the Surfers Against Sewage Water Quality report was released uncovering evidence of people becoming sick from swimming in water polluted by sewage.

Lewis Clarke www.devonlive.com 

In a question to Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt, Richard Foord, the Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton and Honiton, asked when the government will finally crack down on water companies polluting our waterways despite evidence of people getting sick – including his own son.

He said the coastal constituency of Tiverton and Honiton is plagued with sewage spills from South West Water, the second worst offender of “dry spills” in the UK according to the SAS Water Quality Report.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Thursday, November 24, Mr Foord said: “Today, we have seen a damning report from Surfers Against Sewage regarding the scale of discharges being committed by water companies. In particular, the report includes new revelations about dry spills that pollute our rivers and beaches even when there is no rainfall. My own son was ill after entering the water earlier this year, in the summer—he came down with a spell of gastroenteritis, as did his friend—so I have some personal experience of this issue.

“Thanks to that report, we now know that South West Water, which covers the Tiverton and Honiton constituency, is one of the worst offenders. Will the Leader of the House make time available so that hon. Members from across the House can discuss the report’s findings in relation to dry spills?”

Responding, Leader of the House, Penny Mordaunt MP said: “First, I am very sorry to hear that the hon. Gentleman’s son was ill, and that this was the cause. This issue is vital, and this Government have committed through the Environment Act 2021 and other work done by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ensure both that genuine storm overflows are reduced and that we are monitoring what water companies are doing.

“In 2016, I think only five per cent of such discharges were monitored; from next year, that figure will be up to 100%, which is a key part of getting to the bottom of this. The report is an important one. I do not think there will be Environment, Food and Rural Affairs questions until 12 January, so I will write on the hon. Gentleman’s behalf and ask the Department to respond to his question.”

Speaking after the debate, Mr Foord, who lives in Uffculme, where the River Culm flows, added: “Our children should not be getting sick from spending time in nature or building sandcastles next to sewage. This is an environmental scandal. It is deeply shocking to hear people from across the South West, the Lake District and beyond have become sick from swimming in lakes and coastlines as a result of these ‘dry spills’. My own son became ill swimming in a Devon river.

“Months of Conservative chaos and an ever-changing cast of Environment Secretaries has meant that instead of action taken to hold water companies to account, we have only seen empty threats from the Government. Those MPs who voted against a ban on these sewage discharges last year should hang their heads in shame. The time is now to save Britain’s wild swimming spots and wildlife. This is a wake-up call to Conservative Ministers whose instinct is to do nothing.”

Development of a new business park in East Devon that will create up to 500 jobs has been backed by district council chiefs.

East Devon Reporter eastdevonnews.co.uk

A plot at Long Lane, opposite the Future Skills Centre near Exeter Airport, has been earmarked for the ‘Power Park’ scheme.

It will form part of the Exeter and East Devon Enterprise Zone.

East Devon District Council’s (EDDC) Planning Committee gave its seal of approval to a red tape-cutting Local Development Order (LDO) at its October meeting.

The document will ‘simplify’ the planning process so that developers can more easily bring forward ‘high-quality’ premises for a range of businesses.

EDDC says the LDO ‘will enable a sustainable new business park to be created to meet changing demands within the business and industrial sectors’.

“It will encourage investment and economic growth, creating up to 500 new jobs in East Devon,” said a spokesperson.

EDDC leader Councillor Paul Arnott, who chairs the Exeter and East Devon Enterprise Zone, added: “This new LDO shows we are committed to unlocking development in the Enterprise Zone to bring high-value jobs to local people.

“The LDO will simplify the planning process and minimise delays so that employment opportunities can come forward quickly.

“The LDO will provide a framework for sustainable development through a mixed-use scheme with good place making whilst mitigating the impact on the local environment and wildlife.”

The LDO will set out the type and quantity of development which can take place on the site.

Developers would need to demonstrate their proposals comply with the LDO before starting the development.

Devon and Cornwall Police are seeking help from the public identifying a man who was found dead on the Sidmouth coastline earlier this week. The body of a man was found on Thursday, November 24 on rocks at The Esplanade, at around 2.20pm.

Shannon Brown www.devonlive.com

Officers are working to establish who the man is in order to locate his next of kin. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

A number of emergency service staff, including police, HM Coastguard, RNLI and the ambulance service attended the scene on Sidmouth waterside. The man’s death is not being treated as suspicious at this time.

Devon and Cornwall Police have asked anyone who may know who the man is to get in contact, so they can inform his next of kin. He is described as white, possibly in his early 70s, of average build, with short grey hair, and approximately 5ft 10in tall.

He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, which is white with a blue check, black trousers with a brown belt, and black socks. The man was not wearing any shoes or a jacket and had no personal belongings or jewellery with him.

Detective Inspector Andy Hingston said: “We’re keen to speak to anyone who may recognise this person from our description. We are not treating his death as suspicious at this time and are keen to identify him so that we can inform his next-of-kin.

“We would ask whether any hotels or care homes are aware of anyone who has not returned, or anyone who thinks they know who he is to contact us.”

If you have any information that could help with enquiries, please contact police via the website here or by calling 101 quoting log 443 of 24/11/22.

Michael Gove is facing mounting pressure to fully explain his role in the government’s award of large PPE contracts to a company that was first recommended to him by the Tory peer Michelle Mone.

David Conn www.theguardian.com 

Asked in an interview on Thursday how he had responded to Lady Mone’s approach in May 2020, Gove said he had referred all offers of PPE to “the appropriate civil service channels”.

That explanation appears to be at odds with a chain of emails previously released under the Freedom of Information Act that shed light on how the company, PPE Medpro, was added to a “VIP” lane that prioritised politically connected firms. The emails suggest that after initially being contacted by Mone, Gove suggested she contact another then minister, the Tory peer Theodore Agnew.

She then did so, emailing Gove and Lord Agnew using their private, non-governmental email addresses to tell them about PPE that could be procured from “my team in Hong Kong”. It was Agnew, who was then a minister in the Cabinet Office responsible for procurement, who referred PPE Medpro to the VIP lane.

Pressed repeatedly by the presenter Kay Burley on Sky News to recall how he responded to Mone’s offer, Gove, who was Cabinet Office minister at the time, said his job then was to make sure anyone who offered PPE was “referred to the right channel”.

He added: “I would have hoped that you or I, if someone said ‘I can provide PPE’, that we would have said: ‘Great. The thing to do is to go to this official government process, to go through this procurement gateway, to have the quality of the contract that you’re seeking to secure assessed.’”

However, the emails obtained by the Guardian appear to show Gove directing Mone not directly to civil servants but to a fellow minister.

They reveal how Mone laid out a sales pitch to Agnew for the supply of PPE. The government had by then suspended normal competitive tendering processes and, it would later emerge, was fast-tracking to a “VIP” lane offers of PPE referred by politically connected people.

“I hope this email finds you well,” Mone wrote to Agnew, copying in Gove, using their private email addresses. “Michael Gove has asked to urgently contact you [sic]. We have managed to source PPE masks though [sic] my team in Hong Kong. They have managed to secure 100,000pcs per day of KN95 [face masks] which is equivalent to N95 or FFP2. In order to commit to this 100,000pcs per day could you please get back to me asap as freight will also need to be secured. Hope to see you in the House of Lords when we get out of lockdown. Kindest regards, Michelle.”

Agnew replied from his personal email address, copying in the government email address of his private secretary. “Michelle, thank you for your kind offer. I am forwarding this into the appropriate PPE workstream with Dept of Health. They will ask you some basic questions on the details of the offer and then hopefully progress it from there. Best wishes Theodore.”

One of his staff then emailed a Covid PPE “priority appraisals” mailbox, asking them to “pick up with Baroness Mone”. The staff member added the words “VIA LORD AGNEW” and “VIP” to the subject field.

At that stage, the company, PPE Medpro, had not even been incorporated. However, within weeks it had been awarded two government contracts worth £203m to supply millions of face masks and sterile surgical gowns.

Mone’s lawyers have previously said she never had any role “in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro”. PPE Medpro previously said the company “was not awarded the contract because of company or personal connections to the UK government or the Conservative party”.

The Guardian was only able to establish that private emails had been used because of an apparent administrative error by the Cabinet Office, which failed to properly redact documents released after a freedom of information request from the Guardian.

The Guardian contacted Gove to ask him how the account he gave of his response to Mone’s offer on Sky News, in which he said he referred all offers to “the appropriate civil service channels”, was consistent with the suggestion he in fact told Mone to contact Agnew. He did not respond.

The government has consistently defended the “VIP” process; spokespeople have maintained that contracts were awarded “in line with procurement regulations and transparency guidelines, and there are robust rules and processes in place to prevent conflicts of interest”. However, the use of the high-priority lane to award contacts has been ruled unlawful by the high court.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader and the shadow chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, said: “Michael Gove must urgently come clean with the public on his personal involvement in the award of contracts to PPE Medpro during his time as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster.

“The government must commit to publishing all the documents and correspondence relating to the award of taxpayer contracts to PPE Medpro out in the open.”

The growing controversy over a PPE company linked to the Tory peer Michelle Mone has sparked an angry reaction in parliament, as MPs demanded an investigation into wider concerns over what one called “absolutely sickening, shameful and unforgivable” instances of politically connected firms profiteering from unusable PPE during the pandemic.

Henry Dyer www.theguardian.com 

Parliamentarians asked ministers for more information about how PPE Medpro was awarded more than £200m in government contracts after it was referred to ministers by Lady Mone.

They also used the occasion to ask broader questions about the government’s procurement contracts during the pandemic – some of which, one MP said, had since been flagged by Transparency International as a “corruption risk”.

In response to an urgent question on Thursday from Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, the junior health minister Neil O’Brien repeatedly sought to defend the government’s actions and its use of a “VIP lane” that prioritised referrals from politically connected PPE companies.

The minister said that “the people who came through the high-priority route were not politically connected people, except in the sense that they were being referred in by MPs across the house”.

The urgent question was triggered by a report in the Guardian on Wednesday. It revealed that the Conservative peer Mone and her children secretly received £29m originating from the profits of PPE Medpro, a company that was awarded large government contracts after she recommended it to ministers, documents seen by the newspaper indicate.

Mone’s referral of the company to the Tory ministers Michael Gove and Theodore Agnew helped it secure a place the “VIP lane”, which was used by the government during the coronavirus pandemic to prioritise certain companies. PPE Medpro then secured two contracts worth more £203m.

Tens of millions of pounds of PPE Medpro’s profits were later transferred to a secret offshore trust of which Mone and her adult children were the beneficiaries, the documents indicate. The documents state that the secret payment to the trust was via Mone’s husband, Douglas Barrowman, who had weeks earlier received at least £65m in profits from PPE Medpro.

Mone’s lawyer last year said she “did not benefit financially and was not connected to PPE Medpro in any capacity”. On Thursday, Mone broke a 10-month-long silence on Twitter by sharing an image that said: “Don’t believe everything you read, or everything you think.”

The SNP Cabinet Office spokesperson Brendan O’Hara said it was “almost inevitable” the VIP lane “would come to this”.

‘Sleaze, corruption and scandal’: MP Brendan O’Hara confronts government over PPE contracts – video

“This get-rich-quick scheme to fast-track cronies, politically connected pals and colleagues was never going to end well. I suspect that today’s revelations, however shocking, are simply the tip of a very large iceberg – an iceberg that could yet sink this ship of fools,” he said.

He added: “Transparency International UK has flagged 20% of the £15bn given out by the Tories in PPE contracts at the height of the pandemic as a corruption risk. As we have already heard, they are spending £770,000 every single day to store much of that useless equipment in China.

“Now that we have one Tory politician who had absolutely no background in PPE procurement personally making millions from those contracts, does the government plan to proactively investigate how many others like that are in their ranks, or are they content to sit there and watch this dripping roast of sleaze, corruption and scandal unfold on its own?”

O’Brien replied that “the idea that there was some sort of greater success if you had a political connection, when you say ‘politically connected’, they were our constituents – they were getting in touch with all of us, they had to be referred on somewhere, they had to be managed and they went through the same process as every other contract”.

The UK government is continuing its attempt to recover money from PPE Medpro in relation to unused gowns purchased in a £122m contract – one of two the company was awarded. The gowns were rejected after a technical inspection and never used.

PPE Medpro insists the gowns purchased through the £122m contract passed inspection, and that the company – and, presumably, the beneficiaries of its profits – are entitled to keep the money.

O’Brien told parliament that a “process” was under way with regard to what he called an “underperforming contract”. “The first step is to send a letter before action, which outlines a claim for damages. That is followed by litigation in the event that a satisfactory agreement has not been reached.”

Rayner called on the government to publish correspondence on the award of PPE Medpro’s contracts once the mediation process was finished, a call that O’Brien did not respond to.

The SNP MP Alan Brown called for “a public inquiry into PPE procurement”, while Labour’s Sam Tarry called for the government to publish “in full” the names of the ministers, MPs and officials who referred companies to the VIP lane. “We need to know what corruption happened,” Tarry said.

The Commons speaker reminded members that parliamentary procedure meant MPs were not allowed to specifically criticise the conduct of Mone, a sitting member of the House of Lords.

However, several MPs expressed strongly worded criticism of the revelations in the Guardian.

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, who lost three family members in the pandemic, said: “For Tory peers and other chums of the Conservative party to have been profiteering at taxpayers’ expense from shoddy, unusable PPE, especially through the VIP procurement lane, at a time when people were locked down in their homes and tens of thousands of people, including my loved ones, were dying is absolutely sickening, shameful and unforgivable”.

Dhesi called on O’Brien to offer an apology to bereaved families for “the amazing lack of integrity at the heart of this whole process”. The minister did not do so.

Criticism of the PPE contracts came from both sides of the house, with the Conservative MP Christopher Chope asking O’Brien: “What has happened to the £122m which was spent on 25m gowns supplied by the company referred to earlier, but whose gowns were never used and weren’t fit for purpose?”

But another Tory MP, Peter Bone, said there was a “rewriting of history” taking place, alleging that the opposition was making political points “out of what was actually a great success in getting our NHS staff protected”.

Contacted about the Guardian’s new disclosures on Wednesday, a lawyer for Mone said: “There are a number of reasons why our client cannot comment on these issues and she is under no duty to do so.”

A lawyer who represents both Barrowman and PPE Medpro said that a continuing investigation limited what his clients were able to say on these matters. He added: “For the time being we are also instructed to say that there is much inaccuracy in the portrayal of the alleged ‘facts’ and a number of them are completely wrong.”

Richard Foord raises new sewage spill report in Parliament

Honiton MP Richard Foord is going to raise the topic of the Surfers Against Sewage report in Parliament today, (Thursday).

Water pollution is the result of underinvestment, this public utility has been asset stripped by privatisation. It is subject to weak “light touch” regulation, and chronic underfunding of the Environment Agency.

As a “newly promoted” PPS, Simon Jupp is not free to criticise his government on such fundamental policy issues. So he is unlikely to intervene.

PPSs aren’t exactly “free to speak and free to act.”

Tough luck for Budleigh and Exmouth residents. – Owl

Adam Manning www.midweekherald.co.uk

The report found that South West Water was the second worst offender in the country and gives evidence of people becoming sick from swimming in polluted water. 

The new report uncovers evidence of illegal “dry spills” of sewage into the sea at Exmouth, Sidmouth, Budleigh Salterton and Sandy Bay among spills in rivers, lakes and coastlines across the UK.

The Liberal Democrat MP represents Tiverton & Honiton, where local rivers and beaches have been plagued with sewage spills and his son also became ill after swimming in a local river this summer.

Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton and Honiton Richard Foord said: “Our children should not be getting sick from spending time in nature or building sandcastles next to sewage.

“This is an environmental scandal. I will be seeking to raise this report in Parliament today and calling on Ministers to explain why water companies are getting away with making these illegal ‘dry spills’. 

“It is deeply shocking to hear people from across the South West, the Lake District and beyond have become sick from swimming in lakes and coastlines as a result of these ‘dry spills’. My own son became ill swimming in a Devon river.

“Months of chaos in Government and an ever-changing cast of Environment Secretaries has meant that instead of action taken to hold water companies to account, we have only seen empty threats from Government. Those MPs who voted against a ban on these sewage discharges last year should hang their heads in shame. 

“The time is now to save Britain’s wild swimming spots and wildlife. This is a wake-up call to Conservative Ministers whose instinct is to do nothing.”

The full Surfers Against Sewage report is a “must read” and can be found here.

“Excellent” Seaton, Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton, Beer, Sidmouth are all listed in descending order of numbers of “dry spills”. [Worst first] – Owl

Devon sewage dumps are ‘putting swimmers at risk’

The impact of sewage discharge on Devon’s bathing spots has been revealed in a shocking report. Today, Surfers Against Sewage released the Water Quality Report 2022, which analysed discharge alerts, meteorological data and reports of ill health to paint a damning picture of the scale of sewage spills across the UK.

Alex Davis www.devonlive.com

During the 2021/22 bathing season, research from SAS showed sewage was dumped into bathing waters 5,504 times in the UK, for a total of 15,012 hours. According to SAS, at least 146 sewage discharges occurred in multiple instances when there was no rain recorded between October 2021 and September 2022– despite regulations stipulating that outflows should only occur during ‘unusually heavy rainfall’. South West Water were the second worst water company for dry spills in the UK, reporting 21 dry spills between May 31 – September 31 2022.

Examples include sewage spills at Croyde Bay on June 21 and Sidmouth Town in 2022, despite there being no cases of ‘unusually heavy rainfall’. Croyde Bay is part of North Devon’s World Surfing Reserve due to the quality of the surf and importance of the ocean to the region’s community.

Teignmouth Holcombe suffered the most dry spills in Devon between October 2021 – September 2022 and the third most in the UK, with sewage discharged five times. Surfers against Sewage is an environmental charity based in Cornwall who campaign to end sewage discharge into UK bathing waters by 2030.

The governments Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan states that overflows at a designated bathing ground must be designed to achieve no more than three overspills for a “good” rating, and no more than two overspills for an “excellent” rating. The table below shows all designed bathing areas in Devon where an overspill occurred in 2022.

Bathing waters impacted during the bathing season- 15 May to 30 September (source: Surfers Against Sewage)

The report also argued that sewage in Britain’s oceans and rivers was having an impact on the health of bathers. Between 1st October 2021 and 30th September 2022, 720 water users contacted Surfers Against Sewage to report they had become ill after entering the water. The campaign says that’s more than double the amount of reports received in the 2020/21 season.

Of the 720 reports, 424 (58%) said they had become ill in bathing water with “Excellent” water quality ratings. Symptoms reported include respiratory issues, gastroenteritis and infections in the ear, nose and throat.

As well as having health implications for those swimming in infected water. The campaign said their consumer survey showed 11% of people became sick due to entering British waters, which they calculate as costing the economy £21.7 million a year in sick leave.

(Image: Surfers Against Sewage)

Dr Anne Leonard, an environmental epidemiologist and microbiologist based at the University of Exeter, said: “We’ve known for over one hundred years that sewage contains disease-causing microorganisms, and that ingesting water contaminated with this kind of waste causes infections. These infections may be mild, self-limiting illnesses but they can also be really severe infections that require medical treatment.

“We are particularly concerned about the presence in sewage of disease-causing bacteria that do not respond to treatment with antibiotics – so called antibiotic resistant bacteria. We are running out of antibiotics that are effective against the most resistant bacteria, so keeping sewage away from our rivers and beaches is a key public health intervention to reduce preventable infections and limit our reliance on antibiotics.”

Tiverton and Honiton dumped sewage 2766 times in 2021 – the 25th worst record in the country. MP for Tiverton and Honiton, Richard Foord, raised the report in Parliament after his son also became ill after swimming in a local river this summer. He said: “This is an environmental scandal. I will be seeking to raise this report in Parliament today and calling on Ministers to explain why water companies are getting away with making these illegal ‘dry spills’.

“It is deeply shocking to hear people from across the South West, the Lake District and beyond have become sick from swimming in lakes and coastlines as a result of these ‘dry spills’. My own son became ill swimming in a Devon river.

“Months of chaos in Government and an ever-changing cast of Environment Secretaries has meant that instead of action taken to hold water companies to account, we have only seen empty threats from Government. Those MPs who voted against a ban on these sewage discharges last year should hang their heads in shame.

“The time is now to save Britain’s wild swimming spots and wildlife. This is a wake-up call to Conservative Ministers whose instinct is to do nothing.”

Good for a long old Mone:

It’s the VIP contracts scandal that keeps on giving: Baroness Michelle Mone and her kids received £29 million via the massive COVID PPE contract she lobbied to secure for a firm she had links to — and the cash was squirreled offshore out of the clutches of the taxman, the Guardian reveals this morning. The belter of a scoop from David Conn (no pun intended) throws into question the past claims from Mone’s legal representatives that she received no financial benefit from the contract award to the now infamous PPE Medpro. 

From Politico london Playbook

From a concerned correspondent:

Question one of  “A quick survey for the East Devon Local Plan” asks

 Where should new homes and jobs go – the big picture?

The Government currently requires EDDC to plan for around 20,500 extra homes in East Devon (1,040 a year) for the period of 2020 to 2040.

Rishi Sunak is reported to be in the process of climbing down on targets in The Levelling Up Bill and some compromise on imposing “Soviet Style” top down targets seems inevitable.

The question is will East Devon still continue to promote their new plan? Will they follow the example of Bristol and seek the true number of housing that East Devon needs, not some arbitrary figure imposed by central government?

Shouldn’t EDDC start to find out just what the real local need for housing is?

Please make your views known to your EDDC councillors at this early stage and, by default, not build over the agricultural land we so badly need and despoil our wonderful countryside.

Deputy PM Dominic Raab is facing fresh bullying complaints from senior civil servants across multiple government departments, BBC Newsnight has learned.

Simon Jupp was a SpAd to Raab before being selected as the Conservative candidate for East Devon.

Interestingly, Simon recently said this about the “shouty oldies of Salterton”: “There’s no excuse to verbally abuse staff who are just doing their jobs.” 

By Nicholas Watt & Liz Rawlings www.bbc.co.uk

A number of Mr Raab’s former private secretaries – senior officials who work most closely with ministers on a daily basis – are preparing to submit formal complaints, sources told the BBC.

Mr Raab requested an investigation into his own conduct towards staff in the wake of two earlier complaints.

He denies any allegations of bullying.

Mr Raab, who is also the justice secretary, maintains he has always acted with integrity and professionalism.

There is now a coordinated effort by former private secretaries of Mr Raab to ensure their allegations are heard as part of the investigation.

Private secretaries work in the private office of government ministers on the day-to-day running of the department, including managing the minister’s diary and advising on policy matters.

Meanwhile, Newsnight has also been told that Mr Raab used his personal email account for government business at two separate departments – once as recently as 2021.

Officials issued multiple warnings to the deputy prime minister not to use his email in this way, a source said.

Mr Raab, however, believes that the way he has used private email does not amount to a breach of the ministerial code, which allows for it to be done in some circumstances.

A friend of Mr Raab said he had used it on occasions to approve tweets and quotes related to government business.

Suella Braverman resigned as home secretary last month in part after admitting a breach of the ministerial code involving use of her private email to share government documents.

Ms Braverman, who has since been reappointed to the role, said this should not be done “where it was not reasonably necessary”.

Dave Penman, chief executive of the FDA union which represents senior civil servants, said: “This is an extraordinary set of circumstances. We’ve never come across a situation where so many civil servants appear to be raising complaints about a minister’s conduct.

“So if they are serious allegations about his conduct, that the prime minister has seen, he has to make a decision – is it safe essentially for civil servants to continue to work with him? That’s what any employer would do.”

The government has appointed Adam Tolley KC to investigate two formal complaints made about Mr Raab’s conduct.

Downing Street said a report would be published “in a timely way”.

Any final judgement on whether Mr Raab was in breach of the ministerial code will remain with Mr Sunak.

Mr Raab has said he will “thoroughly rebut and refute any claims made”.

Water companies have been releasing sewage onto beaches and in rivers even when it is not raining, according to a report from Surfers Against Sewage.

Helena Horton www.theguardian.com 

Sewage spills are only supposed to happen under exceptional circumstances; when it is raining so heavily that the system cannot cope with the amount of water and effluent being spewed at once.

However, there have been anecdotal accounts of local sewage outflows spilling human waste into local waterways even when it is not raining. Now, SAS claims that that these ‘dry spills’ are happening routinely, against regulations which stipulate outflows should only occur during “unusually heavy rainfall”.

Analysing meteorological data from the Met Office as well as spillage data, SAS found that 146 dry spills were detected over a 12-month period, with 95 of these at locations where water quality is classified as “excellent”. Southern Water, the worst offender, was responsible for four times as many dry spills as the next worst offender, South West Water.

Amy Slack, head of campaigns and policy at SAS, said: “Over the last year, the UK public has made clear their disgust at what’s happening to our rivers and seas, and yet water companies continue to pollute at will. It’s especially alarming to uncover evidence of potentially illegal activity by water companies in the form of dry spills, which are not permitted under current regulations. Shareholders and CEOs are unashamedly profiteering off pollution.”

“It’s high time the government stepped up and took real action to curb the destructive and selfish behaviour of the water companies responsible for this literal shit storm.”

According to data from The Environment Agency, sewage has been dumped into the ocean and rivers around the UK more than 770,000 times over the course of 2020 and 2021 – the equivalent of almost 6 million hours.

Sewage in waterways is also making people sick, the report claims.

As part of its water quality report, SAS has also analysed data from 720 sickness reports submitted to its reporting system. The data found that over a third (39%) of sickness cases correlated to sewage discharge alerts, while 63% of cases that were reported to a doctor were attributed to poor water quality.

The most common illness reported after people swam in the sea or rivers was gastroenteritis, with two in three people reporting symptoms associated with the condition. Ear, nose and throat infections were common too, with respiratory, skin and urinary tract infections also reported.

Over half of the sickness reports related to swims at locations classified as “excellent” under the government’s testing regime.

Dr Anne Leonard, an environmental epidemiologist and microbiologist based at the University of Exeter, said: “We’ve known for over 100 years that sewage contains disease-causing microorganisms, and that ingesting water contaminated with this kind of waste causes infections. These infections may be mild, self-limiting illnesses but they can also be really severe infections that require medical treatment.”

Swimmers have reported anger and upset after having to change how they interact with the water following illness.

Julia Walker, a social worker based in Shoreham, West Sussex, said: “I use the sea to help manage stress from my job as a social worker. In September I went for a swim in a popular spot prior to starting a new job. That evening I experienced diarrhoea and stabbing pain in my kidneys. The doctor confirmed I had a bacterial and a kidney infection. They felt that it was very unusual to have both at the same time but said that this was likely caused by swimming in contaminated water.

“I was unwell for six days, which impacted on my new role. It took me a couple of months to get back in the sea, and now I only swim with my head above water for fear of becoming ill again. It makes me very angry that the water companies are affecting how I use the water.”

A spokesperson at Water UK, said: “Companies agree there is an urgent need to tackle storm overflows. They are set to launch one of the country’s largest ever infrastructure programmes, which, if approved by regulators, will deliver £56bn of improvements for our rivers and seas. That builds on at least £3bn of improvements in the last couple of years alone.

Members of Hastings and St Leonards Clean Water Action protest against raw sewage release incidents on the beach in St Leonards, Sussex, in August. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

“To accelerate progress further, we need government to end housing developers’ uncontrolled connections to sewers without first knowing their capacity, and to end the flushing of wet wipes made from materials that cause blockages and fatbergs. Both are major causes of sewer overloading and spills. We also need government to implement existing legislation in order to increase the use of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) on new developments as a means of reducing the volume of rainwater entering the sewer system.”

Southern Water told the Guardian: “Storm releases, which go a long way to reduce the impact of the type of flooding we have seen recently, and which are permitted by The Environmental Agency, reduced by nearly 50% this year compared to last, in part due to a dry summer. We’re investing £2bn to improve environmental performance and further reduce their use, by increasing storage capacity and working with partners to reduce the rain runoff entering the system.

“Our data on storm overflows, including unconsented spills, is submitted to The Environment Agency. Our annual bathing water update details how we are working to create healthier rivers and seas. This improvement is being achieved through record additional investment to reduce pollution and prevent flooding, industry-leading monitoring and transparency on spill reporting, and the exploration of innovative, nature-based and engineering solutions.”

Ambulance crews could not respond to almost one in four 999 calls last month – the most ever – because so many were tied up outside A&Es waiting to hand patients over, dramatic new NHS figures show.

Do you remember 2017, the year the local Tories ruthlessly started stripping out our Community Hospitals?  – Owl

Denis Campbell www.theguardian.com 

An estimated 5,000 patients in England – also the highest number on record – potentially suffered “severe harm” through waiting so long either to be admitted to A&E or just to get an ambulance to turn up to help them.

Ambulance officers warned that patients were dying every day directly because of the delays since the service could no longer perform its role as a “safety net” for people needing urgent medical help.

“The life-saving safety net that NHS ambulance services provide is being severely compromised by these unnecessary delays and patients are dying and coming to harm as a result on a daily basis,” said Martin Flaherty, managing director of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE), which represents the heads of England’s 10 regional NHS ambulance services.

Flaherty added: “Our national data for hospital handover delays during October 2022 is extremely worrying and underlines the fact that in some parts of the country efforts to reduce or eradicate these devastating and unnecessary delays are simply not working.”

The association’s latest monthly handover delays report, published on Wednesday, reveals that the performance of ambulance services fell to its lowest ever level in October.

The report shows that 169,000 hours of ambulance crews’ time across the month was lost due to delays. It meant that paramedics could not answer 135,000 calls. That number represented 23% of ambulance services’ total “potential capacity” to respond to 999 calls.

All three totals are the worst in NHS history.

“The ambulance service is in meltdown. These figures show that it is on its knees and close to collapse as a result of vacancies, underfunding, morale being at a very low ebb and demand for ambulance care having doubled to 14m calls a year since 2010,” said Rachel Harrison, national secretary of the GMB union, which represents 15,000 staff in English ambulance services.

Ambulance services’ ability to respond rapidly to patients needing emergency and potentially life-saving care is being hampered increasingly by hospitals being unable to admit people to A&E fast enough. That is because they have almost 14,000 beds occupied by patients who are fit enough to leave but cannot be safely discharged, mainly because social care provision is inadequate to allow going home or entering a care home.

Steve Barclay, the health secretary, has identified handover delays as one of the greatest challenges facing the NHS. A&E doctors share AACE’s concern that patients are suffering sometimes serious harm, and even dying, as a result of long delays to their treatment.

The AACE report also discloses that:

• 18% of ambulance handovers took more than an hour last month, when the NHS target is 15 minutes – a nine-fold increase on the 2% seen in October 2019.
• The average handover time was 42 minutes, up 12 minutes from October 2021 and up 23 mins from Oct 2020.
• The number of one, two, three and 10-hour handovers was the highest ever recorded.
• Delays exposed an estimated 41,000 patients to potential harm, of whom about 5,000 were put at risk of, or experienced, “severe harm”, including death.

“These figures are a national disgrace but they only confirm what GMB members tell us every day,” added Harrison. “We’ve got ambulances waiting outside hospitals for more than a day, while terrified workers wait and hope their patients won’t die. In fact, a third of GMB ambulance workers think a delay they’ve been involved with has led to the death of a patient. It can’t carry on.”

The most recent NHS England data showed that ambulances were taking almost 10 minutes to reach patients facing a life-threatening emergency. The NHS target response is seven minutes.

Dr Sitso Amankwah, a GP in Kingston, London, tweeted on Tuesday about a patient who had taken an Uber ride to A&E rather than face a potentially long wait for an ambulance. “That’s good, so not unwell enough to need 999 then,” the GP told the patient. “No, I felt awful, but … Uber could get me there in less than four hours,” the patient replied. Amankwah added: “Ladies and gentlemen, I present you the NHS in 2022.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The government is clear that the NHS is a top priority and we are making up to £8bn available for health and social care in 2024/25.

“We are providing record-breaking funding which will help get us through the winter. This is on top of the action we’ve already taken including … delivering 50,000 more nurses, increasing the number of NHS call handlers, and creating the equivalent of at least 7,000 more beds, to improve patient flow through hospitals and get ambulances back on the roads quickly. We will publish a full recovery plan for urgent and emergency care next year.”

Affordable housing in Exeter has received a boost following the awarding of £293,391 government funding for a scheme in the city.

Exeter City Council news.exeter.gov.uk

The money – from the Brownfield Land Release Fund – will allow up to15 affordable homes to be built in Lower Wear Road.

The funding for Lower Wear Road is part of an overall £911,000 that will see four projects across Devon benefit from government funding. All four projects are on brownfield sites.

The Devon and Torbay One Public Estate Partnership successfully secured the money from the Brownfield Land Release Funding to support the projects.

The funding is a share of £35.9 million awarded to English councils to enable the release of council brownfield land for housing.

The scheme will allow 15 affordable homes to be built using a modular build approach. It is the first scheme of its type that Exeter has put forward for Brownfield Land Release Funding and it will also use the Prisoners Building Homes programme, working with Exeter Prison offenders to construct the modular homes.

Cllr Barbara Denning, Lead Councillor with responsibility for Council Housing, said: “I am delighted with this funding which will help deliver much needed affordable housing in the city.”

The Lower Wear Road scheme is one of a number of sites that the Council are investigating for the delivery of new build, low energy, council housing. This site forms part of the overall Housing Revenue Account development programme, with the aim of delivering 500 new Council Housing homes by 2030.

Other projects across the county set to benefit from the funding are:

• Shapland Place and St Andrews Estate – Mid Devon District Council. £100 million to create 14 affordable modular homes.
• St Kildas Brixham – Torbay Council. Provide 23 affordable homes to be delivered by 2025.

Councillor Rufus Gilbert, Devon County Council Cabinet Member for Economic Recovery and Skills, said: “I’m pleased that a number of areas across Devon and Torbay will benefit from this latest round of funding and we’ll be bidding for more in future rounds. The One Public Estate programme is ensuring vital gap funding is making it possible for these essential housing projects to go ahead which is good news for local residents and our local economy.”

The Devon & Torbay One Public Estate partnership is made up of 10 local authorities (Devon County Council, East Devon District Council, Exeter City Council, Mid Devon District Council, North Devon Council, South Hams District Council, Teignbridge District Council, Torbay Council, Torridge District Council and West Devon Borough Council) as well as the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership, Devon & Cornwall Police, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, the NHS, and South Western Ambulance Service.

The Brownfield Land Release Fund is administered through the One Public Estate programme which is a partnership between the Office of Government Property in the Cabinet Office, the Local Government Association and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Up to £180 million in capital grants will be available through Brownfield Land Release Funding over the next three years. The Devon and Torbay One Public Estate Partnership is currently developing a plan for the later rounds.

Second-home owners in north Wales face a possible 150% premium on council tax bills next year with the extra £3m raised set to be used to ease the area’s spiralling homelessness crisis.

The level of surcharging is creeping up and the number of second homes in East Devon has now reached one in 23 properties. – Owl

Steven Morris www.theguardian.com 

Gwynedd council’s housing lead said it was “immoral” for people to have more than one home while other people had nowhere to live and blamed the UK and Welsh governments.

Councillor Craig ab Iago, the cabinet member for housing, said: “It is immoral that there are people with second homes when there are people who don’t have a house at all.”

He accepted that the Labour-controlled Welsh government had started to bring in measures to tackle the second-homes crisis, but said: “It isn’t enough in my opinion. We’ve been asking for help for decades and it’s only now happening.” He also blamed the UK government for creating an economic climate in which the less well-off were left “fighting over scraps”.

The council’s Plaid Cymru-controlled cabinet unanimously backed the idea of raising council tax premiums on second homes to 150% from April at a meeting in Caernarfon on Tuesday. It will ask the full council to give final approval at its meeting next week.

Cabinet members were told that there had been a 47% increase in the number of homeless people in Gwynedd over the last two years – while almost one in 10 properties in the area was a second home.

Since the financial year 2021/22, second-home owners in Gwynedd have been paying 100% council tax premiums. So, for example, a £1,000 bill for a permanent resident would turn into £2,000 for a second-home owner.

The devolved Welsh government has changed the law to allow councils to impose up to 300% premiums as part of a raft of measures designed to tackle the second-homes problem. The cabinet did not think the 300% could be justified but said the rate would be reviewed annually.

Councillor Beca Brown said: “It does stick in the throat that people have more than one house when there are so many people without anywhere to live. I welcome the idea of directing the money that could be raised from the premium towards this crisis.

“There’s hidden homelessness, people who are sleeping on sofas, people who can’t move away from home and are living in parents’ attic rooms. Each of us are just two or three problems away from being homeless. It isn’t just something that happens to someone else. It could happen to anybody.”

The leader of the council, Dyfrig Siencyn, said other places across the UK, from Pembrokeshire to North Yorkshire and Cornwall, were facing similar issues. He also flagged up the problem of Airbnbs. “It’s easy to buy a house, easy to let it. They are the people we need to target.”

So far the debate has focused on second homes in Gwynedd leading to an increase in the price of houses and flats to a level beyond the means of local residents hoping to buy. One major problem this has created is pressure on the Welsh language as speakers are priced out of heartland areas.

But this is in turn is leading to pressure on the rental market because local people who cannot afford to buy are renting – meaning that more people are being pushed into temporary accommodation such as hotels and B&Bs.

Boost for the Hospitality Trade – isn’t this what Simon Jupp has been asking for? Anyone had an invite from him yet? – Owl

Rishi Sunak has warned MPs that they will have to justify to their constituents any expenses they claim to cover the cost of staff Christmas parties.

New guidance from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) has informed MPs that, for the first time, bills for food, drink and festive decorations can all be claimed,

Adam Forrest www.independent.co.uk 

But the move – which allows MPs to claim potentially thousands of pounds in party costs – sparked a backlash among MPs, who described it as “bonkers” and “irresponsible”.

Ipsa issued the new guidance in response to frequently asked questions about how MPs and their staff can celebrate during the festive season.

The watchdog confirmed that “MPs can claim the costs of food and refreshments for an office festive” in their offices – but warned “no claims are allowed for alcohol”.

MPs were told that any claims “should represent value for money, especially in the current economic climate”, as millions feel the strain of a cost of living crisis.

But the prime minister’s official spokesperson said Mr Sunak would not be making any such claim, and suggested MPs should bear the probable reaction of voters before doing so.

The spokesperson told a Westminster media briefing: “Questions on these sorts of arrangements are for Ipsa, they’re independent of both parliament and government, they set the allowances.

“But the prime minister certainly doesn’t intend to use this and his view is that MPs will want to justify all spending to their constituents.”

MPs will be allowed to charge the costs from a festive gathering in their constituency, but were told it must be “within a parliamentary context” rather than “purely a social event”.

They can even claim the cost of celebratory Christmas cards – but were warned “they should not be sent to large groups or all constituents as there is a risk this may not represent value for money and could be considered self-promotional”.

There is no cap on the Christmas party spending, but the budget for annual office costs is limited to £31,620 for MPs in London seats and £28,570 for those outside the capital.

Among the MPs attacking the rules, former Tory minister David Davis said the expenses watchdog had “missed the mood of the age” by allowing politicians to charge for Christmas parties.

“I’m quite surprised. But I think it’s bonkers, frankly,” he told Talk TV. “It has missed the mood of the age if that’s what they’re saying.”

Labour MP Jess Phillips – in a post on Twitter retweeted by Tory foreign secretary James Cleverly – said Ipsa had been “irresponsible”.

“Just want to say no one asked for this, no one I know will use it,” she said. “The guidance wasn’t made by MPs and yet we will be pilloried for it. I think it’s really irresponsible to issue this guidance.”

Labour MP Charlotte Nichols added: “Sometimes I think Ipsa comes out with stuff like this because they don’t think MPs get enough abuse, so they just throw some petrol on the fire for the craic.”

Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds suggested the expenses watchdog had been a “little bit naive” putting out such guidance. “Ipsa need to be a bit more savvy in terms of how they present what they’re doing on this,” he told Times Radio.

Campaigners also reacted with alarm at the rules. “MPs already get a plum deal without taxpayer-funded office jollies,” John O’Connell of the TaxPayers’ Alliance told the Daily Mail.

Ipsa revealed that the total bill for MPs’ costs increased to £138.6m in 2020-21, up from £132.4m from the previous year.

The biggest rise in the past two years has come from staffing costs, with a rise in casework during the Covid period.

Ipsa chief executive Ian Todd said: “We know that it has been a challenging year for MPs and they have seen another rise in casework.”

Recent analysis by The Independent found that MPs charged taxpayers almost £200,000 for energy bills and other utilities at their second homes over the past year.

In the past three years, MPs have claimed just over £692,000 to cover these utility costs – with £538,000 alone going on heating bills.

A rebellion of more than 40 Tory MPs has reportedly delayed Rishi Sunak’s plan for a housebuilding target.

Where does Simon Jupp stand on this with his hands tied by PPS shackles?

Watch this space on “Soviet Style” planning targets – Owl

Graeme Demianyk www.huffingtonpost.co.uk 

The prime minister was due to face the first major test of his leadership next Monday when MPs were set to vote on the flagship levelling up bill.

But Conservative backbenchers – including former cabinet ministers – have signed an amendment to the bill that would ban councils from taking housing targets into account when deciding on planning applications.

The government on Tuesday night appeared to pull the vote, blaming the congested parliamentary timetable, according to the Telegraph and i newspapers.

But Labour accused Sunak of “running scared of your own backbenchers”.

The rebels had been warned they will “make the recession worse” by scrapping the housebuilding targets.

The amendment is one of several proposed by former environment secretary Theresa Villiers that would bring wholesale changes to the planning system, including making it easier for councils to ban building on greenfield land and providing more incentives to develop brownfield sites.

Villiers’ proposals have been criticised by some, including 2019 Tory manifesto co-author Robert Colville, who said they would “enshrine ‘nimbyism’ as the governing principle of British society”.

Colvile earlier tweeted: “Up to 46 signatories now on the Destroy the Planning System and Make the Recession Worse Amendment 2022.”

But her supporters have insisted that they do not want to stop housebuilding, only give communities more say over where homes are built.

Support for the amendment scrapping housing targets has increased over the past week, rising from nine MPs on November 15 to at least 46 on Tuesday, including prominent figures such as former party leader Iain Duncan Smith and former cabinet ministers John Redwood, Chris Grayling, Damian Green, Wendy Morton and Priti Patel.

The Telegraph put the number of signatories at 50 on Tuesday night.

This would be enough to leave the government reliant on Labour votes to defeat the amendment.

Other amendments proposed by Villiers would see tighter restrictions on homes being converted into holiday lets, more financial penalties for failing to build once planning permission was granted, and allowing councils to take a developer’s character into account when deciding on a planning application.

Downing Street said Sunak was still committed to the government’s target of building 300,000 homes a year.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We want to work constructively to ensure we build more of the homes in the right places. That’s something that the department and the secretary of state are very focused on.

He added that the housing secretary, Michael Gove, would continue to discuss how the 300,000-home target was delivered.

Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy said: “This is a complete shambles. The government cannot govern, the levelling up agenda is collapsing and the housing market is broken. Pulling flagship legislation because you’re running scared of your own backbenchers is no way to govern.

“There is a case for reviewing how housing targets are calculated and how they can be challenged when disputed, but it is completely irresponsible to propose scrapping them without a viable alternative in the middle of a housing crisis.”

Historic Devon cyder village under threat

Communication received from “Protect our Whimple & Rockbeare Group”

EAST DEVON LOCAL PLAN CONSULTATION FOR WHIMPLE

Have your say on the future of the village on Nov 29th!

Whimple, Devon, 22^nd November 2022 – East Devon District Council is holding a Public Consultation event at the Whimple Victory Hall on Tuesday 29^th November between 4:30pm and 8:30pm to inform villagers of the plans for the Draft East Devon Local Plan and to gain feedback from residents. It is a chance to put your views and suggestions forward.

The village of Whimple is on the edge of the expanding new town of Cranbrook, as part of the growth plans laid down in the previous decade. Now, East Devon District Council is on the hunt for more development land. They have created a Draft Local Plan which contains far reaching development proposals that affect East Devon, especially surrounding the City of Exeter. It includes the possibility of large-scale developments bolted onto Whimple, against the will of the people and the principles of localism.

Please come along to the consultation event to understand more about the plans for Whimple and the surrounding area, and to let your District Council know how you feel about the proposals.

Breaking news – Rishi Sunak has been forced to back down on housing targets – see separate post