Author Archives: East Devon Watch

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10 Jan 2017

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Accountability, Axminster, Bovis, Developers/ Development

One reason (close to home) why Bovis CEO resigned?

Axminster councillor Douglas Hull recently went on a tirade against badly-built homes in the town, though he took on the monkey NHBC (the business that issues 10 year warranties for new homes, rather than the organ grinders – the developers who build the shoddy homes in the first place.

Now, news reaches us of a national protest group taking housebuilder Bovis (a major player in Axminster, Seaton and all over East Devon) to task:

“Disgruntled Bovis Homes customers are to protest outside the annual meeting of the housebuilder, whose chief executive David Ritchie was ousted this week.

The Bovis Homes Victims Group has swollen to 650 Facebook members with a litany of complaints, as well as a YouTube channel with more than 9000 views.

Spokesman Marc Holden’s £490,000 Bovis home in Milton Keynes was beset with defects, prompting a company review.

Holden said: “We are not going to stop our active campaign. There are a lot of unhappy people.”

The meeting will be in Tunbridge Wells in May. Bovis warned on profits last month after delays to sales, prompting Ritchie to resign.

A Bovis spokesman said: “Bovis Homes is aware of the issues experienced by a small number of customers and recently established a dedicated team of specialists to resolve them, and apologises to the customers impacted.”

http://www.standard.co.uk/business/bovis-customers-plan-protest-at-beleaguered-builder-s-meeting-a3436836.html

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10 Jan 2017

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Accountability, Consultation, Devolution, Golden Triangle LEP, Local Enterprise Partnership, Scrutiny, Transparency

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To be an LEP or not to be an LEP – that is the question

Just before Christmas, we read that three local authorities ( including Plymouth and Exeter) were pulling out of the Heart of the Southwest Local Enterprise Partnership (comprising the whole of Devon and Somerset). They intended to form their own LEP – the so-called “Golden Triangle LEP”:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2016/12/13/the-extorply-lep-talks-continue/

We assume that, partly, this was because those authorities were not convinced that a “Devset” super-mayor (a requirement for government funding – and quite possibly from Somerset) would not adequately represent their interests.

Since then we have heard absolutely nothing about the situation from either side.

Is the “Golden Triangle LEP” still on the cards?
Have the local authorities which want to break away formally withdrawn?
If not, do they intend to withdraw and when?
If so, what happens to current funds held by the LEP on their behalf?
Are we having a Devset super-mayor or not?
When (if ever) will electors be consulted – and about what?
Will Devon continue to subsidise heavy HOTSW LEP investment in Hinkley C that, despite promises, shows little knock-on benefit to our county?

And when will Somerset County Council (as the chosen lead authority for scrutiny – though chosen by whom we do not know) be subject to scrutiny (or scrutinising itself) about where our money has gone, is going, and will go?

https://eastdevonwatch.org/2017/01/08/is-devolution-already-with-us-a-briefing-paper-on-the-major-changes-to-regional-funding-since-2010/

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10 Jan 2017

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Accountability, EDDC, Knowle/Honiton/Exmouth relocation

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EDDC leads the way in showing HMRC how to relocate!

Extra £600m needed to pay for taxman’s new offices

“Britain’s tax authorities will spend nearly £600 million more than they promised on an “unrealistic” plan to modernise and streamline their offices, a critical report has concluded.

The National Audit Office (NAO) found that Revenue & Customs was operating out of 170 properties, costing £269 million a year to run. But it warned that the cost of plans to modernise and rationalise into 13 regional centres had been significantly underestimated and said that the reorganisation would disrupt services.

Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the public accounts committee, said the NAO’s findings showed that “early over-optimism” had once again resulted in increased costs to taxpayers. The committee is expected to call HMRC officials to explain how the forecasts were so wrong.

The NAO said that since HMRC first announced its relocation plans in the 2015 spending review, costs had risen and the project would now cost £594 million more over the next decade — a rise of about 22 per cent.

The organisation had also accepted that its current plans, that would involve moving all staff into new offices by 2020, carried “too high a risk of disruption to its business”.

An updated plan is yet to be published and relocating to regional centres will now happen later than the HMRC had planned.

It will take longer before savings from the new estate are realised, the NAO said.

An HMRC spokesman said: “Our most recent calculations now include updated day-to-day running costs, additional investment in two transitional sites which will ease the move for both staff and customers, and provision for more support for our staff with the travel costs of moving to a new office.”

Source” Times Newspapers Limited 2017 (paywall)

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10 Jan 2017

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Accountability, Consultation, EDDC, Exmouth, Exmouth Creative Group, Independent Councillors, Regeneration

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“No ‘independent consultation’ to be held on Exmouth seafront plans”

READ PARTICULARLY THE LAST PARAGRAPH OF THE ARTICLE BELOW!

SPIN! SPIN! SPIN! Councillor Skinner must be dizzy!

Perhaps the “group of like-minded individuals” who are not the Exmouth Creative Group ( including any creative developers) would like to identify itself ….!

There will not be an ‘independent consultation’ on redeveloping Exmouth seafront, the man leading the project has said.

Councillor Philip Skinner made the comments at the most recent full East Devon District Council (EDDC) meeting, when asked by Councillor Megan Armstrong about the result of a town poll held last April.

The poll produced a 94.9 per cent vote for Exmouth Town Council writing to EDDC, which it subsequently did, asking that before any further planning applications were approved for Queen’s Drive, additional independent consultation should take place.

Cllr Armstrong said: “It seems as if you are going to ignore the poll and continue regardless. How are you going to explain to all the residents who voted that their views have been totally ignored?”

Responding, Cllr Skinner said: “What we are going to do is, the phase two [developer] is going to put their application in, there will be a consultation process for that, there will then be another consultation process which will take place through the planning process. Phase three is going to be absolutely a full consultation with the public, that’s what’s going to take place, that is quite clear.

“To answer the question about an independent consultation – no, that’s not going to take place. I’m sorry about that, but that’s the reality.”

Cllr Skinner has also been criticised by campaign group Save Exmouth Seafront, which said he had talked to an unknown Exmouth Creative Group in lieu of other consultation, though EDDC denied Cllr Skinner had spoken to a group of that name.

SES spokesperson Louise MacAllister said: “There are many established community groups in Exmouth with an interest in the seafront who have not been asked for their opinion. This is concerning as the public made themselves very clear through the poll that they want to be consulted, and yet the public are now being ignored in favour of this unknown group.”

An EDDC spokesperson said: “Cllr Skinner has met several groups and individuals about rejuvenating the town, including the seafront.

“He recently met a group of like-minded individuals who have some great ideas for the town and they were enthused by what the council is doing. We are unaware of a specifically named group called Exmouth Creative Group.”

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10 Jan 2017

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Accountability, Affordable and Social Housing, Developers/ Development, EDDC, Knowle/Honiton/Exmouth relocation, Sidmouth/ Sidford/ Sidbury

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EDDC kicks out affordable housing on its own land in Sidmouth – using it for a third office site after relocation

Remember the old days, when EDDC said its move to a single new building in Honiton would save money?

Then it added an old, crumbling building in Exmouth (the Town Hall) neglecting to have a full survey before estimating the cost of refurbishment. Those refurbishment costs are now £1.669m, – £408,000 more than the original estimate.

Now we hear that, instead of providing 20 affordable houses on the Manstone Depot site in Sidmouth as set out in the local plan, EDDC has instead decided to build offices for its Estates Department and keep the Streetscene department there.

No costs appear to be in the public domain for this – which should form part of the relocation budget. And it begs the question: why is the Estates Department and Streetscene relocating to Manstone Depot rather than to the new site in Honiton? Is the Honiton site too small, or does EDDC have an antipathy to affordable housing in Sidmouth? Or is there some other more murky reason?

Or is it just that officers and councillors don’t want Streetscene vehicles and materials spoiling their view in Honiton?

Here is the story from Sidmouth Herald:

“East Devon District Council’s (EDDC) Manstone Depot is allocated for 20 homes in its Local Plan – but now the authority wants to keep its estates department in Sidmouth when it relocates to Exmouth and Honiton.

Its development management committee (DMC) has been recommended to approve the plans for a single-storey office block when it meets on Tuesday (January 10).

Jeremy Woodward, who has campaigned for transparency in the relocation project, said: “I am dismayed about what seems to be EDDC’s disregard for its own Local Plan – and promises of affordable housing which is much-needed in Sidmouth.

“This application is clearly very sensitive.

“Firstly, it is on a site reserved for housing in the Local Plan; and secondly, it is clearly part of the ‘larger picture’ of the district council’s relocation project.”

Mr Woodward submitted a Freedom of Information request in 2014 which revealed that EDDC’s housing service had made two conditional offers to build 25 homes on the Manstone Depot site. One had a mix of market and ‘affordable’ homes; the other was fully ‘affordable’.

The report to DMC members says the offices will be limited to one section of the site and housing could still be delivered on the remaining area. It adds, the departure from the Local Plan is not grounds to refuse the application.

The office building would act as a ‘hub’ for operations that already largely take place from the depot, which is used by the StreetScene team and for storage, adds the report.

An EDDC spokeswoman said: “The consolidation of Knowle Depot activities to our existing site at Manstone is an opportunity that results as part of the relocation project.

“The transfer of depot activities is an existing costed element of the relocation project and, as such, included within the independent and positive cost modelling of relocation.

“Manstone Depot continues to provide a base for a range of important services to Sidmouth and the wider district.”

http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/dismay_at_office_plan_on_sidmouth_site_allocated_for_affordable_homes_1_4838725

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10 Jan 2017

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Developers/ Development, EDDC, Planning System

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High Court confirms that decisions under delegated authority to grant planning permission require reasons

“The High Court has held that local government officers granting planning permission under delegated authority are required to give reasons for their decisions, Francis Taylor Building has reported.

The decision in (Riki Shasha and others) v. Westminster CC [2016] EWHC 3283 (Admin) was based on the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014, made under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, the set added.

Francis Taylor Building said: “This is despite the fact that the requirement to give reasons for a grant of planning permission which was at one stage imposed under amendments to the GPDO 1995 from 2003 was consciously repealed in 2013 as part of the red tape challenge and the current Development Management Procedure Order 2015 contains no such requirement.

“The decision will have inevitable implications for decision making by local planning authorities where officers are acting under delegated powers.”

http://localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29563%3Adecisions-under-delegated-authority-to-grant-planning-permission-require-reasons-high-court&catid=63&Itemid=31

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9 Jan 2017

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Affordable and Social Housing, Bovis, Developers/ Development, Land banking

CEO of Bovis Homes leaves suddenly

“The boss of house builder Bovis Homes Group PLC (LON:BVS) has quit his role with immediate effect just over a week after the group warned it will miss home sales targets

The FTSE 250-listed firm said David Ritchie has stepped down as its chief executive officer with immediate effect but will remain with the firm until the end of February to help with the transition process.

Bovis added that Earl Sibley, the firm’s finance director, will be interim CEO as the group searches for a permanent successor to Ritchie, a process which it said will start immediately and which is expected to take several months.

No reason was given for Ritchie’s abrupt departure but it comes after the group cautioned on December 28 that new house sales this year will be lower than expected due to completions in December falling short.

The group said in an unscheduled trading update then that total sales for the year will now be between 3,950 to 4,000, with slower than predicted building times pushing 180 homes due to complete into the next trading year.

In a note to clients, analysts at Liberum said: “Management change could be positive for the Group in due course if the building of homes can be improved, so that the Group can exploit a decent landbank more effectively. …”

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/171312/bovis-homes-boss-quits-with-immediate-effect-just-over-a-week-after-cautious-update-171312.html

In early morning trade, Bovis shares were 2.5% higher, up 20.5p at 831.5p.

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9 Jan 2017

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Knowle/Honiton/Exmouth relocation, Regeneration

EDDC teaches the government a thing or two about reorganisation and relocation ?

Isn’t this rather like EDDC’s relocation and regeneration projects?

“Theresa May faces further criticism of her domestic policy in the face of Brexit pressures after it emerged that almost half of the staff in the newly created Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy admitted they did not know what the Whitehall office stands for.

The prime minister surprised many in Westminster when she combined business, energy and climate change to form BEIS. The move, one of several changes to the makeup of Whitehall, was aimed at bolstering the traditionally weak business department, and checking the dominance of the Treasury.

But as the business secretary, Greg Clark, prepares to launch the government’s industrial strategy later this month, it has emerged that almost half of his staff say they have no clear idea what BEIS stands for.

In a recent survey, carried out in the autumn, many of the staff based at two headquarters buildings in London showed little enthusiasm for the reorganisation.

About half (48%) of said they did not “have a clear understanding of BEIS’s purpose”; while 19% agreed that the organisational changes have been for the better. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/09/may-faces-criticism-of-brexit-vote-whitehall-restructuring-staff-department-for-business-energy-and-industrial-strategy

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8 Jan 2017

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Affordable and Social Housing, Austerity cuts, Developers/ Development

Outgoing Shelter chief: “The housing crisis has spread to everybody”

” … The housing crisis “has spread to everywhere. It’s not just poor people, or those who are just managing, it’s right up there.” The average house price in the UK has climbed 29.4pc in the last seven years; in London it has soared by 69.6pc, far ahead of wage increases.

As a result, it has become a hot potato. “It’s a political issue that has become real for a lot of people across the country. Not just in Labour seats, but Conservative MPs have people in their constituencies who are saying my children can’t afford to buy,” he says. “We have a group of people who are in their 50s and 60s for the first generation since the Second World War, looking at their children’s housing prospects, and they are worse than their own.”

Not only is there political pressure coming from voters, but also from big companies.

Deloitte and KPMG both bought flats in the capital for their graduates to live in, and Shelter has teamed up with companies such as Starbucks to introduce a rental deposit scheme which workers can pay back, interest free.

It could have been even worse, he says. “In the last seven years, if interest rates had gone up by 2 or 3pc you would have seen a raft of repossessions like those in the 80s. You would have seen a crisis beyond what we already have. So in some ways housing policy has been lucky.

This affordability crisis has been compounded by a “failure of certain policies”, he says, as well as the financial crisis and the austerity that followed. The previous governments, including New Labour and the coalition, all failed to build enough and put little focus on the supply side, he argues. They all “believed the way to solve the housing crisis was on the home ownership and on demand side, to effectively make money available cheaply through Help to Buy-type products, [which enables first-time buyers to purchase a home with a 5pc deposit] and less so in direct investment in house building.” Help to Buy was a crucial policy after the downturn, designed to get house builders moving again by stimulating demand. But that policy has continued, even while house builders are posting record profits once again.

There’s a problem with this model of solving the housing crisis, says Robb: “it’s broken”. “With the death of public housing and local authorities, the private house builders have had to carry that weight and they can’t,” he says. Part of the problem is due to the land market; the high cost of land forces developers to keep upping prices and making homes smaller. “You can’t criticise them for doing what they were set up to do, they are there to maximise profit for their shareholders,” he says. “That doesn’t necessarily translate into the best housing policy for Britain. That’s why you need more small builders, more land available – public and private – and you need public building. …”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/house-prices/robbthe-housing-crisis-has-spread-everybody/

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8 Jan 2017

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Affordable and Social Housing

The Guardian view on the housing crisis

“For too long councils have been unable to build for rent. The housing white paper should bring them in from the cold

The scale of the housing crisis is now as great as it was in 1951. That was the year in which Harold Macmillan, then housing minister, made his famous pledge to build 300,000 new homes a year. His success in achieving it helped pave his way to Downing Street. But decisions he made then can now be seen as the root of both the current critical shortage of homes and the matching inflation in values which so distorts housing policy. This is what the much-delayed housing white paper – due before the end of the month – has to tackle.

In Macmillan’s haste to meet his eye-catching commitment 66 years ago, many homes were built to inferior standards. In the later case of Ronan Point, the 1966 London tower block that collapsed catastrophically two years later, speed of construction overwhelmed the safety and security of the people who lived there. Just as significantly, it was during Macmillan’s premiership in the late 1950s that the private sector overtook the public as the nation’s leading housebuilder, for the first time since 1939. Public sector housebuilding remained significant for 20 years, but never regained its pre-eminence.

When the squeeze on council spending began in the second half of the 1970s, council housing was an early and lasting casualty, but building for sale did not increase to fill the gap. Without a steady supply of homes for rent, the conditions for today’s housing shortage were set. Private builders maximise value by preferring fewer, larger homes, unaffordable to first-time buyers. It is rational to keep prices up by releasing new builds slowly, and there is little incentive, once planning permission is granted, to fulfil commitments with community value such as primary schools, parks and GP surgeries.

Ever since, governments have been trying to unpick this tangle, but with only half the tools they need to do it with. To have a chance of meeting its commitment to build a million homes by 2020 – a target itself widely considered inadequate – this government must build at scale. Last week, the sites of 14 new garden villages were announced, promising 48,000 homes: these new settlements have few of the values of place creation, community value and housing standards that made Letchworth, the original and best surviving of the garden cities first proposed by Ebenezer Howard, one of the most successful urban developments of the 20th century. All the same, they will, one day, provide thousands rather than hundreds of new homes, and they offer a better chance of the kind of thought-through planning that is making Prince Charles’s Poundbury, an urban extension of Dorchester, look less of a royal eccentricity and more like a model of community creation.

But Poundbury has been 20 years in development. The government’s target is 2020. The private sector won’t meet it. A bigger role for housing associations, the main builders of social homes, needs changes to financial legislation to permit more borrowing. At last the government recognises the part that councils must play. Devolution settlements give larger local authorities new powers; they want to be able to control the speed and style of housebuilding too. That goes further than the new fund, announced in November’s autumn statement, that is intended to enable them to fund the complex financial and legal work necessary for big new developments. As an IPPR report concluded in October, what is needed is an active deal-making process between the devolved authorities and Whitehall, where the former release public land and invest public money in developing local skills. In return, the government rationalises funding streams, allows retention of stamp duty on new builds, and devolves control over council tax to shape types of tenure.

Harold Macmillan laid the groundwork for the privileging of home-ownership over social housing. The housing white paper is the moment to recognise that, until homes for rent are firmly back in the mix, there will be no end to the housing crisis.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/08/the-guardian-view-on-the-housing-crisis-right-to-rent

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8 Jan 2017

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Accountability, Cornwall, Developers/ Development, Independent Councillors

New independent group in Cornwall

… a new pressure group [is] being formed in Cornwall this week. Charter for Cornwall has been formed by the people who run the popular anti-developers Facebook group “It’s our Cornwall” and they told CS [Cornish Stuff blog] that the group will seek to be a “conduit for the unfocused energy we see around us – we are an essay in grassroots activism. Let’s make a better Cornwall together”

Charter for Cornwall will pressure those seeking election to the Council in May, when all Cornwall Council seats will be up for grabs, to pledge to support 4 commitments when they do get elected.

A launch statement on charterforcornwall.com says:

“We believe that we cannot give way to despair and apathy. We have to use what democratic rights are left to us to challenge Cornwall Council’s narrow and short-sighted strategy. Elections in May provide one opportunity to make our voices heard and make our future an issue.

We are not alone. Across Cornwall local groups have been campaigning against massive, speculative and unnecessary housing projects. Over 7,000 people have signed the CPRE’s petition Save Cornwall’s Green Fields, calling for a change in the planning system. Over 70 town and parish councils have supported Cornwall for Change, which is demanding a change in direction at Cornwall Council. Posts on the It’s Our Cornwall facebook page about building projects reach an average 2,000 people daily and sometimes as many as 10,000″.

People are dismayed, worried and angry about what they see around them. But anger and sadness too often leads to despair. That despair has to be transformed into hope. We can change things. We can take back control of our future. This is a first step”.

The statement continued,

“We will campaigns to increase community-level influence over the future of our land. We need to change Cornwall Council for the better by electing better councillors. We need a Council that is more open, more responsive and more willing to listen to residents’ concerns. In the short-term we will be supporting those candidates in next May’s local elections who stand for our values. In the longer-term we must work to end the Council’s pursuit of unsustainable growth policies”

The four ‘principles’ of the new group are to

Protect our Cornish heritage (“Councillors have been unable to stop Cornwall becoming an easy ride for property developers”)

Provide genuinely affordable housing (“The Government has cynically redefined ‘affordability’ to include housing at 80% of market prices that are simply unaffordable for most local people”)

Put limits on second homes (“The extension of second home ownership has destroyed community life in many of our coastal towns and villages”)

Plan for Cornish communities, not developers’ profits (“The planning system is rigged. Blatantly unsound data have been used to drive the housing target up to an unnecessary 52,500 minimum”)

The group has spent the last few weeks gathering contributions and support from various political groups, including KMTU who support the initiative. Formed by Pete Burton, Bernard Deacon, Julie Fox The Charter for Cornwall will roll out in three phases in Feb – May with the first phase to agree on the final wording of the pledges Councillors will be asked to commit to.”

21st century Cornwall: Developers Won, Paradise Lost? As Cornwall seeks to introduce planning charge, a new group is formed to pressure councillors

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8 Jan 2017

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Devolution, Local Enterprise Partnership

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Is Devolution already with us? A briefing paper on the major changes to regional funding since 2010

A paper provided to East Devon Watch by D W Daniel – feel free to reproduce or retransmit unchanged and with attribution:

Executive summary

1. In 2010 the coalition government commenced a major shakeup of regional funding with the ultimate aim of providing a form of English devolution. This briefing paper attempts to summarise the sequence of changes from an East Devon perspective when it comes to detail. It has proved to be a difficult task. The author has failed to find a single source listing, for example, the sums paid to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). Many sources aggregate data to produce numbers that cannot be cross compared. Even government sources are inconsistent. The LEPs themselves are also an unreliable source, publicising bids but not the outturn, especially if unfavourable. Bearing these caveats in mind the author believes the briefing presents an accurate and comprehensive picture of where we are at the beginning of 2017 in a process that continues to evolve.

2. Across England (it only affects England) LEPs now control an annual budget of £2 billion. They are self-selecting bodies, Chaired by businessmen with businessmen in the majority. Although there may be a few local councillors on the board, they have to be in a minority. As the National Audit Office points out LEPs have no track record for delivery. There appear to be no metrics by which the investment decision they make can be evaluated and no mechanism for scrutiny. Likewise there appears to be no mechanism for publicly accountable scrutiny of any conflict of interest that might arise in the way these funds are distributed. All this has happened below the radar of public perception, even amongst councillors.

Regional Growth Fund and Local Enterprise Partnerships

3. 2010 was the year Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, introduced a white paper “Local growth: realising every place’s potential. (CM 7961)”, part of the Localism ideal of “handing power to local people”, announcing a £1.4 billion Regional Growth Fund open to bidders who had ambition and a clear vision for growth. The white paper also announced the eventual abolition of Regional Development Agencies and the establishment of the first phase of 24 LEPs to take their place. “The Government wishes to see partnerships which understand their economy and are directly accountable to local people and local businesses.” The ultimate aim was to move towards regional devolution.

4. LEPs have to be chaired by a prominent business leader and at least half of the board members must come from the private sector. LEPs should be based on functional economic areas rather than regions. The initial intention was that LEPs should be self-funding from private enterprise. In the event this did not materialise. In August 2011 the government allocated funds to LEPs from a one-off start-up fund of £5 million and in the 2012 Autumn Statement each LEP was offered support for “capacity building” to enable them to “support the development and delivery of their strategic plan”. Each LEP was offered £125,000 in 2012/13 for “immediate support”. In a 2016 report the NAO says: “The Department provides LEPs with £500,000 in core funding for administrative purposes, subject to LEPs securing £250,000 in match funding from local partners. All LEPs received the same core funding, regardless of size or structure.” Subsequent growth deals include sums for administration.

5. The first phase of 24 LEPs from 62 bids was announced in the 2010 white paper. These included Cornwall and Isles of Scilly LEP and the West of England LEP (Bristol, Bath, North and North East Somerset, and South Gloucester). This decision meant that the South West could never subsequently be considered as an integrated economic region from the point of view of devolution. By end 2012 the government had approved a further 15 LEPs to fill in the gaps so that the whole of England was covered. LEPs vary in differing levels of size, urbanisation, population, and existing infrastructure and it is questionable as to how many could be suitable platforms for full devolution along the lines originally envisaged.

Heart of the South West

6. In July 2012 the Heart of the South West (HOTSW) LEP, held its first meeting though research shows it was actually appointed by the government in June 2011. The HOTSW covers 17 local authorities in Devon and Somerset and the two unitary authorities of Plymouth and Torbay. It became a Community Interest Company (CIC) incorporated at Companies House on 6 Feb 2014. Its bespoke articles of association added clauses, for example, allowing for the removal, in certain circumstances, of the lock on asset transfer, normally fundamental to (CIC). The current (2017) self-selecting board numbers 20. It is chaired by Steve Hindley (Chairman Midas Group, a construction and development company). Of these 20 board members: six are elected local councillors; four have backgrounds in construction, development or property; three are senior members of educational establishments; three are connected to defence and software industries; the remainder have backgrounds in utility, employment and skills consulting, outsourcing and grant distribution. Only four of the 20 are women. Not the sort of mix you would immediately think of as having an understanding, or being representative, of Devon’s rural and seasonal tourist economy and its mix of small businesses. The Devon County Councillor and leader of East Devon District Council (EDDC), Cllr Paul Diviani, joined the board on 13 November 2013. Despite this EDDC councillors, and Devon County Councillors, have been kept in the dark about the workings, expenditure and outcomes, if any, of our LEP.

7. Devon and Somerset are surrounded by two single county LEPs: Cornwall and Dorset; and the metropolitan West of England LEP centred on Bristol and Bath.

8. It was not until another three years had passed that, in September 2015, news of HOTSW began to filter out into general awareness and then only because they published their fully fledged statement of intent to launch (on our behalf) a bid for devolution. Not until then had any minutes been available in the public domain. As we shall see by this time HOTSW had already compiled a fully-fledged strategic plan and submitted it to government. There has been no public consultation at any time.

Single Local Growth Fund

9. In October 2012 Lord Heseltine published a government commissioned report “No Stone Unturned: In Pursuit of Growth”. His main recommendation was to combine all separate funding streams supporting growth into a single funding pot for local areas. This was accepted in the 2013 Spending Review with the creation of a Single Local Growth Fund (SLGF) of £2 billion from existing skills, housing and transport budgets from 2015/16, an additional £5 billion transport funding between 2016/17 and 2020/21 and a pledge to maintain SLGF at a total of at least £2 billion each year through the next Parliament.

10. This money was intended to be administered by LEPs who were then barred from bidding in any further Regional Growth Fund (RGF) deals and in the 2015 Spending Review the RGF was in effect closed leaving the LEPs responsible for the distribution of all growth funding i.e. de facto taking the place of the former Regional Development Agencies. Interesting to note that in April 2013 the then Business Secretary Vince Cable argued (interview with the Northern Echo) that big decisions on funding must be administered from Whitehall on the basis that some LEPs had very small numbers of business people on their boards and were not publicly accountable and unsuited to manage large amounts of public money. See later comments by National Audit Office (NAO) which also points out that LEPs lack any track record of delivery.

LEP Strategic Economic Plans and Growth Deals

11. In July 2013, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills gave LEPs guidance and set deadline of March 2014 to submit final versions of their Strategic Economic Plans, which would then be assessed by central government. In March 2014, all 39 LEPs submitted Strategic Economic Plans for approval. In July 2014, the government announced details of funding secured by each LEP over the period 2015 – 2021. In January 2015, the government expanded the deals, with LEPs securing a further £1 billion in total investment between 2016 and 2021. As of March 2016, £7.3 billion worth of Growth Deal funding had been allocated to LEPs. Funding is made as a single annual grant payment, made at the start of each financial year to a nominated local authority to act as accountable body. For HOTSW the accounting body is Somerset County Council. Nothing can be found on how scrutiny is to be conducted. LEPs are grouped into three categories of flexibility in how they can spend Growth Deal funding. This categorisation is based on the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG)’s judgement of each LEP’s ability to deliver their Growth Deal programmes and the strength of their governance arrangements. LEPs can receive greater flexibility through improving their governance.

12. As a result of a 2014 freedom of information request, the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (since merged and renamed) published a table listing the amounts awarded to LEP led and delivered programmes and projects in Rounds two, three and four of the RGF (private sector firms could bid independently- see Augusta Westlands below). HOTSW appear to have been singularly unsuccessful in their bidding as they received nothing. (Cornwall and Isles of Scilly LEP received £13M in round two and West of England LEP £39.8M in round two and £25M in round three). Despite this failure HOTSW is now controlling well in excess of £150 million investment fund to 2021.

13. In Oct 2012 Augusta Westland secured a £46 million cash windfall from the RGF, as a private sector bid, to help the company create a new production line for helicopters targeted at the civil aviation market, with matched company funding. This is a good example of the way the RGF operated historically but highlights the potential for future conflicts of interests as the business controlled LEPs assess and distribute future grants. A Director of Augusta Westlands is a HOTSW board member.

14. In July 2014, the Heart of the South West LEP, following submission of its strategic plan, was awarded £103.2 million from the Local Growth Fund over the period 2015-2021; in January 2015 a further £65.2 million of funding was awarded between 2016 and 2021 (these figures exclude any European funding which LEPs also administer). The LEP estimates up to 22,000 jobs could be created, 11,000 homes built and up to £260 million of public and private investment generated as a result of this funding. The bid proposal included £13 million to provide Hinkley C infrastructure and £55 million of pump priming to provide Hinkley housing. A Nuclear Training College was also proposed. The deal agreed also includes £13.7 million loan funding to three developers to accelerate home building at: Frome, Brixham, Exeter and Highbridge.

15. It is difficult to find these projections in the actual growth plan (because it covers a longer period than the funding) – but they do appear in what are called “Factsheets”, supplementary papers associated with the government published growth deals. There are consistent, comparable, “claimed” growth figures for all 39 LEPs for the 2015-2021 period from which one finds:

(a) HOTSW is claiming to be able to generate the fourth highest number of jobs 22,000 (outbid only by Greater Birmingham and Solihull, Dorset and South East LEPs).

(b) HOTSW is also claiming to be able to deliver the fourth highest number of homes 11,000 (outbid only by Hertfordshire, Thames Valley and again South East LEP).

The author is left wondering at what point ambition over reaches itself.

Growing Places Fund

16. As if this was not complex enough there is also the £500 million Growing Places Fund announced on 7 November 2011, extended by £270 million in 2012. This fund was designed to tackle immediate infrastructure investment constraints, with a focus on housing and transport. The allocations to LEPs were made in February 2012, these were calculated using a formula based on population and employed earnings. The June 2012 HOTSW Newsletter indicates a £21.5m fund is available to them. In retrospect this can be considered as a one-off fund.

National Audit Office findings

17. This transformational process has been subject to a series of reviews by the National Audit Office (NAO). The latest NAO progress report on the Regional Growth Fund was published in Feb 2014. The report found more than three-quarters of the fund set up to boost regional economies remained unspent (£2.6bn allocated in Rounds one to four, but only £492m had so far actually reached projects and £425 million was being held by programme intermediaries (of which £10 million was for administration)). The estimate of the average cost per net additional job of bids selected in round four is £52,300. This compares with £30,400 in the first round, £33,500 in the second, and £39,700 in the third, but these differences probably reflect greater realism. Around half of jobs created were covered by just five of the 291 operational schemes. The general conclusion, as with the previous report, was that this expenditure was not optimising value for money.

18. In a report on LEPs published on 23 March 2016 the NAO made this comment on Growth Deals. “The Department’s [DCLG] published guidance set out what they expected to see in LEPs’ strategic economic plans; however, the Department intentionally did not specify the format that these plans should take. They did this to encourage LEPs to decide the process of formulating plans locally, competitively and in a way that would encourage innovation. This resulted in wide variation across the 39 plans in the way information was presented, time periods covered, and the evidence bases they used. Additionally, the Department did not define output metrics until after the plans were approved. LEPs therefore used different definitions to describe the outputs of their planned interventions, such as jobs. The Department’s assessors reported that they found it challenging to assess the bids consistently; this will have made it difficult to identify the plans that represented the best value for money.”

19. On LEPs the same NAO report says that when the Growth Deals were agreed, the Department did not have enough assurance that they had the resources, capacity and capability to do this, and LEPs do not yet have an established track record of delivery. To oversee and deliver Growth Deal projects effectively, LEPs need access to staff with expertise in complex areas such as forecasting, economic modelling, and monitoring and evaluation. Only 5% of LEPs considered the resources available to them to be sufficient to meet the expectations placed on them by government. Additionally, 69% of LEPs reported that they did not have sufficient staff and 28% did not think that they had sufficiently skilled staff.

20. The NAO also found they were unable to obtain information on senior staff remuneration from publicly available accounts for 87% percentage of LEPs. The median number of full-time equivalent staff employed by LEPs is 8.

Conclusion

21. Over the past six years huge changes have taken place with regard to the way central government grants to regions are administered. But this has largely happened below the radar of public perception. Across England LEPs now control an annual budget of £2 billion. Hundreds of millions of pounds worth of local investment funds are now in the hands of our Local Enterprise Partnership, a self-selecting group of big-business(men) (gender specific term deliberate), who appear to be unaccountable to anyone and unrepresentative of the local economy. This has happened irrespective of whether or not any formal devolution has occurred. There appear to be no metrics by which the investment decision they make can be evaluated and no mechanism for scrutiny. Likewise there appears to be no mechanism for publicly accountable scrutiny of any conflict of interest that might arise in the way these funds are distributed. What has happened to democracy?

January 2017

Main References Sources
Relevant Government papers

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-growth-realising-every-places-potential-hc-7961

Click to access PU1524_IUK_new_template.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/heart-of-the-south-west-growth-deal

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-enterprise-partnerships-leps-funding-from-the-regional-growth-fund-rgf

Heart of the South West Growth Deal proposal

Click to access Growth-Deal-2015-Heart-of-SW-Final-3-4.pdf

Parliamentary briefing papers on Regional Growth, Growth deals and LEPs:

Click to access SN07120.pdf

Click to access SN05874.pdf

Click to access SN05651.pdf

National Audit Office Reports

Click to access Local-Enterprise-Partnerships.pdf

Click to access 10285-001-Local-economic-growth.pdf

Click to access Progress-report-on-the-regional-growth-fund.pdf

Independent Report University of Plymouth

Click to access rtpi_research_report_leps_economic_planning_and_delivery_south_west_march_14_2016.pdf

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8 Jan 2017

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Hugo Swire

Hugo Swire and Theresa May: NOT a match made in heaven!

“Some things about her, already evident to those who studied her pre-prime ministerial career, have become clearer to a wider audience. She hates conceited and condescending men who think they are terribly clever, a category that includes rather a lot of her Tory colleagues. This helps to explain the humiliating manner in which she dispatched many of the Cameroons from the government.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/08/theresa-may-control-freak-brexit-queen-misrule

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7 Jan 2017

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Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

UK a third-world country for health care – “humanitarian crisis” says Red Cross

“There is a “humanitarian crisis” in NHS hospitals in England, the British Red Cross has said.

The charity said volunteers and staff had been helping patients get home from hospital and called for more government money to stabilise the situation.

It comes as a third of hospital trusts in England warned they needed action to cope with patient numbers last month.

NHS England said plans were in place to deal with winter pressure and beds were not as full as this time last year.

Figures show that 42 A&E departments ordered ambulances to divert to other hospitals last week – double the number during the same period in 2015.
Diversions can only happen when a department is under significant pressure, such as lacking the physical capacity to take more patients or having queues of ambulances outside for significantly prolonged periods, and when all existing plans to deal with a surge in patients have been unsuccessful.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said on Friday that it was investigating two deaths at Worcestershire Royal Hospital’s A&E department in the last week.

The trust said patient confidentiality prevented it from discussing the deaths, but added it had “robust plans” to maintain patient safety and emergency care. A patients’ watchdog has called for an investigation.

John Freeman said his wife Pauline, who is recovering from a stroke, spent 38 hours on a trolley at the same hospital because of overcrowding.
“My wife was stuck on a trolley right next to the fire doors in a corridor and she couldn’t get any sleep because of all the trolleys banging into the fire door going in and out,” he told BBC News.

“There was probably in excess of 20 trolleys all stacked up. This is going back to the dark ages almost.”

Trusts around the country are taking to social media to urge patients to stay away from A&E, unless it is an emergency or a life threatening illness.

British Red Cross provided support to staff at the East Midlands Ambulance Service across Nottingham, Leicester, Lincoln, Kettering and Northampton on 1 January.

It also boosted existing services offering support at home to help alleviate pressure on hospitals.

Chief executive Mike Adamson said: “The British Red Cross is on the front line, responding to the humanitarian crisis in our hospital and ambulance services across the country.

“We have been called in to support the NHS and help get people home from hospital and free up much needed beds.”

“We’ve seen people sent home without clothes, some suffer falls and are not found for days, while others are not washed because there is no carer there to help them.”

The Red Cross said its volunteers are “on the front line” across the country
He said that if people do not get the care they need, “they will simply end up returning to A&E, and the cycle begins again”.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “The Red Cross being called in to help in our hospitals is just the latest staggering example of how the NHS is now being pushed to breaking point.

“For the Red Cross to brand the situation a ‘humanitarian crisis’ should be a badge of shame for government ministers.” He called for “urgent help” from the government.

Black alert

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine said staff were under intense pressure, while the Society for Acute Medicine warned this month could be the worst January the NHS has ever faced.

Dr Taj Hassan, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said every hospital in Essex has been on black alert and emergency departments are “working at and beyond their capabilities”.

He added: “The emergency care system is on its knees, despite the huge efforts of staff who are struggling to cope with the intense demands being put upon them. This cannot be allowed to continue.

“The scale of the crisis affecting emergency care systems has reached new heights, as we predicted, mainly due to a lack of investment in both social and acute health care beds, as well as emergency department staffing.”
Dr Mark Holland, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, told BBC Breakfast that the term “humanitarian crisis” was strong, but “not a million miles away from the truth”.

He added: “We have been predicting that we would face a winter from hell. I think that time has arrived.”

A spokesman for NHS England said plans remained in place to deal with additional demands during the winter period and asked the public to “play their part” by using local pharmacies and NHS 111 for medical advice.
BBC reporter Dan Johnson said one press officer from the organisation called the claims by the Red Cross “ridiculous”.

He added: “The Department of Health also said it is putting in billions more to try and make the system work.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38538637

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7 Jan 2017

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Affordable and Social Housing, Persimmon

Persimmon’s “very affordable homes” claim examined

““Buying a new-build home remains a compelling choice supported by competitive mortgage offers which continue to make a new home purchase very affordable.”

So said Persimmon Homes, on the back of its latest trading statement. An update that made the company the belle of the stock market ball. Revenues for 2016 were 8 per cent higher than in 2015 and the group completed 559 extra sales. Happy days for its investors.

But let’s take a closer look at that quote. Is an average Persimmon home really “very affordable”?

Now, the company said that its average selling price increased by 4 per cent to £206,700 in 2016. To put that in perspective, the median average British wage, which has been increasing at something more like 2 per cent per annum, stands at £28,200.

To find out whether Persimmon’s average home is indeed very affordable to an average family (if there is such a thing) I created one of my own.

The Smiths have £500 each on their credit cards (after Christmas) and they spend £100 a month on loan repayments. That makes their level of debt rather modest by British standards.

John Smith works full time earning £28,200. Jane Smith works two and a half days a week and makes half that on a pro rata basis. I haven’t factored in any child care costs because we’ll assume relatives help out.

Between them, they’ve scrimped and saved enough for a 10 per cent deposit which comes to £20,670. Feeding those details into NatWest’s handy mortgage calculator, I was told that they could borrow a maximum of £169,200.

If Jenny Smith were to work three days a week, earning £16,920, that gets us to £180,400. That’s still just under £6,000 below what it would take to make Persimmon’s average home barely, and not very, affordable.

It looks like Jane Smith will either have to take on more hours, or the family will have to save a bit more and hope that their savings catch up with the rise in average house prices. Perhaps they’ll get lucky and find a lender willing risk the wrath of its regulators to play ball with them. I’m sure Persimmon will be only too happy to point them in the right direction.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/persimmon-says-its-homes-are-very-affordable-does-that-stack-up-a7510746.html

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6 Jan 2017

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Accountability, Coastal communities, Consultation, Developers/ Development, EDDC, Exmouth, Philip Skinner, Regeneration

The “Exmouth Vision Group”: “access” deconstructed

In an earlier post Owl deconstructed the “Vision” of the purported “Exmouth Vision Group”:

https://eastdevonwatch.org/2017/01/06/the-exmouth-creative-group-vision-deconstructed/

Now let us turn to the second part of the document headed “Access”.

Actually, what Owl thinks it covers (and this is subjective) is MUCH more than access.

Broadly and in summary it sets a goal of replacing “low culture” with “high culture” and ensuring that those of “high culture” can cycle from their suburban homes to the seafront or from the seafront to pretty woodlands on their “sit up and beg” bikes during the day and enjoy a “scene” in the evenings!

Here are Owl’s thoughts on the deconstructed points

o How do we draw people into the town when there is a lack of parking?
Especially from the ‘suburbs’ of Exmouth who live on the surrounding hill which is too far away to walk to the town/seafront. If travelling by car, most will just go straight to Exeter.

What Owl thinks most surprising about this point is that this group thinks it can solve the problems of a spread-out, city-commuter town all on its own – which no group anywhere seems to have cracked! IF they could crack it IN A SUSTAINABLE AND INEXPENSIVE WAY they will be in great demand – and might have to move from Exmouth!

o Join together the town, seafront, train station and marina etc.
See above! Of course, what you need is a pedestrian/cycling route – but where will the money come from to build and maintain it? Or maybe a “land train” – though that is “low culture” (see below).

• Bring together the fragmented community groups.
Good luck on that one, guys when, if you exist at all (about which Owl has doubts) you don’t identify yourselves, meet in secret, and (possibly) meet in secret with someone or someones from EDDC!

• Exmouth’s culture is either ‘low end’ or just well hidden.
Which makes you wonder why these “creatives” choose to live in the town! This is highly insulting to Exmouthians, who by implication, appear to be dismissed as largely low end “chavs”. Perhaps this group is just miffed it couldn’t afford to live in Budleigh Salterton (though maybe some do!).

• Create something for all of the age groups.
Yeah, pensioner polo or teenage carriage driving should up culture to the “high end”.

• There is little decent employment and opportunities within the town: the young are leaving the town due to lack of opportunities.
The young are leaving because, like lots of young people, they go to university, travel, meet new people and put down new roots elsewhere, often in vibrant cities – leaving Exmouth, perhaps, to “high end cultured” people and the low-end chavs!

• Exmouth is too small to have a close knit community; but too large to have a ‘scene’.
Oh, God, can you imagine a “scene” in Exmouth – with all those trainee Marines, chavs and cultured people! A concert hall, perhaps, or a polo field (or whatever they call them – see above).

Chukkas away!

There is no problem adding culture to the seaside – eg the art gallery at Margate):
https://www.turnercontemporary.org/

but equally you CAN add a funfair as at Southend:
http://adventureisland.co.uk/

They are NOT mutually exclusive. And the key is:

TOTAL COMMUNITY CONSULTATION and
LISTENING AND ACTING ON TOTAL COMMUNITY CONSULTATION

not consulting with one elitist group (WHICH INCLUDES VESTED-INTEREST DEVELOPERS) at the expense of everyone else.

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6 Jan 2017

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Accountability, EDBF, EDDC, Lobbying, Scrutiny, Sleaze, Spin

Dirty lobbying

We do it the other way around in East Devon – we gave a senior officer to a lobbying group viz former EDDC Economic Development Officer Nigel Harrison who was offered up as Secretary to the East Devon Business Forum (a group of local developers under the Chairmanship of disgraced ex-Tory councillor Graham Brown) AND EDDC paid all its expenses!

“Whitehall’s lobbying tsar has launched an inquiry into concerns that informal parliamentary groups set up by MPs and peers are being used to bypass lobbying rules.

Alison White, the registrar of consultant lobbyists, has interviewed officials from all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) after receiving reports that lobbyists are acting as secretaries to gain access to legislators.

The inquiry comes after a growth in the number of APPGs, which are allowed use of the Palace of Westminster’s catering facilities and can invite senior ministers and civil servants for meetings with donors.

There are more than 550 APPGs, which exist to help MPs and peers discuss major issues of the day, according to the parliamentary register. The groups have received more than £5.4m in external funding since the beginning of 2015. …

…Private firms and individuals can sponsor APPGs to help pay for “secretariat services”, trips abroad or reports. Any APPG is allowed to include a secretariat from an outside body, and it is this position that can be easily abused, according to White.

There are more than 200 people or organisations listed as secretariats for APPGs who are not registered on the register of consultant lobbyists, which requires that meetings with ministers or permanent secretaries be disclosed. White believes some APPG secretariats may be breaking this rule. White is planning to issue advice to all organisations that offer specialist services to APPGs later this month.” …

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/06/lobbying-inquiry-registrar-parliamentary-secretaries

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6 Jan 2017

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Art and Culture, EDDC, Exmouth, Exmouth Creative Group, Philip Skinner, Regeneration

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The “Exmouth Creative Group” vision deconstructed

The existence of the group was first mooted here:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2017/01/04/exmouth-regeneration-board-chief-threatens-to-ignore-key-community-group/

and later further (unverified) information was offered here along with its terms of reference:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2017/01/06/exmouth-creative-group-and-eddc-curioser-and-curioser/

So, let’s look at its “creative vision” point by point:

“the creative vision” must:

• Put Exmouth on the map
This is an utterly useless point. Whatever anyone does on the seafront they will claim that it has put Exmouth ” on the map” – i.e. made it more popular, though, of corse, Exmouth appears on maps already!

• Be unique but ‘true’
Yet again an utterly useless point. It would be the only one in Exmouth, so unique. And, if it wasn’t true, it would be untrue!

• Be high quality, intelligent and cultural
Jesus – how arty pretentious!

• Not be a ‘one off’ attraction but be something that encourages repeat visits
So, just like the Seaton Visitor Centre then – ah, we seem to be getting somewhere now!

• Be of value to the local population and attract visitors all year round
Yep, another Visitor Centre!

• Financially and ‘footfall’ viable and sustainable
Most definitely a Visitor Centre!

• Main target audience is ‘National Trust’ but also can’t ignore the youth?
A visitor centre with a skateboard park? Or linked to a “key stage for school trips with bored teenagers? Or next to a watersports centre?

• Be appropriate to Exmouth’s history
And the opposite of this is – to be inappropriate to Exmouth’s history – duh. And, yes, it definitely sounds like a visitor centre! But, of course, an upmarket, trendy, creative visitor centre.

• Enhance our natural assets (ANOB, SSSI estuary, Jurassic Coast, sea front)
A visitor centre! (And it’s AONB by the way).

• Be low impact so it doesn’t detract from the natural environment and maintain the ‘open’ feel of the town and seafront
EVERY tourist attraction these days must make these claims to be “right on” or whatever the current “creative” phrase is these days (is “wicked, bro” already passe?)

• Inspire a wider vision for Exmouth and other developments
Translation: it must make money and be linked to other things that make money – a visitor centre next to a bowling alley or a watersports centre for example?

• Turn ‘locals’ into advocates and inspire them to contribute to the vision
It must have a coffee shop and/or restaurant facing the sea and should be staffed mostly by unpaid local volunteers – just like Seaton!

• Bring employment to the town
Four cheap apprentices, a newly qualified cook and a highly paid manager, plus free volunteers.

• Encourage year round ‘holiday’ trade
Open 365 days a year – with just volunteers in quiet times.

• It must be achievable and sustainable
Cheap.

• Involve local craftspeople
Have a little area in the gift shop for local wares.

• Create a ‘culture’ in Exmouth
Er, pass! Though it is rather arrogant to assume that without this group there is no ‘culture’.