The report referred to in the post below deserves attentive reading:
Category Archives: Accountability
Finally a way to publicly scrutinise Local Enterprise Partnerships and other quangos?
Owl says; But will the likes of Diviani (LEP) and Randall-Johnson (CCG) be in favour of more (or rather, any) scrutiny?
“Meg Hillier has told Public Finance that audit of local government spending needs to be more “transparent” for an increasingly “savvy” British public.
“I think the British public are much more savvy about things – they don’t trust the authority to spend things well,” she said to PF.
Since the Audit Commission was formally dissolved in 2015 “there isn’t the same level of transparency locally”, Hillier said.
Local authority finances “used to be well demonstrated,” she said, “so I think [making them more transparent again] is just something that we need to keep pushing on.”
Although she said it was “early days” and did not wish to say who she had been speaking to, she said she saw devolution as an opportunity to improve closer examination of how public money was spent.
“At metro mayor level or at a bigger regional level there is an opportunity for value for money audit and analysis because there are certain discreet pots of money coming down for very particular projects, so it’s easier to track it through from the day to day budget value for money,” she said.
Hillier was speaking to PF after the shadow communities secretary Andrew Gwynne told the Labour Party conference last month: “We will give local authorities public accounts committees to improve local government spending decisions.”
Local PACs was one of the Labour Party’s pledges in its 2015 manifesto so that “every pound spend by local bodies creates value for money for local taxpayers”.
Hillier said she was not able to give a clear view on what her vision for the extra layer of scrutiny of local government finances would be but did not believe local PACs were necessarily the answer as they would require “huge infrastructure”.
“I am not advocating we go out and set up lots of mini NAOs [National Audit Offices] – there is a bit of realism in this,” she added.
But Ed Hammond, director of Centre for Public Scrutiny, which has long been an advocate of local PACs, told PF that there is an “urgent need” for such bodies.
“Local PACs will be bodies led by elected councillors, empowered to follow the public pound across a local area, cutting across different organisations to get a real picture of the value for money of public services,” he suggested.
“In a world of increasingly complex decision making, and with greater pressure on finances, there is an urgent need for these bodies to give the public the assurance they need on the services they rely on.”
An Institute for Government report, out on Monday,
Click to access Accountability_modern_government_WEB.pdf
said that government should “review the case for setting up local Public Accounts Committees” to “provide new capacity to local government to scrutinise performance across the breadth of services offered in a region”.
These could initially be trialed in mayoral combined authorities, the IfG suggested.
Local PACs were discusssed in an IfG-led Twitter discussion on the report.
@ben_guerin
We also need to scrutinise links between local public services like health and social care: review case for setting up local PACs, initially in mayoral combined authorities #IfGaccountability
The Conservative mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority James Palmer believed there was already enough local authority financial scrutiny in place.
Although, he suggested if more fiscal devolution was handed down to metro mayors then “that of course must come with the necessary level of local governance and scrutiny”.
“Whether that comes in the form of a local public accounts committee is of course a discussion that would need to be had as part of further devolved powers.”
Northern metro mayors recently called for post-Brexit EU replacement funding to go straight to the regions, bypassing Whitehall.
Chief executive of the Localis think-tank Jonathan Werran recently wrote a blog for PF on the future of fiscal devolution – see here:
https://www.publicfinance.co.uk/opinion/2018/10/running-out-road-time-change
What can WE do to save our NHS?
“Greetings, KONP supporters in the South West!
Important information from Keep Our NHS Public on…
Integrated Care Providers
The Government likes to bury its plans to defund, break-up and privatise the NHS in jargon. KONP are producing a series of videos to help you understand what’s going on…
NHS England is consulting on the contract for a new model of health and social care provision that threatens the break-up of the NHS into units run by less accountable ‘Integrated Care Providers’ – or ‘ICPs’. Each of these ‘business units’ would control spend and rationing of healthcare for populations of up to 500,000. These huge contracts will be eminently open to the private sector to compete for.
The ICPs will deliver the dangerous new restructuring plans of government which could see fragments of the NHS managed by non-NHS, non-statutory and therefore less accountable bodies. They are the embodiment of government plans to disperse the NHS and its staff, drive down public funding, promote private contracts and put cost limits and profit before patient safety.
Integrated Care Provider contracts:
Dis-integrate the NHS;
Give control to non-NHS bodies potentially beyond scrutiny;
Threaten public accountability;
Hand over control to these non-NHS bodies for 10-15 years;
Manage multi-billion-pound contracts for blocks of 500,000 population;
Open the door to private companies winning these contracts.
Please watch the video above and share on social media to help spread the word about the Government’s deliberate and insidious privatisation plans.
You can also visit our website:
https://keepournhspublic.com/privatisation/icps-what-are-they/
and our Facebook Page:
for more information, videos and links.
For a written explanation of ICPs and what the represent for the NHS please read and share this briefing (broken link) by HCT co-chair and KONP campaigner Louise Irvine.
How can you help?
1. Along with our friends at We Own It
and Health Campaigns Together
https://www.healthcampaignstogether.com
we have created a petition
https://weownit.org.uk/ICP-petition-NHS
calling on the Government to;
a) Abandon the Integrated Care Provider contract model:
b) Guarantee that any Integrated Care Provider organisations will be statutory organisations i.e. NHS bodies, not private providers.
c) Focus health improvement efforts on pressing the government for:
o Sufficient funding and staffing for health and social care.
o Social care to be brought into public provision, free at point of use
o Legislation to end the failed NHS contracting system and to renationalise the NHS: the only sound basis for service integration.
SIGN THE PETITION
https://weownit.org.uk/ICP-petition-NHS
2. NHS England have launched a 12 week consultation on contracting arrangements for Integrated Care Providers. You can read the full consultation document here
Click to access integrated_care_providers_consultation_document.pdf
Please let them know what you think by submitting a response before the consultation closes on the 26 October. You can do this online. HCT have created a document of a sample response
in case you wish to take some guidance from KONP and HCTs position.
You can also see a comprehensive written response:
Click to access Consultation_response_PeterRoderick_FINAL_01Oct18_1_.pdf
to the proposed changes from the JR4NHS team who, along with the late Stephen Hawking, took Jeremy Hunt and ACOs to Judicial Review this year.
3. Share the KONP video, HCT and KONP briefing and the JR4NHS response to the NHSE consulation around your networks and on social media.
Sidford Business Park – Sidmouth Herald ignores hard work of independent councillors
“East Devon District Council (EDDC) announced the news today (Tuesday) that the site would be a ‘detriment to highway safety’ due to the increase of HGV traffic it would bring to inadequate road.
Therefore the controversial plans will not go before its development management committee, as previously expected.
Last week, more than 100 people attended a campaign meeting objecting to the proposed plans for 8,445sqm of employment floor space at the Two Bridges site. …”
Disgracefully, the newspaper then allows two councillors who played very little part in public protest (and one of whom allowed the hasty decision to include it in the Local Plan) and no mention or comment from Independent Councillors (particularly East Devon Alliance councillor Marianne Rixon) who have been constantly doing all the hard work and (at least in this article) none of the recognition.
Labour MP who voted NOT to investigate bullying to chair Commons Standards Committee because no-one else wanted the job
“A Labour MP who voted against a probe into allegations of bullying by Speaker John Bercow has been elected as chair of the Commons standards committee.
Kate Green was one of three MPs to oppose an inquiry by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards into claims against Mr Bercow, which he denies.
She was elected unopposed to the body after no other candidate came forward.” …
“A land banking scandal is controlling the future of British housing”
“How often have you heard private developers and their allies say they can’t build more homes because planning rules have created a shortage of land?
Kate Andrews of the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) summed up this view in The Daily Telegraph, saying: “There is only one way to solve the housing crisis and bring down the extortionate cost of homes: liberalise the planning system and build more houses. A bold but pragmatic policy would be to release greenbelt land – just a small fraction of which would be enough to build the million homes needed to address supply.”
A million more homes? That’s a tantalising prospect. So is there any basis for her argument that the only way to solve this problem is to liberalise (or deregulate) planning?
A little digging into the latest financial reports of the top 10 housebuilders reveals a very different story. Between them, they have a staggering 632,785 building plots on their books, of which more than half have planning permission. At the same time, these 10 companies reported building a total of just 79,704 homes – which means they have, on average, eight-years’ worth of plots in their land banks at the current rate of construction.
Among the top 10, there is a wide variation. At the upper end, Berkeley and Taylor Wimpey are hoarding 15 and 13 years’ worth of land respectively. At the lower end, McCarthy & Stone and Bellway have land banks equivalent to four years’ current output. The difference is mainly in what are known as the ‘strategic’ land banks – reserves that have not yet gained planning permission. All ten have ample land with consent, ranging from three to five years’ worth of output.
The top 10 builders accounted for about half of the 159,510 homes completed by the private sector in 2017.
It is often the case that the stories an industry feeds to the media are at odds with the trading information individual companies give shareholders via regulated stock market announcements. A classic example of this is car insurance where the industry body complained of an “epidemic of fraud” while the major providers told the market that claims volumes were falling.
In the case of housing, the market reports of the top 10 builders are brimming with confidence about future trading. You might expect Bellway, for example, to be feeling the pinch from a supposedly burdensome planning system because of its smaller-than-average land bank. But its trading update in August said that it had detailed planning permission on all its 2019 building plots and had increased land acquisition by 12 per cent to an annual level 30 per cent higher than its output. “The land market remains favourable and continues to provide attractive opportunities,” the company said.
The top 10 builders accounted for about half of the 159,510 homes completed by the private sector in 2017. So, what about the other players? Information is patchy because many are private companies, but random checks on those that are publicly listed suggest that smaller housebuilders also hold enough land to keep them going for years.
And then there are the companies that combine building homes with developing sites to sell on to other builders. The latest trading update from Inland Homes, for example, said that in the first six months of this year it has built 357 units and sold 837 plots to other housebuilders but still has 6,808 in its land bank – nearly six times as many as it built on or sold.
The pattern is clear: across the private housebuilding sector big land banks are the norm. If the top 10 companies – equating to half the market – are hoarding 600,000-plus plots, it is safe to assume that well over a million plots are in the land banks of the sector as a whole. Far from needing greenbelt land, the builders already have enough plots to deliver a step-change.
But will they? The IEA believes ‘markets’ solve economic and social problems, but the last 30 years have shown that is certainly not the case with housebuilding. When Margaret Thatcher slashed funding for council housing in the 1980s, the idea was that the private sector would fill the gap. But it didn’t happen: while the number of homes built by councils slumped from 110,170 in 1978 to 1,740 in 1996, private sector output stayed at much the same level as it was under Labour in the 1970s. With housing association output also virtually unchanged, total housebuilding has halved from more than 300,000 annually under Jim Callaghan to an average of 154,000 since 2010.
This situation suits housebuilders nicely. Constrained supply has helped push up the average price of a new house by 38 per cent since 2010, against an average of 30 per cent for all houses. And booming prices have in turn generated record-breaking profits and dividends. Taylor Wimpey, for example, cleared a £52,947 profit on each of the 6,497 houses it sold (at an average price of £295,000) in the first six months of 2018 and was able to promise shareholders that it would pay out £600m in dividends in 2019, a 20 per cent increase on 2018.
The government has responded to growing anger about land banks by setting up a review under Tory MP Oliver Letwin to “explain” why the “build-out rate” on land with planning permission is so slow. Letwin’s interim report has already admitted that housebuilders complete homes at a pace “designed to protect their profits”. His final report is due in time for the Autumn Budget, but don’t expect anything radical: he has made clear that his recommendations won’t “impair” the housebuilders.
Labour, meanwhile, has published a wide-ranging green paper promising “the biggest council housebuilding programme for over 30 years” delivering more than 100,000 “genuinely affordable” homes annually. To achieve this, Labour would use existing public land, such as sites owned by the NHS and the Ministry of Defence, and set up a Sovereign Land Trust to work with local authorities in England to help them acquire land at lower prices. Taking inspiration from the 1945 Labour government, it would also legislate to create another generation of new towns and garden cities.
Labour’s policy would, in effect, draw a line under the Thatcher era by restoring to the public sector the proactive role it played in providing housing prior to the 1980s. In doing so, it would limit the scope for the big housebuilders to hoover up nearly all the available sites and hoard them in order to drive up prices and profits. As for planning, far from being the cause of the housing crisis, it would be a means of solving it.
Steve Howell is a journalist and author of Game Changer, the story of Labour’s 2017 election campaign.”
West Midlands mayor must travel in luxury to help the homeless
“A Tory mayor has sparked outrage after spending £500 of taxpayers’ cash on a chauffeur to drive him to a meeting on homelessness.
West Midlands mayor Andy Street splashed the “obscene” sum on the “exclusive” service to take him and an aide to Heathrow Airport and back home again.
In his manifesto when he ran to become mayor, Mr Street insisted: “I want to keep the costs of the mayor’s office as low as possible.”
The lavish spending by the former John Lewis boss can be exposed by The Mirror after his travel costs were revealed under freedom of information laws.
Birmingham Labour MP Steve McCabe branded the chauffeur-driven journey “obscene”, adding: “The money would have been better spent on night shelters and soup kitchens here in the West Midlands.”
The number of people forced to sleep rough in the West Midlands has shot up since 2010.
In November 2017, Mr Street visited Helsinki, Finland, in November 2017 to see an approach to tackling homelessness called Housing First.
Invoices obtained under freedom of information laws show the one-day trip cost £2,216.88.
The cost included a bill for £530.40 to transport an aide from Birmingham and Mr Street from Westminster to Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport.
The chauffeur then drove the pair back from London to Birmingham at the end of the day.
The website of the chauffeur company, Chauffeured By Car, says it operates a “discreet, professional service” offering “first class luxury travel”.
It adds: “You can simply relax, leave all the worry about directions and traffic to us, and enjoy the journey. To Chauffeured By Car your journey is our passion and we are committed to providing you with a world-class service.”
Detailing the one-day Helsinki trip, documents from West Midlands Combined Authority say: “Housing and land use is a key priority for the West Midlands Combined Authority.
“As part of this one of the key areas the mayor is focusing on is homelessness and rough sleeping. This visit represented a fact finding and lessons learnt exercise on homelessness issues.”
Housing First is credited with making Finland the only European country to see a fall in long-term homelessness in recent years.
It has been successful at ending homelessness for at least eight out of 10 people in the scheme.
This is compared to hostel-based accommodation which has resulted in between 40% and 60% of users with complex needs leaving, or ejected, before their homelessness is resolved.
Mr Street claims the Helsinki trip helped him secure £9.6million in funding in May this year for the West Midlands to try to end the scandal of rough sleeping in the region.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-mayor-splashes-500-taxpayers-13421748
EDDC’s current external auditors face probe over Patisserie Valerie
“The auditor of crisis-hit cafe chain Patisserie Valerie is facing an investigation by the industry watchdog.
Work by Grant Thornton has been called into question after bosses at Patisserie discovered a £28.8million black hole in the accounts, an unpaid tax bill and two ‘secret’ overdrafts totalling nearly £10million.
The auditor has worked for the company since 2006 and most recently signed off the books for the year to September 30, which said the balance sheet was strong and contained no borrowing.
… The Serious Fraud Office is already understood to be investigating and last night the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) confirmed it was reviewing the situation.
An FRC spokesman said: ‘We are looking into this matter carefully and will give full consideration to further action as more facts become available.’
… overdrafts with HSBC and Barclays had been run up by the company totalling £9.7million but directors only learned of them on Tuesday.
Likewise, around £28.8million that had previously been in the bank was unaccounted for and they learned tax officials were seeking to have the company wound up over unpaid bills.
… Grant Thornton declined to comment last night.”
… Cliff Weight, director of investor group Sharesoc, said: ‘I find it absolutely extraordinary that a company with revenues of £114million could ever lose track of £20million.’
Second judicial review as a Development Management Committee defies first one!
Owl says: another “follow the money” situation?
“Folkestone & Hythe District Council faces its second judicial review in a year over a dispute concerning a proposed holiday park.
Local businessman Tim Steer was granted an application for the latest judicial review by Deputy High Court judge John Howell QC.
The case concerns an application to develop a 5.5 hectares site at Little Densole Farm, which is within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and locally designated as a special landscape area.
Planning and licensing committee members rejected officers’ advice and allowed the application last year, leading to Mr Steer successfully taking the council to judicial review.
When the application came before them again in July councillors again went against the officers’ recommendation and gave planing permission.
Judge Howell: “It is at least arguable that [the committee] failed to give any reasons for rejecting their officer’s appraisal that the development and associated landscaping proposed would not conserve the existing character of this part of the AONB…and that it would introduce alien and incongruous features that would permanently change the existing character of the landscape in that area.”
Mr Steer said: “Not for the first time the council will waste taxpayers’ money defending the blatantly questionable decisions of its planning and licensing committee, a committee which in my view is not fit for purpose and is unable to grasp or follow policy and legislation.
“It might appear to some that this particular committee simply follows its own agenda.”
He said the project would cause “permanent destruction” of the AONB.
Clive Goddard, chair of the planning and licensing committee, said: “Leave has been granted by the court to apply for judicial review in respect of Little Densole Farm. The council has nothing further to add and will be seeking legal advice.”
Folkestone & Hythe was known until last April as Shepway District Council.”
Virgin and Stagecoach: more pigs, more snouts, more troughs
“Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin and Sir Brian Souter’s Stagecoach shared a payout of over £52m just months before the companies pulled out of the East Coast line, forcing a £2bn government bail out, it has emerged.
Virgin and Stagecoach received the pay out for the West Coast mainline which runs the route connecting London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, and Glasgow.
Virgin Rail owns 51 per cent of the West Coast mainline, with the remainder held by Stagecoach.
‘No surprise’
Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald said Virgin Rail’s dividend increases came as “no surprise”.
“This is yet more evidence of a failing rail system which is costing taxpayers a fortune, lining the pockets of billionaires and making passengers feel like they’ve been mugged whenever they buy a ticket,” Mr McDonald told the Sunday Times.
“These vast payouts show exactly why we need to bring our railways back into public ownership.”
Virgin-Stagecoach bail out
The figures have come to light just four months after Virgin, run by Richard Branson and Stagecoach, run by Brian Souter, walked away from the East Coast main line franchise in June, three years into an eight-year deal.
The firms had agreed to pay the Government £3.3bn for the right to run the line, with the sum to be paid in instalments up until 2023.
Stagecoach had controlled 90 per cent of the franchise, compared to Virgin’s 10 per cent. Pulling out of the franchise early will allow Stagecoach and Virgin to avoid making Government payments of up to £2bn.
‘Virgin on the ridiculous’
One online critic described the situation as an “absolute laugh”, while another said: “They don’t even pretend not to be screwing over the taxpayers and the commuters anymore.
“Branson and chums make extortionate profits again while delivering nothing to rail users. It’s all Virgin on the ridiculous.”
Virgin Rail insisted its “industry-leading levels of customer satisfaction” warranted the dividends, with a spokeswoman pointing to company “innovations” such as automatic refunds for delays, free films and TV on board trains and mtickets (tickets you can buy and keep on your mobile phone).
“This drove a strong business performance which helped deliver a record payment to taxpayers,” the spokeswoman said.”
https://inews.co.uk/news/richard-branson-52m-virgin-rail-stagecoach-payout/
EDDC’s auditors (Grant Thornton) in the bad news spotlight again
“… In May, Patisserie Valerie said that it had £28.8m in cash reserves, while half-year profits were 14.2% up on the previous year at £11.1m.
On Thursday, the firm announced that its board had found “a material shortfall between the reported financial status and the current financial status of the business”.
Grant Thornton, which has audited the firm’s accounts since 2010, said it would not comment on Mr Johnson’s revelations to the Sunday Times.” …
Open spaces: to little and so very, very late
The Mail on Sunday today has launched a petition stop parks being sold off.
If only they had created it BEFORE the massive sell-off, instead of after.
But then Tory donor developers – who bought the parks – wouldn’t have liked it.
Pigs and troughs …. MP outside interests and payments: some snouts much deeper in the trough than others)
They get £75 – £150 for filling out Parliamentary surveys about what they think!!! Each one taking 30-60 minutes!!!
“Posh watches, football tickets and VIP trips – what your MPs get for free
Expensive gifts, football tickets, all-paid trips abroad, second salaries and fat dividends – all the perks and benefits enjoyed by your local MP.
Second jobs, cash for surveys and income from company shares, donors and second homes – these are just some of the ways your local MP makes extra money.
Plymouth, Devon and Cornwall’s political elite – in line with the rest of parliament – routinely lay out in full their financial affairs for all to see to maintain openness and transparency.
Some through their powerful connections, seniority and expertise gain more than others – whether that be a gift from a wealthy client, cash donations from the private sector, wages from another high-flying job or all-paid for trips abroad to promote UK affairs.
Those deep inside the inner Whitehall circle are REALLY pulling in the mega bucks.
Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson was recently thrown back in the spotlight after it was revealed he’s being paid £22,916.66 a month until July 2019 by the Daily Telegraph – an annual pay packet of £274,999 – to write articles.
Plymouth Live lifts the lid on the latest round of financial declarations, dated October 1, unveiled by Parliament.
Johnny Mercer – Plymouth Moor View [Conservative]
The Tory backbencher declared in parliament’s latest financial log he’s landed a second job earning £85,000 a year – in return for 20 hours work a month.
Ex soldier Johnny has taken up the role of non-executive director for military veterans support company Crucial Academy Ltd.
That’s on top of his paycheck as a member of parliament – £77,379 – taking his total annual earnings to £162,379.
Mr Mercer, who employs his wife Felicity Cornelius-Mercer as his Principal Secretary, has also publicly declared he was paid £300 by the BBC in March this year for a three-hour appearance at the BBC Free Thinking Festival.
He also had accommodation and travel funded by the Bahrain Embassy from April 5 to 9 this year so he could attend the opening of the UK/Bahrain Naval Base, meet with Government Ministers, as well as members of the Federal National Council and senior business figures in order to build on the ‘bilateral relationship’.
Luke Pollard – Plymouth Sutton and Devonport [Labour]
Mr Pollard – elected in the 2017 snap General Election – has declared he owns a house in Plymouth worth more than £100,000.
Gary Streeter – South West Devon [Conservative]
Mr Streeter, who employs his wife Janet Streeter as a part-time Junior Parliamentary Researcher, has made extra cash filling out online Government surveys.
The senior Tory politician also declared a £3,500 watch bought for him as a Christmas present from Plymouth millionaires Michael and Diane Hockin.
Mr Streeter’s cash for surveys
9 October 2017, received £150 for completing July and September 2017 parliamentary panel surveys. Hours: approx. 90 mins (45 mins each).
20 November 2017, received £75 for completing October 2017 parliamentary panel survey. Hours: 45 mins.
5 January 2018, received £100 for completing November 2017 parliamentary panel survey. Hours: approx. 45 mins.
5 February 2018, received £100 for completing January 2018 parliamentary panel survey. Hours: approx. 45 mins.
14 March 2018, received £75 for completing February 2018 parliamentary panel survey. Hours: approx. 45 mins.
19 April 2018, received £75 for completing March 2018 parliamentary panel survey. Hours: approx. 45 mins.
25 May 2018, received £75 for completing April 2018 parliamentary panel survey. Hours: approx. 45 mins.
29 June 2018, received £75 for completing May 2018 parliamentary panel survey. Hours: approx. 45 mins.
13 August 2018, received £75 for completing June 2018 parliamentary panel survey. Hours: approx. 45 mins.
Sarah Wollaston – Totnes [Conservative]
Ms Wollaston, Tory chair of the Liaison Committee and the Health Select Committee in the House of Commons, had no financial declarations to declare.
Anne Marie Morris – Newton Abbot – [Conservative]
The former lawyer owns two flats in London and a house in Surrey which generate income.
The Tory MP has a non-paid for position for marketing consultancy firm Manteion Ltd.
She is also a ‘non-practising’ member of the Law Society of England and Wales, the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.
Ms Marie Morris is also an unpaid director of the Small Business Bureau.
From March 2017, she became a non-paid director of the Genesis Initiative; a body that seeks to represent small business interests of European businesses.
Ben Bradshaw – Exeter [Labour] note: it does not say here that Mr Bradshaw donates all recent MP pay rises to charity
The Labour MP has made extra cash each month filling out ‘opinion’ surveys.
Mr Bradshaw is also a member of the Humboldt Advisory Board, at Humboldt University, in Berlin.
He wrote in his financial declaration: “Where possible, I attend annual Advisory Board meetings in Berlin, the costs of which are met by the university.”
Mr Bradshaw’s cash for surveys
Payment from ComRes, Coveham House, Downside Bridge Road, Cobham KT11 3EP, for opinion surveys:
12 June 2017, payment of £75. Hours: 30 mins.
22 August 2017, payment of £50. Hours: 30 mins.
22 September 2017, payment of £75. Hours: 30 mins.
29 September 2017, payment of £150. Hours: 1 hr.
17 November 2017, payment of £75. Hours: 30 mins.
14 March 2018, payment of £75. Hours: 30 mins
16 April 2018, payment of £75. Hours: 30 mins.
22 May 2018, payment of £75. Hours: 30 mins.
25 June 2018, payment of £75. Hours: 30 mins.
23 July 2018, payment of £75. Hours: 30 mins.
27 August 2018, payment of £75. Hours: 30 mins.
13 September 2018, payment of £100. Hours: 30 mins.
Geoffrey Cox QC – Torridge and West Devon
Geoffrey Cox has been MP for Torridge and West Devon since 2005 and is said to be the highest earning MP in the House of Commons, thanks to his other role as a barrister.
Mr Cox has declared hundreds of thousands of pounds in fees paid to him by solicitor firms in return for hundreds of hours worth of work over the last year.
He owns a cottage and farmland in West Devon and owns shares in an international law firm and a property company.
Geoffrey Cox’s vast legal fees
Payments from Messrs. Janes, solicitors. Address: 17 Waterloo Place, London SW17 4AR: 8 December 2017, received £24,750 for legal services provided between 1 September 2016 and 1 October 2017. Hours: 40 hrs approx.
31 December 2017, received £3,000 for legal services provided between 4 and 7 November 2017. Hours: 5 hrs approx.
31 January 2018, received £5,000 for legal services provided between 1 December 2017 and 31 January 2018. Hours: 8 hrs approx.
16 May 2018, received £4,500 plus VAT for legal services provided between 1 September 2017 and 31 May 2018. Hours: 9 hrs approx.
13 June 2018, received £5,750 plus VAT for legal services provided between 14 March and 22 May 2018. Hours: 10 hrs approx.
Payments from Messrs. Travers, Thorp, Alberga, Attorneys. Address: Harbour Place, 2nd Floor, PO Box 472, 103 South Church Street, Grand Cayman KY1 1106: 5 February 2018, received £40,000 for legal services provided between 1 September 2017 and 18 February 2018. Hours: 60 hrs approx.
Payments from Bachubhai Munim & Co Advocates & Solicitors, 312, Tulsiani Chambers, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021: 27 November 2017, received £85,387.50 for legal services provided between 14 February 2017 and 12 November 2017. Hours: 170 hrs approx.
31 July 2018, received £12,500 (no VAT) for work undertaken between 1 November 2017 and 30 June 2018. Hours: 25 hrs.
15 November 2017, received £3,333.33 from Registrar of Criminal Appeals, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A 2LL, for legal services provided between 1 January 2016 and 15 December 2016. Hours: 10 hrs approx.
Payments from Oracle Solicitors, 182-184 Edgware Road, London W2 2DS: 15 December 2017, received £119,733.33 for legal services provided between 1 July 2016 and 30 November 2017. Hours: 350 hrs approx.
15 May 2018, received £119,733.33 for legal services provided between 1 May 2016 and 30 April 2018 and continuing. Hours: 300 hrs approx.
31 August 2018, received £88,602.67 plus VAT for legal services provided between 1 March and 9 July 2018. Hours: 300 hrs.
Payments from LK Baltica Solicitors, 4th Floor, Kings Buildings, 16 Smith Square, London SW1P 3HQ: 14 March 2018, received £2,500 for legal services provided between 1 and 31 March 2018. Hours: 5 hrs approx.
13 April 2018, received £3,000 for legal services provided between 1 March and 30 April 2018. Hours: 5 hrs approx.
15 May 2018, received £6,737.50 for legal services provided between 1 February and 30 April 2018. Hours: 10 hrs approx.
16 July 2018, received £2,475 plus VAT for work undertaken between 1 April and 30 June 2018. Hours: 5 hrs.
Payments from Messrs Rainer Hughes, Oak House, 46 Crossway, Shenfield, CM15 8QY: 16 July 2018, received £1,000 plus VAT for work undertaken between 21 September and 12 December 2011. Hours: 2 hrs.
Mel Stride – Central Devon
Tory Paymaster General Mel Stride holds a stake of more than 15 per cent in Venture Marketing Group Ltd – described by parliamentary files as a ‘publisher, organiser of exhibitions and conferences.’
Peter Heaton-Jones – North Devon [Conservative]
Tory Mr Heaton-Jones’ only declaration is that he owns a house in Wiltshire worth more than £100,000.
Sir Hugo Swire – East Devon [Conservative]
Sir Hugo has had several ministerial roles, most recently as Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Since 2016, the senior politician has earned thousands every month in prominent positions outside Parliament and holds shares yielding tens of thousands of pounds in a honey firm.
He employs his wife Alexandra (Sasha) Swire, as Senior Researcher/Parliamentary Assistant.
Sir Hugo’s outside appointments and earnings – in his own words
From 9 November 2016 until 1 June 2018, Adviser to KIS France, a manufacturer of photo booths and mini labs. Address: 7 Rue Jean Pierre Timbaud, 38130 Echirolles, France. I was paid £3,000 every month for this role.
Hours: 8 hrs per month. I consulted ACoBA about this appointment.
From 15 November 2016, Deputy Chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council. Address: Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5HX. From 1 April 2018 I expect to be paid £2,083 every month until further notice. Hours: 10 hrs per month. I consulted ACoBA about this appointment.
16 November 2017, received £25,000 for acting as adviser to Apiro Real Estate Fund 1 Limited Partnership, 1 Connaught House, Mount Row, London SW1K 3RA. Hours: 10 hrs. I consulted ACoBA about this appointment.
From 18 June 2017 until 4 June 2018, non-executive director of ATG Airports, Newton Road, Lowton St Mary’s, Warrington WA3 2AP. From 5 February 2018, I was paid £2,500 every month for this role. Hours: approx. 4.5 hrs per month. Any additional payments are listed below. I consulted ACoBA about this appointment.
24 November 2017, received £10,086.72. Hours: 15 hrs.
From 19 March 2018 until further notice, Non-Executive Chairman of the British Honey Company, Unit 3 Vista Place, Coy Pond Business Park, Ingworth Road, Poole, Dorset, BH12 1JY. I will receive shares with a value of £50,000, in lieu of two years’ payment. Hours: expected to be about 5 hrs a month. I consulted ACoBA about this appointment.
Neil Parish – Tiverton and Honiton [Conservative]
Mr Parish declared he’d had all his expenses covered by the Conservative Friends of Israel to go on a ‘fact finding political delegation’ to Israel from April 8 to April 13 this year.
He wrote: “Estimate of the probable value (or amount of any donation): (1) Air travel, accommodation and hospitality for myself with a value of £2,500, plus airport transfer and hospitality for my spouse with a value of £600, total £3,100 (2) For my spouse and myself, bus travel and airport VIP service with a total value of £1,300.”
Mr Parish owns a family farm in Somerset and employs his wife Susan Parish, as Junior Secretary.
Sheryll Murray – South East Cornwall [Conservative]
Mrs Murray revealed she’d secured a Tory party donation from Looe Conservative Ladies Luncheon Club amounting to £2,776.91 in 2017.
Torpoint and District Unionist Club also pledged £3,000 that year.
Mrs Murray also declared she went on an all-paid expenses trip to Armenia from 21 September to 24 September last year to attend a ‘Progressivism and Conservatism conference’.
“Airfare and accommodation for me and member of staff with a value of £2,800,” she wrote.
All costs were covered by the Prosperous Armenia Party.
Scott Mann – North Cornwall [Conservative]
Scott Mann attended the Progressivism and Conservatism conference in Armenia in September last year, expenses to the tune of £2,800 covered by Prosperous Armenia Party.
George Eustice – Camborne and Redruth [Conservative]
Mr Eustice declared that he owns a one-bed flat in London.
Sarah Newton – Truro & Falmouth [Conservative]
Sarah Newton had no financial affairs to declare.
Steve Double – St Austell and Newquay [Conservative]
In January, Winchester-based tyre firm Micheldever Tyre Service gave Mr Double two tickets to a football match and threw in hospitality and hotel accommodation in a package worth £600.
The MP is also getting paid £18,990 to act as a policy advisor for Good Faith Partnership LLP in a nine-month contract finishing in December this year.
He also joined Tories on a ‘fact-finding political delegation’ to Israel in April this year – with all his expenses being covered by Conservative Friends of Israel and Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr Double’s affairs – in his words
Land and property portfolio: (i) value over £100,000 and/or (ii) giving rental income of over £10,000 a year
From 10 May 2018, a flat in St Austell, co-owned with my wife and inhabited by a family member
Shareholdings: over 15% of issued share capital
Bay Direct Media; a direct marketing company
Bay Mailing Services Ltd; a mailing house
Phoenix Corporate Gifts Ltd; a company selling branded merchandise
Family members employed and paid from parliamentary expenses
I employ my wife, Anne Double, as Principal Secretary.
Derek Thomas – St Ives [Conservative]
In 2017, the ex-property developer secured a £3,000 Tory party donation from Tresco island owner Robert Dorrien Smith.
Mr Thomas also secured £16,221 in sponsorship from Aventis Pharma Ltd for healthcare consultancy firm Incisive Health, to drive forward its Diabetes Think Tank initiative.
Since October last year, the MP has also jointly owned land, a house and a shop in West Cornwall with his wife.
Mr Thomas declared that since December 2015, he holds an interest ‘below registrable value’ in Mustard Seed Property Ltd, a community benefit society which provides housing in Cornwall for vulnerable people.”
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/mps-plymouth-salaries-benefits-parliament-2092453
Owl and the Say No Twitter page help out Stuart Hughes about Sidford Business Park
“Rather than attend the Say NO public meeting on Wednesday evening it appears Stuart preferred to hit the gym at some point. He was so proud of his achievements there that evening that he tweeted about it:
After that post, it appears that this was taken up on the Say NO Twitter page.
It now appears that Councillor Hughes has deleted this tweet!
Owl wonders why one would delete a Twitter post illustrating how fit one is – even if it does show where you were when a crucial public meeting was taking place on your patch. We all know how important it is to keep fit.
However, his absence is noted, especially as he was so vociferous about opposing it in 2015:
and taking into account its grubby history of which surely no Tory politician should be proud of and ought to want to put right:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2018/06/18/sidford-business-park-a-grubby-history/
It’s a good job that Owl and the Say No twitterati had the foresight to take a screen grab of the original tweet at the time – a great help if ever he wants to refer to a deleted tweet in future.
“‘I’m afraid a child will die’: life at the sharp end of council cuts”
…. A recent analysis by the charity Action for Children concluded that spending on early intervention services for children in England has dropped by 26% over the last four years. The number of children’s centres lost since 2010 is estimated to be as high as 1,000. As the prime minister promises “the end of austerity”, many of these changes look irreversible, not least because increasing numbers of councils are facing dire financial problems.
Precisely tracking what is happening across the country is all but impossible, but freedom of information requests lodged by Labour’s shadow minister for early years, the Yorkshire MP Tracy Brabin, give a strong sense of what is going on. In Reading, the last eight years have seen the number of people employed in SureStart work drop from 95 to 53. In Wirral, the number has dropped from 219 to 63; in Southampton, from 1,189 to 583.
The vast majority of Somerset’s GetSet workers are women. Many of them do not just provide direct family support, but also organise the open playgroups that often provide a first point of contact for troubled families. “My worst fear is that a child’s going to die,” says one worker. “
“Failure to halt rip-off drug deals costs the NHS £200m”
Owl says: Follow the (MPs involved in the pharmaceutical industry and Tory donors) money …
“The NHS is still overpaying for price-hiked drugs by hundreds of millions of pounds a year because the government has failed to use powers brought in to combat profiteering, The Times can reveal.
A Times investigation in 2016 exposed how several manufacturers had taken advantage of a loophole in NHS pricing rules to significantly increase the price of dozens of commonly prescribed drugs by up to 12,500 per cent. The government passed legislation in April last year to end the practice by giving the health secretary powers to impose a lower price for these generic drugs if taxpayers were being ripped off.
However, the government has failed to use these, with a Times analysis revealing that the NHS is continuing to spend more than £200 million a year on the extra costs created by the hikes.
Just 19 of the 70 drugs identified by this newspaper two years ago have undergone significant price reductions, amounting to about £150 million a year in savings to the NHS. The total extra cost of the price hikes across all 70 medicines was £370 million a year in 2016, meaning that at least £200 million is still being overspent annually. The figures are approximate because prescription data is not yet available for the second half of 2018.
The government has referred a number of cases to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which has opened at least nine investigations. These cases have been stalled after Pfizer and another drug company won an appeal against a record fine for increasing the price of an epilepsy treatment. The CMA is seeking permission to appeal against that verdict.
One company previously exposed by The Times, Atnahs, increased the price of seven medicines for which it was the sole UK manufacturer by up to 2,600 per cent. These included 50mg capsules of doxepin, an antidepressant, which rose from £5.71 and now costs £154 a packet. Atnahs was able to increase prices by dropping the brand name of the products, which were all out of patent, and relaunching them under generic names. Branded generics are subject to a profit cap but the NHS does not limit the price of unbranded generics. More than two years later, all seven medicines are at the same inflated prices.
Another firm, Concordia International, increased the cost of eye drops from £2.09 to £29.06 and has kept them at this level since 2016. An antidepressant which increased from £9.57 to £353.06 after being acquired by the company has risen further still in the past two years and now costs £386.53.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said that the overall spend on generic medicines went down compared to last year.”
A spokesman for Atnahs said the company’s pricing was “competitively benchmarked” and that it would adhere to any government guidance. Concordia International said it believed the generics system was working well and “the government may not see a need to use these prices controls”.
Case study
Melanie Woodcock, 47, credits the thyroid medication liothyronine with giving her a life. She used to take an alternative that left her “feeling sluggish, constant headaches, dizziness, nausea feeling all day, it even affected my vision, just a constant brain fog”.
“I wasn’t going out anywhere, I wasn’t living a life, I wasn’t going on holiday, I wasn’t doing anything because I didn’t have the energy,” she said.
When she first took liothyronine, a synthetic hormone known as T3, she said it “changed my whole outlook on life”. “I could think clearly I’d got a memory, my vision was better, I lost the achy joints,” she said. “No more living on Neurofen because I had headaches all the time and joint pain.”
Now doctors have stopped prescribing the drug after the price rose from 16p to £9.22 per tablet. The medicine only had one supplier for many years, but even though two companies have recently begun supplying it, the cost to the NHS has barely fallen.
Liothyronine is cheaply available in many European countries and after her prescription was stopped in July 2018, Ms Woodcock, a mother-of-two who lives in Banbury, Oxfordshire, turned to a “website that is aimed at bodybuilders for bulking up” which sells the drug at £31 a packet.
She said when she tried to go back to the alternative treatment, levothyroxine, she was hospitalised with violent illness and a headache so powerful she was unable to see.
Even the liothyronine she buys online has not solved the problem. “It’s not the same [as the NHS-prescribed version], I still feel sluggish, I still have a lack of energy. I’ve had to take several days off work.”
Ms Woodcock, who works in the security industry, said she couldn’t understand “how the government have allowed this to happen”.
Concordia International, which was previously the sole supplier of the medicine, said a high price was justified in order to guarantee a steady supply beause it was a niche product and difficult to manufacture.”
Source: The Times (pay wall)
“Call for a £60,000 pay rise for high court judges sparks anger”
“Senior judges could be awarded an annual pay rise of almost £60,000, a proposal which has sparked anger among other public sector workers.
A government-commissioned review has reportedly recommended that high court judges should receive a 32% salary hike due to claims of low morale within the judiciary.
The rise would see their pay jump from £181,500 a year to £240,000 – an increase of more than £1,100 a week – if the findings of the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) are accepted.
A combination of long hours and tax changes to pension schemes for high earners was said to have led to a recruitment crisis in the judiciary.
The Ministry of Justice confirmed Theresa May and the justice secretary, David Gauke, had received the SSRB’s report at the end of September. But officials said no decisions had been taken as to whether to accept its recommendations.
A ministry spokesman said: “The government values the work of our world-renowned judiciary, which is why we commissioned this review and are considering its recommendations. We will respond in due course. …”
“Universal Credit Charities ‘Banned From Criticising Esther McVey’ “
“Charities working with Universal Credit claimants have been “banned” from criticising Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey, the Times claims.
According to the newspaper, at least 22 organisations – covering contracts worth £1.8 billion – have been required to sign clauses pledging not to damage the reputation of Work and Pensions Secretary and to instead “pay the utmost regard to [her] standing and reputation”.
They must “not do anything which may attract adverse publicity” to her, damage her reputation, or harm the public’s confidence in her, the paper said.
Officials at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) denied they were “gagging clauses” intended to prevent criticism of ministers or their policies, insisting they were just “standard procedure”.
However a spokesperson confirmed that the contracts did include references to ensure both parties “understand how to interact with each other and protect their best interests”.
A DWP spokesperson said: “It’s completely untrue to suggest that organisations are banned from criticising Universal Credit.
“As with all arrangements like this, they include a reference which enables both parties to understand how to interact with each other and protect their best interests.
“This is in place to safeguard any commercial sensitive information for both government and the organisation involved.”
The news comes one day after HuffPost UK reported 580,000 benefits claimants could lose out on payments in the next phase of the Universal Credit rollout.
The figures led to urgent demands for the government to halt Universal Credit, which has been besieged by criticism from both the Labour Party and disability and welfare charities.
So far this week, Universal Credit has also been criticised by Iain Duncan Smith, who said the benefits reform needs an additional £2bn to operate as planned, and former prime minister Sir John Major.
“If you have people who face that degree of loss, that is not something the majority of the British population would think of as fair, and if people think you have removed yourself from fairness then you are in deep political trouble,” he said.”
“Government passing on costs of services to public, says major study”
“Government is increasingly shifting the costs of public services on to citizens as the effects of austerity continue, a CIPFA-backed analysis out today has revealed.
Central government as well as local authorities are passing the costs of services, such as legal aid and garden waste collection, on to individuals, this year’s Performance Tracker from CIPFA and the Institute for Government think-tank has shown.
Rob Whiteman, chief executive of CIPFA, said: “Organisations have had no choice but to shift the costs on to individuals to be able to continue to provide vital services, such as adult social care. This will become increasingly common.”
Emily Andrews, associate director at the IfG, suggeted: “One way the government has tried to save money and avoid the need for tax increases is by asking members of the public to contribute more in other ways – from volunteers running libraries to people paying a greater share of the cost of defending themselves in court.”
The number of authorities charging for garden waste collection rose from 88 to 199 between 2010-11 and 2017-18, while the number offering free garden waste collection fell from 236 to 137, the report showed.
Cuts to legal aid, the report said, mean that more defendants now have to pay for their own defence or defend themselves in criminal trials.
Criminal legal aid spending fell by 32.1% in real terms between 2010-11 and 2017-18, from £1,175m to £891m in 2017-18.
The tracker report gave a ‘concern rating’ to a range of public services, saying those with the greatest issues were prisons, adult social care and neighbourhood services. [See table of concerns at the bottom of this story].
“There are clear signs that neither prisons nor adult social care can continue to operate at their current level of efficiency,” the report said.
“Any attempt to try to maintain or increase the level of output without increasing spending is likely to lead to a further deterioration in service quality.”
Prisons, despite getting more money from the 2016 Autumn budget, still received 16% less funding than in 2009-10, the tracker noted.
The report said that neighbourhood services – such as waste collection, food safety, road maintenance and libraries – have sustained the deepest spending cuts of all the services looked at.
It was “impossible to say whether local authorities can keep operating them at their current level of efficiency”.
Public satisfaction with neighbourhood services fell between September 2012 and June 2018, with satisfaction in waste collection dropping by 6%, libraries by 7% and road maintenance by 14%, according to the report.
Adult social care spending in England has fallen by 3% since 2009-10 “even though demographic change would suggest that demand is increasing,” the report said.
Police services have also been cut with net expenditure on police services in England and Wales falling by around 18% in real terms since 2009-10.
Whiteman said that if the government were to meet communities’ expectations for public services they must come up with a new sustainable funding model that would require “bolder, braver and perhaps politically-unpopular decisions”.
The tracker did find that public services had becoming more efficient since 2010, which was mainly due to the pay cap on annual public sector wage rises.
CIPFA and the IfG appealed to government to be open with the public about the challenges for public services going forward.
Gemma Tetlow, chief economist at the IfG, said: “The prime minister and chancellor must start making explicit the realities facing the country about what public services cost and how that money can be raised.
“They need to begin telling people clearly that they face a national choice.”
“NHS hospitals warn of lack of preparation for winter as figures reveal next year will be ‘tougher than ever’ “
“The NHS is set to face an “even tougher winter” than the record-breaking crisis it weathered less than 10 months ago, as hospital bosses warn of staff and funding shortages.
Despite the government claiming the health service was “better prepared than ever” last year, ambulance queues tripled, there were fewer beds available and doctors wrote to Theresa May warning of patients “dying prematurely” in corridors.
Hospital leaders said the major issues of workforce, funding and social care remain unresolved, and figures released on Thursday show how an unprecedented summer heatwave has left no time to tackle the significant backlog in operations.
Theresa May has pledged an extra £20bn for the NHS by 2023 but this will not start to plug gaps until April 2019.
Meanwhile, hospital heads told The Independent funds usually held in reserve to add capacity in winter were already used up, or useless because there was no one to work.”
East Devon Watch 