Paul Arnott 

Most of us will have sat in a room at some time where just about everyone present is moaning. Often with good cause. My approach to that has always been, give the moaners a hearing, throw a moan into the mix myself if needed, but don’t leave till you have spent just as much time suggesting solutions.

Here are two common moans. First, the country is not building enough new homes to meet the demand. Second, a combination of new building and poor practice in agriculture is causing devastating pollution in our streams and rivers.

A couple of years ago, these issues became linked. Natural England, the organisation entrusted with making sure we do not allow our environment to be irreversibly wrecked, reported that this pollution was getting worse, unsustainably so. The particular problem was discharging phosphates into rivers, 70% of which came from agriculture, but 30% from new build projects.

Just around Easter 2022, East Devon District Council received a letter from Natural England, instructing us to cease making any progress with giving planning consent in most of the Axe Valley. By which they also meant large parts of west Dorset and south Somerset which feed into the Axe lower down.

I found myself at a house a few weeks back in a village a few miles south of Crewkerne. The host told me he’d wanted to build a small structure in his garden but had been informed by Somerset County Council that there was no point even applying for permission while the ban was in place. It’s not just Axminster affected.

East Devon councillors have been made well aware that the construction industry is up in arms about this, saying that most of the phosphate pollution is caused by agriculture and not by them. “Most “being the operative word. They are still causing pollution.

Last week Michael Gove, who runs the government department overseeing development, made a typically confusing announcement. The country needs more homes, the ban on construction in some areas is blocking that, therefore he is lifting the ban on construction. Oh, and just to show that he has not forgotten that phosphates are a problem, he announced a £250 million fund to help farmers clean up their act, about a zero short of what is really needed.

And just to throw a bit of red meat to his right wing, he boasted that he can do this now because we are no longer in Europe, despite his and Mr Johnson’s multiple assertions that leaving the EU would not be allowed to diminish our environmental protection in future. Who now can be even mildly surprised that it was a lie then and a lie now?

Mr Gove’s party is of course massively dependant on funding and political support from the construction industry. He knows full well that by Christmas next year the Conservatives will be in opposition, so he’s doing one for his mates on the way out of the door. It stinks, literally so.

So, what’s the solution? I would suggest a National Housing Commission, cross-party, is set up as an emergency intervention to last at least a decade. Clause One is “don’t screw up the environment”, and there is no reason not to achieve this. Then it needs to look at the catastrophic loss of social housing stock and, commissioning through local councils who understand the need and the unique characteristics of their areas, get delivering, training up the local workforce in the process. The Tories have had every chance since 2010 to do that. A fresh new government needs to get this going from the get-go.

Southern, Thames and Wessex Water together discharged sewage for more than 3,500 hours last year when it was not raining, according to the BBC. This is not allowed under their permits.

England’s other private wastewater firms refused to release figures, citing a criminal investigation by the Environment Agency.

Adam Vaughan www.thetimes.co.uk 

Labour has called for an immediate investigation into apparent illegal dry sewage spills by three water companies.

Southern, Thames and Wessex Water together discharged sewage for more than 3,500 hours last year when it was not raining, according to the BBC. This is not allowed under their permits.

The companies released data on the start and stop times of sewage spills from storm overflows, which BBC journalists cross-referenced with rainfall data. England’s other private wastewater firms refused to release figures, citing a criminal investigation by the Environment Agency.

Companies are allowed to release sewage from storm overflows, designed as the sewer network’s relief valves, at times of heavy rainfall when the capacity of treatment works is overwhelmed. Swimmers, paddleboarders and other river users typically know to avoid using rivers or take extra care after downpours.

However, the new analysis suggests that last year Wessex Water released 215 spills, Thames Water 110 and Southern Water 63. The apparent spills occurred at a variety of sites, including the River Chew in north Somerset, the River Lavant near Chichester and a river in a park in Dagenham, east London.

“There must be an immediate investigation into both the breach of the licence and the environmental damage caused. Only then can we expose this illegal pollution and bring those responsible to justice,” said Steve Reed, Labour’s shadow environment secretary. Southern and Thames did not dispute the spills, although Wessex said it had doubts about the accuracy of its own data.

The investigation is not the first evidence of dry spills but is the first analysis of its extent last year. The water industry had proudly boasted that the total number of spills last year had fallen by almost a fifth in 2022, although there were still more than 300,000 reported by the Environment Agency.

‘Bad for humans, bad for rivers’

The charity Surfers Against Sewage has used public data to calculate that between October 2021 and September 2022 there were 143 dry spills. However, the BBC analysis suggests the true picture is much bigger, especially given that most of the wastewater companies did not disclose their figures.

“It’s depressing if not surprising to hear that dry spills are occurring so often. Discharging untreated sewage in dry weather is bad for both human health and river health — lower river flows mean more concentrated pollutants,” Tessa Wardley, director of communications and advocacy at The Rivers Trust, said.

The trust described the sewage discharges as the “canary in the coalmine” that pointed to wider problems in the water industry, including groundwater seeping into broken pipes and blockages in the sewer network. The trade body Water UK said the spills should be investigated.

Separately, lawyers and air quality experts have written to the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, asking her to ensure air pollution rules are not ditched later this year following the Retained EU Law Bill (REUL), which seeks to revoke certain EU laws.

The environmental law charity ClientEarth and academics at Imperial College London, University College London and the University of York said the National Emission Ceilings Regulations 2018 should be taken off a “kill list” to ensure they are not removed from statute books.

The government’s green watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection, has also recently written to Coffey urging her not to renege on air quality protections.

“Despite repeated warnings from its own environmental watchdog, the UK government is set to do away with critical clean air laws in the middle of a public health and biodiversity crisis,” Emily Kearsey of ClientEarth said. “This government reassured the public that the UK would not be backsliding on environmental protections as a result of the REUL Act, but it is doing just that.”

A Correspondent writes:

One of the largest mobile cranes in the country has been assembled in the Lime Kiln car park, Budleigh Salterton. It is part of the final stage of the LORP project, reconnecting the Otter estuary to its floodplain.

The 500 ton crane will be used to hoist three sections of newly constructed footbridge in place to span a 70-metre section of embankment.This will then be gradually removed over a period of up to three months

It’s quite a spectacle!

Two days ago Simon Jupp thought he would be clever and  retweeted a BBC politics post on the Birmingham City bankruptcy with the comment “If Labour can’t run a council, they can’t be trusted with our country”.

This attracted what might be a record number of comments, most negative. (He went on to retweet his own post the following  night with this comment: “Well, this seemed to annoy all the right people.” This also received comments heading towards a thousand.)

Simon seems blissfully unaware that Conservative controlled councils have also gone bust, with many others, including Devon, teetering on the brink.  

But for Simon, there is a silver lining, as a new career opportunity as a comic script writer opens up.

Frank Cottrell-Boyce, author of humorous books for children commented.

“The more I think about it, the more I think @simonjamesjupp is a comedy genius”

“When people say they laughed out loud at something they read, I’m always dubious. Laughter is a shared thing. It’s v hard to get someone to laugh alone. But I’m in my office laughing to the point of snot loss at this one.”

Simon will have been busy since, blocking those who criticise him and his beloved party.

Mr Pollard, the MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said it appeared some proposed measures would not proceed due to “pressure from shooting groups”.

Brodie Owen www.bbc.co.uk

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has insisted firearms controls are improving despite concerns that reforms proposed in the wake of the Plymouth shootings could be “watered down”.

The Home Office is still considering public responses into proposed changes to firearms licencing laws.

But Labour MP Luke Pollard said in the House of Commons the measures “look like they could be watered down”.

Mr Sunak said in reply that firearms controls were “kept under constant review”.

In June the government launched a consultation into firearms licencing, which has since closed, but rejected a key recommendation to align shotgun and firearms legislation.

Jake Davison, 22, used a legally-held shotgun to kill his mother Maxine Davison, 51, and four others before shooting himself in the Keyham area of the city on 12 August 2021.

Campaigners have previously criticised the Home Office consultation as “tokenistic”.

Mr Pollard, the MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said it appeared some proposed measures would not proceed due to “pressure from shooting groups”.

He said: “Will the prime minister bow down to lobbyists from the shooting industry or will he stand with the grieving families and those in Plymouth who want to see no other tragedy like this ever happen with stronger gun laws?”

Mr Sunak said the government had taken action to increase information sharing between GPs and police while firearms applicants were also subject to social media checks.

“[Mr Pollard} will know that firearms are subject to stringent controls, and rightly so, but those controls are kept under constant review,” he said.

The Home Office would respond to the consultation responses “in due course”, the prime minister added.

More than half of English schools that are so dilapidated they are at risk of partial closure were refused money under the government’s school rebuilding scheme, Department for Education (DfE) statistics show.

Peter Walker www.theguardian.com 

Amid mounting concerns about a wider apparent neglect of the schools estate in recent years, beyond the immediate alarm about crumbling concrete panels, it emerged that of 500 rebuilt schools planned for England over 10 years from 2020, just four were completed in 2021.

In another development, the Guardian has learned that the Treasury vetoed a push by the Department for Education (DfE) to use a £1bn underspend to rebuild hundreds of schools during Liz Truss’s government.

The apparent disinclination of Treasury ministers to invest in new school buildings carries significant political risk for Sunak, after it emerged that a DfE plan to rebuild as many as 400 schools a year was slashed to 50 when he was chancellor.

The schools rebuilding programme is not directly linked to the current turmoil over schools forced to close classrooms or buildings because of increased concerns about crumbling reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), although some of the work will be to replace Raac-constructed blocks.

Under the most recent full data published by the DfE, of 1,105 schools that applied to be rebuilt, 300 had been selected and 797 refused, with eight dropping out.

Of those turned down, 356 applied under a DfE-set metric called “exceptional case”, which means the school leaders believe the condition of their blocks is “so severe as to risk imminent closure, or a block is already closed”.

Schools can also apply as an exceptional case because the issues needing remedy can be solved only through a complete rebuild, or the school has not had a structural survey under a DfE programme to assess the state of the buildings.

In total, 267 exceptional cases were among those given funding, meaning the success rate for the category was only 43%.

Sunak and Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, have come under pressure about the rate of school rebuilds after a spate of sudden failures in Raac, the lightweight concrete intended to be used for only 30 years, meant some students were forced to begin the term from home or in temporary classrooms and cabins.

The decision to rebuild at a rate of 50 a year was made when Sunak was chancellor, and came despite a DfE submission for funding to the Treasury asking for between 300 and 400 a year to be approved due to “a critical risk to life” from Raac and other issues.

Separately, the Guardian was told that when Kit Malthouse was education secretary in Truss’s short-lived government he tried to reallocate a £1bn underspend in the DfE’s capital budget for school rebuilding and repairs, believing it could cover about 700 schools.

Some of these were affected by Raac, but others had other reasons for needing urgent refurbishment.

According to government sources, despite discussions between the DfE and Treasury over the following few weeks, the idea was not taken forward.

After Truss quit and Sunak replaced Malthouse with Keegan, it was decided that about £500m worth of capital underspend would be used instead to fund energy efficiency improvements to schools.

Keegan has become a particular focus for criticism over the current crisis, particularly after her complaint on Monday that “everyone else has sat on their arse” while she tried to fix the problem. On Tuesday, she risked angering schools by telling those responsible for returning questionnaires about possible Raac to “get off their backsides”.

Anger at Keegan is growing among some senior Tories. One called her “politically stupid” for not “pitch-rolling” MPs before the announcement some schools would have to close fully or partially. They added: “Keegan has been over-promoted and is emblematic of this government’s approach, which is to blame people for not understanding why they’re right.”

Downing Street has defended the pace of school rebuilds, saying 50 a year was around the average for the previous decade, and that other work was being carried out beyond the school rebuilding programme.

Sunak’s official spokesperson said it was incorrect to say that only four schools were rebuilt in 2021, and that when various schemes were considered, 72 were completed that year.

“The numbers do vary, but they obviously cover a number of schemes, just because of the way they have been introduced,” he said.

On the high proportion of “exceptional case” schools refused funding, a DfE spokesperson said the criteria for decisions was established after consultation with councils and others, and that so far 400 of the planned 500 schools had been selected.

They added: “Where there is a significant issue with a building that cannot be managed within local resources, we provide additional support on a case-by-case basis.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said after consultations, all those schools that applied for funding with “exceptional need” verified against the criteria were included.

“That means the schools with buildings in the worst condition are already being addressed,” they said. The spokesperson added: “The department has taken action to select 400 schools with the greatest need, with 100 more yet to be confirmed. Where there is a significant issue with a building that cannot be managed within local resources, we provide additional support on a case-by-case basis.”

At least 13 schools confirmed to have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) had funding to rebuild withdrawn in 2010, the BBC has found.

By Daniel Wainwright & Lucy Gilder www.bbc.co.uk

They had been approved for rebuilding under a Labour scheme, later scrapped by the Conservative-led government.

School buildings have been closed because potentially dangerous RAAC has been found.

The analysis raises questions about whether schools could have been helped far earlier with government investment.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is likely to face strong criticism from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in the Commons on Wednesday, marking the first prime minister’s questions since the story broke and the summer recess.

Labour says Mr Sunak’s past decisions on funding when he was chancellor have led to the disruption, but the PM has insisted claims he was to blame for the problems were “utterly wrong”.

The Labour scheme – Building Schools for the Future (BSF) – was a £55bn project to renew every secondary school in England, rebuilding half of them and refurbishing the rest.

It was ditched by the coalition government (which launched its own school building scheme in 2014).

The then education secretary Michael Gove said BSF was characterised by “massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy”.

There were questions about the value for money in the project, but the structural issues for the schools applying were real.

More than 700 projects were shelved. Mr Gove’s department published a list of schools affected in 2010.

This list stated which ones had work “stopped” but did not detail what the work was. Projects that had already had their finances agreed were able to continue.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, called the crumbling concrete crisis a “national scandal”.

“This analysis shows that these 13 schools would not now be facing the huge disruption caused by the RAAC crisis if the government had not pulled the plug on the building schools for the future programme,” he said.

“Instead we have an £11.4 billion backlog of repairs and remedial work required and the chickens have come home to roost over this neglect of school buildings.”

BBC Verify looked at the schools which were listed as having their building projects “stopped” and then checked these names against the list of schools affected by RAAC, published by the BBC.

Thirteen schools, which had their building work cancelled in 2010, are on the list of schools with potentially dangerous RAAC concrete.

• Aston Manor Academy – Birmingham
• Ferryhill School – County Durham
• Carmel College – Darlington
• The Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls – Ealing, London
• The Billericay School – Essex
• The Bromfords School – Essex
• The Appleton School – Essex
• The Gilberd School – Essex
• The Thomas Lord Audley School – Essex
• Thurstable School Sports College and Sixth Form Centre – Essex
• Wood Green Academy – Sandwell, West Midlands
• London Oratory School – Hammersmith and Fulham, London
• Holy Family Catholic School, Bradford

We double-checked the names of the schools as they were in the 2010 list and as they are now in the official 2023 schools census data.

Each school has a special individual registration number, which in most cases stays the same even if the name of the school changes, such as when it becomes an academy.

The Bromfords School in Essex, which missed out on BSF funding, was on a list of schools that had successfully applied for the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) in 2022-23, some of which was to tackle RAAC.

The London Oratory School in Fulham had RAAC removed during work on its DT Block and Sixth Form common room, but it is still present in roofing panels elsewhere on the school site. The school was listed in the CIF data as needing to do “urgent RAAC deck removal”.

Daniel Kebede, general secretary for the National Education Union, claimed there wouldn’t be RAAC in a single secondary school if “BSF had been allowed to continue”.

“It has in my opinion been calculated neglect”, he said.

Most of the 13 schools identified by the BBC as having missed out on BSF funding have had some building work investment in the intervening years, according to reports in local media.

This ranges from refurbishment of a dining hall and toilets to new art and sports blocks.

We contacted eleven of the schools involved.

We shared our findings with the Department for Education (DfE) and asked them to comment.

A DfE spokesperson said: “We committed to rebuilding 500 schools over the next decade as part of the Schools Rebuilding Programme and we are on track to deliver that.

“That is on top of 520 schools already delivered since 2015 under the Priority Schools Building Programme.

“The School Rebuilding Programme is in its initial stages of delivery and there will be an increase in the number of projects beginning construction in the next year.”

This time at the start of Covid.

Downing Street showed an “ostrich, head-in-the-sand mentality” towards Covid in early 2020 as Boris Johnson’s government instead focused on subjects such as Brexit, a former health minister has said.

Peter Walker www.theguardian.com 

Speaking to the Institute for Government as part of its ongoing series of in-depth interviews with former ministers about their time in office, James Bethell also said officials did not want him to discuss the potential economic impacts of Covid policies and would delete this from his speeches.

Asked about the health department’s interaction with other arms of government, Lord Bethell, who was a whip before becoming a junior health minister, said it could be “pretty turbulent”.

He said: “No 10 didn’t want to prioritise the pandemic in early 2020, even though the evidence was mounting – there was a post-election, ostrich, head-in-the-sand mentality, which I saw again around the invasion of Ukraine.

“Its priority, and what we were told many times, was Brexit and levelling up. ‘We have to deliver Brexit, so could your pandemic quietly go and mind your own business, please,’ we were told. So we had several weeks of this brushing off, and then they switched into it eventually. After that we got a lot of erratic dipping in. In Yiddish, it’s called ‘kibitzing’: erratic and ill-informed interference.”

While noting that as a junior minister his personal interactions with Downing Street were limited, Bethell said that from his point of view “coordination within government got a lot better” after Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, left No 10 in November 2020.

Separately in the interview, Bethell said he was never given any advice about the economic impact of Covid policies, calling this “a mistake”. He said: “I was really surprised that we never got any kind of economic briefing. I asked for it many times, and I wrote speeches to give in the Lords where I articulated the economic thinking that I was personally working from.

“But my officials intervened, quite reasonably and quite correctly, and said: ‘It is not your role as the health minister to try to make up the government’s economic policy. The Treasury will go mad if you try to do that, we will not get the speech cleared by their officials, and by the way it’s neither smart nor right.’ And they had a point, so that stuff got deleted.”

In another recollection, Bethell said he was first asked if he wanted to become a minister in 2019 when he was at the Womad festival and was phoned by the then chief whip in the Lords.

“I was in a really great mood, feeling warm about the world, he made a very charming pitch and [I] immediately said yes,” Bethell said. “I am not sure I fully thought through all the implications.”

Richard Foord, MP for Tiverton & Honiton 

One of the most important duties of a government is to protect its citizens. This includes the conventional ways we think of, such as providing a well-equipped armed forces and responsive local police force, but also ensuring that public buildings like schools and hospitals are maintained properly.

This issue has come to the forefront in recent days with the revelations about the true scale of the problem posed by RAAC (Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete). This is a lighter form of concrete, often used in construction during the 1950s and 60s, that has a much shorter lifespan than regular concrete.

As a result, buildings built using this material degrade faster and need replacing much sooner. This has reached literal breaking point this week as the government has finally accepted the huge danger posed due to the number of schools still using buildings built with this material.

Over the weekend it was confirmed that 156 schools have been found to have buildings contain RAAC, of which 104 require urgent repair work. And on Monday it was further revealed that 5% of all schools – roughly 1200 – are affected by this growing crisis.

We’ve known for years that this is a growing problem as classrooms across the country, and here in Devon, are literally falling apart around pupils. The urgent rebuilding of schools like Tiverton High School and Tipton St John have long been promised, yet we are still waiting to see spades in the ground.

What is even more shocking is that the Government knew about this. The former permanent secretary at the Department for Education said on Monday that officials warned back in 2018 of a “critical risk to life” from crumbling school buildings, but requests for additional funding were ignored.

Rishi Sunak may claim that he’s not to blame, but that’s simply not true. Earlier this year his Conservative government cut £900 million from the education capital spending budget, which is spent ensuring classrooms are safe.

This crisis perfectly sums up the approach of this Conservative government. They are content to sit back and take us for granted, letting these issues fester until they reach crisis point – then they scramble to pick up the pieces.

Our children and communities deserve far better than this reckless boom and bust approach.

Nine months ago, with great fanfare, Simon Jupp amongst others announced that, at last, Tipton St John Primary rebuild had been included in the school rebuilding programme. [In 2015 the Environment Agency (EA) declared that there is a ‘risk to life’ of the children attending the hub and that it must be rebuilt outside of the flood zone.]

There is now an urgent crisis in schools across the country needing fixing to stop pupils being crushed by crumbly concrete. Ministers have said that they will “do what it takes” to fix the problem.  However, the treasury has made it clear that “no new money” is available.

So inevitably, it looks to Owl, as though there will have to be some radical re-prioritising and rescheduling of the capital expenditure programme within the Education Department.

In these circumstances the easiest “savings” to make are on those projects not yet committed, even though they may have been scheduled or, indeed, “promised”.

We need a clear statement that Tipton Primary will not be affected by the current crisis.  

Gillian Keegan tells teachers to ‘get off backsides’ and answer Raac survey

The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, has angered teachers a day after a sweary outburst landed her in trouble, this time claiming headteachers who had not responded to a survey about whether they were affected by crumbling concrete should “get off their backsides”.

Ben Quinn www.theguardian.com 

Her comments in a radio interview came a day after she was forced to apologise after being caught swearing on camera while expressing frustration about the crisis surrounding reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in schools, claiming that “everyone else has sat on their arse” while she tried to fix the problem.

Keegan told Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday: “The annoying bit, and this was probably a bit of my frustration yesterday, is despite asking since March 2020, there’s 5% of schools or responsible bodies that have not responded to the survey. Now hopefully all this publicity will make them get off their backsides.

“But what I would like them to do is to respond because I want to be the secretary of state that knows exactly in every school where there is Raac and takes action.”

She added: “We’ve written to them quite a few times and we’ve also set up a call centre to phone them up to ask them to do it and they still haven’t. So we have written to them yesterday and given them until the end of the week.”

In response, the National Education Union (NEU) said that laying any responsibility for the concrete crisis at the door of schools was “outrageous”.

Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the NEU, said: “It is outrageous of the education secretary to lay any responsibility for the Raac crisis at the door of schools. The fact is that the Department for Education has dragged its heels over many years on this issue.

“The government has failed to show leadership on this issue for very many years.”

… the tax on champagne. Cheers! – Owl

Watch the video on “X” here

A Tory rebellion in the House of Lords could thwart Michael Gove’s plans to rip up pollution laws for housebuilders in England.

If the Lords were to pass an amendment, the bill would go back to commons where the Government might seek to reinstate their original amendment. This would test Simon Jupp’s claim “I would never vote to pollute our water”. – Owl

Helena Horton www.theguardian.com 

The former minister Zac Goldsmith, who recently quit the government over what he termed Rishi Sunak’s “apathy” over the environment, and Sir John Randall, a former environmental adviser to No 10, have signed an amendment laid by the Duke of Wellington that would nullify the government’s plans.

Last week, Gove and the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, announced plans to amend the levelling up bill, which would undo EU-derived rules stopping housebuilders from polluting sensitive areas. It would essentially force planning officials to pretend sewage pollution from new developments does not exist when considering applications for sensitive areas such as the Norfolk Broads and Lake District.

The current rules aim to sustain “nutrient neutrality”, meaning no more nutrient pollution such as nitrates and phosphates enter important habitats in sewage from new housing. These nutrients choke rivers, filling them with algae and killing the life within.

The duke’s amendment, which will be debated in the coming days, would “delete … the requirement placed on a local authority to assume that nutrients in wastewater would not cause harm to the environment”. This would effectively undo the government’s amendment and maintain the protections for rivers.

Goldsmith is understood to be lobbying his fellow peers to back the duke’s amendment. Other signatories include the Green party’s Jenny Jones, and Kate Parminter of the Liberal Democrats.

The Office for Environmental Protection, set up to replace the EU as a watchdog for environmental regulation in the UK, has said these rules are a regression in environmental standards and asked Coffey and Gove to appear in front of the House of Commons to explain themselves. Those who hoped Labour would undo this “regression” when in power were disappointed when the then shadow levelling up secretary, Lisa Nandy, indicated she supported the government position. It is unclear whether her replacement, Angela Rayner, does too.

The Lib Dem environment spokesperson, Tim Farron, has reported the solicitor general and the prime minister to the ethics adviser for a breach of the ministerial code, claiming they have misled parliament by saying they would not degrade the environment.

Farron said: “The prime minister’s contradiction on environmental protections is not only a grave concern for the environment, but also potentially a serious breach of the ministerial code.

“Ministers are expected to provide accurate information. We need an urgent investigation into this to get to the bottom of whether the prime minister and solicitor general have knowingly misled the House of Commons.”

A government spokesperson said: “We’ve always been clear we will never compromise our high standards and we are fully committed to our ambitious and legally binding commitments on the environment. The reforms we’ve set out will see us tackle pollution at source in a way that these legacy laws never addressed through a significant package to restore waterways and leave our environment in a better state than we found it.

“This will see us more than offset the negligible impact of new homes on levels of nutrients, by doubling the investment for Natural England to tackle nutrients, bringing this to £280m, drawing up bespoke plans to restore nature in the most affected areas, and providing more support than ever to help farmers reduce pollution from essential agriculture.”

Birmingham City Council has declared itself effectively bankrupt.

The local authority – the largest in Europe – has issued a Section 114 notice preventing all but essential spending to protect core services.

What chance any levelling up now? – Owl

By Sophie Madden www.bbc.co.uk

In a joint statement, the leader and deputy leader of the Labour authority said the notice was a “necessary step as we seek to get our city back on a sound financial footing”.

Such a notice, issued in the past by councils including Croydon and Thurrock, means a local authority has judged itself to be in financial distress and can no longer balance its budget.

Opposition leader, Robert Alden, Conservative, said the council had “failed to show the proper speed and urgency needed to tackle equal pay”.

In their statement, councillors John Cotton and Sharon Thompson, leader and deputy leader respectively, said the authority was also facing financial pressures due to issues with the implementation of its Oracle IT system.

The flagship IT system, intended to streamline council payments and HR systems, was set to cost £19m but after three years of delays it was revealed in May it could cost up to £100m.

“Like local authorities across the country, it is clear that Birmingham City Council faces unprecedented financial challenges, from huge increases in adult social care demand and dramatic reductions in business rates income, to the impact of rampant inflation,” Mr Cotton and Ms Thompson said, adding local government faced “a perfect storm”.

The statement continued: “We implemented rigorous spending controls in July, and we have made a request to the Local Government Association for additional strategic support.

“[Tuesday’s] issuing of a Section 114 Notice is a necessary step as we seek to get our city back on a sound financial footing so that we can build a stronger city for our residents.

“Despite the challenges that we face, we will prioritise core services that our residents rely on, in line with our values of supporting the most vulnerable.”

Birmingham City Council has paid out almost £1.1bn in equal pay claims since a landmark case was brought against the authority in 2012.

The Supreme Court ruled in favour of 174 mostly female employees – working in roles such as teaching assistants, cleaners and catering staff – who had missed out on bonuses which were given to staff in traditionally male-dominated roles such as refuse collectors and street cleaners.

In July, the city council stopped all non-essential spending after it revealed it still faced a bill of up to £760m.

The authority said its bill over equal pay claims was increasing at a rate of £5m to £14m per month.

It said it was in a position where it must fund the liability accrued to date but it did not have the resources to do so.

Because of the situation, it added, the council’s interim director of finance, Fiona Greenway, had issued the Section 114 notice, which confirmed there were insufficient resources to meet the equal pay expenditure and there were no other means of meeting the liability.

The leaders’ statement said: “The council’s senior officers and members are committed to dealing with the financial situation and when more information is available, it will be shared.”

Prof Tony Travers, a visiting professor in the London School of Economics’ Department of Government, a specialist in issues affecting local government, told the BBC that Birmingham had faced financial difficulties “on and off” for more than a decade due to equal pay and other challenges.

“Birmingham is a very important city within Britain and it is essential for the whole country that its services are good and that the city is seen to be motoring forward,” he said.

“The risk is that the city council’s provision of services will be trimmed further and further back and that has consequences not only to what the city looks like and feels like to live in, but also the reputational hit to the city as well.”

Mr Travers added: “People around the city don’t need to worry that their bins aren’t going to be emptied or that social care doesn’t carry on.

“It will mean that no new spending can be committed, so there’s nothing additional from here on.

“But it also points to the fact that the budget for next year, 2024/25, will be terrifically difficult and it is not a problem that is going to go away.”

Mirror and Daily Mail agree….

Rishi Sunak to overturn onshore wind farm ban amid Tory rebellion

Rishi Sunak is set to overturn the ban on building new onshore wind farms to stave off a rebellion from Tory MPs, The Telegraph can reveal.

By Nick Gutteridge, Political Correspondent www.telegraph.co.uk

Ministers are poised to unveil changes to planning rules that will free up councils to give the green light to proposed turbines where there is broad public support.

The move comes as MPs prepare to vote on the Government’s contentious Energy Bill on Tuesday after returning from their summer break.

A group of Tories is backing an amendment tabled by Sir Alok Sharma, the former Cop26 president, that would scrap the ban on new onshore wind.

It has attracted signatories from all wings of the party including Liz Truss, the former prime minister. Rebels are “confident” it is destined to pass.

Labour supports the proposal, which means only six more Tory backbenchers would need to vote in favour to overturn the Government’s majority.

The Telegraph understands ministers have been locked in talks with MPs for almost a week over a compromise deal to avoid a bruising Commons defeat.

Negotiations are set to continue on Monday as the final details are thrashed out, especially on how quickly the Government will be able to legally scrap the ban.

But plans are being drawn up for a minister to submit a written statement to the Commons this week committing to change the current planning rules.

Having secured the necessary guarantees, the rebels would then drop their amendment.

It would end the situation, which has been written into law since 2015, where an objection from just a single resident can prevent a wind farm from being built.

Government sources said the changes would allow councils to “more flexibly address the planning impacts of onshore wind projects as identified by local communities”.

One Tory MP who is supporting the amendment said No 10 had little choice but to act, given it was supported by “senior people from all wings of the party”.

Another added: “It’s great to see ministers listening to concerns and, providing local communities are happy, it will make net zero easier and cheaper too.”

The announcement will mark the second time that Mr Sunak has been forced to act on the issue after coming under pressure from his own MPs.

When he took office last October, he pledged to keep the ban in place – reversing the decision taken by Ms Truss just weeks earlier to end it.

But in the face of a sizeable rebellion from backbenchers, he performed an about-turn on that position in December and said the embargo would be lifted.

That in turn prompted a backlash from Tory MPs who oppose the construction of new onshore wind farms and wanted the moratorium to stay in force.

The Prime Minister promised them that rules would be drawn up to ensure local communities are fully consulted before any new project can be built.

Ministers also began to work on plans for people who live near new turbines to be compensated in the form of cheaper electricity.

But since then there has been little progress on the issue, prompting Tory MPs to force the issue again by tabling their amendment to the Energy Bill.

Sir Alok said: “The Government committed to change planning rules by the end of April 2023 to overturn the de facto ban on onshore wind but this has not happened to date.

“This amendment therefore seeks merely to deliver on the Government’s own promise and help to unlock investment in one of the cheapest forms of energy, and ultimately bring down household bills and improve the UK’s energy security.”

Under the current rules, councils can only approve new sites if they can show that local concerns over their construction have been “fully addressed”.

The effect of the wording is that a single objection can prevent a project from going ahead.

Ministers are set to loosen the requirements so they can be built “when it has been demonstrated that the planning impacts have been satisfactorily addressed”.

The new guidance will stress that developers must “act on concerns and suggestions” from residents and that councils can only approve them where “there is community support”.

Under the changes, local authorities will also be given more discretion to choose where new onshore wind projects can be built within their boundaries.

“One of the first things I did as chancellor, in my first spending review in 2020, was to announce a new 10-year school re-building programme for 500 schools.

“Now that equates to about 50 schools a year, that will be refurbished or rebuilt.

“If you look at what we have been doing over the previous decade, that’s completely in line with what we have always done.”

Maybe, but it’s about a quarter of what was actually needed. – Owl

This government will now limp on to the the next election, fatally wounded. – Owl 

RAAC concrete crisis: Rishi Sunak blamed for school rebuilding cuts by official – education funding explained

Ralph Blackburn uk.sports.yahoo.com

Rishi Sunak refused to fully fund a programme to rebuild at risk schools while Chancellor, a former senior Department for Education official has said.

Jonathan Slater, who was permanent secretary at the DfE from May 2016 to August 2020, said that while up to 400 schools a year need to be replaced, but the department only got funding for 100, which was “frustrating”.

In an interview with the BBC, he claimed that in 2021 Rishi Sunak actually halved the funding – so only 50 schools a year would be rebuilt. This was during the midst of the Covid pandemic.

The revelation comes as thousands of pupils are facing disruption at the start of term this week, after an order to fully or partially close 104 schools because of concerns about collapse-prone reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC). This type of concrete, which was used as a common building material from the 50s until the early 90s, is reportedly “prone to collapse”.

Questions have been asked of the government as to why the announcement was made just days before the start of term. NationalWorld previously revealed that the Department for Education raised the risk level around buildings collapsing to “critical – very likely” in September 2021.

Speaking to the BBC this morning, Slater said he was “absolutely amazed” that a decision was made after he left the department to halve the school rebuilding programme.

He told Radio 4’s Today programme: “The actual ask in the Spending Review of 2021 was to double the 100 to 200 – that’s what we thought was going to be practical at first instance. I thought we’d get it, but the actual decision that the chancellor took in 2021 was to halve the size of the programme.”

Rishi Sunak said “this is completely and utterly wrong”, before confirming he gave funding to 50 schools a year. He told broadcasters: “Actually one of the first things I did as Chancellor, in my first spending review in 2020, was to announce a new 10-year school re-building programme for 500 schools.

“Now that equates to about 50 schools a year, that will be refurbished or rebuilt. If you look at what we have been doing over the previous decade, that’s completely in line with what we have always done.”

Labour analysis of National Audit Office figures found that spending on school rebuilding dropped by 41% while Sunak was Chancellor. It said the school rebuilding budget in 2019-20 was £765 million, but after Sunak became Chancellor this dropped to £560 million in 2020-21 and as little as £416 million in 2021-22.

Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, said: “The defining image of thirteen years of the Conservative-run education system will be children sat under steel girders to stop the roof falling in.

“Rishi Sunak bears huge culpability for his role in this debacle: he doubled down on Michael Gove’s decision to axe Labour’s schools rebuilding programme and now the chickens have come home to roost – with yet more disruption to children’s education.

The issue of England’s ageing schools – highlighted by a NAO report which said up to 700,000 children are being taught in buildings that need replacing or major refurbishment – has become a political storm.

Just days before the start of term more than 100 schools in England were told to fully or partially close as a result of safety concerns about RAAC. The Department for Education has so far refused to say which schools are affected.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has vowed to publish a list of the schools affected by the concrete crisis this week.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We will publish the list, but I do want to double-check that the school has had the opportunity – because not all the schools are back yet – to tell all parents.”

She said three companies providing portable buildings have already been contracted to set up temporary classrooms.

“Many schools are either looking for alternative accommodation, if they’re within a multi-academy trust or within a local authority, or moving to another classroom if they’ve got spare classrooms,” she told Sky News.

“If it’s across the whole school, then that gets more difficult. So what we’re doing right now is we’ve assigned a caseworker for each one of the schools, working with the school to figure out what the mitigation plans are.”

She defended the Tories’ record on school funding, in response to Slater’s comments.

“I’ve just announced 239 school rebuilding projects,” she said, but could not indicate how many a year, saying only that they would be done “as soon as possible”.

She added: “We’ve delivered much better value for money, much more schools have been rebuilt, much more schools are going to be rebuilt, we’ve got a grip of RAAC.”

While the Prime Minister defended the timing of the announcement, saying: “New information came to light relatively recently and it’s important that once it had, that the Government acted on it as swiftly as possible.

“Of course I know the timing is frustrating, but I want to give people a sense of the scale of what we are grappling with here: there are around 22,000 schools in England and the important thing to know is that we expect that 95% of those schools won’t be impacted by this.” If 5% of schools in England are impacted, that would mean 1,100 are affected.

Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Munira Wilson said: “This bombshell revelation shows the blame for this concrete crisis lies firmly at Rishi Sunak’s door.

“He slashed funding to repair crumbling classrooms when officials said it needed to be increased. Now children and parents across the country are paying the price for this disastrously short-sighted decision.”

Unions and industry groups said they have been warning the government since 2018 over concerns around the safety of school buildings.

Cllr Kevin Bentley, senior vice-chairman of the Local Government Association, said: “Leaving this announcement until near the end of the summer holidays, rather than at the beginning, has left schools and councils with very little time to make urgent rearrangements and minimise disruption to classroom learning.

“The LGA has been warning of the risk from RAAC in schools since 2018. The government should urgently establish a taskforce, including with the LGA and councils to ensure the safety of both pupils and staff in the long term.”

Thirteen national education associations wrote to every Conservative MP in October last year warning about funding, saying they were concerned about the 2,000 schools which contained RAAC. At the time, they warned that these roofs are prone to collapse.

And in February, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) along with seven unions wrote to the DfE urging it to disclose which school buildings are most at risk and have an urgent intervention

Schools in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also being assessed for RAAC. The Scottish Government has said it is present in 35 schools, but that none poses an “immediate risk” to pupil safety.

The Welsh Government said councils and colleges have not reported any presence of RAAC.

Others “have sat on their a***s’.

So who are the “others”? – Owl

• Demolition of existing agricultural building and construction of 3 no. dwellinghouses. Orchard Farm Plymtree EX15 2LWRef. No: 23/1846/FUL | Validated: Fri 25 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of a small single storey rear extension, which would extend beyond the rear wall of the original house by 3.93m, for which the maximum height would be 3.37m, and for which the height of the eaves would be 2.42m 30 Avondale Road Exmouth Devon EX8 2NQRef. No: 23/1850/GPD | Validated: Fri 25 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed single storey porch to side of property 8 Vision Hill Road Budleigh Salterton Devon EX9 6EBRef. No: 23/1840/FUL | Validated: Thu 24 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Rear extension and extended terrace Alla Bank Frys Lane Sidford Devon EX10 9SRRef. No: 23/1841/FUL | Validated: Thu 24 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replace 2no. dormers to the northeast elevation with 1no. dormer. Coachmans Cottage Woodhouse Fields Uplyme Devon DT7 3SHRef. No: 23/1830/FUL | Validated: Wed 23 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1: Lime: reduce height by up to 4m and lateral spread by up to 2m, maximum diameter of cut (MDC) 75mm. Crown lift to 2.5m above footpath to comply with the Highways Act 1980, MDC 25mm. Beechwood 2D Cranford Avenue Exmouth Devon EX8 2HTRef. No: 23/1833/TRE | Validated: Wed 23 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Raise ridge and create habitable roof space. Lakeside Dalwood Devon EX13 7EHRef. No: 23/1836/FUL | Validated: Wed 23 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of front, rear and side extensions. 23 Springfields Colyford EX24 6RERef. No: 23/1823/FUL | Validated: Tue 22 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Formation of new access and associated development 21 Marpool Hill Exmouth Devon EX8 2LJRef. No: 23/1822/FUL | Validated: Tue 22 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1: Oak – reduce crown by approximately 2.5 – 3m to previous pruning points, maximum diameter cuts 50mm. Create approximately 1.5 metres of clearance from house. 45 Ivydale Exmouth EX8 4TARef. No: 23/1825/TRE | Validated: Tue 22 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of a detached garage with office building above (amendment to application number 22/1270/FUL) 91 Sidford High Street Sidford EX10 9SARef. No: 23/1827/FUL | Validated: Fri 25 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed side extension to existing property to form ground floor bedroom and sewing room. Colliers Court Plymtree EX15 2LNRef. No: 23/1826/FUL | Validated: Wed 23 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Erection of a side extension including interior works. Exmouth Rugby Football Club Imperial Road Exmouth Devon EX8 1DGRef. No: 23/1818/FUL | Validated: Fri 25 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Single Storey Side Extension 47 Millhead Road Honiton EX14 1RARef. No: 23/1807/FUL | Validated: Mon 21 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• G1: Field Maple hedge – ongoing maintenance of a group of historic pollards to approximately 3.5m. 41 Fulford Way Woodbury EX5 1PDRef. No: 23/1816/TRE | Validated: Mon 21 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1, oak – remove lowest first order branch on west side over garden. T2, sycamore – remove lowest first order branch on west side over garden. Springfield House West Hill Road West Hill Devon EX11 1UZRef. No: 23/1814/TRE | Validated: Mon 21 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Variation of condition 2 [the development to be carried out in accordance with the approved plans]. Re. 23/0977/FUL – Demolition of conservatory and replacement with single storey rear extension, small single storey front extension and new windows and rooflights associated with a loft conversion. Variations to be increased extent of existing hung tiles to the South Elevation, and the second floor window on South Elevation to be changed to PPC Aluminium 7 West Lodge Rousdon DT7 3XPRef. No: 23/1811/VAR | Validated: Mon 21 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of single-storey rear extension, extending beyond the rear wall of the original dwelling by 5.5m, for which the maximum height would be 3.5m, and for which the height of the eaves would be 3.5m 18 Sandoe Way Exeter EX1 3WJRef. No: 23/1805/GPD | Validated: Mon 21 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Agricultural storage buildings for the dry storage of harvested crops, straw and machinery Chard And Burridge Farm Burridge Axminster EX13 7DFRef. No: 23/1813/AGR | Validated: Fri 25 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of single storey rear extension. 51 Millers Way Honiton Devon EX14 1JBRef. No: 23/1809/FUL | Validated: Thu 24 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1: Oak – remove. Castlehaye Castle Lane Woodbury EX5 1EARef. No: 23/1804/TRE | Validated: Mon 21 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Demolition of fire damaged garage and its replacement with new garage. 11 Withycombe Road Exmouth Devon EX8 1TFRef. No: 23/1797/FUL | Validated: Wed 23 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Retrospective application for a static caravan for staff accommodation and re-siting of dog kennel. The Greyhound Inn Fenny Bridges Devon EX14 3BJRef. No: 23/1794/FUL | Validated: Tue 22 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Two storey side extension and single storey rear extension Appletree Cottage Hand And Pen Lane Whimple EX5 2PXRef. No: 23/1798/FUL | Validated: Mon 21 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• New bi-fold doors on the rear of the house, surrounded by decorative cladding boards set at half height across the length of the property. 19 Sweet Coppin Cranbrook EX5 7FBRef. No: 23/1780/FUL | Validated: Tue 22 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Installation of non illuminated 4x wall mounted entrance signs and 7x aluminium freestanding parking signs. 2 Long Causeway Exmouth EX8 1TSRef. No: 23/1748/ADV | Validated: Fri 25 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Tree G: ‘tree kicker’ habitat features in the River Sid. The felled tree is winched back to its stump and secured back to its stump with 12mm steel wire rope (10 ton B/S). River Sid The Byes Water Lane SidmouthRef. No: 23/1739/TCA | Validated: Wed 23 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Replacement dwelling Meadow Cottage Frogmore Road East Budleigh Devon EX9 7BBRef. No: 23/1671/FUL | Validated: Fri 25 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Removal of the existing shopfront and installation of a new shopfront to both Fore Street and New Street. H S B C Fore Street Sidmouth EX10 8AARef. No: 23/1662/FUL | Validated: Tue 22 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Add privacy gates for vehicles and pedestrians, and improve drainage on to drive. Keepers Cottage St Marys Lane Uplyme Devon DT7 3XHRef. No: 23/1654/FUL | Validated: Wed 23 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed side and rear extensions. 4 Brixington Drive Exmouth EX8 4HJRef. No: 23/1546/FUL | Validated: Thu 24 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Infill existing archway at ground floor on front and rear elevation with glass and timber structure, including new limestone flooring; rear glass arch to have double bi-fold doors and front to have double doors with fixed panels either side 1 The Stables Shute Devon EX13 7NYRef. No: 23/1523/LBC | Validated: Wed 23 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed side and rear extensions, and detached single garage South Oak Higher Metcombe EX11 1SQRef. No: 23/1493/FUL | Validated: Tue 22 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Retrospective application for a double garage. 42 East Budleigh Road Budleigh Salterton Devon EX9 6EJRef. No: 23/1428/FUL | Validated: Mon 21 Aug 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision