Daily Archives: 12 Apr 2023

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

12 Apr 2023

Posted under

Misc

Comments

1 Comment

Boss of UK’s most polluting water firm made £1.4m from shares before retiring

The chief executive of the UK’s most polluting water company made £1.4m from the sale of shares in the business before his retirement, the Guardian can reveal.

One of privatisation’s winners, most of us are losers! – Owl

PS With all this rain around yesterday and today, best stay away from our rivers.

Helena Horton www.theguardian.com 

Politicians have called for water companies to be taxed to the extent that they cannot pay huge sums to CEOs after it was revealed that Steve Mogford of United Utilities retired on 31 March and in the months beforehand sold his shares for just under £1.4m.

According to Environment Agency data, the most polluting water company in England last year was United Utilities. One of the company’s pipes spilled sewage into the River Ellen, near the Lake District, for nearly 7,000 hours last year.

The data also showed that 10 of the country’s 20 pipes that spilled the most sewage in 2022 were owned by United Utilities, which provides water to the north-west and Lake District.

The Liberal Democrats’ environment spokesperson, Tim Farron, said: “As the sewage scandal runs on, top chiefs at water companies are racking up millions of pounds in bonuses. This is a disgrace. Water companies shouldn’t be allowed to get away with pumping thousands of hours of filthy sewage into our rivers and waterways. We need the Conservatives to stop sitting on their hands, tax water companies and end this scandal.”

Megan Corton Scott, a political campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: “We are the only country in the world to fully privatise our national water supply. This gave monopoly powers to the water companies with no conspicuous accountability and little commercial incentive to do anything but collect bill payments. People have no choice but to give them their money in exchange for performance that is, frankly, well below bog standard.

“The theory that the innate decency of the companies’ management would ensure an acceptable level of service has been completely disproven. The results are in and allowing water companies to mark their own homework doesn’t work. Either the government accepts that reform is needed and gives regulators the funding, the legal powers and the spine they desperately need, or our water industry will continue to stink.”

Water company bosses have made huge sums from salaries and bonuses in recent years, despite the continuing sewage scandal. Last year, it was revealed that the boss of Anglian Water, which had one of the worst pollution records in England, was given more than £1m in pay and bonuses.

The shadow environment secretary, Jim McMahon, said: “The Tory sewage scandal has allowed water bosses [to] profit from failure, whilst our villages, towns, and cities across the country have been treated as open sewers.

“In the absence of a serious government plan, Labour has brought forward our water quality bill to clean up the water industry once and for all. Labour’s proposed legislation would enforce mandatory monitoring and automatic fines at the point of dumping, ambitious targets that end the sewage scandal by 2030 and deliver accountability for negligent water bosses.”

Figures also showed the annual bonuses paid to water company executives rose by 20% in 2021 despite most of the companies failing to meet sewage pollution targets. On average executives received £100,000 in one-off payments on top of their salaries during a period in which polluted water was being pumped for 2.7m hours into England’s rivers and swimming spots.

The analysis of water companies’ annual reports found their bonus pool for executives stood at an average of more than £600,000 per company. In total the 22 water bosses paid themselves £24.8m, including £14.7m in bonuses, benefits and incentives, in 2021-22.

The former boss of Thames Water has been handed £2.8m since leaving the company, despite being sacked for leakages and fines while in charge.

United Utilities has been contacted for comment.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

12 Apr 2023

Posted under

Misc

Planning applications validated by EDDC for week beginning 27 March

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

12 Apr 2023

Posted under

Misc

East Devon ranked among expensive location to buy a home

Budleigh Salterton has been ranked 10th most expensive seaside location to buy a home on average in 2022.

“Second home ownership undoubtedly plays a role in driving up prices in the most desirable locations.”

[Second homes currently account for one in every 23 properties in East Devon and rising; obviously concentrated in coastal towns and our “picturesque” villages where you can show off in your “Muddy Stilettos” – Owl]

Adam Manning www.exmouthjournal.co.uk 

New analysis from Barclays Bank show Budleigh to be 10th most expensive in Britain at 537,681. other locations in East Devon have appeared on the list, including:

  • Lyme Regis £501,261.
  • Sidmouth £496,936.
  • Exmouth £373,539.
  • Seaton £369,541

The bank, Barclays analysed house price data for the 12 months to December 2022 to make the findings, looking at 209 coastal locations in total.

Salcombe was number one. It found the average house pricelast year was just over £1.2 million.

At the other end of the spectrum, Greenock in Inverclyde, Scotland, was found to have the lowest average house price of the seaside locations analysed, at £97,608.

Scotland dominated Halifax’s top 10 list of the least expensive seaside locations.

Halifax’s study indicated that, in general, the cost of coastal homes across Britain has increased by 56 per cent between 2012 and 2022, from £195,509 to £304,460.

During the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, coastal and rural locations were particularly popular as house hunters embarked on a ‘race for space.’

Many of the most expensive seaside locations were found along the coastline of southern England, in areas popular with second home owners.

Kim Kinnaird, mortgages director at Halifax, said: “For many, owning a home by the sea is an aspiration, with coastal living offering beach walks, clean air and other health benefits.

“But this comes at a price in many locations and Britain’s most expensive seaside spot, Salcombe in Devon, will set buyers back over £1.2 million on average.

“When we delve deeper into the cost of Britain’s seaside homes, it’s clear that there is a broad spectrum in house prices.

“Whilst million-pound properties are abundant in the south west of England, in contrast, homes in Greenock in Scotland are valued on average at less than £100,000.

“Second home ownership undoubtedly plays a role in driving up prices in the most desirable locations. While house prices in any location are driven by factors such as supply and demand and interest rates, there are also socio-economic factors at play.

“Some of these factors are more acute in Britain’s coastal communities, and many British towns most in need of investment also sit near the shore.”

Halifax used Land Registry data covering England and Wales, in addition to figures from the Registers of Scotland, to make the findings.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

12 Apr 2023

Posted under

Misc

Manchester’s tourist tax: blazing a trail 

“Others should follow”

Editorial www.theguardian.com 

Valencia will introduce one by the beginning of next year. Bologna charges €4 a night, about average for an Italian city, and French resorts have been able to impose a taxe de séjour since 1910. But local authorities in Britain have consistently wavered when it comes to imposing a tourist tax similar to those commonplace in the rest of Europe. In recent years Oxford, Bath and Hull reportedly contemplated a levy but decided against it.

At the start of this month, however – in time for the Easter bank holiday weekend – Manchester finally took the plunge, after winning surprisingly strong backing from the city’s hoteliers. Visitors staying in a Manchester city centre hotel or holiday apartment are now required to pay a £1 per night City Visitor Charge. An estimated £3m worth of annual revenue will be dedicated to tourism-related and cultural projects, as well as more mundane necessities such as street cleaning. The Welsh government is preparing to follow suit, giving councils power to institute a levy to pay towards the upkeep of beaches, parks, pavements and footpaths. Edinburgh is reportedly considering a £2 a night tourist tax, subject to approval from the Scottish parliament.

Despite inevitable concerns from businesses fearful of discouraging visitors, particularly in tough economic times, this is surely the right direction of travel. A recent study by the Northern Powerhouse Partnership concluded that replicating the £1 tourism levy across England would raise £428m for local authorities annually. It is true that swingeing cuts to council funding since 2010 put that figure in sobering perspective. But this is nevertheless money that can be used for the common good, in places where there is often an unacceptable gulf between the circumstances of well-heeled seasonal visitors and members of host communities.

In regions such as Cornwall and Cumbria, where the influx of visitors places a heavy load on sometimes crumbling infrastructure, a tourist tax would help share the burden with authorities that are brutally overstretched. In the absence of a fair settlement for local government funding, some recognition of the special requirements of such areas is urgently required. As council officials in thinly populated Cumbria have pointed out, the Department for Transport funds the region’s pot‑holed road network only on a per‑head basis, but many millions of visitors use it to access the Lakes each year.

More broadly, at a time when the debate about the social and environmental impact of tourism has become increasingly tense, a levy provides a means through which communities can exercise some influence and control. Controversies over the proportion of second homes in tourist hotspots such as Whitby have illustrated that a better balance needs to be struck between the interests of residents and visitors in many of the country’s most attractive destinations. Faced with similar challenges, Valencia’s regional parliament intends to devote part of the new tourism tax revenue towards the construction of affordable housing for local residents.

This type of approach can reinvigorate local democracy, inculcate a sense of shared stewardship for places that are part of our national heritage, and ensure that the financial benefits of tourism are more equitably shared. In foreign destinations where levies have been introduced, visitor economies continue to flourish. Manchester has led the way. Others should follow.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

12 Apr 2023

Posted under

Misc

Comments

2 Comments

Questions about the Knowle fire reverberate in the Sid Valley

From a correspondent:

Some urgent questions are being asked following the disastrous blaze that ravaged the old council offices at the Knowle, Sidmouth on 30 March.

It now appears that there was an earlier attempt to start a fire in the building on 26 March which was extinguished by the fire service with little damage being caused. So what additional security measures were taken by the owners as a result of this incident, and, apparently, why were guard dogs not deployed by them until after 30 March?

A fire of this scale inevitably has serious environmental consequences. Fire plumes carry toxic pollutants – parts of the damaged building are known to have contained asbestos – which can be deposited widely by wind and pose a threat to human, animal and plant life. In addition, water runoff from tackling the blaze can cause serious contamination. So, what tests have been, or will be made, to monitor the extent and degree of any pollution and who is responsible for them?

The Knowle housed an important maternity roost of endangered horseshoe bats. Have they suffered in the blaze?

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

12 Apr 2023

Posted under

Misc

Paul Arnott’s letter resonates in South Wirral and Cornwall

PLANNING PROBLEMS www.thetimes.co.uk


Sir, The housing plans Paul Arnott protests against (letter, Apr 10) are the perverse outcome of the development policies that politicians have created. The planning system is so difficult and expensive to navigate that only big corporate house builders can afford to do it, and to recoup the money spent on permissions they have to build chicken coops with minimal design and an imperative to make as much money as possible.

My parents live in a leafy road on the Wirral, backing onto fields. The local corporate landowner has applied for planning permission for its several thousand acres. The local authority has refused, but the decision will inevitably go to court and be overturned by some secretary of state or another. The plan will go ahead and the shoeboxes will be built.

This inevitably ends in a situation that satisfies no one. First-time buyers are disappointed, striving move-uppers are disappointed and existing residents are outraged.
Mark Polden
Little Sutton, South Wirral

Sir, It is high time that the chancellor introduced a land tax to share more equally the massive increase in value that accrues to land once planning permission has been granted. A fair levy on “planning uplift” would discourage speculation and land banking, and the revenue raised could be directed to councils and housing associations to build the social rented accommodation that is so needed.
Rebecca Bartleet
Gunnislake, Cornwall