They are not essential.

“For what it’s worth, I think there are more important things than beavers,” she told a meeting of bankers and insurers in London.

Return of beavers to the wild ‘is being blocked by Defra dam’

Adam Vaughan www.thetimes.co.uk 

The government’s plan to “build back beaver” by releasing the animals into the wild is being blocked by Thérèse Coffey’s department, conservationists claim.

The environment secretary said last week that beavers were not essential to meeting the global biodiversity targets the UK helped to set last year.

“For what it’s worth, I think there are more important things than beavers,” she told a meeting of bankers and insurers in London.

Boris Johnson said in 2021 that the UK would “build back beaver” as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) consulted on the issue. Defra gave beavers enhanced legal protections last year, seen as a key step in paving the way for releases.

Yet officials are telling beaver proponents that they can be released only into enclosures, not into the wider environment. Coffey said the department was “still considering” the proposal.

Her lukewarm view on the return of beavers is at odds with some senior officials. Tony Juniper, chairman of the regulator Natural England, speaking minutes before Coffey, said the reintroduction of beavers in the “right catchments” would be “very helpful” for the recovery of wetlands.

Juniper also told a recent event on the restoration of chalk streams that beavers could help with some of the water shortages facing the south and east of England. He said that beavers on the River Glaven in Norfolk had kept the head of the river flowing.

Beavers are considered a “keystone” species in ecosystems. The habitats they create can help other species. They have been mooted as a way to reduce the risk of flooding, because their dams can slow the flow of flood water.

Wildlife groups wrote to Defra in February asking for clarity about the release of beavers. Trudy Harrison, an environment minister, told them that Defra was continuing its “work with Natural England”.

Beavers were hunted to extinction in England but in 2014 they were photographed on the River Otter in Devon, the first in the wild for centuries. Defra initially planned to trap the beavers but granted them a licence to stay in 2015. A five-year trial concluded they were beneficial to the environment.

The Wildlife Trusts, a network of charities that runs beaver enclosures, said it was being hampered by a lack of government leadership. Rob Stoneman, a director, said: “The government has inexplicably blocked the return of beavers to the wild.”

Beaver projects being considered include one on the Isle of Wight and enclosures exist in Kent, Cornwall, Essex, Derbyshire and Cheshire.

The government is believed to be waiting for a report by the environment select committee on the reintroduction of the species. A Defra official said: “Beavers are just one of several formerly native species we have supported the reintroduction of.”

Maybe this will increase the footfall on the Redhayes Bridge, opened in 2011 at a cost of £3.75m, part of the Exeter Growth Point £5.5m regeneration project linking Exeter to Cranbrook and the Scienced Park.

A local wag refers to this bridge as the “Franklin Memorial Bridge” and tries to spot it being used every time they pass underneath. 

Owl has been informed that sightings of pedestrians or cyclists are rare but is open to other experiences.

(Cllr. Ray Franklin was the EDDC portfolio holder for strategic growth and regeneration during the “creative” phase of the “Build, build, build” Tory regime.)

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com

Work has begun on a flagship new hotel to be built right next to the M5 at the Exeter Science Park. The 142-room hotel will feature meeting rooms, a restaurant, bar, gym, gardens, and numerous car charging points – and is a new sustainable net zero hotel.

Zeal Hotels has signed an Exclusivity Agreement with IHG Hotels & Resorts for the hotel, which will be managed by Valor Hospitality. The property, which is due to open next year, is aiming for a minimum BREEAM rating of Excellent, with a target of Outstanding. Solar panels will ensure that the hotel will generate all the energy it requires.

Planning permission has been granted for the 142-room hotel and construction is due to begin next month. It will feature a meeting room, restaurant, bar, gym, gardens, and numerous car charging points and is the first of a number of sustainable hotels Zeal Hotels plans to open.

Dr Sally Basker, chief executive, Exeter Science Park Limited, said: “It’s very exciting to see work begin on Zeal’s innovative, ‘mindfully modern’ highly-sustainable, low-carbon hotel that will complement Exeter Science Park’s existing net zero carbon buildings.

“This collaboration launches the next phase of growth at Exeter Science Park and we anticipate there will be great synergy for both organisations, with Zeal bringing many benefits to our businesses, which will be reciprocated through the Science Park providing facilities, such as meeting spaces, for Zeal Hotel residents.

“We’re delighted to build on existing success to deliver an innovative, low-carbon destination that supports the development of a vibrant, STEMM community delivering extraordinary growth for our south-west region.”

Tim Wheeldon, managing director, Zeal Hotels, said: “The final pieces of our plan to create the first net zero carbon branded hotel are coming together and we are thrilled to be starting work on this innovative and highly sustainable project.

“Hospitality has been lagging behind other industries in its commitment to net zero carbon and we are looking forward to welcoming guests to join us on our journey. A fundamental requirement in the design of our new hotel is that it can be replicated and we are now seeking additional development opportunities in strategic locations throughout the UK.”

Cllr Rufus Gilbert, Cabinet Member for Economic Recovery and Skills, said: “It’s excellent news that Exeter Science Park has been chosen as the home for this pioneering development and it matches our net zero carbon ambitions in Devon. The vision of the Science Park has always been to encourage innovation and sustainability, and that’s exactly what this exciting project provides.”

Exeter Science Park is located close to junction 29 of the M5, providing a base for a number of science, technology and engineering companies. The hotel is expected to welcome guests using Exeter Science Park, Exeter Business Park and Exeter Airport, as well as guests travelling to Devon and Cornwall, all of whom will be able to use the hotel’s EV charging points.

Locally-sourced food and beverage will be a focal point of the hotel operation.

It’s not only causing water shortages but is now fuelling deforestation!

Soft, strong….and not as recycled as it used to be 

James Tapper www.theguardian.com 

Hoarding during the Covid-19 pandemic underlined just how important loo roll is to the British public. But working from home had another unexpected effect: less waste paper from offices, which means less recycled material to make toilet roll.

New research by Ethical Consumer magazine shows that the three main toilet brands have cut the amount of recycled paper in their tissues. It said the use of virgin wood pulp was fuelling deforestation, although paper-industry advocates dispute this.

The consumer organisation recommended that people avoid buying Andrex, Velvet, Cushelle, Regina and Nicky because more material used to make them is taken from felled trees.

It found that Kimberly-Clark, which makes Andrex, cut the amount of recycled fibre it uses for tissue and personalcare products to 19.3% in 2021, down from 29.7% in 2011.

It used less fibre, down from 3.53m tonnes to 2.85m, but almost all the reduction was in recycled fibres, while virgin-pulp use fell only slightly.

Sofidel, maker of Regina and Nicky, cut recycled fibres from 8.9% in 2019 to 7.3% in 2021.

And Essity, which makes Velvet and Cushelle, cut the amount of recycled paper in its products from 2.1m tonnes in 2018 (40%) to 1.9m tonnes in 2022 (36%) while it increased slightly the amount of fibre taken from pulp.

Shanta Bhavnani, a researcher at Ethical Consumer and the author of the report, said: “There’s so much awareness now of the importance of trees in addressing climate change so it’s really disappointing to see the big toilet paper companies cutting their use of recycled fibres.

“But it’s encouraging to see the growth in the number of alternative toilet paper products, as it means consumers now have many more sustainable options.”

She cited a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a US environmental body, that said logging in the northern hemisphere was having an impact on Canada’s boreal forests, with 11.3m hectares (28m acres) of forest felled from 1996 to 2015 – almost the size of England.

Recycling is more efficient than cutting down trees as it produces less wastewater and other waste and requires less energy, according to the Environmental Paper Network, a global coalition of more than 150 civil society organisations, which also says that making tissue from recycled paper uses one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions of virgin wood.

However, Two Sides, a membership organisation for forestry, pulp and other paper manufacturers, said that it was misleading to say paper production contributed to deforestation since “all trees used for making paper products are replanted”.

It said European forests had grown from 2005 to 2015 and 74% of all paper used in Europe was recycled.

It added that virgin pulp was required to maintain the recycling chain, as fibres degrade over time, so that paper can be recycled 3.8 times on average, though others say fibres can last up to six times or more.

All three companies named in the report take virgin wood from certified schemes like the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC). But Ethical Consumer said these schemes had previously suffered from poor oversight and labels such as “FSC mix” were from forests that were not audited.

It recommended that people buy toilet roll made from recycled paper or sustainably sourced bamboo pulp with no plastic packaging.

Gareth Lucy, Essity UK’s communications director, said that he was disappointed by the report because there had been a big drop in the availability of waste paper during the pandemic – “from the huge reduction in office paper waste as workplaces were closed, and the transition of household bills and documents from paper to online”.

He added that Essity had been researching how to make tissue from other sources such as wheat straw. “Essity has identified and developed ways to process new sources of recycled paper, such as from used paper towels and takeaway coffee cups, and has invested in a new state-of-the-art recycled paper facility that can process a lower grade of recycle fibre.”

A Kimberly-Clark spokesperson said it was aiming to end the use of natural forest fibre by 2030 and that its UK operation uses 77% fast-growing, farmed eucalyptus fibres.

“Of the remaining 23%, we’re working towards reducing them further through the use of innovative technology, for example using enzymes to give the tissue paper the necessary strength” the spokesperson said.

Sofidel was contacted but declined to comment.

Summary of the findings of the King’s Fund comparison of NHS with 19 other health care systems.

Underinvestment, including in numbers of beds. 

On staff: NHS had strikingly low levels of key clinical staff, including doctors and nurses, and is heavily reliant on medical professionals trained abroad. UK exported a huge amount of nursing talent that is trained in the country and not held onto, instead making up large percentages of medical workforces in countries such as Australia and New Zealand. (the Independent)

Denis Campbell www.theguardian.com 

Britons die sooner from cancer and heart disease than people in many other rich countries, partly because of the NHS’s lack of beds, staff and scanners, a study has found.

The UK “underperforms significantly” on tackling its biggest killer diseases, in part because the NHS has been weakened by years of underinvestment, according to the report from the King’s Fund health thinktank. It “performs poorly” as judged by the number of avoidable deaths resulting from disease and injury and also by fatalities that could have been prevented had patients received better or quicker treatment.

The comparative study of 19 well-off nations concluded that Britain achieves only “below average” health outcomes because it spends a “below average” amount for every person on healthcare.

The sobering findings come 10 days before celebrations across the four home nations to mark the 75th anniversary of the NHS’s creation on 5 July 1948 by the postwar Labour government.

The King’s Fund pinpoints the NHS’s lack of doctors and nurses as one of the main reasons the service is struggling as judged by many of the criteria used in the thinktank’s analysis. On Thursday, the government will finally publish its long-awaited workforce plan to tackle staff shortages, which Rishi Sunak said on Sunday would be “one of the most significant announcements in the history of the NHS”.

The 118-page report compares the resources available to the NHS across the UK, and its performance, with those of the health systems in countries including France, Germany, Sweden, Japan, Singapore and the US. Among its main conclusions are that in the UK:

• Life expectancy is second worst among the 19 countries studied.
• People who have a heart attack or stroke are more likely to die as a result than in almost every other country studied, including within 30 days of admission to hospital.

• Survival rates for many of the most commonly occurring cancers, including breast, colon, cervix, rectum, lung and stomach, are “below average”
• Access to NHS dental care is “worryingly threadbare in some areas”.
• There are fewer CT and MRI scanners than in any of the other countries studied, and the number of hospital beds is the second smallest, owing to historical underinvestment in capital spending.

“The NHS … trails behind its international cousins on some key markers of a good healthcare system. We are not by any means where we should be,” said Siva Anandaciva, the author of the report and the King’s Fund’s chief analyst.

Anandaciva dismissed assertions by ministers in recent years that Covid-19 was to blame for much of the NHS’s increasing fragility and inability to provide urgent care promptly. The impact of the pandemic merely “compounded the consequences of more than a decade of squeezed investment in staff, equipment and wider services that keep us well”, he added.

On Sunday, Sunak repeated to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that the delays in care provision, which are the worst in the history of the NHS, and England’s waiting list of 7.3 million, were “because we’ve had a pandemic”.

The report, which draws on data collected by bodies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Office for National Statistics, also found that “people in the UK are profoundly dissatisfied with the current state of health services”. Despite the NHS’s difficulties, though, support for its founding principles – as a taxpayer-funded system that is available to all and free at the point of use – remains strong, with little appetite for radical reform.

The report also highlights the fact that in Britain, unlike in some other countries, people do not have to pay to access healthcare, though long waiting times are forcing growing numbers to do so. It also praises the NHS for its efficiency, low use of second-line antibiotics and management of diabetes.

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, the British Heart Foundation’s associate medical director, said that Britain’s poor record on cardiovascular health was a result of “a deadly combination of the Covid-19 pandemic, extreme and ongoing pressure on what was an already stretched health service, not enough NHS staff and space, deep-rooted health inequalities, and poor population health”

Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, urged ministers to make smoking obsolete, increasing the number of cancer screenings and plugging gaps in the cancer workforce to improve diagnosis and survival.

The Department of Health and Social Care did not respond directly to the King’s Fund’s findings. Instead, a spokesperson said only that: “This report recognises the NHS is one of the most efficiently run healthcare systems and we are investing up to £14.1bn to improve services and cut waiting lists, one of the government’s top five priorities.

“There are record numbers of staff working in the NHS with over 53,600 more people compared to a year ago, including over 5,400 more doctors and over 12,900 more nurses.”

If you’re still working from home following the Covid pandemic, then it’s your fault a hosepipe ban is coming into place – at least that’s what one water company says.

Ben Ashton metro.co.uk 

South East Water has laid blame at the door of those who aren’t going into an office for the first hosepipe ban of the summer that will be imposed on Monday. 

The water company, which supplies more than two million homes and businesses, says it has been left with ‘no choice but to restrict the use of hosepipes and sprinklers until further notice’.

Households across Kent and Sussex will be affected by the ban and company chief executive David Hinton claimed people working from home was a ‘key factor’ because it has ‘increased drinking water demand’.

In a letter to customers, he wrote: ‘Over the past three years the way in which drinking water is being used across the south east has changed considerably.

‘The rise of working from home has increased drinking water demand in commuter towns by around 20% over a very short period, testing our existing infrastructure.’

Mr Hinton also blamed low rainfall since April, which he said had left water butts empty, as well as a recent spell of hot weather causing a spike in demand for drinking water.

‘Our reservoir and aquifer stocks of raw water, essential to our water supply but not ready to be used, are in a good position,’ he said.

‘However, demand for treated mains water, which takes time to process and deliver, was greater than we could meet.

‘Over the past week we have needed to find water to supply the equivalent of an additional four towns the size of Maidstone or Eastbourne, every day.’

One South East Water customer accused Mr Hinton of ‘victim blaming’ and described his letter as ‘a deflection from the real issue’.

Jutta Wrobel, 61, an artist in the village of Wadhurst, East Sussex, said: ‘It’s not a suitable response, neither is the paddling pool story or the idea they didn’t see summer coming – they’re all trivial sideshows.

‘This is a deflection from the real issue which is how to stop South East Water paying away all our money in dividends rather than reinvesting in our water infrastructure, which is a public utility and a human right.

‘We are supposed to be the Garden of England. We are not supposed to have hosepipe bans for two years running.’

The married grandmother of four started an online petition demanding a change of ownership of South East Water after she was left without mains water for five days earlier this month.

She added: ‘The barrage of victim blaming by South East Water is what I think has riled people up.

‘I’m interested in what the regulator is doing about it and whether there will be meaningful sanctions imposed on South East Water.’

Greg Clark, the Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells, told The Times: ‘Their only job is to deliver drinking water. But in my constituency, they have run out of water twice in six months – once just before Christmas when we had a cold snap, and now after a small and unexceptional heatwave.

‘What they’re describing in terms of people working for home is by no means specific to this area. There has been for some time a tendency for people to work more from home. A water company should be able to predict and accommodate for this.’

A spokeswoman for the water regulator Ofwat told The Times: ‘South East Water must do better to predict and manage operational issues, help customers, and engage with them on what is happening and why.

‘Customers will be asking why, for the second time in six months, their water company is being caught out by the weather.’

South East Water’s Head of Service Management, Steve Andrews, said: ‘We announced the Temporary Use Ban (TUB) on Friday 16 June. 

‘Following a period of consultation, we will be able to take action against customers who contravene the hosepipe restrictions from Monday, 26 June.

‘The restrictions have been introduced to ensure that we can deliver drinking water to all our customers consistently.

‘Since the TUB was introduced, we have seen customer demand reduce, bringing down the high demand for tap water. We want to thank our customers for being mindful of their water use and remind them to continue to use water wisely over the coming weekend.’

A hospipe ban has also been introduced in the south-west of England this month.

Providers need help with rising costs.

A cross-party delegation of MPs from Devon has taken the case for nursery education in the county to the top.

Guy Henderson, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk 

They met the secretary of state for education and the minister for children to discuss the challenges facing nursery provision in the south west.

The meeting followed representations from nursery owners in both Plymouth and Torbay about the challenges they face. 

Torbay’s Conservative MP Kevin Foster and Plymouth Sutton and Devonport Labour MP Luke Pollard headed the push for action on issues affecting the sector in the region, along with Cheryl Hadland, the founder and chair of Tops Day Nurseries, a Dorset-based company that has branches in Devon, including  in one Babbacombe and several in Plymouth.

The MPs raised issues such as support for training new staff, energy costs, increasing staff wages and business rates.

Following changes announced in the March budget, eligibility for childcare is being expanded significantly over the next two years, with increases in the amount of childcare costs which can be reclaimed under Universal Credit due later this month.

But the delegation stressed that challenges facing local nurseries must be addressed if the sector is to sustain itself and be able to increase capacity to meet the demand for places which will follow the expansion of eligibility.

The two ministers explained how the budget for childcare will increase to £8 billion over the next two years, and that a significant increase in the hourly rate paid to providers is due in September.

They pledged to look at how the system for apprenticeship training supports the childcare sector, and at how commercial childcare providers pay business rates but those based in schools and churches don’t.

Mr Foster said later: “The expansion of eligibility will help many local families, but it is vital the funding package works for providers as well.

“We set out clearly the challenges local nurseries are facing and it was encouraging to have confirmation that further details of funding will be with local providers shortly.”

“Our Committee warned in 2021 that the system of local government audit was close to breaking point. Disappointingly, since then the situation has only gotten worse. The cases of Croydon, Slough, Thurrock and Woking councils all should serve as flashing red signals for the Government, and our report finds that the rot risks spreading to central government finance and the NHS.” Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee

I.e. the system is bust! – Owl

committees.parliament.uk 

The unacceptably high backlog of audit opinions for local government bodies may get worse before it gets better. A Public Accounts Committee report today says that delays to publishing audited accounts for local government bodies increases the risk of governance or financial issues being identified too late, and hinders accountability for £100 billion in local government spending, with knock-on impacts for central government and the NHS.

Only 12% of local government bodies received audit opinions on their finances in time to publish accounts for 2021-22 within the already extended deadline for local authority accounts publication. Over 400 local government bodies missed this deadline, with the cumulative backlog of unpublished opinions rising to 632 for 2021-22. The scale of the issue suggests the position for 2022-23 may deteriorate, with the Government and Financial Reporting Council (FRC), worryingly, unable to say when these issues will be addressed.

The risk of significant financial or governance issues being detected too late increases significantly where audits are delayed and with the same pool of auditors working across other sectors, audits of other areas of public spending including the NHS and central government risk being delayed.

The PAC’s report calls for the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA), Government’s preferred choice as system leader, to be established. While PAC stressed this point in a 2021 report, there are still few signs of it happening. ‘Shadow’ arrangements with the FRC taking on responsibility to lead local audit have also not yet formally started, meaning the system remains fragmented with deep-rooted challenges remaining unaddressed. The Committee also urges the Government and FRC to set out how it will tackle the long-standing challenges in building capacity, capability and leadership in local audit, while expressing disappointment that there has been little progress despite warnings in the past.

Chair’s comments

Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Committee, said:

“Our Committee warned in 2021 that the system of local government audit was close to breaking point. Disappointingly, since then the situation has only gotten worse. The cases of Croydon, Slough, Thurrock and Woking councils all should serve as flashing red signals for the Government, and our report finds that the rot risks spreading to central government finance and the NHS.

There needs to be more resilience in the local audit market if the situation is to improve. Our inquiry heard there are fewer than 100 key audit partners registered to perform local audit, a worryingly low number. The Government must get its hands round this problem as a matter of urgency. It’s local taxpayers and service users who lose out when serious financial issues arise. The lack of timely accounts leaves council tax payers in the dark.”

Deputy Chair’s comments

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Deputy Chair of the Committee, said:

“The cumulative delay of auditing 632 Local Authority 2021-2022 accounts is a really serious matter, hindering accountability of £100 billion of local government spending. 

How many more horror stories such as Croydon, Slough, Thurrock, and more recently the shocking case of Woking council are there remaining undetected, which ultimately always have to be bailed out at huge costs to the taxpayer? The fragility of the number of qualified people and firms tending to carry out these important audits means that the system will only get worse before it gets better.

Our report makes a number of important recommendations, such as the role of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to strengthen Local Government Authority, and importantly when its successor the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA) will be set up.”

• Read the full report (PDF)
• Read the report summary

In the last year, average price levels in East Devon have increased by nearly 8 per cent, according to UK House Price Index statistics.

Ryan Collins www.exmouthjournal.co.uk 

In March 2022, the average price for all property types in the county was £344,699, with this figure today sitting at £372,043. In comparison, the average house price in the South West region is at £326,423, with an increase of 5.5 per cent in the last year.

The housing market has been volatile over the last two years, with last year’s mini-budget and difficulties posed by the pandemic resulting in direct impacts on house prices.

In the South West, Cornwall sits lowest for average house price increase in the past year at 4.9 per cent, followed by Dorset and North Somerset – both at around 6 per cent.

Talking to the Journal in April, Kim Kinnaird, mortgages director at Halifax, said: “When we delve deeper into the cost of Britain’s seaside homes, it’s clear that there is a broad spectrum in house prices.

“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.”

To see the full house prices report, visit https://landregistry.data.gov.uk/

A major expansion of Cranbrook for up to 870 homes and other facilities has been agreed in principle.

“A total of 15 per cent of the properties – around 131 – are planned to be ‘affordable’, while four per cent of the plots will be set aside for custom and self-builders.” – Watch this space! Owl

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

East Devon District Council’s planning committee approved the outline application for much of the Bluehayes site, on the west of the town, at a meeting on Tuesday.

The town’s expansion also include space for a primary school, sport and recreational facilities, community uses, green infrastructure, as well as a mixed-use area of shops, food and drink and professional services.

Changes to the highway network include a new roundabout on London Road, a new secondary route from Station Road, as well new access to Burrough Fields and Cranbrook railway station.

The Bluehayes site, which lies between the existing Cranbrook development and Broadclyst station, is one of four proposed expansion areas.

As a result, council officers recommended approval, concluding it would “support the growth of Cranbrook” and “make a significant contribution to local housing demands including affordable housing in a sustainable location.”

But some concerns were raised by public speakers, including on certain access points, the position of some facilities, and the development’s impact on the privacy of existing homes.

One local resident, speaking on behalf of Bluehayes Lane, wants mitigations against any “substantial loss of amenity” caused by the development, which she said could “remove the ability of our children to freely play and explore the lane.”

Broadclyst Parish Council also objected, with concerns including the development putting pressure on a nearby railway bridge and the potential impact on Station Road.

But an agent on behalf of the applicant, Taylor Wimpey UK, said there would be “wide benefits,” including “biodiversity net gain, active travel, healthy communities, affordable housing and custom self-build plots.”

A total of 15 per cent of the properties – around 131 – are planned to be ‘affordable’, while four per cent of the plots will be set aside for custom and self-builders.

“I believe that, working as groups of stakeholders together, the proposals will result in a community that residents and the council can rightly be proud,” the agent concluded.

Councillors approved the application by a margin of eight votes to one, subject to a number of conditions and a section 106 developer contribution towards local amenities being signed.

But one of those in favour, Steve Gazzard, added: “I do hope that concerns will be taken on board by the developer when we come to the full application.”

The final, detailed reserved matters application will be considered by the committee at a later date.

Everyone the Tories are blaming for Britain’s mortgage crisis — except themselves

Andrew Bailey? Vladimir Putin? A bat in Wuhan? You decide!

Andrew McDonald  www.politico.eu

LONDON — The “Tory mortgage penalty,” a high-profile banker or Vladimir Putin — take your pick of who is to blame for Britain’s mounting economic crisis.

The U.K.’s ruling Conservative Party is growing jittery in the face of stubbornly high inflation, which Thursday pushed the Bank of England to raise interest rates for the 13th consecutive time — a move which will hit U.K. mortgage-holders hard.

Hiking rates to 5 percent — a level not seen in 15 years — will result in an immediate sharp rise in monthly payments for some mortgage-holders, and the prospect of higher payments in the near future for others. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, some 1.4 million mortgage holders will see their disposable incomes fall by more than 20 percent.

“People are very concerned about what is being described as the mortgage bomb about to go off,” the senior Tory MP Jake Berry told Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in the Commons Tuesday. A former Tory Cabinet minister told POLITICO that it was now “clear we’re going to lose the next election.”

Labour is keen to brand the crisis the “Tory mortgage penalty” — pointing to both the governing party’s long period in office, and the rapid economic meltdown triggered by Liz Truss’ short spell in Downing Street.

Conservatives, unsurprisingly, are equally keen to point the finger elsewhere.

POLITICO has a run-through of the Conservative blame game as panic starts to set in.

Andrew Bailey

No one is taking more heat from the Tories than Andrew Bailey — the Bank of England governor.

Bailey has been under fire for a while from backbench MPs. But after days of Conservative ministers also not-so-subtly hinting that the independent central bank is at fault for the current crisis, Transport Secretary Mark Harper went further Wednesday night.

“Some people make that criticism, yes, and there was a decision to make at the beginning about whether inflation was transitory or not,” Harper told Sky News, when asked if the Bank had been too slow to raise interest rates.

A government aide insisted this was an observation on how far ahead of the curve Sunak was in realizing the threat of inflation, rather than a comment on the bank. Harper added that the government retains full confidence in Bailey. That coded criticism is significant, and rare, due to the Bank’s independent status.

The criticism — which has also come from some of the chancellor’s economic advisers — centers around the bank’s failure to accurately judge the extent of inflation and prepare accordingly. As recently as March this year Bailey said there would be a “sharp fall” in inflation this year. That is yet to bear out.

“It is true that the BoE and much of the world did not have a model that forecast the peak or persistence of inflation,” Giles Wilkes, a former No. 10 special adviser on economic policy, said. “But for the government to blame the Bank is to assert that they somehow wanted much higher and tighter policy, and would have gone for it, had they only had a good Bank there.

“It is like a teenager, suffering from a hangover after raiding the parental cellar, blaming the parents for not making the door stronger,” he added.

Gordon Brown

The Bank of England has been independent since 1997 — when Labour’s then-chancellor Gordon Brown took the decision to set the bank free of government interference as one of his first acts on entering the Treasury.

Treasury Minister Andrew Griffith pointedly reminded MPs of that decision in parliament Tuesday, as Tories questioned the timing and level of Bank interest rate rises.

“The Bank of England sets the base rate, which can have an effect on mortgage pricing, and the Bank has been independent since the decision of the then-Labour Government in 1997,” Griffith said. That assertion — and the not-so-subtle hint that Brown, rather than the current government, should be blamed for any of the Bank’s decisions — was greeted with some minor tittering in the Commons.

Ex-Prime Minister Liz Truss toyed with the idea of reviewing the Bank’s independence. But Sunak and his government have never indicated that they would reverse Brown’s decision to make the Bank independent.

Brown has also been the subject of criticism for his decision to scrap tax relief on mortgage interest payments, a decision he made in 2000. The right-leaning Daily Telegraph newspaper wrote this week that the move “added £270 a year to your mortgage payments.”

Liam Byrne

Also on the Tory hit list is that last Labour government in general. When asked, by Labour’s Pat McFadden, to apologize to homeowners, Griffith instead referenced the record of a government that *checks notes* left office more than 13 years ago.

“I ask him whether he has learned the lesson from what we saw with the last Labour government, who spent their way through the nation’s finances and whose most lasting contribution to the economy was a note that we inherited from the then chief secretary to the treasury saying there was no money left,” Griffith said, referencing the Conservatives’ favorite election prop — a handwritten note from Liam Byrne as Labour left government joking that “there is no money” left in the Treasury.

Having played a starring role in the Conservatives’ successful 2015 election campaign, the letter has reappeared of late — largely thanks to the enthusiastic new Tory Chairman Greg Hands, who has tweeted out the letter 42 times and counting.

“Joking” is the key word however. Byrne was following an old tradition of Treasury ministers leaving light-hearted letters to their successors.

Vladimir Putin … and a bat in Wuhan

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine sent the global economy tumbling — at a time it was still struggling to rebound following the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are all dealing with the consequences of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the aftermath of the pandemic,” Hunt argued in the Commons Tuesday.

The war in Ukraine contributed to a huge increase in energy prices as well as causing general supply chain and economic damage, while multibillion-pound COVID support schemes drawn up by Sunak fueled inflation.

But despite the global circumstances, it remains the case that the U.K. economy has the highest inflation and second slowest growth in the G7, according to the OECD.

The general public

One of Jeremy Hunt’s economic advisers also turned their fire on, erm, the rest of you.

Speaking on the BBC’s Today program Wednesday, Karen Ward — a JP Morgan strategist and member of Hunt’s economic council — suggested the Bank of England had failed to discourage workers from asking for pay rises.

“[The Bank of England] have to create uncertainty and frailty, because it’s only when companies feel nervous about the future that they will think ‘well, maybe I won’t put through that price rise,’ or workers, when they’re a little bit less confident about their job, think ‘oh, I won’t push my boss for that higher pay,” Ward said.

Ward added that the Bank should trigger a recession, in order to discourage Brits from — in her eyes — further inflationary spending and pay rise requests. Given U.K. wages have not grown at the same rate as inflation, that may not prove a popular call.

“It’s sort of quite understandable that workers would be asking for pay rises and wanting to maintain their living standards,” Institute for Fiscal Studies research economist Tom Wernham said. “But it is generally the fact that efforts to reduce inflation are going to be economically painful.”

… and the things they definitely aren’t blaming

Prominent former chancellors: Britain’s mortgage woes have arguably been further exacerbated by government support packages brought in over the past decade to support an already-overheated housing market, such as ex-Chancellor George Osborne’s notorious Help-to-Buy scheme and Sunak’s own COVID-era stamp duty holiday, which critics say lured people into buying property with an illusion of affordability.

Liz Truss: The short-lived former U.K. PM did more than many to tank the Conservatives’ reputation for economic competency. Miatta Fahnbulleh, a Labour candidate and left-wing economist, summed up the opposition’s argument when she claimed Truss’ mini-budget put an “incompetency premium” into the mortgage market.

Austerity: The merits of deep government cuts under former Prime Minister David Cameron in the 2010s, following the global financial crash, are still much debated. Defenders argue it got the U.K. economy back on track and ready to weather subsequent global crises, while detractors argue it strangled economic growth through a lack of investment. “You underinvest in things and eventually they get worse,” said Wilkes, who advised Cameron’s successor, Theresa May.

Brexit: The rupture of Britain’s exit from the European Union was the third major shock to the U.K. economy in as many years, alongside the pandemic and war in Ukraine. Most economists believe Brexit has had a significant and largely negative impact on the U.K. economy, while the government’s economic watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, has stuck by its March 2020 prediction that Brexit would ultimately reduce productivity and U.K. GDP by 4 percent. It was in this context that Nigel Farage, the architect of Brexit, told the BBC that “Brexit has failed.” Tory MPs are mostly keeping mum.

Rishi Sunak: “I’m here to tell you that I am totally, 100% on it. And it is going to be OK and we are going to get through this and that is the most important thing I wanted to let you know today.” 

Foreign secretary James Cleverly mocked by BBC as he struggles to explain PM’s prices plan

Adam Forrest www.independent.co.uk

Floundering foreign secretary James Cleverly was left red faced in a bruising BBC interview when he was put on the spot over the inflation crisis.

Challenged six times to say how Rishi Sunak planned to cut price rises, Mr Cleverly stumbled in his replies – and was at one point greeted with laughter by BBC Radio 4 interviewer Amol Rajan.

Eventually Mr Rajan ended the interview abruptly, silencing Mr Cleverly and saying: “We’re going to the weather.”

Their painful exchange in full

Amol Rajan: ‘What is the PM’s plan to halve inflation?’

James Cleverly: ‘By making sure the economy is more productive economy, through, er, training, through um, er, er, you know, apprenticeships…’

AR: ‘That won’t bring inflation down. What is the PM planning to do about it?’

JC: ‘You have to deal with things in the short, medium and long term.’

AR: ‘Yes, so what is the PM’s plan?’

JC: ‘As I, er, say, er, the, er, point is, with things like, erm, driving down the implications of, er, you know, fuel and food.’

AR: ‘Sorry … what is the PM’s short-term plan?’

JC: ‘Well, one of the things we, er, one of the main vehicles for short term, er, addressing inflation is interest rates…’

AR: ‘The PM doesn’t control that so what is his plan, what is he going to do?’

JC: ‘Not all the levers of control are in the government’s hands…’

AR heard laughing in the background

JC: ‘… the choice was made to have an independent Bank of England.’

AR (sarcastically): ‘I really appreciate the economics lesson about the decision to make the Bank of England independent in the 1990s … What is the PM doing to get inflation down?’

JC: ‘One of the reasons we have been thoughtful and cautious on public sector pay awards is that we knew it’s one of those things that brings inflationary pressures … that is in stark comparison to the Labour party.’

At this point a clearly exasperated AR tries to end the the interview.

JC: ‘We have over many, many decades got used to large-scale, relatively low-skilled inflation [sic] – that has had a drag effect on productivity…’

AR: ‘We have to go to the weather.’

The UK had one of the worst increases in death rates of major European economies during the Covid pandemic, BBC analysis has found.

By Robert Cuffe & Libby Rogers www.bbc.co.uk 

Death rates in the UK were more than 5% higher on average each year of the pandemic than in the years just before it, largely driven by a huge death toll in the first year.

That was above the increase seen in France, Spain or Germany, but below Italy and significantly lower than the US.

Comparing death rates across countries

Back in April and May 2020, the UK was seeing one of the worst waves of Covid deaths in the world.

But Prof Sir Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, warned against international comparisons of Covid deaths too early in the pandemic.

Instead, he recommended looking at deaths for any reason, since they do not depend on what a country calls a Covid death.

And he said analyses should take account of the age profile of each country, which can explain a lot of differences in death rates.

We have built a database of those figures, collecting data for the last eight years from a range of European countries, as well as the US and New Zealand.

Now the UK’s long-awaited Covid inquiry is under way and Sir Chris is about to give evidence for the first time.

And as the World Health Organization has declared an end to the global health emergency, we have looked back at three years of pandemic deaths, starting in March 2020.

We compared countries by measuring how much their death rates rose from those seen in the five years before the pandemic.

Over the three years to February 2023, the UK’s death rates went up by more than 5%, which is more than France, Germany and Spain (all up between 3% and 4.5%), but by less than Italy’s (up more than 6%).

The US and Eastern European countries like Poland were even harder hit, with death rates more than 10% above their pre-pandemic levels over the three years to February 2023.

In contrast, death rates fell in countries like Sweden and Norway and also New Zealand, who contained the virus successfully before its vaccination programme took off.

The year-by-year figures tell different stories for each country.

For the UK, they point to early losses followed by significant success in 2022.

How do the UK’s deaths compare each year?

The UK was one of the worst-hit countries in the first year of the pandemic, with death rates running 15% above those before it started.

The combination of a terrible first wave and the rapid spread of the alpha (or Kent) variant just as the vaccine rollout was getting going contributed to a huge death toll.

Many eastern European countries like Poland avoided the spring 2020 wave but overtook the UK in numbers of deaths in the winter of 2020-21.

The US continued to have steadily increasing death rates during the summer of 2020 and by the end of the year, it passed the UK’s total.

Death rates fell in many European nations in the second year of the pandemic as vaccine programmes got under way.

The UK’s vaccine rollout is regarded as a “global exemplar”, says Prof Devi Sridhar of University of Edinburgh.

That is not just number of doses, it was also getting them to the people most at risk.

And the UK looked better than any major European economy bar Spain in that second year – with death rates below historical averages.

In the third year, death rates rose in many countries as they opened up again.

Some of the largest rebounds we found were in countries like Germany, New Zealand and Norway, who had fared better in the first two years of the pandemic (and well overall).

Norway had far fewer deaths than Sweden in the first year of the pandemic but over the three years the two countries look more similar.

It is hard to read straight across from Scandinavian countries to the UK, cautions Prof Sridhar, arguing “we’d never look like either Sweden or Norway”, and describing them as “healthier, wealthier and more equal” countries that are very different to the UK.

Lessons for the UK

It would take many inquiries to tease apart the effect of all the possible reasons behind every nation’s pandemic outcomes: preparedness, population health, lockdown timing and severity, social support, vaccine rollout and health care provision and others.

But some argue that there are lessons for the UK that need to be learned even before we think about future pandemics.

The UK’s heavy pandemic death toll “built on a decade of lacklustre performance on life expectancy” says Veena Raleigh, of the King’s Fund, a health think tank. She argues that government action to improve population health and turn that around has “never been more urgent”.

Methods

We collected data on deaths in five-year age groups and population estimates/projections from Eurostat, the Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, the Northern Ireland Statistics Research Agency, the Centre for Disease Control, United States Census Bureau and Stats NZ.

We calculated the death rate in each age group and combined them to form an age-adjusted death rate using the 2013 European Standard Population.

Some nations did not have the full set of age bands. For example, US figures used 10-year age bands between five and 24 and above 55. Broader age bands can exaggerate excess mortality figures like the ones we calculated, in the order of a percentage point.

Additional journalism by Callum Thomson, Isabella Worth, Jana Tauschinski, Liana Bravo and Wesley Stephenson

“He respects the view of the House that was taken on Monday and it’s right that members (of Parliament), whoever they are and whatever position they have held, are held to account for their actions.” – PM Press Secretary.

Gnomic! – Owl

Kate Devlin www.independent.co.uk 

Rishi Sunak has finally given his verdict on Boris Johnson’s Partygate lies, saying it is right the disgraced former prime minister has been held to account.

In a final humiliation on Monday MPs backed a damning report which found Mr Johnson had lied to Parliament over and over again – stripping him of his Westminster pass.

But Mr Sunak missed the vote citing a prior engagement.

He faced accusations he was “too weak” to stand up to his predecessor and his “sycophants” within their fractious party.

Since them No 10 has refused to be drawn on the prime minister’s personal view or how he would have voted.

After he was asked about Mr Johnson at PMQs, the Prime Minister’s press secretary said: “He respects the view of the House that was taken on Monday and it’s right that members (of Parliament), whoever they are and whatever position they have held, are held to account for their actions.”

She would not set out whether or not he agreed with the committee’s report, however, saying he “respects” the view of the House.

Mr Johnson dodged the recommended 90-day suspension by quitting his Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat.

In the end 354 MPs backed the Partygate report, while just seven voted against it – a majority of 347.

Tory MPs who supported Mr Johnson included Sir Bill Cash, Nick Fletcher, Adam Holloway, Karl McCartney, Joy Morrissey and Heather Wheeler.

Mr Sunak was accused of “running scared” of the showdown in parliament on Mr Johnson, with No 10 claiming he had been too busy hosting the Swedish prime minister to attend.

The PM said at the weekend that he did not want to “influence anyone” when pressed on how he would vote on the report, which found Mr Johnson lied to parliament and undermined the committee’s work with personal attacks.

One former prime minister, Theresa May, did turn up to condemn Mr Johnson – arguing that her successor had been “found wanting” and urging all Tory MPs to back the report to help “restore faith in our parliamentary democracy.”

Height is an extremely sensitive indicator of general living conditions, with factors including illness and infection, stress, poverty and sleep quality alongside the quality and quantity of diets.

“Wider data on the height of 19-year-olds suggested that growing up in the 2010s which happens to coincide with the period of austerity . . . tells me that austerity has clobbered the height of children in the UK”: [Professor Tim Cole, an expert in child growth rates at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London.]

The indelible mark of austerity – owl

Kat Lay www.thetimes.co.uk

Five-year-olds in Britain are on average up to seven centimetres shorter than their peers in other wealthy nations, in a trend described as “pretty startling”.

A poor national diet has been highlighted as a major culprit in Britain’s fall down international rankings of child height.

The average five-year-old boy in the UK is 112.5cm tall, against 119.6cm in the Netherlands — the comparable country with the tallest children. The average girl is 111.7cm tall, while her Dutch counterpart would be 118.4cm tall.

The data is taken from national measurement programmes, collated by the Non-Communicable Diseases Risk Factor Collaboration, a global network of health scientists.

In 1985 British boys and girls ranked 69 out of 200 countries for average height aged five. At the time they were on average 111.4 and 111 cm tall respectively. British boys are now 102nd, and girls 96th.

“They’ve fallen by 30 places, which is pretty startling,” said Professor Tim Cole, an expert in child growth rates at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London. “The question is why?”

The professor, who was not involved in the most recent study, said wider data on the height of 19-year-olds suggested that growing up in the 2010s “which happens to coincide with the period of austerity . . . tells me that austerity has clobbered the height of children in the UK”.

Cole said height was an extremely sensitive indicator of general living conditions, with factors including illness and infection, stress, poverty and sleep quality all “piled up in there” alongside the quality and quantity of diets.

“It’s quite clear we are falling behind, relative to Europe,” he added. “But it’s telling that at age five, we are looking further behind than we are at age 19, which suggests to me that the last 14 years from age five to 19 has been particularly rough for UK children.”

Henry Dimbleby, the former government food adviser, highlighted height discrepancies between Britain and other countries in his National Food Strategy, published in 2021 and again in his new book, Ravenous.

He said: “In modern Britain, the way we eat is one of the clearest markers of inequality. You can actually see it with the naked eye. A diet of cheap junk food has the peculiar quality that it can make you simultaneously overweight and undernourished.

“Children in the poorest areas of England are both fatter and significantly shorter than those in the richest areas at age ten to eleven. This is a big enough problem to have an impact at an international level. The average five-year-old in the UK is shorter than their peers in nearly all other high-income countries.”

In France the average five year old boy is 114.7cm tall and the average girl 113.6cm. In Germany they are 114.8 and 113.3 respectively. Danish boys are on average 117.4cm tall, and Danish girls 118.1cm.

Dimbleby said that GPs in poorer areas have reported an “extraordinary” resurgence of Victorian diseases such as rickets and scurvy, “largely caused by nutritional deficiencies”.

NHS data shows that about 700 children a year are admitted to hospital with malnutrition, rickets or scurvy in England.

Separate annual surveys of diet and nutrition show that children from the poorest fifth of families consume about a third less fruit and vegetables, 75 per cent less oily fish, and a fifth less fibre than children from the most well off families.

The Food Foundation, a nutrition charity, said the disparities “raise questions about the nutritional quality of food that children are able to access”, and that height was “likely [to be] representative of broader development of the child”.

Anna Taylor, the charity’s executive director, said figures from the 2021-22 national child measurement programme showed that white British children living in the most deprived areas in England continued to be shorter than those living in the least — 0.6cm for girls and 1.3cm for boys by age ten to eleven.

She added: “There are several factors that contribute to a child’s height including genetics, ethnicity, smoking and diet. However, academic studies indicate that infancy is most influenced by external factors rather than genetics.”

Dietary inequalities also appeared to drive higher rates of problems such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and dental decay in children from poorer backgrounds, Taylor said.

“It’s essential that healthy food is accessible and affordable for all, particularly during the cost of living crisis when budgets are stretched and food prices are increasing. We need strong, preventive policies that can improve access and affordability to nutritious food and shape healthy food environments.”

A government spokesman said: “There are a range of factors that can impact children’s growth, which are not just limited to diet, and we’re taking steps to support families by providing record financial support to families who need it most — a £94 billion cost of living support package worth around £3,300 per household.

“We are supporting the NHS to tackle some of the key root causes of poor nutrition, and our Healthy Food Schemes help more than three million children get the nutrition they need.

“We’re also promoting healthier lifestyles for children by investing over £600 million in school sport over the next two years, while our sugar reduction programme has seen dramatic reductions in the sugar content in foods eaten by children.”

Lord Moylan, Tory chairman of the Lords built environment committee, condemned the “total ban” on homebuilding yesterday, saying that “people do not have enough houses to live in”.

However, bosses at Natural England, the agency within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs responsible for protecting the environment, told peers that it must take all actions to protect damaged rivers.

The Home Builders Federation has called for water companies to be forced to pay to upgrade sewage treatment plants and for farmers’ handling of animal manure and fertiliser to be more tightly regulated.

Tom Witherow www.thetimes.co.uk 

The green quango accused of blocking 120,000 homes with rules to keep rivers clean has admitted the pollution from new developments is “very small”.

Last year Natural England extended guidance to 74 councils that led planners to block new homes unless developers could prove they would not pollute water courses. Homebuilders claimed they had been unfairly targeted, given that 96 per cent of pollutants come from existing homes and farmers.

Lord Moylan, Tory chairman of the Lords built environment committee, condemned the “total ban” on homebuilding yesterday, saying that “people do not have enough houses to live in”.

However, bosses at Natural England, the agency within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs responsible for protecting the environment, told peers that it must take all actions to protect damaged rivers.

Housebuilding will be a dividing line at the next election after Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, promised to build on the green belt just as Rishi Sunak ditched his government’s target of 300,000 homes per year.

Alan Law, deputy chief executive of Natural England, admitted: “The proportion of pollution arising from new housing stock is very small but the question being asked from us is, ‘Is it OK to take an already polluted system, and make it worse?’ It’s not, ‘Is the new development more polluting than existing homes or the existing agriculture?’ and the legal framework is clear.” The Environment Agency was largely responsible for regulating farming, he said, leaving Natural England with limited powers to change farmers’ behaviour.

The Home Builders Federation has called for water companies to be forced to pay to upgrade sewage treatment plants and for farmers’ handling of animal manure and fertiliser to be more tightly regulated.

The “nutrient neutrality” guidelines originated from a 2018 European Court of Justice ruling in the Netherlands, and effectively halted housebuilding in large areas of the country, including the Wye Valley, Somerset Levels and the Tees Valley.

Natural England has helped to set up credit schemes, allowing housebuilders to pay to mitigate the impact of new homes, which have unlocked thousands of homes in the Solent and Tees Valley. A larger credits scheme, backed by £30 million of government funding, is being developed. Law said “the approach for nutrient neutrality is by necessity a temporary one . . . the solution is better agricultural standards and better water treatment services.”

Moylan said: “We seem to have this screeching of the brakes in terms of development while [someone] works out what the 20-year solution is.”

The leakage rate from Thames Water pipes is the highest for five years and the company will not meet its target to plug them this year, according to information released under freedom of information laws.

Sandra Laville www.theguardian.com 

The company, which serves 15 million customers across London and Thames Valley, has to have regular meetings with the environment secretary because it is considered to be lagging in its performance.

Details of letters released under freedom of information laws between the CEO, Sarah Bentley, and Rebecca Pow, the environment secretary, reveal that Thames is not fixing its leaks as it has promised.

Bentley told Pow: “Right now, we have the highest leakage rate since 2018. Consequently, we have already signalled to Ofwat that we are behind on our 2022/23 leakage performance and our target this year will now be very challenging to achieve.

“As annual leakage targets are based on a three-year rolling average, the impact of this year will be felt, not just this year but for the next two years’ performance.”

Thames is proposing controversial measures to tackle drought in the future, including a “recycling” scheme in which up to 100m litres of treated sewage from the Mogden sewage works will be pumped into the River Thames at Teddington, south-west London. This will replace 100m litres abstracted from the Thames to tackle water shortages.

The project raises environmental concerns including increased water temperatures and a change in the salinity of the river, which will affect fish and biodiversity.

It also involves digging three to four 10.5-metre shafts within a protected nature reserve, Ham Lands, a site of importance for nature conservation (SINC), according to Thames documents.

The company is also proposing to transport 155m litres of water a day from Wales, in another sensitive policy to try to tackle water shortages in London and the south-east.

But its failure to fix its own leaks – which are estimated to be 630m litres a day – is likely to make it more difficult for Thames to get approval for these proposals in its draft water resources management plan.

Bentley blamed the hot, dry weather last summer, followed by a wet winter, for exacerbating leaks from the network and from customers’ homes.

“The hot and dry summer created an unprecedented ‘soil moisture deficit’, with ground drying out and causing leaks in our pipes and customers’ pipes,” she said. “It also led to large increases in demand from our customers [in some areas and at sometimes up to 50% more during the summer]. This drove up ‘unmeasured consumption’ and the need for us to pump more water through our pipes at higher pressure to satisfy demand that in turn also led to more leaks from our pipes.

“The re-wetting of the ground later in the autumn then caused further movement and more leaks in our pipes and customers’ pipes. More recently, the freezing temperatures before Christmas, followed by a speedy thaw, has resulted in a new surge of leaks – both on our water supply network and on our customer’s pipes.”

Thames, like other water companies, has a target to cut its leaks by 50% by 2050. But the Environment Agency has called for the company to increase this target. The EA says the company needs to do more to tackle leaks before suggesting schemes including the Teddington water recycling plan and the transport of water from Wales.

It has said the security of water supply to the south-east and London will be at risk if the company does not tackle its leaks and reduce customer demand for water.

Bentley told Pow in her letter dated January this year that Thames was running a £1m communications campaign to highlight the challenges “we all face” and educate customers on what they can do to help make sure there is enough water for everyone.

The government has set a target of reducing individual daily water use from about 144 litres a day to 110 litres a day by 2050.

On its website, Thames Water admits it is not acceptable that so much water is being lost. It said it is doing all that is reasonably practical to reduce leakage but it will miss its 22/23 target, and that will affect future years. However, the company is working to improve its “leakage transformation plan”.

A Defra spokesperson said: “We have been very clear to water companies that we expect them to deliver on their commitments – including targets to reduce leakage by 30% by 2032.

“The government is taking a number of actions to improve water supply through our Plan for Water, as well as taking action to clean up our water through more investment, stronger regulation and tougher enforcement.”

Newsflash: UK inflation was unchanged last month, bringing little relief to struggling households.

UK inflation shock: rate sticks at 8.7% in May as cost of living squeeze continues – business live

Graeme Wearden www.theguardian.com 

The Consumer Prices Index shows prices rose by 8.7% in the year to May, matching the 8.7% recorded in April, the Office for National Statistics has reported.

That is higher than the 8.4% inflation rate forecast by City economists, and adds more pressure onto the Bank of England to keep raising interest rates.

Since peaking at 11.1% in October, inflation has dropped a little – but remains over four times above the BoE’s 25 target.The data comes as the government is under growing pressure to intervene to help millions of households facing a “ticking timebomb” of higher mortgage payments ahead of the next election.

There’s been much speculation recently about what might happen to the structures of councils in Devon, and hopefully I can try to offer a little context here.

But before that, please may I take you back to the days before district councils even existed when the unknown Abba won the Eurovision song contest with Waterloo?

Until 1st April 1974, the area we now know as East Devon was the borough of Honiton, the urban districts of Budleigh Salterton, Exmouth, Ottery St Mary, Seaton and Sidmouth, Axminster Rural District, Honiton Rural District and a small part of the St Thomas area of Exeter.

Many of you will have heard folklore about who did well and who did badly out of this. The classic line, because the new 1974 district council was based in Sidmouth, was that Sidmouth prospered greatly while Seaton, for example, was neglected. Heaven knows where the truth lies. I was three years from doing O’ Levels back in 1974 so I have no idea.

However, like many East Devonians, I love both towns and visit often, so I was a little surprised to hear it being said the other day that Sidmouth was now the poor relation as far as the district is concerned! Hmm.

In fact, Sidmouth has a leisure centre with a pool, a theatre, a park café, the glorious Kennaway House, and the soon to be regenerated Ham area to the east of the town where a new Rockfish will soon open. All of these are gladly either owned or underwritten at the expense of EDDC.

This is just as it should be. Sidmouth is a nationally important town with an active and engaged council. Indeed, for many years the town has shared with the district much of the operation of the public toilets. District Councils are not obliged in law to run any toilets – which is of course potty – and as we progress with our public toilets review, we will be seeking many more such alliances with parish and town councils.

Indeed, public-spirited groups in Seaton are now picking up on the decade old trend from Sidmouth and is in active discussions with EDDC regarding how they may step in to run a prominent toilet block, and I thank them for that sincerely. Yet Seaton too is well backed by East Devon district, even if I really get why locals might not always think so.

For example, next year it is hoped that the fantastic Seaton Tramway organisation will take over the running of the Seaton Jurassic Centre, an EDDC endeavour conceived long before my time, the plan for which was always unlikely to be commercially viable.

Then, just to the north, the astonishing Seaton Wetlands runs two miles inland to Colyford Common. EDDC’s Wildlife Team run that. Taken together, this time next year Seaton will have a dual visitor attraction which will fully merit tourists spending a busy weekend and then enjoying a walk along the seafront. Or the increasing water-sports and paddleboarding offer.

Indeed, my favourite walk in Devon is to go from the west end of Seaton Hole around the headland to Beer. Warning: You need to check the tide times to achieve this, which can only be done when the tide is low. A crab sandwich or a cream tea awaits at Beer beach.

I believe that despite understandable grumbles, East Devon as a district ain’t broke, and there is no need to fix it. Together, Devon’s district leaders are as one in opposing a vast Unitary Devon Authority, which some local Conservatives who have lost all the district councils are now feebly promoting.

Communities lost quite enough of their identities back in 1974. Let’s make the best of where we are.

www.midweekherald.co.uk

The spiralling cost of living, rising rents and increasing numbers of ‘no fault’ evictions by landlords are holding back Teignbridge Council’s efforts to prevent homelessness in the district, it’s been claimed.

Guy Henderson, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

A report to the council’s overview and scrutiny committee reveals the difficulties the council is facing in its efforts to meet its own homelessness targets.

The committee will look at the progress the council is making on the so-called ‘Teignbridge Ten’ priorities for the local authority.

One of them is called ‘A Roof Over Our Heads’, and the report places an amber ‘caution’ label on its progress so far.

Its aim is to prevent homelessness wherever possible, but councillors will be told that current market conditions mean the target remains challenging.

The report reads: “We are below target as we have seen a sharp increase in the amount of people who have lost accommodation with friends or family members in the last quarterly period.

“We believe that this is largely as a result of concerns over the cost-of-living crisis.”

And, the report goes on: “It is increasingly more difficult to help people remain in their homes due to cost of living increases. Homes must be affordable in order to sustain them.

“We are seeing an increase of households being served Section 21 notices [of eviction] where they may or may not have rent arrears, but the rental costs have increased beyond the household’s affordability range.”

The notice allows private landlords to repossess properties without having to show their tenants have done anything wrong. The government has recently said it plans to ban Section 21 notices as part of an overhaul  of the private rental sector.

It could be 2025 before the ban becomes law.

The full list of the ‘Teignbridge Ten’ targets includes moves:

• to be a carbon neutral district
• to provide more, better, and affordable homes
• to keep the district clean
• to invest in town centres
• to provide well designed quality neighbourhoods
• to create jobs and wealth
• to improve travel options
• to provide opportunities for healthy active lifestyles
• to engage with, help and support communities
• to deliver quality, value for money and flexible services.

Apart from the housing strategy, two more have ‘caution’ flags – investing in town centres and creating jobs and wealth. The rest are on target.

The Teignbridge overview and scrutiny committee meets today.

Wrong sort of rain again on Tuesday: wet – Owl.

Nine Devon beaches have been marked as a “pollution risk” by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) following heavy downpours this morning [Tuesday June 20]. This is out of a total of 46 areas in Devon that SAS monitors live.

Elliot Ball www.devonlive.com

Four of those sites are marked as “under maintenance”, meaning real-time alerts have been disabled. This means roughly 20% of Devon-monitored beaches are now a “pollution risk” as of today. [Sidmouth and Exmouth are under maintenance, so should also be regarded as polluted – Owl]

Urban runoff is the main reason beaches can become dramatically more polluted with fertilizers, pesticides, oil and untreated human and animal waste all entering waterways, such as rivers.

The contaminated water then reaches the sea with most of the water pollution remaining on the surface. This can make it dangerous to enter the water. According to Surf Today, some experts even suggest waiting 72 hours before entering the sea again after it rains.

Swallowing water that could be contaminated with fecal matter could lead to gastroenteritis, hepatitis, giardiasis, skin rashes, amoebic dysentery, nose, ear, and throat problems, pink eye, and other respiratory illnesses. Symptoms to look out for include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, cramps, inflamed stomach and intestines.

Devon beaches marked as pollution risks

Seaton

Beer

Sidmouth

Budleigh Salterton

Teignmouth Holcombe

Meadfoot

Mill Bay

Plymouth Hoe East

Plymouth Hoe West