“Buck stops with Braverman” over barge failings says Portland mayor

The Home Office should accept responsibility for failing to immediately remove asylum seekers from a giant barge after the detection of a dangerous bacteria, the mayor of Portland has said.

Rajeev Syal www.theguardian.com 

Carralyn Parkes said “the buck stops with Suella [Braverman]” after Whitehall briefings over the weekend claimed that contractors on the Bibby Stockholm were to blame for delays as it took three days to inform ministers about the outbreak of legionella.

The government had claimed that the use of barges would cut housing bills for asylum seekers, but was forced to remove all 39 onboard on Friday.

Over the weekend, the Home Office was involved in a “blame game” over the response. Briefings have claimed that the local council told two contractors about the outbreak on Monday, but ministers were not informed until late on Thursday.

Parkes said that the public expects politicians and the government to take responsibility for their decisions. “The Home Office moved people on to the barge and it is the Home Office that should take full responsibility for it,” she said.

“The buck stops with the Home Office and Suella Braverman. The department may not have had sight of the appropriate test results but it was up to the department to make sure that they were informed and removed asylum seekers off the barge as soon as they discovered there was a dangerous bacteria onboard.”

Dorset council’s environmental health officers conducted a test for the bacteria, which thrives in stagnant water, on 25 July. On 7 August, as the first asylum seekers were taken on to the barge, the Home Office’s contractors, CTM and Landry and Kling, were informed that the tests showed significant evidence of legionella, the council said.

The council insists that it told a Home Office official about the outbreak in a meeting on 8 August – a claim that is neither confirmed nor denied by anyone in government. The government, however, has said that Home Office ministers were not told about the outbreak until the night of 10 August, and the asylum seekers were removed the following day.

A former head of the body that oversaw tests for bacteria in Portland harbour said the Home Office “has serious questions to answer” and must take responsibility for any failings of its contractors.

Paul Kimber, chair of Weymouth Port Health Authority for 10 years until 2019, said: “It is not unusual to have a water fail on a vessel but it is unusual to ignore the test. The people on board – both the refugees and the workers onboard – should have been alerted straight away.”

A document leaked to the Telegraph indicates that there were plans for 1,000 people to move to Portland – a move which would have ensured that the scheme was value for money. Written in March by a civil servant, it says: ‘We are broadly content that all tests are met as long as Portland capacity is 1,000 to ensure [value for money].”

Until now, the Home Office has said that about 500 asylum seekers will be sent to the port, a decision which has sparked protests. The Home Office declined to comment on a leaked document.

Questions have been asked about whether the government contract to place asylum seekers on the barge should have been signed until a legionnaire’s report had been completed.

The BBC has tweeted an extract from the procurement rules that state a legionnaire’s report is one of the requirements for government contracting venues, along with other safety measures including an evacuation policy and a fire risk assessment. However, Home Office sources said that the Bibby Stockholm contract was a modified rather than a standard contract, which would be published in due course.

In a parliamentary answer to a question by Conservative MP for West Dorset Chris Loder immigration minister Robert Jenrick said on 24 July “no individuals will be placed on the vessel unless it is safe to do so and all the legal and regulatory requirements are met”.

But even after the Home Office was informed about legionella they continued to provide the same written assurances. In a letter to the organisation Migrants Rights Network dated 10 August, a Home Office official wrote in response to concerns about the barge: “The Bibby Stockholm has also been subject to Lloyds Register quality assurance inspection and certification and regulatory inspection by the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency in order to fulfil its permitted purpose. I hope my response addresses your concerns.”

Peter English, a retired consultant in communicable disease control also raised concerns about the high risks of accommodating asylum seekers on the barge even if the water pipes are thoroughly flushed.

It now remains unclear when the asylum seekers will return to the barge, with No 10 refusing to give a timeline as officials await the result of further tests.

Downing Street on Monday insisted that the prime minister retained confidence in Braverman.

Locals have spoken of being ‘priced out’ of Frome by Londoners.

A housing crisis has been declared in Frome after soaring rental costs have priced locals out of their home town. From Town Council say the average cost of a rental property have risen to a whopping £1,499 a month – approximately 50 percent of the average local salary.

Shannon Brown www.somersetlive.co.uk

Cllr Polly Lamb, who put forward the emergency declaration, says locals are being driven out further by Frome being named as one of Britain’s nicest towns. She blames an influx of visitors and second-home owners from London to community – known for its vibrant local market.

Cllr Lamb told the BBC: “Rents have skyrocketed and that is pushing out local people who have been here all their lives.”

Locals have spoken of being ‘priced out’ of Frome by Londoners – some who offer hundreds of pounds extra per month in rent and payment in advance to secure a place in the market town. Sophie Mullins, 36, owner of zero-waste refills shop, said: “I sold my house so that I could open my own independent business in Frome, therefore I was looking to rent. I managed to find a property and I was in there for about two years.

“We ended up getting very difficult neighbours and I was pregnant, so we were looking to move. We were looking for a rental for about four months with no luck. We had dogs too, so it was extremely difficult to find a landlord that would take them as well.

“We only managed to find a property because our friends had neighbours who were moving out and passed our contact details directly onto the landlord.

”That was the only way we could find somewhere that wasn’t crazy expensive or had already gone by the time we’d rung up to book a viewing.

“There was one instance where my partner went to view a property and we were deliberating over it, he rang up to speak to the estate agent about it – and they told him that someone moving to the area from London had bid more, offering £300 more per month and were willing to pay a year up front. There was just no way we could afford that.”

Lianna Denwood, 23, shop assistant, told of how she and her partner have moved back to their parents’ homes because they could not afford rent whilst saving to buy a house. She said: “I moved out of Bristol after finishing uni and went to work in London.

”When I finished that job I came home, but there was no point in going and renting somewhere as I wouldn’t be able to set myself up and get into the housing market so I decided to move home. My partner, who was also working in London, decided to move home too because his rent skyrocketed by a grand there.

”We’re both living in our separate households and we wanted to move out as soon as possible, but renting isn’t a possibility because if we want to buy in the future, our deposit money, our savings, everything, would be going on the rent.”

She continued: “When you’re not earning enough, or earning a lot but only enough to cover your living expenses, you’re never going to get to a point where you can own your own property.”

An anonymous local resident, aged 41, said: “You can’t find anywhere that is affordable. Anywhere with an extra bedroom, which is what we need, is just completely out of our price range. We are currently renting a two bed and we need a three bed.

“The speed of which properties get let, when occasionally there are homes we think we could push ourselves to afford, we go to book a viewing and it’s already gone.

”The speed in which they get snapped up is ridiculous. There’s a handful of properties available in a price range we may be able to stretch to.

”Everything else is up and above [what we can afford], we work hard to pay for what we get at the moment. We’re just going to have to wait it out in our tiny house and hope things change.”

Local property developer Connor Raudsepp, 26, recently purchased a rundown one-bed flat in Frome with a business partner – and hopes to put it on the rental market once complete. He said: “We’re not going to skip over that there’s profit in property development, the main reason I’m in it is for profit.

“However, this place has been empty and is going to serve a purpose in the future – putting a roof over somebody’s head. There are a lot of properties that are empty that could be turned into homes, which would increase supply on the market and ease rental costs. We’re probably going to be all in for about £120,000 and it’ll be rented out at market value.

”I think that’s fair, it’s the only thing you can do – because of rising rates and stuff you can’t do it for any cheaper because you’re not going to make any money and all of this effort would be pointless. We’re not taking this money and then running off to The Bahamas, it’s going to be invested in another development somewhere else – another place being brought back to the market.”

A town has officially declared a housing crisis as rental rates soar out of the reach of local people

Ironically though, rent rises are driving many of the artisan small businesses and cafes that define the town out of business. One local business owner, Sarah Wingrove, 29, told the BBC that despite being born in Frome, she still lives with her parents due to the cost of homes.

She said: “Even though I work a full-time job and freelance as a model, the mortgage people say I don’t earn enough for a house in Frome.”

Local artist and renter Summer Auty, 24, told the BBC that she has had to live in her van due to the cost of rent. She said: “I can’t afford anything in Frome, so I’m living in my van. It’s ridiculous. We need a complete redistribution of wealth, it’s awful all the big homes lying empty, all the land we cannot use.”

Rented rooms in the town are now known to go for as much as £500 a month, while a small one-person flat can cost over one thousand pounds a month.

More than 200,000 suspected cancer patients have had to wait at least two months for a diagnosis in a failure of Government targets, according to official statistics.

Hugo Gye inews.co.uk

Ministers are set to confirm this month that the majority of NHS targets for cancer will be abolished as the health service changes its strategy for treatment.

One of the few targets expected to remain is the ambition to ensure that 75 per cent of patients with a referral for a cancer check receive either a firm diagnosis, or confirmation they do not have the disease, within 28 days.

But ministers have admitted that in many cases, patients in England must wait for more than twice as long as the target states.

In the past year, a total of 224,076 people have received their diagnosis after a wait of 62 days or more, Health Minister Will Quince said in a written answer to a parliamentary question. That is around 7.7 per cent, or one in 13, of the total number of people referred for a cancer check.

Over the latest 12 months for which data is available, 857,000 patients waited more than 28 days, 29.4 per cent of the total.

Labour’s shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, told i: “A quarter of a million patients have been left waiting double the amount of time to get a diagnosis than is safe. Having gone through treatment for kidney cancer, I know that an early diagnosis can be life-saving.

“After 13 years of Conservative mismanagement of the NHS, cancer care is in crisis. Yet Rishi Sunak is more interested in cutting standards for patients than he is in cutting waiting times. Labour will provide the NHS with the staff, modern technology, and reform it needs, so it is there for cancer patients when they need it.”

The Government has refused to confirm reports that two-thirds of existing cancer targets are to be scrapped following the results of a review involving expert evidence on how best to improve clinical outcomes.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay told the BBC: “This is something led by clinicians working in cancer. It is not something being imposed by the Government, it is in response to requests by those working in the cancer field and any changes, if they are announced in the coming days, will be in consultation with the leading cancer charities.”

But Sir Keir Starmer said ministers were “moving the goalposts”, adding: “Even where they’re keeping targets after this streamlining, there’s targets they’re still not hitting.”

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “There are record numbers of cancer checks happening in the NHS, meaning almost three million people have received care that could save their lives, and there continues to be steady progress in a lot of areas of cancer performance – including continuing to meet the faster diagnosis standard which means people are diagnosed within 28 days of being seen and the NHS continue to treat thousands of people a week.

“Thanks to the efforts of the NHS to bring more people forward for checks sooner, we’re already seeing major progress with a higher proportion of people than ever before being diagnosed at an earlier stage. And we’re looking to build on this, including by rolling out a national targeted lung cancer screening programme to catch cases earlier.”

Aldi has been urged to pay compensation to traders affected by the construction of a new supermarket in a Devon town.

By Andrea Ormsby and Brodie Owen www.bbc.co.uk 

Building works for the new store in Seaton started in April and are expected to be completed later in 2023.

Janet Phillips, the owner of 4 Seasons clothing shop in a shopping complex next to the building site, said noise and dust was “destroying her business”.

Aldi said the store would “create jobs and provide affordable, high-quality groceries for local residents”.

The supermarket added that work on the Harbour Road site was being carried out “in line with the planning consent given”.

Ms Phillips said she wants Aldi to compensate her for an estimated £20,000 dip in trade since work began.

“I think it’s absolutely appalling – they are destroying our businesses,” she said.

Sophie Nevitt, the owner of homewares shop So Sophie, told the BBC in May she felt “insulted” by the supermarket’s treatment of her.

“Since the closure of the car park, the effect has been crippling on my business,” she said.

“The disregard for actually how they have affected me as a small business is insulting.”

Del Haggerty, from Seaton Town Council, said the supermarket needed to “reconsider how they treat local shops”.

“They should reconsider the compensation they give these three shops here because they’re right in their backyard and it would make a difference to them,” he said.

“When the planning goes through people have got to expect disruption but not complete devastation,” he added.

Aldi said it was working with affected businesses to “improve access and maintain footfall”.

The supermarket said: “Our new store in Seaton will create jobs and provide affordable, high-quality groceries for local residents. Construction is on track and in line with the planning consent given.

“We are working with local businesses to provide advertising at the site and in the local area to ensure customers are aware that neighbouring businesses are open as usual.

“We are doing all we can to improve access and maintain footfall to nearby businesses while work is ongoing and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Remember: the NHS has lost almost 25,000 beds across the UK in the last decade, according to a damning report last year that says the fall has led to a sharp rise in waiting times for A&E, ambulances and operations.

In March 2019, at the start of the pandemic, Owl pointed out that the South West has the lowest number of critical care beds per head of population. It also has the oldest population (so highest expected mortality).

But who took the beds away in the first place? Over the years East Devon Watch has chronicled the zeal with which local Tories have pursued local cuts in beds and slapped down all criticism, it’s all “on the record”.

The government has announced £250m in funding to provide an extra 5,000 NHS hospital beds in England this winter.

By Michelle Roberts www.bbc.co.uk

Ministers say 900 new beds should be ready by January, with the remainder to follow soon after, boosting capacity and helping lower record waiting lists.

The increase will mean nearly 100,000 permanent beds on wards and in A&E, available at the busiest time of the year – a 5% rise on current levels.

NHS Providers said the extra capacity was needed “before winter begins”.

Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, said trusts would welcome the support but cautioned any new beds would need to be staffed.

She added that, since winter is the busiest time of the year for urgent and emergency care, trust leaders would be concerned that the promised extra capacity is only expected to be in place by January.

“For the best results, trusts would need these new beds before winter begins,” she said.

Pat Cullen, from the Royal College of Nursing, added: “The elephant in the room is who will staff these additional beds? Nursing staff are already spread too thinly over too many patients.”

Co-ordinated follow-up care

The government money will also fund services where people can be treated without requiring a hospital stay.

Funding will be focused on developing or expanding urgent treatment centres and same-day emergency care services, where patients can be seen quickly without the necessity of being admitted to hospital.

NHS England is also preparing to make it easier to discharge hospital patients when they are medically-fit to leave, through the rollout of so-called “care traffic control centres”.

These bring together the NHS community, housing and charity teams to help co-ordinate support for those patients who require continuing care once they are discharged from hospital.

The aim is that plans for a prompt and efficient discharge can be drawn up shortly after patients are first admitted to hospital, thanks to better co-ordination among teams regarding follow-up care.

Alongside these measures, there will be at least 10,000 ‘virtual’ hospital beds available by autumn, allowing some patients to be monitored in their home.

It comes after new data from NHS England revealed waiting lists had reached a record 7.6 million at the end of June.

‘Longer-term challenges’

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the planning for winter had started “earlier than ever before” and that the public could be reassured the NHS would be given the resources it needs.

“These 900 new beds will mean more people can be treated quickly, speeding up flow through hospitals and reducing frustratingly long waits for treatment,” he said.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: “We know that winter is a difficult time, so we’re working to get ahead of pressures whilst also creating a sustainable NHS fit for the future.”

NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: “Winter is always a busy time for the NHS and so it is right that we put robust plans in place as early as possible to boost capacity and help front-line staff to prepare for additional pressure.

“Our winter plans, which build on the progress already made on our urgent and emergency care recovery plan, aim to reduce waiting times for patients, and to transform services with an expansion of same-day care and virtual wards, helping patients to be cared for in their own home where possible.”

But certain longer-term issues have yet to be addressed, warned Ms Deakin from NHS Providers.

“Underlying issues, including workforce shortages, a lack of investment in capital and the desperate need for social care reform will ultimately hinder progress unless also addressed,” she said.

“It will also be important to understand where new beds are being created, and where beds are being freed up by better means of meeting patients’ needs – through care at home or same-day emergency care, for example.

“Steps like this are promising, but the only way to recover urgent and emergency care – and to put the NHS on a sustainable footing – is for the government to tackle the longer-term challenges in health and care,” she said.