Daily Archives: 20 Mar 2023

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20 Mar 2023

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Planning applications validated by EDDC for week beginning 6 March

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UK wages failing to keep up with costs – Resolution Foundation

UK wages have failed to keep up with rising costs, so millions of Britons have effectively had a pay cut

By BBC Panorama www.bbc.co.uk

Fifteen years of wage stagnation has left British workers £11,000 worse off per year, according to research shared exclusively with BBC Panorama.

The figures come from the Resolution Foundation think tank, which focuses on low-to-middle income households.

It also found typical UK household incomes have fallen further behind those in Germany. In 2008, the gap was over £500 a year, now it is £4,000.

The Treasury says the UK economy is more resilient than many predicted.

In his Budget speech last week, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt acknowledged there is still enormous pressure on people’s finances.

In recent months, wages have failed to keep up with rising costs, meaning that millions of Britons have, in effect, had a pay cut.

But experts have told Panorama that problems with incomes go much further back.

The Resolution Foundation calculated that had wages continued to grow as they were before the financial crash of 2008, the average worker would make £11,000 more per year than they do now, taking rising prices into account.

And Ipsos polling of more than 6,000 adults suggested that two-thirds of them think the economy is going to get worse in the coming year.

Lower wages than our neighbours

At the Budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said that inflation, which measures how prices change over time, “destroys the value of hard-earned pay”.

The government argues that problems with living standards are the result of rising prices, which have been driven up by the war in Ukraine and the legacy of Covid.

But the roots of the cost-of-living crisis go deeper.

In fact, what are known as “real wages” haven’t seen sustained growth for 15 years.

Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, says that the wage stagnation of the past decade and a half is “almost completely unprecedented”.

“Nobody who’s alive and working in the British economy today has ever seen anything like this.

“This is definitely not what normal looks like. This is what failure looks like,” he added.

Xiaowei Xu, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, describes this as an “absolutely massive difference in living standards” that ends nearly 60 years of consistent growth.

The online polling of 6,189 adults conducted by Ipsos in February suggests that one in four people are struggling on their current income, and nearly half are worried about their financial situation.

British wage stagnation has also meant the UK is not keeping up with its neighbours – as the comparison between typical household incomes in the UK and Germany by the Resolution Foundation shows.

The productivity problem

So what’s behind this stall in wage growth? Economists say the key to increasing wages is productivity – a measure of workers’ output.

“Productivity is how much you produce with a unit of labour or with a machine,” says Dr Mohamed El-Erian, a former deputy director of the International Monetary Fund and president at Queens’ College Cambridge.

“The more you can produce, the more you get rewarded for it.”

The UK has lower productivity than countries such as France and Germany, and the gap is getting bigger.

Since the financial crash of 2008, many countries have struggled to increase productivity. But the UK has struggled more than most.

It averages growth of 0.4% a year, well below the average of developed nations. One reason for that is the make-up of the UK economy.

Services, like finance, retail, hospitality and leisure, make up 80% of our economy. It is traditionally harder to increase productivity in these areas.

But that’s not the only factor. Our slow productivity growth is partly down to decades of low investment.

A failure to invest

One commonly-accepted way to increase productivity is by increasing investment.

New technology, machinery, buildings and skills are all ways to boost the amount that workers can achieve.

Panorama visited Callestick Farm in Cornwall which recently invested more than £1m in order to make more ice cream – part of a new deal with Marks and Spencer.

New equipment, including a spiral freezer that chills ice cream much more quickly, has tripled the amount they make every day. More ice cream per day means more ice cream for sale.

It’s a productivity boost that can lead, in the long term, to more cash for pay rises. It shows the difference that investment can make, whether in new equipment, infrastructure or training.

But the UK has historically failed to invest as much as it could.

On average, capital investment has only been worth 16% of the total value of the economy in the years since 1997.

That’s the lowest proportion of any developed country in that period.

Prof Diane Coyle of Cambridge University told Panorama: “A lack of investment over decades has held back the economy, and made the UK less resilient than comparable countries to shocks like Brexit, Covid and the invasion of Ukraine.”

What effect has Brexit had?

Since 2020, the government has increased its own investment, but business investment hasn’t kept up. A big part of that story is what has happened since the Brexit referendum.

The Office for Budget Responsibility, the government’s independent watchdog, says that since the UK’s vote to leave the European Union in 2016, business investment in the UK has “stalled”.

They say that while shocks, including the pandemic and energy price rises, have hurt investment everywhere, UK investment “has continued to underperform relative to other G7 countries”.

Since 2016, as well as Covid and the war in Ukraine, there have been five prime ministers, years of uncertainty over Brexit, and the financial turmoil of Liz Truss’s leadership.

“Any economist would tell you the number one thing you can do to incentivise business investment, and therefore drive growth, is to have stability and certainty and strong institutions,” says Tim Pitt, a former senior adviser to Conservative chancellors Sajid Javid and Philip Hammond.

“We seem to have gone out of our way over the past few years to undermine some of those things.”

The government says Brexit is a long-term plan. When he became prime minister, Rishi Sunak spoke of “building an economy that embraces the opportunities of Brexit”.

That is a question for the future, but right now business investment in the UK is low compared to other developed economies.

That’s been true for years, and it’s been exacerbated in the short term by Brexit.

At the Budget last week, the chancellor didn’t deny the UK has problems that need addressing.

When Panorama put its findings to the government, a Treasury spokesman said the government was increasing incentives for investment and pointed to low unemployment – and its plan to increase growth – as signs the country was on the right track.

But what remains to be seen is if the plan can match the scale of the problem.

Additional reporting by Sachin Croker and Lora Jones

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20 Mar 2023

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Devolution deal for Devon, Plymouth and Torbay moves a step closer

A landmark devolution deal for the greater Devon region, which transfers new money and powers into the hands of local Leaders across Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, has moved a step closer today with the backing of the Government’s Levelling Up Minister Dehenna Davison.

What then happens to the unaccountable, unelected: “Heart of the South West” LEP and “The great South West”? – Owl

Joseph Bulmer www.northdevongazette.co.uk

Outline approval has been given for a Devon-wide devolution deal which could bring greater local control and allow partners to tap into additional resources to help tackle key local priorities such as affordable housing, better public transport and connectivity, and providing for the skills the local economy needs.

Importantly, the deal would not require a change to the established democratic structures across the area or the need for an elected Mayor as in other devolution deals across the country.

Instead, the new powers would be devolved to a partnership of existing local councils who would deliver on a joint programme working alongside a wide range of other local stakeholders.

Local partners across Devon have now been invited to work together to prepare a Final Business Case to present to Government for final approval later in the year.

Any final deal would require local consent with the full agreement of all the constituent councils as well as Parliamentary approval.

Welcoming the opportunity and Government’s backing for a local deal without the need for an elected mayor, councillor John Hart, Leader of Devon County Council and Chair of the local Devolution Partnership said: “This could be an important first step towards getting more local control to deliver on the big issues affecting local people and help us get access to much needed new investment.

“At its heart, it is all about building a better future for our children and young people, creating more opportunities for all, and backing local people and businesses to succeed.

“We have a strong local partnership and a devolution deal would bring new local powers and fresh resources to help us work together to tackle the big local priorities such as affordable housing, better public transport and providing for the skills our economy needs.

“We have been talking with the Government about this for some time and now it’s time to deliver.”

Cllr Steve Darling, Leader of Torbay Council, said: “This is a welcome opportunity to work with partners across Devon and with Government to build on the foundations we are already putting in place around our electronics, photonics, tourism and fishing industries. We hope that this will accelerate our plans to ensure our residents have the skills, housing and infrastructure to benefit from a brighter, thriving place.

“The partnership administration in Torbay has sought, over the past four years, to empower its community more and we anticipate that this deal will now empower communities across Devon with powers that have previously been ceded to central government. We have an ambitious agenda for making Torbay the premier resort in the UK and are keen to work with partners across the area to drive the regeneration and growing aspirations of our local communities.

“Whilst we are at the early stage of these negotiations, we expect that a Devolution Deal will enable us to tackle the challenges that Torbay faces including our housing crisis, climate change and the need for better paid jobs for local people.”

Cllr Phil Bialyk, Leader of Exeter City Council and Chair of the Devon Districts Forum, said: “We’ve been speaking to the Government about the need for a devolution deal which maintains the current structure of local councils while providing access to much-needed new funding for Devon.

“This has been a real partnership approach, and it is great that the Government appears to understand that by working together locally with key stakeholders we can achieve great things for all of our residents throughout the county.”

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Rishi Sunak will lose ‘dozens of Tory seats’ over sewage dumping, claims Lib Dem leader

Did Simon jump eastwards to escape ESCAPE (End Sewage Convoys And Pollution Exmouth)? Does he think Sidmouth is soft on sewage? – Owl

Adam Forrest www.independent.co.uk 

Rishi Sunak will lose “dozens” of Conservatives seats at the next general election if he fails to stop sewage being pumped into rivers, according to Sir Ed Davey.

The Liberal Democrats’ leader pressed for greater action on “one of the biggest environmental crimes in our country” as he spoke at his party’s spring conference in York.

Water companies are only permitted to release sewage during periods of heavy rain so the system does not back up – but campaigners last year warned firms released raw sewage into UK rivers and seas almost 150 times during dry weather in a 12-month period.

Sir Ed made clear issue has become a key battleground for the Lib Dems in local and nation elections, as they bid for swifter progress to prevent sewage dumping.

Calling the Tories “mutinous pirates”, he said voters want “an end to the Conservatives letting water companies get away with pumping filthy sewage straight into our rivers”.

He added: “That is one of the biggest environmental crimes in our country today and it’s a crime that will cost the Conservatives dozens of seats if they don’t act”.

Government plans released last month outlined how water companies in England will be required to explain why sewage spillages into rivers and seas are happening and what is being done to fix them.

Ministers are also consulting on making it easier and quicker to slap polluting companies with penalties, so they are made to pay immediately rather than wait for lengthy criminal prosecutions to conclude.

Sir Ed earlier compared Tory MPs to “mutinous pirates” as Britain encountered choppy waters, telling Lib Dem members: “We needed Hornblower. They gave us Pugwash.”

Accusing the government of “total defeatism” and having “nothing left to offer”, the Lib Dem leader said: “Take economic growth. Remember when governments used to talk about targeting three, four, five per cent? Rishi Sunak’s target – anything above zero.

He added: “It’s like a mid-table football club with a new manager, targeting to avoid relegation rather than a place in the Champions League. The way Conservative MPs talk nowadays, it’s like they know the truth: their government needs to be put out of its misery.”

The party leader received sustained applause from members as he spoke of the need to “repair our broken relationship with Europe” after Brexit.

He claimed the Lib Dems have a “real plan to fix Britain’s trade”, which will “tear down the Conservatives’ trade barriers, rip up their red tape, and rebuild the ties of trust and friendship with our European neighbours”.

Sir Ed has not committed to re-joining the EU single market immediately, but the party adopted a position of seeking to single market membership once “the ties of trust and friendship are renewed” after the 2022 spring conference.

The party’s four-point for closer ties includes stronger links on education programmes; a UK-EU returns agreement on asylum seekers; greater access for British agri-food products to the single market; and an eventual effort to re-join the single market once trust is restored.

Tory chairman Greg Hands dismissed Sunday’s conference attack by Sir Ed, firing back: “Time and time again, the Liberal Democrats have shown they cannot be trusted to deliver for the British people. They are out of touch with the people’s priorities on key issues like housing, energy and immigration.”

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Devon roads nightmare sees dad lose day’s salary

Devon’s roads have come under fresh fire as councillors heard about the plight of a local father who lost a night’s work and subsequently a day’s salary after a pothole ruined one of his tyres.

Lewis Clarke www.devonlive.com

It comes as Barnstaple Town Council resolved to write to Devon County, raise the issue with potholes to Selaine Saxby MP for North Devon, and support a campaign to ensure the government adequately funds public services.

Speaking at the meeting and putting forward the motion to take action, Councillor Peter Leaver said: “I was talking to a resident – Mark – a young man with a young family and a food delivery driver. He told me he’s on a zero-hours contract and that most of his work is at night. He worries every night when he goes out delivering food as he hit a pothole twice last year and ruined a tyre on his car. Not only does he lose that night’s work, but it costs him a day’s salary to get it repaired. There’s a real cost to people.

“Mark said that sometimes it’s like you’re driving your car in a third-world country, but we’re the sixth wealthiest nation in the world, and I don’t understand how we can’t get something as simple as looking after our roads right.”

He continued: “It’s a huge failure of government cuts to local services, and it’s a failure of the county council as well. Only two weeks ago Devon County Council voted a small increase in the budget for road repairs and the Liberal Democrat councillors gave them the opportunity to increase that budget by £ 3 million for road repairs and road safety without the need to increase council tax and they turned down that opportunity.”

Councillor Ian Roome, speaking as Devon County division member for Barnstaple North, said: “The biggest thing my inbox is filled with at Devon County at the moment is potholes. People are complaining that they’re not watching where they’re going because they’re looking where the potholes are so they can dodge them; it’s really awful.

“For anyone who uses a cycle, it’s even worse. Devon County Council’s specification for when a pothole gets repaired is worse for cyclists. I’ve been told some of the reported potholes don’t meet the defect safety standard even though they would be terrible for somebody to go over on a pushbike.”

Cllr Roome said he recently asked Devon Highways how much it would cost to get the roads to an acceptable standard. He continued: “They told me there was red, amber and green classification. To bring the Devon roads up from red to amber, which isn’t top level, would cost £167 million. The roads are terrible, and Devon County Council says they’re getting around to the backlog.”

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Massive A30 solar farm plans set for approval

Plans for a huge new solar farm for East Devon off the A30 are being recommended for approval. 

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com 

The proposed development by Aura Power is for a subsidy-free solar farm of up to 49.9 MW capacity that would generate enough renewable electricity to supply the equivalent of over 12,000 typical homes or to power 18,000 electric vehicles annually.

Aura Power say it would save an estimated 11,500 tonnes of CO2 per year, making a substantial contribution to local and national net zero targets. Now councillors are being recommended to back the scheme.

This proposal is one of a number of solar developments which have recently been considered in East Devon. Some 60,000 panels were proposed covering more than 200 acres of land across a total of 27 farm fields in nearby Marsh Green.

But campaigners who opposed plans for a huge solar farm on farmland in East Devon were left to celebrate when back in December planners rejected the scheme. Devon CPRE, the Devon branch of the countryside charity, feared councillors in East Devon would back the proposal officers made for the development south of the settlement at Marsh Green to the East of Rockbeare alongside the A30 to be approved, only for councillors by six votes to four to reject the scheme.

Again though, East Devon District Council’s planning committee, when they meet on Tuesday, March 28, are being recommended to approve this plan for land east of Rutton Farm on Rull Lane. Officers say that despite the concerns raised, the scheme should go ahead. A total of 31 representations have been received, consisting of 24 objections and seven in support.

“Concerns about the impact of the proposed solar farm on residential amenity have been raised by a number of people residing in the vicinity of the site,” the report says. “However, the proposal site would not immediately adjoin the curtilage boundary of any residential property, and the hedges on the boundary would be enhanced as part of the works.

“It is considered that the site is a sufficient distance from other solar developments, either existing or with extant permissions, in the area to ensure, that there would not be a significant cumulative visual impact. In terms of other cumulative impacts, it is considered that there would be no significant harm arising from those circumstances

“It is considered that the proposed development would not have a detrimental impact on any listed buildings. Natural England has confirmed that the site and proposal is acceptable in terms of its impact upon the area and biodiversity. The Council’s Ecologist also supports the proposal in this regard.

“The proposal is considered acceptable in terms of its impact on archaeology, highway safety, aviation, railways, trees and hedges, and flooding and drainage – although, in some cases, conditions relating to those matters are proposed. It is recommended that this application is approved.”