“… More than 5,500 households with an annual income of over £80,000 have been given help-to-buy loans in the past year compared with 4,142 households earning less than £30,000, the government’s own figures have revealed. Well over 2,000 of the richest households who were awarded taxpayer-funded loans, allowing them to buy new-build houses with only a small deposit, had incomes in excess of £100,000. …”
Category Archives: Inequality
“Stark warning Cranbrook is at risk of becoming an ‘austerity town’ bereft of key services and facilities for residents”
“Cranbrook is in danger of becoming an ‘austerity town’ with its residents deprived of key services and facilities, it has been warned.
East Devon District Council (EDDC) experts say authorities are at the ‘point of no return’ when it comes to delivering vital amenities for the fast-growing community.
They have now called for a task force to be formed to rethink how the new town can secure the assets it needs.
Officers have recommended that the authority’s cabinet approves the setting up of a Strategic Delivery Board when it meets next month.
A report to members says: “The original vision for Cranbrook was as a freestanding new community which would be capable of supporting its own assets and services.
“In a constrained financial environment, there is a need to actively reinvent how these will be delivered on a sustainable basis.
“Without this, there is a significant risk that Cranbrook will become an austerity town, bereft of the facilities and services that the population both expect and demand.
“This paper identifies that the delivery of key assets in the town centre is at a critical stage and puts forward a proposal for charting a clear path forward to ensure their successful delivery.
“The proposed Strategic Delivery Board is considered to be the best means to ensuring the necessary coordination and oversight.”
Some 3,500 homes have been granted planning permission at Cranbrook to date – with 8,000 earmarked. The town’s ultimate population will be around 20,000 people.
Town council offices, a library, and a health and wellbeing hub have been in the pipeline since 2015, according to the report.
The latter would cater for children’s and youth centre, primary care and leisure centre provision.
“The delivery of assets and services in Cranbrook is fundamental to the successful achievement of the vision for the town,” adds the officer.
“We are rapidly approaching the point of no return.
“This should not be seen purely as an issue relating to built facilities.
“Rather, it goes to the heart of how public services are delivered in the town to meet the needs of a young, growing population, including those with particular needs, both now and in the future.”
The report details how Cranbrook is key to the district’s housing growth and EDDC’s finances – through both developer contributions and council tax.
The council raked in £8.8million in government New Homes Bonus cash in 2017 and 2018.
Cranbrook is being delivered through a ‘commercially-driven’ model – with no public sector control of land.
A Section106 agreement – developers’ cash contributions for infrastructure – plays a critical role in the delivery of community facilities.
“It has become clear that certain of the facilities that are set out in the agreement are either no longer fit for purpose,” says the officer.
“Ultimately, there has been no resolution as to what form key facilities should take and how they should be delivered. Nonetheless, we are now at a stage where critical trigger points are being reached.”
The aim of the proposed Strategic Delivery Board would be to ‘focus on the delivery of future assets and services for Cranbrook’.
It would ‘provide oversight and ensure that the three tiers of local government can speak with one voice’ and comprise of two members from the town, district and county councils.
EDDC’s cabinet will consider the report on September 4.”
EDDC Tory councillor has plan to take people out of poverty
Overview will discuss Councillor Mike Allen’s report:
” … The report proposes that the East Devon District Council should have two basic aims – no one in East Devon is destitute without immediate help, and nobody is in poverty for more than two years duration.
To achieve this, the council should try and boost incomes and reduce relative housing costs, work with partners to deliver an effective benefit system, deliver actions with Business and Public Sector to improve education standards, raise skills and improve work placements, strengthen families and communities to help those at risk of poverty and promote long-term economic growth to reduce dependency on agriculture, tourism and catering industries, the report says. …”
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/action-plan-proposed-help-tackle-3237472
Owl just more than a bit annoyed that his party’s austerity cuts caused most of these problems in the first place! And that now, pre-general election, there seems to be a magic money tree after all … maybe.
“Building more new homes WON’T solve Britain’s housing crisis”
“Britain’s soaring house prices and ‘broken housing market’ have long been put down to a chronic shortage of homes, but new evidence has emerged that building more homes is unlikely to bring prices down.
A paper written by Tony Blair Institute chief economist Ian Mulheirn argues that building 300,000 homes a year wouldn’t make homes in the UK more affordable. Nor, he says, would more homes mean that more people manage to get onto the housing ladder.
The paper, published today by the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence, suggests that 160 per cent of the growth in house prices since the late 1990s has had nothing to do with a shortage in housing supply. Instead, Mulheirn claims that rock bottom interest rates for more than a decade have made borrowing so cheap that those able to buy have ratcheted up their borrowing, causing prices to soar.
‘Building 300,000 houses per year will do very little to bring down house prices in Britain, and next to nothing to raise home ownership,’ he wrote.
‘The real culprit for sky-high house prices is low global interest rates that have made it easy for homeowners and investors to take on large amounts of mortgage debt and pay ever more for houses.’
The figure of 300,000 new homes needed a year has been largely undisputed for the past decade.
In 2004, Kate Barker wrote a landmark review on housing supply for the then Labour government, concluding that 245,000 new private-sector homes a year were needed, plus another 17,000 social housing units, to keep house price inflation down to 1.1 per cent annually. She later revised that number up to 300,000 homes a year.
But Mulheirn disagrees. He points to official data showing that since the 1996 nadir of house prices, the English housing stock has grown by 168,000 units per year on average, while growth in the number of households has averaged 147,000 per year. Even in London and the South East, the number of houses has grown faster than the household count.
As a result, while there were 660,000 more dwellings than households in England in 1996, this ‘surplus’ has since grown to over 1.1 million by 2018. Similar trends are also apparent in Scotland and Wales, suggested Mulheirn.
Nevertheless, UK house prices have spiralled from around 4.5 times median household income in 1996 to a multiple of around 8 today.
The most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics showed across Britain, prices rose 0.7 per cent in June to an average of £230,292 – up 0.9 per cent compared to June 2018.
Mulheirn argued cheap mortgage finance is to blame.
‘Since the late 1990s, mortgage rates have tumbled, with inflation-adjusted interest rates on five-year fixed-rate mortgages, for example, falling from 8 per cent to around 2 per cent today,’ he said. ‘Since mortgage interest rates tend to be the dominant element of the cost of capital for home owners, this change can be expected to precipitate a substantial increase in house prices of a similar magnitude to the 160 per cent increase seen since 1996.’
Meanwhile, he said, a shrinking social rented sector, cuts to housing benefit and slow wage growth among young people are making rented housing less affordable for many even as though private sector rents are stable.
He added: ‘Neither our ownership or rental affordability problems will be solved by hitting the 300,000 target.’
According to the paper a 1 per cent increase in the stock of houses tends to lead to a decline in rents and prices of between 1.5 per cent and 2 per cent, all else equal. This implies that even building 300,000 houses per year in England would only cut house prices by something in the order of 10 per cent over the course of 20 years. ‘This is an order of magnitude smaller than the price rises of recent decades,’ said Mulheirn.
‘If we are to create more affordable houses to buy and rent, the solutions lie elsewhere.’ …”
School meals – a no-deal Brexit casualty?
“Legal school meal nutrition standards may need to be amended, or discarded, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to internal local council planning documents seen by the BBC.
The standards are designed to make sure school children are fed healthy food.
Many councils say school meal costs will rise and funding for free school meals increase if there is no-deal.
The government said the food industry was “well versed at dealing with scenarios that can affect food supply.”
“We have a highly-resilient food supply chain and consumers in the UK have access to a range of sources of food. This will continue to be the case when we leave the EU.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted earlier on Monday that no-deal Brexit preparations are on track.
Some councils are anticipating they will not meet nutrition standards because of a rise in food prices and restriction of choice anticipated after a no-deal Brexit, particularly on fresh imports from Europe.
For example, North Ayrshire Council says it “might need to amend school nutrition standards”, in its internal Brexit planning document.
Local councils are legally obliged to provide high standard food to vulnerable users of public services and to manage the food supply challenges of leaving the EU without a deal.
Other councils, such as North Tyneside, report that “special dietary requirements may be difficult to meet” and that “if fresh produce is difficult to come by” schools should “increase use of tins and frozen goods”.
Many councils say that prices for school meals will rise, and central government funding for free school meals will have to increase.
Some also mention the possible use of food banks. Slough has contacted food banks in its area to check contingency plans for food shortages, and some Scottish councils have already increased funding for extra provision from food banks.
Bedford Council’s planning document from its internal Brexit planning team says care homes are “advised to hold four to six weeks supply of non-perishable foodstuffs”.
Hastings Council’s internal Brexit risk document even goes as far as saying: “There might be the need for rationing. The severity would depend on what was available and particularly the duration of any shortages.”
Insiders suggest this is a reference to the prevention of stockpiling, more than a return to wartime ration books.
The documents seen by the BBC date from the end of last year – up until last month – but predate the appointment of Boris Johnson as prime minister.
Most take at face value the government’s national assessment for March that there will be no impact of a no-deal Brexit on overall food supply, but there could be an impact on price and choice.
An October no-deal Brexit would come, however, at a time when the UK is particularly dependent on European imports for its fresh food, and when there is little to no excess warehousing space, unlike in March.
One catering industry veteran, Andy Jones, the chair of the Public Sector 100 Group of caterers, backed the councils: “Given a no-deal Brexit, they’re being very sensible. They’re being very cautious, and rightly so, we’re going into something that we don’t know about, we’re going to the unknown.
“If a no-deal Brexit happens, I feel that the supply chain long term will absolutely be under pressure. And that will affect the most vulnerable in society. …”
Workhouse Britain
Record number of patients admitted to hospital with malnutrition:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/17/record-number-patients-admitted-ae-malnutrition-amid-growing/
UK poverty of elderly worst in western Europe:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/18/elderly-poverty-risen-fivefold-since-80s-pensions?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Children so poor they eat toilet paper:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1166986/children-starving-free-school-meals-cut-eating-loo-paper-rubbish
Luxury retirement schemes to get luxury lending libraries
Meanwhile, in real life, libraries are closing all over the country.
“London book chain Foyles is to supply libraries to high-end retirement homes in a deal with a residential developer.
The partnership with Elysian Residences will launch at its development in Stanmore, north-west London, when it opens later this year, with a mix of biographies, travel writing, novels and specialist books selected by Foyles. Residents at the development, which aims to combine “UK development expertise with a US hospitality-led approach to care”, will be able to borrow from a collection maintained and refreshed every quarter by the book chain. Foyles is being paid a lump sum for the work.
“Libraries are an important cornerstone of a vibrant community, offering visitors a place of relaxation, learning and discovery,” said Elysian chief executive Gavin Stein. “We wanted to provide our residents with a relaxing reading environment curated with the latest high-quality books.”
The deal will also allow residents to order books, music and DVDs from Foyles via the Elysian concierge, as well as giving them access to Foyles’ foreign language books, classical and jazz music recordings. The Foyles libraries will then be rolled out across Elysian homes in London and the south east as they open.
This is the first time that the bookseller, founded by the Foyle family in 1903 and sold to Waterstones last year, has curated private libraries. It now hopes to find further such deals.
“This is a new and exciting venture for us, and we look forward to offering a service of the same high standard to which we hold each of our bookshops,” said general manager Stephen Clarke.”
“East Devon District Council gives out £223,000 in emergency housing payments”
The average house price in East Devon is £295,208 (Zoopla).
“Nearly 400 people struggling with their housing costs had to be helped out by East Devon District Council last year, to the tune of £223,400.
A spokeswoman for East Devon District Council said:
“We have helped around 287 customers who claimed housing benefit and 93 customers who were in receipt of Universal Credit housing costs.
“All awards were made to customers in difficulties, whether it was due to the benefit cap, removal of the spare room subsidy, LHA restrictions, in debt, struggling on a low income due to the welfare reforms, or a combination of those mentioned and other circumstances too.
“The awards have been to single people, couples, single parents, families, working-age or pensioners, with or without disability.
“Each customer’s circumstances are looked at on an individual basis.”
The amount spent on Discretionary Housing Payments in East Devon has increased by 23 per cent since they were introduced in 2013-14.
Last year the amount paid out exceeded the Government allocation of funding by £19,000, meaning East Devon had to use money from its benefits budget.
The chief executive of Shelter, Polly Neate, has criticised the system.
“Discretionary Housing Payments are vital in many cases and can be the difference between people losing their home or not, but they shouldn’t be a replacement for a fit-for-purpose welfare system,” she said.
“These payments shouldn’t be needed in the first place – they’re simply a quick fix to structural problems,” she said.
“To solve the underlying crisis for good, the Government must commit to building 3.1 million social homes in the next 20 years, as well as making sure housing benefit is enough to actually cover rents.”
A DWP spokeswoman said the Government spent £23 billion a year helping people in the UK with their housing costs.”
https://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/discretionary-housing-payments-in-east-devon-1-6212190
Appalling rates of child poverty in Devon
“One in eight children live in poverty in Devon – and one in three in parts of Barnstaple.
The startling figures are revealed as part of a new Devon County Council strategy to create “Healthy and Happy Communities” in the county.
The strategy aims to address health and wellbeing challenges that the county faces and to address the considerable inequalities in health and poverty.
It states that there have been recent increases in child poverty and more people are accessing emergency food supplies, and that one in eight children (12.5%) are in poverty.
However in the Forches area of Barnstaple, one in three children are in poverty, compared to just 1.1% of children in the Teignmouth Road area of Dawlish.
Fuel poverty rates also fluctuate dramatically, with 27.9% of people living in Mount Pleasant in Exeter facing it, compared to just 3.6% in Douglas Avenue in Exmouth.
Life expectancy in Ilfracombe Central is just 75 years, compared to 90 in Liverton. While in Sidwell Street in Exeter, 8.2 per cent of 16-64 year-olds have a long term health issue, compared to just 0.8 per cent in Widecombe-in-the-Moor.
About 800,000 people live in Devon.
A consultation on the draft Devon Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy for 2020 to 2025, runs until 5 September.
The final version of the strategy is due to go to the Health and Wellbeing Board in October for approval.”
We paid our 4 ex-Prime Ministers (now 5, and one ex-Deputy) more than half a million pounds last year
“Public money spent on supporting the offices of Britain’s five surviving former leaders has jumped by nearly 80 per cent in six years – despite the fact that many of them have gone on to become independently wealthy after leaving 10 Downing Street.
New figures show the costs of supporting the offices of ex-PMs Sir John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, as well as the former deputy PM Sir Nick Clegg, increased from £331,000 a year in 2013/14 – the first figures that are available – to £589,000 last year. …”
“More than 4m in UK are trapped in deep poverty, study finds”
“More than 4 million people in the UK are trapped in deep poverty, meaning their income is at least 50% below the official breadline, locking them into a weekly struggle to afford the most basic living essentials, an independent study has shown.
The Social Metrics Commission also said 7 million people, including 2.3 million children, were affected by what it termed persistent poverty, meaning that they were not only in poverty but had been for at least two of the previous three years.
Highlighting evidence of rising levels of hardship in recent years among children, larger families, lone parent households and pensioners, the commission urged the new prime minister, Boris Johnson, to take urgent action to tackle growing poverty.
The commission’s chair, Philippa Stroud, a Conservative peer, said there was a pressing need for a concerted approach to the problem. “It is time to look again at our approach to children, and to invest in our children as the future of our nation,” she said.
Campaigners said the commission showed austerity had undermined two decades of anti-poverty policy. “By cutting £40bn a year from our work and pensions budget through cuts and freezes to tax credits and benefits, the government has put progress into reverse,” said Alison Garnham, the chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group.
The commission’s membership is drawn from experts across the political spectrum, and includes representatives from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. It was set up in 2016 to develop a new way of measuring poverty.
It found that of 14.3 million in the UK in poverty, 4.5 million were in deep poverty – a third of all those on the breadline, and 7% of the population. In cash terms this means a couple with two children would have an income of less than £211 a week after housing costs, and a single parent with one child would be on less than £101.50 a week. …”
“Tally of £150,000 school academy bosses jumps by 20%”
“New concerns have been raised over the pay handed to academy school bosses after it emerged that almost 1,000 academy trusts paid a six-figure salary to at least one staff member last year.
A total of 988 trusts, the not-for-profit charities that oversee academy schools, had at least one person on £100,000 or more in 2017-18, with 146 paying £150,000 or more to at least one employee.
The proportion of trusts paying £150,000-plus salaries has risen by 20% in a year, with a 7.6% rise among those with at least one person above £100,000. The rise came despite an increase in the number of academy trusts in deficit, from 5.9 to 6.4%.
The official figures, released last week, will fuel criticisms of the government’s academies programme. There have already been rows over schools using their independence to pay big sums to senior management. It comes amid huge concern over the financial pressures on classrooms.
Academies are not part of nationally set pay structures so trusts are left free to set remuneration as they see fit. Most of the best-paid leaders in English schools are now trust chief executives, running groups of academies. Since last year ministers have written to 213 trusts with at least one person on £100,000 or more asking for justification. However, only 50 trusts had reduced remuneration.
Outside the academies system, it is relatively rare for a school leader to reach six figures. The top of the national pay range for headteachers, which applies to non-academy schools, was £116,738. This would be paid to a very small minority of leaders running large local authority secondary schools in London. …”
“Child poverty cash handed back to Europe unspent”
“More than £3.5m intended to alleviate child poverty and homelessness is at risk of being wasted because the government has failed to spend it, says a House of Lords committee.
Peers have written to the Home Office saying it is “extraordinary” that the EU funding has not been used.
They warn that some of the cash has already been forfeited and are worried about the rest being handed back.
The government said there had been “barriers” over spending the money.
But peers have written to complain that after almost six years, the government has failed to deliver spending aimed at addressing “the worst forms of poverty”.
About £580,000 of unspent cash has so far been taken back – and a further similar amount is at risk of being deducted at the end of the year. …”
Tory hopeful with 3 homes says he’s just an ordinary bloke …
“State schools choose ‘posh’ uniforms to exclude poor pupils, says MP”
“Some schools are deliberately pricing school uniforms beyond the means of poorer families so “only posh kids go there”, MPs have been told.
Emma Hardy, the Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, has written to the education secretary, Damian Hinds, asking him to tell schools to stop forcing parents to buy branded school uniforms.
She said that academies in particular were “emulating grammar schools and private schools” in prescribing prohibitively expensive uniforms – including branded blazers and even socks.
She had also been told that some academies deliberately chose expensive suppliers in order to put off parents of lesser means, and that some schools received a cut from suppliers given the exclusive contract for their uniforms.
“People have told me confidentially that schools get money from suppliers,” said Hardy. …
A survey from the Children’s Society last year found families were shelling out more on school uniforms with an average of £340 per year for each child at secondary school – an increase of 7% or £24 since 2015. Parents of primary school children spent on average £255, an increase of 2% since 2015.
The research found nearly one in six families said school uniform costs were to blame for them having to cut back on food and other basic essentials compared to one in seven in 2015.
In England, local authorities and academy trusts may choose to provide school clothing grants or to help with the cost of school clothing in cases of financial hardship.
In Wales, a Pupil Development Grant can provide £125 to buy school uniform, equipment, sports kit and kit for activities outside of school. In Scotland, parents may be able to get financial help with their child’s school clothing and shoes through a school clothing grant, available from local councils.”
Sick, elderly people ripped off – government pockets £31 million fine for it
“Standard Life Assurance Limited has just been fined £30,792,500 by city watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority.
What did they do to deserve it? Sold people the wrong pensions that would have seen them miss out on money every single year for the rest of their lives.
Worse, it was the people with health problems that were mis-sold.
Announcing the fine, the FCA’s Mark Steward said staffs were offered incentives to sell policies over the phone without checking they were suitable “which led to unfair outcomes for some customers”.
Significant numbers of staff received bonuses that doubled their salary for making these sales, which saw thousands of customers miss out on an average of more than £1,500 each as a result. …”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/city-firm-fined-31million-mis-18668642
How has Devon fared under Theresa May?
Badly – crime, education, homelessness and health and social care have all got much worse, only unemployment has improved with the gig econony and zero hours contracts:
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/how-devon-changed-under-theresa-3123246
Adult social care vastly underfunded in Devon
“A new report has found that Devon County Council to be one of the lowest spenders on adult social care.
Most adult social care spending in England is paid for by local councils.
The report, commissioned by the Salvation Army, examined nationwide social care spending of rural and urban councils and concluded that Devon was among the worst.
The charity calculated the “spending potential” for over-65s with a disability of every local council and unitary authority.
In Devon, the theoretical per person spending was approximately £6,900, a fraction of the £32,000 that Lambeth Council in London can spend.”
“Ministers pledge to end ‘poor doors’ in new build housing”
Owl says: What they won’t donis stop developers from siting (the very little) affordable housing in “ghetto blocks” on the worst parts of their developments (by main roads, poor views, etc) when the housing is supposed to be “mixed” so that doesn’t happen. Why? Because planners don’t check it is happening – turning blind eyes.
“Ministers have pledged to put an end to the use of so-called “poor doors” in housing developments in England.
The separate entrances for social housing tenants living in new builds “stigmatise” and divide them from private residents, the government said.
Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said he had been “appalled” by the examples of segregation he had seen.
Under the new measures, planning guidance is to be toughened in a bid to create more inclusive developments. …”
“Britain’s 600 aristocratic families have doubled their wealth in the last decade and are as ‘wealthy as at the height of Empire’ “
“Britain’s aristocrats have enjoyed a dramatic surge in their wealth in the last 30 years – and have seen their riches double in the last decade.
A hereditary title is now worth an average of more than £16m – nearly twice the value it stood at prior to the 2007 financial crisis, i can reveal.
Their fortunes contrast starkly with the decade experienced by the vast majority of Britons where overall productivity has stagnated and inflation-adjusted wages remain stuck at 2005 levels. Since the Thatcher era, the value of a hereditary title has also increased four-fold. …”
East Devon Watch 