Passengers in the South West will benefit from more reliable train journeys thanks to a new £82 million sea wall which aims to protect the vital coastal rail route in Dawlish. 

Long overdue, but we still have only single track access to Waterloo and no electrification south of Bristol. – Owl

Two major rail projects open

Radio Exe News www.radioexe.co.uk

In a visit to Devon today [Monday], Transport Secretary Mark Harper will attend Dawlish station to mark the completion of the wall and officially open a brand-new railway station at Marsh Barton, near Exeter – two projects that will boost local and regional connections, helping grow the economy. 

As a key transport artery for the South West, the projects demonstrate the Government’s commitment to the region and its continued investment in infrastructure to help grow the economy.

The new, rebuilt sea wall will protect the safety of local passengers from extreme weather conditions along the coast. It has been completed in two phases, with the latter stage protecting the Grade 2 listed Dawlish train station. 

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: “I am delighted to see the completion of two major projects today, delivering a Government commitment to improve a vital rail route for passengers in the South West.

“These projects demonstrate a Government that is delivering our promises, investing in vital infrastructure and improving transport connections to help grow the economy.”

The work in Dawlish forms part of a multimillion-pound programme and delivers on a Government pledge to create a more resilient railway following devastating storms in 2014, which damaged the tracks beyond use for eight weeks and disconnected passengers from the network. 

The completion of the works marks a major milestone for the programme and will offer a promenade and new public areas for the local community. Ongoing work by Network Rail also continues to develop a new, accessible footbridge with lifts at Dawlish Station. 

Further cliff protection work, to deliver two additional phases of the programme, continues at pace including a rockfall shelter at Holcombe, along the coast from Dawlish. 

In Marsh Barton, the Secretary of State will also attend the official opening of a new, fully accessible, station which will be managed by Great Western Railway and serve the popular Exeter to Plymouth rail line. 

It is expected to open to passengers Tuesday (4 July).

He also says there’s “a problem with the talent of some ministers”.

He reminds us of Fizzy Lizzy’s unfunded tax cutting “growth” agenda.

An example of what Owl likes to call “hot-air balloon” economics, which is still costing us dear.

Ex-chancellor Sajid Javid criticises Liz Truss for ‘ignoring’ Treasury warnings against her disastrous mini-budget

Jennifer Scott news.sky.com 

Former chancellor Sajid Javid has criticised Liz Truss for ignoring the Treasury’s warnings about the market consequences of her disastrous mini-budget.

Ms Truss and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced a swathe of unfunded tax cuts in the weeks after she came to office in 2022.

But the policies led to economic turmoil and soon led to her downfall, seeing her become the shortest serving prime minister in British history.

Speaking at Institute for Government event on Monday, Mr Javid – who served as chancellor under Boris Johnson between 2019 and 2020 – defended the so-called Treasury “orthodoxy” that Ms Truss regularly criticised, with him saying it was a “good thing” that they sought to balance the books.

“I’m certain that the Treasury would have told Liz Truss when she was in office that if you go out with a budget that’s going to blow the deficit and without any sort of narrative, any sort of laying the ground or any plans to bring that under control even over the long term, the markets are not going to like it – you’re going to get a massive negative reaction,” he said.

“The Treasury would have told her, that’s orthodoxy at work. She ignored it and the country paid the consequences.”

But Mr Javid did say the Treasury needed to be “more flexible” and “invest to save”, adding: “It’s obvious that hospitals need more investment… and we should be investing more in technology, and it will definitely save money in the long term.

“The challenge the Treasury always has with that is that the long term for them is five years maximum. There should be a sort of proper look at changing the approach to longer-term investment.”

The former minister – who also served as health secretary under Mr Johnson – took a wider swipe at government too, calling for more experts to be brought in as there was “a problem with the talent of some ministers”.

Ms Truss defended her actions at the time – including scrapping the top rate of tax and reversing the rise in National Insurance, all to be paid for through borrowing – saying the government had to take “decisive action” to tackle rising inflation and a slowing economy.

But just three weeks after he delivered the mini-budget, she sacked Mr Kwarteng, appointed Jeremy Hunt in his place and reversed most of the policies.

Since leaving Downing Street, she has continued to say she was pursuing the right path, with the need for a “change in mindset in order to kick-start a return to sustainable growth”.

Water companies must pay to fix illegal sewage discharges rather than pass the cost to customers, lawyers for the charity WildFish are to argue in the high court.

Latest data on sewage discharges in East Devon here – Owl

Sandra Laville www.theguardian.com 

The campaign group will allege at a judicial review that the government’s £56bn plan to reduce raw sewage dumping from storm overflows is illegal.

Lawyers will argue on Tuesday that dumping raw sewage has been in breach of the law for 30 years, unless the discharges take place in exceptional circumstances such as very heavy rainfall. They will point out that the regulator, Ofwat, has made clear that water companies must pay to make their infrastructure compliant with regulations rather than passing the costs on to customers.

But under the government’s storm overflow plan, the £56bn cost of upgrading the capacity at treatment plants to reduce the scale of raw sewage dumping is to be paid for through customer bills, with ministerial approval. Estimates of bill hikes to pay for the fix range from £91 a year to reports that water bills will go up by 40% to fund the investment needed.

Nick Measham, chief executive of WildFish, which is bringing the judicial review, said: “It is time for the government to … make the water companies do what they have promised to do, and have been required to do by law, for nearly 30 years.

“This must be at their own expense. Our wild fish, our rivers and all of us have had enough.

“If we win this case, it will fall to the secretary of state, Ofwat and the Environment Agency jointly to ensure the water companies now deliver what the law has required them to do for years.”

In a separate legal challenge also being heard this week, the Good Law Project is supporting the Marine Conservation Society, Richard Haward’s Oysters and the surfer and activist Hugo Tagholm, who argue that the government’s strategy allows water companies to pollute waters and beaches for another 27 years.

Water companies discharged untreated sewage through storm overflows more than 300,000 times in 2022 for a total of 1.7 million hours. These discharges are supposed to take place only in exceptional circumstances, but evidence uncovered by the Guardian revealed water companies have been using sewage dumping routinely to keep their systems going.

Scrutiny over the discharges of raw sewage has led to a public outcry, and the government attempted to force water companies to invest in infrastructure at treatment plants to cut discharges in its storm overflow reduction plan.

The strategy sets a series of targets up to 2050 but its ambitions have been limited by the need to spread the cost to customers over an extended period. The government makes clear in its plan that bill rises will pay for the investment, rather than water company shareholders.

Public outrage over sewage spills has been fuelled by the revelation that the companies are expecting the public to pay.

Under the plan, by 2035 water companies will have to improve all storm overflows discharging into or near every designated bathing water, and improve 75% of overflows discharging to high-priority nature sites. By 2050, this will apply to all waterways.

WildFish lawyers argue that a substantial proportion of raw sewage discharges from storm overflows are already unlawful under the urban wastewater regulations 1994, and setting targets to 2050 will allow water companies to keep illegally spilling raw sewage.

It wants the government to drop the storm overflow reduction plan and instead enforce the 1994 law and stop water companies from dumping raw sewage in rivers and to ensure water companies foot the bill for any increased sewage capacity required by the law, not pass it on to customers.

Emma Dearnaley, legal director of Good Law Project, whose challenge will also be heard this week at the high court, said: “The public is – rightly – angry and upset and calling for urgent action on sewage pollution.

“This hearing is a huge moment for the future of our rivers and seas. This is our chance to force the government to put in place a robust plan to put an end to the sewage scandal blighting our country.”

The legal challenges come as concerns continue about the financial stability of many water companies. Last week Thames Water was in crisis talks with Ofwat and the government amid suggestions ministers were considering putting the company into special administration to preserve services for the public.

The move came after Sarah Bentley, the Thames Water CEO, quit unexpectedly. The Guardian revealed Thames, which has debts of £14bn, was facing a £10bn black hole in its finances as it reached out to shareholders for an equity injection.

Since privatisation, water companies have collectively taken on close to £60bn in debt. This has triggered repeated warnings from Ofwat about the sustainability of their finances.

Yorkshire Water, which is also heavily indebted, last week said it had raised £500m on Monday to shore up its balance sheet. Its shareholders include Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and the German private equity group Corsair Capital.

The vast bulk of the cash will be funnelled immediately into the repayment of an intercompany loan.

Yorkshire Water and Thames Water are two of five firms that Ofwat warns are in precarious financial positions, along with Portsmouth Water, Southern Water and South East Water.