Homeowners face having their new-build properties flattened after a developer built some of them too high. Families have been told they risk losing their homes because they were built on higher ground than they should have been

Annette Belcher www.walesonline.co.uk

Persimmon Homes was granted permission for 125 homes. But it has now emerged the ground level of the estate was raised by 2.4 metres to make the site flat. It has led to complaints from neighbours in nearby streets that some of the new homes are ‘over-bearing’ and ‘blocking sunlight’, with councillors likening the change to ‘adding an extra storey’.

Now Persimmon – which has outline planning for a further 135 homes on nearby land – has applied for retrospective permission to keep the houses as they are. It is also looking at mitigation measures such as tree and hedgerow planting to provide ‘visual screening,’ StokeonTrentLive reports.

But if permission is refused and a compromise can’t be reached, those living there could see their properties flattened, the chairman of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council’s planning committee warned. And the council’s lawyers have advised that the homes could have ‘no value’ on the open market anyway as they were sold without proper planning permission.

Planners have deferred a decision so talks can take place with residents. It is understood that eight of the 125 properties are affected.

Legal advisor Justin Price-Jones told a meeting of the planning committee: “It does surprise me somewhat that properties of some considerable value, no doubt, have been sold without planning permission because they’d have absolutely zero value on the market, to my mind at least.” He said there were potentially ‘very serious consequences’ for people living in them if councillors decided to refuse the application.

He added: “Persimmon would have known when they sold it that they didn’t have planning permission. I imagine there’s a lot of people in this equation who don’t know how dire their situation is.” Resident Tracy Milward described the properties as ‘overbearing’, and claimed they blocked sunlight in their gardens.

She said: “This development has been built in breach of the planning application submitted. They have built too high, and too close to the surrounding properties. Consequently ours, and many of our neighbours’ properties are now dwarfed and dominated by this unsightly development.”

She said residents first raised concerns with the council in October 2021 but nothing was done to halt it. She also said it has caused them ‘stress and anxiety’.

She complained: “The system is broken. Persimmon appear to have manipulated planning regulations to their own advantage by submitting drawings they never intended to comply to and then add variations in retrospect. We feel they’re using the system and local communities.”

She said the council would effectively be giving the developer ‘carte blanche’ if they were given the go-ahead. Cheadle town councillor, Paulette Upton agreed, saying: “The plain fact is the developers have blatantly breached the planning permission and we seem to have allowed that to happen.

“Somebody needs to take accountability for this – it sends a shocking message to other developers that they can come to Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, put in a planning application and do what the hell they like.”

Committee chairman, Councillor Stephen Ellis said it was the worst situation he’d been put in, from two decades of being involved with planning decisions, and criticised the council’s planning department for not following up on complaints. He said: “It really is an unacceptable situation to be in – to have a committee consider that your brand new house – your home and your asset – could be flattened, it must be absolutely horrendous.

“I can’t believe we’ve placed either set of residents in this situation. I do feel angry in the way that Persimmon have done that.” Councillor Peter Jackson said a responsible developer would have sought adequate planning permission before carrying out the work.

He said: “I don’t think you’re treating local people with respect.” He also noted the developer still had to return to the council with plans for the second phase of the development – and asked what confidence the committee could have that they would be built correctly.

Councillor Keith Flunder said residents living in the Persimmon houses wouldn’t answer the door during a site visit due to fear. He said: “Those people who are now living in those houses, overlooking the other houses, are in fear – knowing this is coming here today – there’s a potential at the end of it all where we knock them down.”

The council’s head of development Ben Haywood told councillors: “Ultimately it’s a decision for members [of the planning committee] whether the relationship between properties is an acceptable one, and which residents could reasonably be expected to experience.”

He said despite the plans not being followed, officers were still recommending approval for retrospective planning permission. A Persimmon North West spokesperson said: “Planning permission for Pottery Gardens was granted by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council in December 2020.

“The application discussed by the planning committee last week sought non-material amendments to some existing homes in line with this planning permission. While the application was recommended for approval, this has been deferred by the planning committee to allow for further engagement with local residents.

“We fully appreciate the issues that have been raised and have therefore already written to residents requesting time to meet and agree solutions that address these concerns as soon as possible.”

A council spokesman said: “The planning application was considered by the Planning Applications Committee on March 9. Following their site visit and having been addressed by members of the public and the developer, the committee resolved to defer its decision, due to concerns over the impact on a number of existing neighbouring residents.

“At no time did the committee request the demolition of the new houses, but requested that officers, in consultation with the developer and local residents, consider whether mitigation measures could be secured to address their concerns. Consequently, the planning application will be presented back to the planning committee once this has been carried out.”

Outrage at the unusual level of control imposed on media coverage of the home secretary’s trip to Rwanda has grown this weekend during Suella Braverman’s first hours in the country.

Vanessa Thorpe www.theguardian.com 

Prominent names, including news presenters, academics and opposition MPs expressed shock at what they considered the partisan reporting of the trip from the right-wing news organisations invited to join the trip. The Guardian, BBC, Mirror, Independent and i Newspaper were barred.

Braverman and her Home Office team flew out on Friday to promote the government’s plan to deport asylum seekers to the African country in a controversial deal signed last April by her predecessor, Priti Patel. No one has been relocated to the country so far, as the plan faces legal challenges, but a Home Office source said on Saturday that that they were “certainly working towards getting the flights off before the summer”.

Braverman appeared in a series of photo-ops, laughing with a group of children and posing in front of an accommodation block set to host asylum seekers. In comments that alarmed human rights campaigners, she described the homes as “really beautiful, high quality, welcoming”.

“I quite like your interior designer,” she added. “I need some advice myself.”

The Telegraph, whose reporter was one of a handful from right-wing outlets picked by the Home Office to join the trip, wrote gushingly about the accommodation. “The houses provide families with off street car parking, fibre optic broadband, front and back gardens, an eco-design that also combats humidity and gases rising from the ground and decor that would not look out of place in a British town house.”

Jon Sopel, the BBC’s former North American editor, told the Observer that the row over who was being allowed to cover the trip, with left-leaning or liberal news organisations left out, immediately reminded him of the pressure put on White House political journalists during the presidency of Donald Trump.

“This sounds familiar, that was my first thought,” said Sopel, now the co-host of The News Agents current affairs podcast. “There was a period when several newspaper titles were not going to be allowed in to press briefings. But the difference in America was that the Correspondents Association immediately pointed to the First Amendment of the Constitution and it was not allowed to happen.”

While a smaller group of political reporters, or “pool”, is sometimes conventionally set up for trips where security concerns are paramount, the understanding is usually that all information will be shared with the wider mix of national reporting teams.

Under Boris Johnson’s premiership there were other alleged attempts to vet the reporters and filter the questions at news briefings and press conferences.

Clive Myrie, the BBC’s news anchor, retweeted the Guardian’s critical account of the trip, while other British journalists expressed surprise that approved reporters were prepared to go along with the vetting process. “It is not very collegiate,” said one former newspaper editor on Saturday.

Michela Wrong, a British journalist and author of a recent book on Rwanda, Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad, said the timing of Braverman’s visit was “grotesque”.

“Rwanda and DRC are on the brink of all-out war. The M23 guerrilla group, a Rwandan proxy, has sent 600,000-800,000 Congolese villagers fleeing their homes and Braverman is happily validating the African leader widely recognised to be responsible for the destabilisation of the African Great Lakes.

“Britain should be discussing slapping sanctions on Rwanda – it is the only message Kagame responds to – rather than planning to send migrants there.”

The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, was among political opponents who pointed out that time spent in Rwanda publicising Conservative policy was funded by the public purse. She added: “Suella Braverman has still not come clean on the number of people Rwanda will really take in practice or the full cost to the British taxpayer.

“Already the home secretary has written Rwanda cheques for at least £140m even though she has admitted the scheme is failing and the Home Office says it has a high risk of fraud. Instead of expensive PR stunts she should put that money into going after the smuggling gangs to stop dangerous boat crossings.”

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said the trip was “an expensive distraction from the immoral, unworkable Braverman Bill”. He added: “Suella Braverman is wasting taxpayers’ money to flaunt the Conservative party’s latest vanity project in Rwanda. Liberal Democrats will oppose this appalling, anti-refugee law, which is nothing more than a criminal traffickers’ charter.”

On Saturday night the home secretary hailed the partnership with Rwanda after meeting her counterpart, Vincent Biruta. They announced that they had signed an update to their memorandum of understanding, expanding the partnership further “to all categories of people who pass through safe countries and make illegal and dangerous journeys to the UK”.

Braverman said: “We cannot continue to see people risking their lives crossing the Channel, which is why I am pleased to strengthen our agreement even further with the government of Rwanda so we can address the global migration crisis head on.

“Rwanda is a progressive, rapidly growing economy at the forefront of innovation – I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing first-hand the rich opportunities this country can provide to relocated people through our partnership.”

A Rwandan government spokesperson said the country was “ready to absorb the thousands that will come from the UK”.

(Wrong sort of weather- cold and wet)

Devon potholes drop a quarter- But still 34,000 recorded this year

Ollie Heptinstall, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk 

The number of recorded potholes in Devon is on track to be lower than last year, despite January’s total being the highest in a single month for three years.

Figures by Devon County Council, which excludes Torbay and Plymouth, shows 34,199 recorded potholes in the 11 full months of 2022/23, compared to 44,263 the previous year.

However, almost 7,400 were recorded in January, the most since March 2020. A report to be presented to a council scrutiny meeting on Thursday [23 March] blames this on “the cycle of very wet weather followed by very cold spells.”

It adds: “The number of potholes waiting for repair with our contractor peaked at almost 3,000 at the end of January, however through the use of additional and carefully coordinated resources this number reduced significantly on a day-to-day basis, with as many as 2,200 potholes being repaired each week.

“This has been achieved by doubling the number of pothole gangs across the network from 20 to 40, as well as additional hours and weekend working.”

It comes as the government announced a further £9.4 million for pothole repairs in Devon this week, as part of £200 million extra for the whole country in chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s budget.

County council leader John Hart (Conservative, Bickleigh & Wembury) said: “I’m delighted that the chancellor has announced extra money for us to tackle potholes.

“I’d like to thank all our MPs for their support, especially those identified by the chancellor who he said had lobbied very strongly on our behalf.”

Tory MPs Selaine Saxby (North Devon), Gary Streeter (SW Devon) and Anne Marie Morris (Newton Abbot) were all given a mention at the dispatch box by Mr Hunt.

Councillor Stuart Hughes (Conservative, Sidmouth), Devon’s highways chief, said this winter’s weather has had significant impact on the condition of Devon’s 8,000-mile road network – the longest in England.

“We’ve seen the worst conditions for potholes, with torrential rain and very cold snaps that have played havoc with the condition of our roads.

“We welcome this additional funding, which will contribute to our extensive maintenance and repair programme.”

Truss the Tories with the economy? – Owl

The UK is still on course to be the only big wealthy economy to register negative growth this year, despite an upturn in growth prospects, according to new international forecasts.

Mehreen Khan www.thetimes.co.uk 

Projections from the Organisation for Economic Coordination and Development (OECD) show that the UK economy will be an outlier among wealthier countries with an annual contraction in growth this year of 0.2 per cent.

That is 0.2 percentage points better than the OECD’s last forecast in November but remains the worst performance among the richest countries.

The OECD’s forecast matches updated projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which said this week that the economy would narrowly avoid a technical recession this year, defined as two quarters of negative growth. The improved outlook is the result of lower energy prices and resilient consumer and business sentiment recorded this year. The economy will experience a “mild” recovery of 0.9 per cent next year, according to the OECD forecast.

Germany, which was expected to be the worst-performing economy in the eurozone, will now record positive growth of 0.3 per cent rather than a 0.3 per cent contraction, according to the OECD, which also upgraded its projections for Italy, Spain and France. The single currency area is on course to record annual growth of 0.8 per cent this year and global growth to fall from 3.2 per cent in 2022 to 2.6 per cent.

The United States, the world’s largest economy, will record growth of 1.5 per cent this year, 0.5 percentage points better than the last forecast, before slowing to growth of 0.9 per cent in 2024, partly as a result of aggressive monetary tightening from the US Federal Reserve.

Headline inflation in the UK is on course to average 6.7 per cent this year, in line with the likes of Germany and Italy. The OBR expects consumer price inflation to drop to 2.9 per cent by the end of the year.

The OECD said growth across the world economy would remain below pre-pandemic trends but falling inflation would give a bigger boost to incomes this year than expected. “The improvement in the outlook is still fragile,” it said. “Risks have become somewhat better balanced but remain tilted to the downside. Uncertainty about the course of the war in Ukraine and its broader consequences is a key concern.”

Amid concerns over global financial stability following the collapse of three US banks this week the report warned that further interest rate rises could “continue to expose financial vulnerabilities” in the markets.

Problems in parts of the financial system in recent months, including the UK’s pension fund crisis, will require central banks to carry out “clear communication” over the shrinking of their balance sheets to “minimise the risk of contagion”, the OECD said.

“Higher interest rates could also have stronger effects on economic growth than expected, particularly if they expose underlying financial vulnerabilities. While a cooling of overheated markets, including real estate markets, and repricing of financial portfolios are standard channels through which monetary policy takes effect, the full impact of higher interest rates is hard to gauge.”

James Hunt, the chancellor, said: “The British economy has proven more resilient than many expected, outperforming many forecasts to be the fastest growing economy in the G7 last year, and is on track to avoid recession.

“Earlier this week I set out a plan to grow the economy by unleashing business investment and helping more people into work, alongside extending our significant energy bill support to help with rising prices, made possible by our windfall tax on energy profits.”

Good luck finding even a turnip now.

It seems from an article on here today that even turnips will be off the menu. The largest grower of turnips who is in Coffeys constituency has given up growing them. He supplied a huge percentage of UKs turnips.

The UKs largest tomato growers are also giving up growing tomatoes on an 18 hectare sight in Norfolk ,and one of largest growers of cucumbers is also ceasing growing them.

Many other crops will probably see a reduction of 25% in plantings this year.

All going well for those Brexit supporters who say we can just live off what we produce here and share it out.

Chris Riddell www.theguardian.com 

The leadership of Plymouth City Council is coming under increasing pressure after instructing contractors to fell more than a hundred trees in Armada Way.

Environmentalist Chris Packham branded it “despicable vandalism.”

Paul Nero www.radioexe.co.uk

Council leader Richard Bingley issued an ‘executive order’ with little publicity on Tuesday, not long after a public consultation over the controversial plans ended.

The council wants to regenerate the city centre and plans to replace the felled trees with new semi-mature ones. Pit is spending £12.7 million to revamp Armada Way, with some of the money coming from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund for walking and cycling.

Last month, a protest group called Save the Trees of Armada Way, or Straw, got a stay of execution, but soon after that ended, the felling began. Security guards blocked off the highway once darkness fell, and the chainsaws went into action.

The council says it was best to chop the trees down at night for health and safety reasons. 

Save the Trees got a High Court injunction, which was served on contractors at 1 a.m. on Wednesday, but only 15 trees were saved.

At 1am the local campaign to save the trees, Straw, obtained an injunction that halted the felling and saved 15 trees. They vow to continue their fight.

Alison White, of Straw said the council has “needlessly chopped down healthy mature trees. The people of Plymouth could not have made their views clearer that they were against this. It is a disgrace.”

Luke Pollard, the Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said: “It’s a scene of environmental devastation and utter council vandalism.

“I’m appalled at the actions of the Tory council. Sad day for our city.”

The Woodland Trust said it was “appalled” at the use of “secretive night-time operations”. “We hoped after direct conversations with Plymouth City Council that a far higher proportion of trees could have been retained,” they said.

Two local authorities have been put into special measures after struggling to recover from the bad investments and governance failings that pushed them into effective bankruptcy.

Patrick Butler www.theguardian.com

The London borough of Croydon and Thurrock borough council in Essex have been told that government-appointed managers will take over the day-to-day running of operations, including overseeing all major financial and senior staffing decisions.

The local government minister, Lee Rowley, also raised concerns about the post-bankruptcy progress of a third council, Slough, which he said showed “an unacceptable lack of urgency and focus … to resolve the situation it has placed itself in”.

The stepping up of government intervention at Thurrock and Croydon takes place against a backdrop of wider financial fragility in local authorities in England, which are desperately cutting services while putting up council tax and parking fees in an effort to remain financially solvent. About 12 councils are thought to be on the edge of effective bankruptcy.

Although Croydon and Thurrock were already being partially overseen by independent commissioners, ministers have been frustrated by what they see as the slow pace of recovery. The councils must make huge cuts to services and sell off assets to help bridge financial deficits running into hundreds of millions of pounds.

Croydon and Thurrock have set record council tax bills from April, putting them up by 15% and 10% respectively at a time when the typical council tax uprating in England for a council of their size is 5%.

The Tory-run Thurrock council declared effective bankruptcy just before Christmas after running up an unprecedented deficit when a series of risky investments in solar farms and other businesses turned sour. The resulting £500m hole in its finances is one of the biggest ever financial disasters in local government.

An interim report from inspectors identified a range of serious shortcomings in the management and governance of Thurrock. It criticised the council’s leadership for “unconscious incompetence” – a state brought on by endemic complacency, secrecy and a failure to properly scrutinise decisions.

Thurrock has a financial deficit this year of £470m, a long-term structural shortfall of £184m and debts of £1.3bn. As a consequence, the inspectors said the council was “equipped to do little more than a minimum level of [service] provision for the foreseeable future, if indeed they can continue [to provide services] at all”.

A final inspectors’ report on Thurrock was delayed after commissioners said they needed more time to unravel the scale of the corporate and financial failure. It is expected to be published imminently.

Devon County Council may cut £1.5 million

Rob Kershaw, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk 

Councillors in North Devon have criticised plans to withdraw the homelessness prevention fund. Devon County Council recently confirmed that it is considering stopping its £1.5 million a year grant to district councils in the county as it can no longer afford it.

The council is currently consulting the public about the proposed service cut, which coincides with a recent increase in council tax.
The money goes towards housing rough sleepers at managed living hostels. Around 250 people currently benefit from it at any given time.

Over 100 more people receive support from Sanctuary Supported Living’s countywide ‘floating’ service. Just under three quarters of a million pounds from that scheme helps households avoid homelessness.

Devon County Council gives £112,000 of the grant to North Devon District Council to house people at The Maples hostel in Barnstaple, which has nine beds. North Devon Councils’ response to the consultation will ask the county authority to continue paying the grant.

Liberal Democrat council leader, Cllr David Worden, representing South Molton, is concerned. “This is something that will come back on us if it is actually closed,” he said at a full council meeting.

We need to actually get them [Devon County Council] to understand that this is a service that really needs to continue. Vulnerable people will be suffering as a result of this, and this council will have to try and pick up the pieces.”

Cllr Worden’s Liberal Democrat colleague Cllr Helen Walker (Bickington) said the subsequent loss of drugs and alcohol specialists would be “disastrous,” while Green Party Cllr Netti Pearson (Ilfracombe) urged her colleagues to respond to the consultation to try to protect the service.

Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.

Exmouth is a large sandy resort beach at the mouth of the River Exe backed by a promenade and the town. A memento of its Victorian heyday fine gardens and parks also back the beach. There is a sewer overflow discharging through an outfall to the south east which may affect bathing water quality especially after heavy rainfall. Exmouth

Pollution Alert: Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.

Remember Jupp just over two weeks ago: 

….In recent years, a spotlight has been shone on storm overflows and CSOs. Water tourism is booming across our region, including windsurfing in places such as Exmouth and Sidmouth in my constituency. However, there is another reason why people have finally started talking about the issue: the Conservative Government have put in place a plan to improve our water, giving us all an opportunity to hold water companies to account.

!……Of course, in a perfect world, we would stop sewage spills completely and immediately. Sadly, that is virtually impossible in the short term; because of the pressure on our water infrastructure, we would risk the collapse of the entire water network, and the eye-watering costs involved mean we would need not just a magic money tree, but a whole forest.

Will it ever start again?

Cornwall Council has invested more than £10million into Spaceport Cornwall. 

Richard Whitehouse, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

Spaceport Cornwall and Cornwall Council have said that they want to “grow the space cluster” in Cornwall despite its main operator Virgin Orbit announcing it was pausing all activity. The US firm announced this morning that it was stopping all activity and that almost all staff would be on furlough as it tries to secure new investment.

The announcement comes just weeks after Virgin Orbit undertook its first launch from Spaceport Cornwall which ended in failure following an anomaly with the rocket which was set to launch small satellites into space. Virgin Orbit is a key partner with Spaceport Cornwall and currently the only company which has launch capability.

In its statement today Virgin Orbit said: “Virgin Orbit is initiating a company-wide operational pause, effective March 16, 2023, and anticipates providing an update on go-forward operations in the coming weeks.”

There were concerns about what January’s failed mission could mean for Spaceport Cornwall and Virgin Orbit has been reported as saying that it was unlikely to attempt another launch this year. It had originally been expected that the company would carry out several launches a year from Cornwall.

Spaceport Cornwall is a horizontal launch site which is suited to Virgin Orbit’s system which uses a modified jumbo jet with a rocket launcher system attached under a wing which is capable of launching satellites into orbit. The plane can take off from Cornwall and then deploy the rocket whilst in flight.

The site at Newquay is the only spaceport in the UK which has a licence, although a vertical launch spaceport is currently being developed at a site in Scotland. It is expected to have its first launch by the end of 2023.

Cornwall Council has invested more than £10million into Spaceport Cornwall and claimed that the venture will result in hundreds of new jobs and attract businesses in the space industry to Cornwall. There are already many companies in the Duchy which have links to the space industry including Goonhilly Earth Station.

Both Spaceport Cornwall and Cornwall Council issued identical statements in response to today’s announcements from Virgin Orbit. Cornwall councillor Louis Gardner, Cabinet member for the economy, said: “It is clearly a difficult time for the Virgin Orbit team as they navigate the next stage of their company, and we will await further information from them as events unfold. 

“Our focus at Spaceport Cornwall is to continue to grow the space cluster in Cornwall, alongside progressing relationships with spaceflight operators. We remain the only licensed spaceport in the UK and our plan is to build on that position.”

Letter to the Independent 16 March

The Independent’s editorial on Jeremy Hunt and the £1bn apprenticeship rip-off was a fascinating read. Hunt must have noticed it, and if he does not it will reflect badly on him and his government. The question as to why we are funding “apprentice” courses for top executives on £100k a year is not difficult to answer.

It is the product of the Tory view that the public purse is their pork barrel. The notion that funding the MBA of an active employee on a six-figure salary, plus benefits no doubt, is equivalent to a young person learning a skill for life from an employer at what is frequently a low wage is an absurdity. And they are funded in mutual competition from the same pot!?

Like the needs of the Tory party and the needs of society, they are poles apart. It is ironic that Tory governments, while dipping their oversize and grasping mitts into public funds, simultaneously maintain the tax havens and trust arrangements that ensure supporters and funders do not contribute their fair share of tax to the public resources they consistently plunder.

We are still involved in the painfully slow process of assessing the PPE contract fiasco, another product of their greedy “fill your boots” philosophy. Hunt must act now; if he does not he underscores yet another Tory failure. We can safely assume that he will not deal with tax havens.

David Nelmes

Newport

Budget plans to encourage people back to work will have limited impact and cost £70,000 a job, a think tank says.

Value for money? – Owl

By Daniel Thomas, Kevin Peachey & Lucy Hooker www.bbc.co.uk

The changes are expected to bring 110,000 back to work, which the Institute for Fiscal Studies said was “just a fraction” of the those who’d left work over the past two years.

The government will spend billions to boost labour supply via tax breaks on pensions and expanded free childcare.

It said the plans would help to grow the economy and raise living standards.

Paul Johnson, director of the IFS, said the government’s forecaster had calculated the overall plan to boost workforce numbers will cost around £7bn a year and increase employment by around 110,000.

“That’s a cost of nearly £70,000 per job,” he says.

While the chancellor “might have some success” it was likely to be modest given the large number of people “lost from the workforce in the last couple of years”, he added.

UK economic growth has flatlined in recent months and the economy is expected to shrink his year. About a quarter of people of working-age – around 10 million people – do not have jobs.

Persuading workers to work for longer is part of UK plans to boost growth, with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Wednesday announcement on tax and spending being dubbed the “Back to work Budget”.

Mr Johnson said the impact of annual net immigration numbers – assumed at 245,000 – would be far more significant for boosting employment.

The government said its independent finances watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had revised its outlook for economic growth upwards “by the largest amount ever in their forecasts” as a result of the Budget’s measures.

A spokesman added: “[The OBR] also says extending 30 hours of free childcare to parents of nine months to two year olds… will lead to many more increasing their hours – helping to grow the economy and raise living standards for everyone.”

The Budget also included measures to support disabled people who want to work, programmes to encourage retirees to take on jobs or apprenticeships, and changes to the rules around health-related benefits and universal credit.

On Wednesday, the OBR, noted that the impact of the back to work policies was uncertain, saying the final figure for the number of extra people in work could be half (or double) the main estimate of 110,000 workers.

That could, in turn, double or halve the cost-per-worker of the policy.

The OBR further estimate that extra workers will boost the size of the economy by 0.2% – equivalent to about £4.5bn, some of which the government will get back in extra taxes and a smaller benefits bill.

The UK government ignored scientific warnings from Natural England that its nature restoration target was inadequate and would not meet its commitments, new documents show, undermining efforts to protect threatened species.

Patrick Greenfield www.theguardian.com 

In December the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, unveiled targets at the biodiversity Cop15 in Canada to reverse the decline of nature in England. They included plans to improve the quality of marine protected areas, reduce pollution and nitrogen runoff in the river system, and restore more than half a million hectares of wildlife-rich habitat outside protected areas by 2042.

But documents obtained by Unearthed, Greenpeace’s investigative journalism unit, show that the government’s own adviser Natural England said ministers needed to agree a target of restoring 1.5m hectares of habitat outside existing protected sites, three times greater than the final target, if they wanted to meet a commitment to protect 30% of land and sea. They went on to suggest a minimum target of 750,000 hectares.

UK negotiators played a leading role in pushing for a global target to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030, known as 30×30, but conservationists say that documents, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, show the government ignored scientific advice on how to achieve it domestically while advocating for it elsewhere.

At Cop15, the UK was accused of hypocrisy for not making the 30% target legally binding while pushing for it in the final text, which conservationists said was a missed opportunity to protect and restore Britain’s rainforests, cold water coral reefs, chalk streams and peat bogs.

“We all found absolutely extraordinary last year when the government didn’t put forward a target for protected areas. It was completely bizarre that the UK government went to Montreal enthusiastic about 30×30 but not having a target at home. Now it’s absolutely clear from this document that in doing so, they were also ignoring or dismissing their own scientific advisers,” said Craig Bennett, the CEO of the Wildlife Trusts.

“The government’s out of touch with the public. Britain is a country of nature lovers. We get inspired on a Sunday night by watching that latest David Attenborough series. And yet, we see the government not doing anything like enough [on nature],” he said.

The shadow environment secretary, Jim McMahon, said the Environment Act targets were insufficient and said if elected, his party would have an ambitious plan to restore nature in the UK.

“The fact that the government ignored its own statutory adviser when producing its insufficient and delayed Environment Act targets tells you all you need to know about the Tories’ attitude to our environment. The environment secretary’s targets inflict more toxic air and sewage dumping for longer on the country. It’s clear that the Tory party has given up on governing.”

A Defra spokesperson said: “We have full confidence in our Environment Act targets, which were established through intensive consultation with businesses, land managers, environmental organisations, including Natural England.

“The final suite of targets – including our commitment to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitats by 2042 – are stretching and will require a shared endeavour to be delivered. Through the Environment Act we have ensured a robust legal framework to hold current and future governments to account on these targets, protecting nature for generations to come.”

The Environment Agency will push for a higher pay rise for staff this year, the agency’s chief has said, as he told MPs it was “wrong” that some are using food banks or having to leave the organisation because their pay is too low.

By Tevye Markson www.civilserviceworld.com 

Outgoing Environment Agency chief executive Sir James Bevan told MPs yesterday the department is looking into whether it can make a pay business case to the Treasury, whereby it would offer “transformations” in exchange for higher-than-average pay awards.

“We have not been able to pay our staff, for a decade or so, pay that reflects the increase in the cost of living,” Bevan told the Treasury Committee this morning.

“The net effect of that has been that people are significantly poorer than they were and… some people can no longer afford to work for us.

“So people have left us over the last year to two, almost always saying ‘I really don’t want to leave but I can’t afford to work for you’. And I think that’s wrong.”

He added: “People work for us because they want to create a better place. That’s fantastic, but sometimes they want to buy a house or they want to put food on the table, and they’re being forced to choose to go elsewhere.”

Bevan warned last year that the government’s 2022-23 pay offer of 2% – plus a £345 performance-related bonus – was “unjust, unwise, and unfair” amid the cost-of-living-crisis. He said his staff were “experiencing real hardship” as inflation soared, and some were using foodbanks, in a letter to the then-environment secretary George Eustice.

Overall, Environment Agency wages there have fallen by more than 20% in real-terms since 2010, according to the Prospect and Unite unions. Members have walked out in the last few months over the pay concerns. 

Bevan told the Treasury Committee that pay erosion is not only bad for staff, but also “bad for the country” because of the benefits and outcomes these staff are delivering.

The departing chief, who confirmed some staff are still using food banks, said “extensive” discussions with the government and unions about the issue had led to the decison to seek an abover-average pay award this year.

‘We’re doing well despite the challenges’

Despite the pay issues, Bevan, who is leaving the Environment Agency at the end of the month, said the organisation has begun to overcome some of its recruitment challenges.

Prospect warned last year that the organisation was struggling with “severe recruitment difficulties” for some roles because of poor pay and record turnover levels.

“We have been running very high vacancy levels,” Bevan admitted.

“A year or so ago, we were running a 10% average vacancy level across the organisation, and in some of our most skilled and technical qualified jobs like electrical engineering it was a 50% vacancy rate and that was starting to have an effect on our ability to operate the things we do.”

The Environment Agency’s workforce has increased from roughly 10,500 to around 12,250, the organisation’s chairman Alan Lovell confirmed to the committee.

However, the new recruits’ backgrounds mean difficulties remain in delivering the organisation’s objectives.

“These tend to be younger people or people coming in from different industries and they need training and capacity building and that takes time,” he said. 

“So even though we are more or less back to the headcount we wish to be, we are not able to deliver all the outcomes to the extent that we would want.”

Bevan said the Environment Agency is also doing well at motivating staff “despite the challenges”.

“I know that because I’ve just seen the results of our latest staff survey and that is showing an increase in motivation, [which was] already high but it’s higher,” the chief exec said. 

Bevan said the Environment Agency is able to keep attracting people due to the “astonishing work” on offer – “the chance to make the world a better place, people really will get out of bed for that” – as well as the opportunity to work with “astonishing colleagues”.

“It is a fantastic place to work,” Bevan said. 

He said two kinds of people have joined in the last year: twenty-somethings in their first “real” job who are “delighted to be in an organisation that is full of such great people who are committed to creating a better place”; and people with an existing career – such as police chiefs and senior NHS staff – who want their employer to reflect their values and treat them well.

Another key attraction is flexible working, which has “improved productivity not harmed it”, Bevan said, echoing comments by Disclosure and Barring Service chief executive Eric Robinson that hybrid working had had a “significant positive effect”.

“There will be never be a situation when the EA – or, frankly, most other public sector organisations – will be able to pay top dollar compared with the private sector so we do have to find alternative solutions,” Bevan said.

“Though that doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t get a decent wage in the public sector,” he adds. 

The UK remains on track for a “disastrous decade” of stagnant incomes and high taxes, despite cuts to public services, the Resolution Foundation has said in its analysis of the budget on Wednesday.

Phillip Inman www.theguardian.com 

The thinktank, whose stated aim is to improve the standard of living for low- and middle-income families, said typical household disposable incomes were on course to be lower by the end of the forecast period in 2027-28 than they were before the pandemic, when inflation was taken into account.

While the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, had announced an “impressively broad suite of policies” to encourage more people into work, he was unable to change the course of declining living standards, the foundation said.

“Britain’s economy remains stuck in a deep funk – with people supported into work but getting poorer, and paying more tax but seeing public services cut,” the report said.

The UK is forecast to have gone through “the biggest energy and inflation shock since the 1970s, while avoiding a recession, with unemployment peaking at just 4.4%”, it added.

The thinktank said taxes as a share of gross national product were on track to hit 37.7% by the end of the forecast, a 70-year high and a 4.7 percentage point increase since 2019-20, the equivalent to nearly an extra £4,200 for every UK household.

Workers also face paying more to the Treasury because personal tax thresholds have been frozen instead of rising with inflation, meaning wage growth pushes more people into higher rate bands – a phenomenon known as “fiscal drag”.

The Treasury’s independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, said wages growth over the next five years would force 3.2 million people to pay tax for the first time, put 2.1 million into the higher-rate tax band, and add 350,000 additional-rate taxpayers.

The extra amount paid will rise steadily until 2027-28, by which point the government will be earning £29.3bn a year more in extra income tax.

The rise in taxes will still leave the chancellor with little room for manoeuvre at the end of the OBR’s five-year forecast period, mainly because a short-term lift in GDP growth will fade, leaving the overall tax rate lower.

“If even the slow growth of the past decade had continued, incomes would still be £1,800 higher than currently projected for 2027-28,” the Resolution Foundation said.

It described Hunt’s move to abolish the lifetime limit on tax-free pension savings as a very large boost to the wealthy – saving someone with a £2m pension pot almost £250,000 in tax.

The government argues the move, along with the increase in the tax-free annual savings limit from £40,000 to £60,000, are needed to prevent older NHS doctors from quitting work or cutting back their hours. The change is expected to discourage 15,000 higher earners from retiring early. But the foundation said it could have the opposite effect and allow the better-off to build pension pots so large they would still make an early exit.

Intense cost pressure on public services from stagnant budget allocations and rising inflation were “largely ignored” in the budget, the thinktank said, adding that Whitehall departments outside the protected areas of health, schools and defence faced 10% cuts in real terms to day-to-day spending per head by 2027-28.

This loss of spending power across most government departments will rise to 14% “if the newly announced aspiration for defence spending to rise to 2.5% of GDP is met over the next parliament”.

An increase in investment allowances to encourage businesses to buy IT and new equipment worth up to £28bn over three years represents the fifth major corporate tax change in just two years, “illustrating the lack of certainty that has frustrated businesses”, the report said.

The foundation calculated the policy would deliver a temporary 3% boost to investment, “when what Britain actually needs is a permanent 30% boost to catch up with our competitors in France, Germany and the US”.

Elements of a plutocratic budget:

“Gone are the days where your Pension savings automatically die with you or your spouse/civil partner.”..

“Savings within most modern defined contribution Pension products fall outside of your “taxable estate” and are therefore not subject to Inheritance Tax on death.

This makes them an extremely attractive vehicle for passing on wealth to future generations under current legislation.”

Especially if you are stinking rich – Owl

Richard Partington www.theguardian.com 

Jeremy Hunt’s huge pensions giveaway for the wealthiest 1% may have no impact on increasing the number of people in work, while opening a loophole for avoidance of inheritance tax, a leading economic thinktank has warned.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the surprise measure in the chancellor’s budget “probably won’t play a big part, if any” in increasing the number of people in work.

Paul Johnson, the director of the IFS, said: “It was disappointing that other over-generous aspects of pension taxation – not least complete freedom from inheritance tax – were not reined in.

“The lack of any coherent strategy here remains deeply disappointing. Don’t forget these changes are largely a rowing back on changes made just a few years ago by this government.”

In an attempt to encourage older skilled workers not to retire early, Hunt announced plans to scrap the £1m cap on tax-free pension savings. With the employers’ struggle to recruit staff holding back the economy, he argued the change would discourage NHS doctors in particular from quitting.

Labour warned the tax giveaway would benefit only the wealthiest top 1% of earners, while promising that it would reverse the chancellor’s decision to scrap the pensions lifetime allowance.

In its verdict on the budget, the IFS said it was “implausible” for the government to argue that it could not increase public sector pay on affordability grounds.

“You can’t keep cutting the pay of teachers, nurses and civil servants, both in real terms and relative to the private sector, without consequences for recruitment, retention and service delivery,” Johnson said. “Money will have to be found from somewhere.”

The IFS said there were “some elements of a sensible strategy to support growth” in the budget, including the chancellor’s focus on getting more people back to work. However, it suggested the government’s expansion of childcare support would have a “highly uncertain” impact on labour supply.

Owl gives reference to the Verita report and draws attention to key conclusions in a separate post.

East Devon District Council could not have taken any action against former Exmouth councillor John Humphreys while he was under investigation for sex offences, an independent report has concluded.

Philippa Davies www.exmouthjournal.co.uk 

In August 2021 Humphreys was jailed for sexually assaulting boys. He had been arrested in 2016 and continued as a district councillor until 2019 – later that year being given the title of Honorary Alderman, which was removed after his conviction.

Following speculation about who within the council had known about the allegations against him while he was a serving member, EDDC commissioned an independent report, which has now been completed.

Confidentiality issues

It concludes that, while there were rumours about the investigation, the only person who had been officially told about it was EDDC’s Monitoring Officer. He was made aware before Humphreys was arrested, but he was told by police not to share the information because this could prejudice their inquiries.

The report says this put the Monitoring Officer in an ‘unenviable position’, and adds that it is not clear why such strict confidentiality was still needed after Humphreys’ arrest.

But between his arrest and his conviction, it was up to Humphreys to disclose this information to EDDC. The report states: “There is no evidence that Humphreys directly told anyone about his arrest, pending investigation or trial. The behavioural standards set for councillors primarily rely on individuals doing the right thing in an honest and open manner. Humphreys did not do this.”

Child safeguarding

The report also looked at child safeguarding issues. It found that Humphreys did come into contact with children and young people at council premises while he was under investigation. There is no evidence that any harm occurred to any child or young person present during this time, but the report did raise concerns: “Irrespective of where the responsibility lies, one of the effects of the way this case was handled was that someone who had allegedly committed serious sexual offences held positions of responsibility until he was tried and convicted.

“None of his formal positions at EDDC, or his work in the community at large was ever subject to a risk assessment that may have identified whether any children or young people were at risk from him.”

The report’s recommendations

The report, by independent consultants Verita, puts forward several recommendations, and these will be discussed at a special meeting of the full East Devon District Council on Thursday, March 23.

They include new guidelines on the council’s safeguarding policy, and refresher training for employees and councillors alike. The report also recommends that EDDC should reform the process of appointing Honorary Aldermen.

Tory Plymouth Council do a Sheffield on their trees – Owl

Plymouth people say they are in “traumatised” and in mourning after the Armada Way tree felling – as it emerges a consultation showed the public was not in favour of the scheme. Plymouth City Council’s own “meaningful engagement” process resulted in an “overwhelming objection” to the proposal.

William Telford www.plymouthherald.co.uk

A council document said that 68% – that’s 1,537 people – of all respondents did not support the £12.7m Armada Way upgrade plan, with 16% (365) in support and 15% (330) answering “yes” but with changes being made. And submissions from within the city boundaries again showed an overwhelming majority of respondents opposed to the scheme.

But the council said that if it took out the responses from people opposed who did not give a reason why “then the scheme has significant support.” It blames action group Straw (Save the Trees of Armada Way) for having a “significant impact” on the responses.

Straw founder Alison White told PlymouthLive: “The people of Plymouth could not have made it clearer, this is not what we wanted. The results of the survey indicate that clearly.”

Contractors moved in to cut down trees in Armada Way at about 8pm on Tuesday, March 14 – just hours after the council had signed an executive order saying the upgrade of the thoroughfare could proceed. Fencing was put up and police with dogs, and security staff, patrolled the site while contractors used chainsaws and heavy machinery to chop trees from the top and bottom.

The tree-felling was stopped at about 1am when Straw served a court injunction on the council. About 110 of 129 threatened trees had been removed by this time.

A legal battle is now ensuing with Straw starting a judicial review process. A fundraiser to pay for legal costs has already passed £5,500 in donations.

Meanwhile, when PlymouthLive visited the site we were besieged by members of the public angry at the tree felling. From small children to elderly shoppers, they stopped to say they were saddened and disappointed both by the tree removal and the way the council had handled the process. One woman simply said: “It’s heartbreaking.”

Lynne Sears and her mother Una Sears had campaigned to save the water feature before adding their voices to the tree protest. Lynne said: “I’m traumatised. The sight of this is gut-wrenching. Kids are crying, they can’t believe adults could do this.”

Una added: “It’s so sad. Just look at it. I was shocked, the council kept this (tree removal) so quiet.”

Gin Farrow-Jones, an artist from Stonehouse, even made a wood and card coffin to symbolise the death of the trees. She said: “I’m devastated, enraged and traumatised. This coffin symbolises the death of the trees,the death of democracy and the death of the voice of the people of Plymouth.”

Cllr Nick Kelly, a former Conservative now leader of the Independent Alliance Group, said he had rejected early plans for the redevelopment when he was leader of the council. He said: “What’s the point of having a £12.7m scheme so many people are against?”

Work on the regeneration for Armada Way was put on hold in November 2022 due to the row over the tree removal. Plymouth City Council carried out a“meaningful community engagement” on the plan in February and only on Friday said it was finalising reports which will be made public.

But the decision was then made on Tuesday to press ahead with the scheme, funded with £2.7m from the Transforming Cities Fund for walking and cycling – which is time restricted meaning work had to begin by a certain date – and £10m of council capital funding.

The council said that following the engagement programme the final design was changed so 169 semi-mature trees would be planted, there would be a revised tree planting schedule and a commitment to investigate wider tree planting in the city centre. It meant an additional 19 semi-mature trees would be included, with more evergreens and wider canopy trees, and an extra existing tree would be retained. .

The council explained it was planned to remove 129 trees, keep 24 existing trees and leave a further three trees which had been earmarked for removal but had been identified as having birds nesting in them. The council said that for reasons of public safety and impact on the city centre, and given the size of the tree machinery due to come onto Armada Way, it scheduled the works to be carried out at night with as few people around as possible.

“We aimed to minimise the disruption caused to the public and businesses by cordoning off parts of Armada Way,” a spokesperson said. “All but 16 of the trees due to be felled are now down. In total 110 trees were felled but an injunction served at 1am meant we had to halt the works entirely.

“The plan had been to remove all the felled trees and shave off and make safe any stumps along the main pedestrian routes once all the trees had come down before the start of the working day. Unfortunately the injunction meant we had to stop work.

“The contractors cleaned up the site and installed more fencing to ensure the felled wood is out of bounds. Other trees that remain are three which have bird nests and 24 which were due to remain under the revised plans.”

In January Owl produced a summary and critique of the DCC investigation into the John Humphreys case.

This case has to be seen as a monumental failure in safeguarding. Slowly we are beginning to see how comprehensively the system failed. 

Questions remain over why the police imposed such stringent confidentiality restrictions, apparently even after Humphreys was charged and what his bail conditions were.

Following a quick read of the EDDC Verita report, which can be found from page 6 onwards here owl extracts some key paragraphs from Verita’s Summary and conclusions. Enough to be going on with.

What caught Owl’s eye was Verita’s exploration with participants of what could have been done in different circumstances (see paragraphs 1.32 onwards).

SELECTED PARAGRAPHS FROM VERITA’S REPORT

……

1.7 On 9 March 2016 EDDC’s Monitoring Officer (MO), attended a Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) meeting at Devon County Council (DCC). He became aware that Humphreys was under investigation by the police for alleged sex crimes against young people. The MO attended follow-up meetings at DCC in April 2016 and November 2016. The MO told us that he was not asked to do anything as a result of these meetings.

….

1.14 The MO reported that the police instructed attendees to maintain strict confidentiality at this stage, primarily to avoid prejudicing their investigation into the allegations.

1.15 The police direction about confidentiality in this case appears to have been more stringent than advice usually given by DCC and the police at LADO MAS meetings. This typically allows for information to be shared with those who “need to know in order to protect children, facilitate enquiries, manage related disciplinary or suitability processes”. As such, it is usual for organisations such as EDDC to be able to follow their own processes to mitigate safeguarding risks as they see fit.

1.16 We consider that typical DCC and police advice may, in different circumstances, have allowed the MO to share information he received at the LADO meetings with other senior officers or group leaders at EDDC. However, it is clear that the police’s need to maintain strict confidentiality overrode the DCC’s normal advice and prevented him from doing so. 

…….

1.19 Humphreys was arrested and questioned under caution on 11 May 2016. From this point he was aware of the ongoing investigation. It is not clear why the police would seek to maintain this strict requirement of confidentiality following the LADO meeting in November 2016. 

…….

1.30 The convention is that members will individually chose to resign for serious failings in their conduct. This requirement cannot be imposed on them and it was, in Humphreys case, clearly his choice to remain a councillor despite the fact he was under police investigation.

1.31 In our view the code of conduct and allied standards process are not effective tools to promote desired behaviours, nor to effectively address poor behaviours amongst elected members. Criminals and those flouting the rules are routinely unlikely to do the honourable thing and self-report their actions to appropriate authorities. In the existing legal and procedural framework, this is a likely outcome and an ever-present risk. Unfortunately, EDDC is not in a position to make wide-ranging changes to this regime without legislative change at a national level.

1.32 Given the restrictions on EDDC for removing, suspending or restricting the role of a councillor, we explored with participants whether any action short of such measures could have been considered in this case. We acknowledge that these were hypothetical questions.

1.33 The MO could have spoken informally to Humphreys after his arrest. This could have put the onus on Humphreys to consider his position as a councillor and may have led him to resign. The MO could have asked Humphreys not to attend EDDC events at which children and vulnerable adults would be present. This would have been a voluntary agreement, and an offer that he was highly likely to have declined – especially in light of his persistent claims of innocence. Even if Humphreys had acceded to such a request, it may have been difficult to monitor his compliance with it. However, there was a significant risk that giving such notice to Humphreys would have prejudiced the police investigation.

1.34 It was possible that the MO could have informally spoken to the Chair of Council or to group leaders, with the aim of alerting them to the fact that Humphreys was under police investigation. The MO has explained to us his overriding concern, on advice from the police, not to prejudice their investigation into Humphreys. We believe that he acted correctly and consistently in this respect.

1.35 There are limited avenues open to councillors for raising concerns about a colleague. In cases where safeguarding risks may be a concern, we would expect a councillor to know how to raise this with the Council’s safeguarding lead. In cases where inappropriate behaviour occurs, it would seem appropriate to raise this under the EDDC’s code of conduct. The Council’s MO would be the natural source of advice in such a case.

1.36 Comments from the East Devon Conservative Association suggest that they may have had more remit to impose sanctions on Humphreys than were available to EDDC. 

…….

1.43 Because of the conclusion reached at the LADO MAS meetings that Humphreys did not, in his formal EDDC roles, work with children no immediate safeguarding mitigation plans were developed. We believe that this is a flawed conclusion for the LADO meetings to have reached. There is no evidence that anyone commissioned or conducted any form of risk assessment in respect of Humphreys’ roles as an EDDC councillor. 

1.44 The MO advised us that attendees at the LADO MAS meetings concluded that “bail conditions” would be sufficient to address any present risk posed by Humphreys.

Beware what you wish for – Owl