More on the impact of austerity with more to come as the PM considers tax cuts. – Owl

More money is needed to help Devon develop innovative ways of reshaping its adult social care services as the department targets £30 million of spending cuts.

Bradley Gerrard, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

Devon’s adult social care lead, Councillor James McInnes (Conservative, Hatherleigh & Chagford) said he had told a Westminster cabinet member this week that “things need to change” if councils are to be given the time and resources to develop adult social care services to respond to increased and changing demand.

The budget, health and adult care scrutiny committee heard this week that Devon relies too much on expensive and resource-intensive bed-based and residential care, and that it is trying to help people achieve greater autonomy through in-home care and technology.

Council officers acknowledged they had been behind in terms of reviewing the services that individuals receive, noting that care packages are often set up at a time of crisis, but that assistance could be reduced if patient recovery is monitored more regularly.

Some speakers suggested the council might be offering too many services to too many people, and that better case-by-case reviews could help it distribute its resources better.

Cllr McInnes was speaking as the proposed budget for the 2024/25 financial year, which begins in April, showed the authority expects to spend more than £360 million on integrated adult social care.

Increased demand and rises in the national living wage have pushed the department’s costs up by £50 million.

About £30 million in potential savings, cuts and additional income have been identified to mitigate that. However, this still means that adult social care is costing the county £20 million more than it did this financial year.

Cllr McInnes urged central government to reconsider its approach to social care funding to help nurture innovation.

“I don’t think there’s enough money,” he said.

“Money isn’t the only answer, and it needs to be a dual approach as we need to innovate and change how we deliver services, but one thing I would plea for – and which I discussed with a national cabinet minister last week – is that for things to change and be innovated. We need the space, and the financial space, to do that.”

He said councils are battling year in, year out to balance budgets, and extra funding would provide allow councils to improve how they offer adult social care.

Council officers said an aging population, a rising number of people seeking help, also commonly with more complex requirements, and a rise in working age adults with mental health problems, were the key factors putting pressure on the service.

Devon’s rural geography adds a further challenge, they said.

Councillor Caroline Leaver (Liberal Democrat, Barnstaple South) felt the word ‘savings’ actually means real-terms cuts.

“I think it means there will be fewer services for the most vulnerable people, and I’m struck by the number of different savings specified,” she said.

“The question for me is what the savings or cuts mean in practice, and who the affected people will be and how many?”

Councillor Carol Whitton (Labour, St David’s & Haven Banks) didn’t have a problem with the department looking at ways to do things differently if it achieves better value for money and meets residents’ demands.

She told councillors: “Last year at this scrutiny meeting, we missed some of the lines that were in the budget about how individual users and groups were being impacted, and I think as a committee we should be given that information.”

She added there had been a “great deal of public concern” about changes in adult social care provision, and that this could have been mitigated before steps were taken.

Councillor Richard Scott (Conservative, Exmouth) said it is important to remember where the money comes from that pays for services.

“We never consider the person paying for it, we don’t look at council tax and how regressive it is as it generally impacts on people that have less,” he said.

“We are providing too much and not reviewing it quickly enough, and we need to understand why.”

Devon’s finance lead Angie Sinclair said spending on adult and children’s services represents almost 80 per cent of the council’s budget, but that moves had been made to curb the rise in spending in these departments.

“The increase 12 months ago in adult social care was nine per cent, and 18 per cent for children’s services, but we are working hard to pull that back and this year the rises are six per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, which is a significant improvement on last year,” she said.

“We are doing the best as a team to get the best value in terms of affordability and better outcomes as doing the right thing should cost us less.”

Devon’s chief executive Donna Manson added that better collaborative working with the NHS, as well as district councils, is playing a positive role in ensuring money is better spent.
 

More than 100,000 trees are being planted in north Devon as part of efforts to boost temperate or Celtic rainforests, some of the UK’s most magical but endangered environments.

Steven Morris www.theguardian.com 

The trees are being planted close to surviving pockets of rainforest at two spots close to the coast and one inland.

Among the trees that will be planted is the almost-extinct Devon whitebeam, which is only found in the English West Country and in Ireland. It can reproduce without fertilisation, creating seeds that are genetic copies of itself. Its edible fruit used to be sold at Devon markets as “sorb apples” – celebrated in the DH Lawrence poem Medlars and Sorb-Apples (“I love you, rotten,/Delicious rottenness.”)

Helped by volunteers, schoolchildren and community groups, the National Trust is hoping to establish 50 hectares (123 acres) of new rainforest across three sites. About 38,000 trees will be planted near the sea on Exmoor, 20,000 at Woolacombe and Hartland, and 50,000 inland at Arlington Court, near Barnstaple.

Temperate rainforests, also known as Atlantic rainforests, are characterised by their damp conditions, making them the perfect home for a unique variety of rare ferns, mosses, liverworts, lichens and wildlife including pine martens, pied flycatchers and stoats.

Over the centuries, the temperate rainforest, which used to run the length of the western seaboard of the UK, has deteriorated largely due to air pollution, invasive species, diseases such as ash dieback and general lack of care.

John Deakin, the head of trees and woodlands at the National Trust, said: “All that’s left are fragments, covering only 1% of Britain and limited to small patches in Devon, Cornwall, north and west Wales, Cumbria, the west of Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland.

“As a result, the rare specialist plants that depend on this habitat desperately cling to the remaining fragments for survival, with some of the woodlands we care for in north Devon containing nearly the entire global population of some of these species, such as the Devon whitebeam. Without urgent action, these unique plants could soon be facing extinction.

“We are working on expansion, rather than just preservation. This is important because the conditions many of these rare plants thrive in are not necessarily conducive to disturbance, which makes regeneration tricky. But, by planting on the edges of these existing woodlands, we can ease the pressure caused to the existing delicate vegetation and instead help the woodlands evolve outward.”

Bryony Wilde, project manager at Arlington Court, said: “Through this tree planting, we’re helping to create a living landscape where both nature and people can thrive. These trees will not only provide a habitat for wildlife but also fix carbon into the soil, purify air and water, and provide a place for people to enjoy.”

Devon is a good place to experience a temperate rainforest, with places like Wistman’s Wood on Dartmoor, an upland oakwood, cherished for its flora and enchanting feel.

Last year, Devon Wildlife Trust announced t it was planting a temperate rainforest in the south of the county, on the slopes above the River Dart.

The plight of the temperate rainforest has been highlighted by the writer and environmentalist Guy Shrubsole, who has been leading a project to map the surviving fragments.

According to the Sun and Daily Mail, Tory MPs are shaving their beards off because they have have been told it is a turn off to voters.

Sources have provided an image of what a Simon shorn might look like – and, no, it’s not deep fake AI!

Dear Reader, judge for yourself; but it doesn’t work for Owl.

With or without a beard he still looks like a well-fed Tory.

Will he do it?

Watch this face!

Richard Foord Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Defence)

In support of economic growth, Elizabeth Truss cut £235 million from Environment Agency budgets when she was at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Rather than bringing economic growth, that served to bring sewage growth: sewage discharge doubled between 2016 and 2021. I was delighted to hear yesterday that the Government will adopt my Water Quality Monitoring Bill, but will they also restore some of the cut Environment Agency funding to bring back powers as well as duties?

Kemi Badenoch Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government), Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), Minister for Women and Equalities, Secretary of State for Business and Trade, President of the Board of Trade, Minister for Women and Equalities

A spending review, where we can look at these things, will be coming up shortly, but I really have to challenge much of what the hon. Gentleman said. It is a misrepresentation to say that the issues going on with sewage are to do with the actions of my right hon. Friend Elizabeth Truss. This Government have been taking reforms through the Environment Act 2021 to improve the situation throughout multiple Governments, including the one in which his party, the Liberal Democrats, participated during the coalition. So it is very wrong to make that case.

Link to debate

Post Office bosses secretly decided in April 2014 to sack forensic accountants who had found bugs in their IT system, documents obtained by the BBC show.

The prime minister’s spokesperson, referring to the alleged plan to sack the forensic accountants, said: “We take those reports extremely seriously. It is right that we have an inquiry to look into this.”

By Andy Verity www.bbc.co.uk

They also reveal the government had knowledge of the decision, taken by a Post Office board sub-committee, codenamed “Project Sparrow”.

Former sub-postmaster Alan Bates said it was further proof of a “total cover-up”.

The Post Office said it would be inappropriate to comment.

Downing Street said it was taking the reports “extremely seriously”.

The independent forensic accountants Second Sight played a key role in exposing the scandal, finding flaws in the Horizon computer system which generated false evidence of cash shortfalls at sub-post offices, leading to wrongful prosecutions of sub-postmasters.

Post Office bosses kept insisting their systems were robust.

But they made a concession following pressure from MPs, offering to set up a mediation scheme to deal with what they said was a small number of cases.

The documents reveal the Post Office planned to pay a total of only £1m in “token payments”, or compensation, to sub-postmasters as it suppressed evidence of computer bugs in 2014.

But it was a vast underestimation of the eventual cost of the scandal, which is now expected to be more than £1bn.

Details of the Project Sparrow discussions were not disclosed in evidence to sub-postmasters as they challenged the Post Office through the courts in 2017-2019.

“It’s been a cover-up from start to finish,” said Alan Bates. “That’s coming out now. It’s undeniable.

“And this is what we’ve been up against all the way. We’ve always known they were covering up – it’s just been very difficult to find proof,” he added.

The secret plan to sack Second Sight is revealed in the minutes of two Project Sparrow meetings in April 2014.

The minutes were released in heavily redacted form in 2021 after former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells disclosed the existence of Project Sparrow.

Now the BBC has obtained the unredacted minutes, showing what the Post Office didn’t want the public to see.

Project Sparrow

The Project Sparrow sub-committee was led by Post Office chair Alice Perkins and included chief executive Paula Vennells, alongside the Post Office’s most senior internal lawyer, general counsel Chris Aujard, and Richard Callard, a senior civil servant at UK Government Investments, then a division of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

The unredacted minutes for 9 April 2014 show the sub-committee asking for a paper to be prepared on the role of Second Sight and “options to support them or reduce their role”.

Three weeks later, on 30 April 2014, they agree on a plan to bring the investigation of sub-postmasters’ cases “within the control of the Post Office”, removing Second Sight from its role of investigating sub-postmasters’ cases independently.

However, that decision was kept secret from Parliament and the public as the Post Office claimed Second Sight’s independent review supported its approach to sub-postmasters’ complaints. The Post Office was then seeking to defuse the scandal through a mediation scheme, which excluded many victims from compensation.

Bugs in the system

Nine months before the committee met, Second Sight submitted a report on 8 July 2013 identifying computer bugs that raised doubts over the reliability of Horizon data used to prosecute sub-postmasters.

A week later, on 15 July 2013, the Post Office was warned in formal advice written by its own lawyer Simon Clarke that it was in breach of its legal duties because sub-postmasters who had been prosecuted should have been told about the bugs.

The next day, 16 July 2013, the Post Office board expressed concern that Second Sight’s review exposed the business to claims of wrongful convictions.

Yet the Project Sparrow minutes from April 2014 show Paula Vennells, Alice Perkins and the other members discussed closing or speeding up the mediation scheme and planning to pay minimal compensation to sub-postmasters.

That followed advice from lawyers Linklaters that they had only “very limited liability in relation to financial redress”.

The minutes show the committee asking for a paper to brief them on making “token payments” to sub-postmasters applying to the mediation scheme, trumpeted in public at the time by ministers as a solution to sub-postmasters’ complaints.

“The cost of all cases in the scheme going to mediation would be in the region of £1m,” the unredacted minutes state.

Members of the committee knew sub-postmasters wouldn’t be happy and that there was a “real risk” that “many applicants will remain dissatisfied at the end of the process”.

On 30 April 2014, following advice from Chris Aujard, the committee decided not to make any “ex gratia” payments – meaning payments to struggling sub-postmasters to help them while their cases were examined.

They also asked for a paper to be prepared on options for closing or speeding up the mediation scheme.

Second Sight’s interim report in 2013 did say that it had found no systemic flaws in the Horizon system. But the word “systemic” had a specific meaning – that no flaws could be found in every single post office branch.

What the Post Office didn’t say was that it also made an unwelcome finding, identifying incidents where defects or bugs in the Horizon software “gave rise to 76 branches being affected by incorrect balances or transactions which took some time to identify and correct”.

On 17 December 2014, Jo Swinson, the former Liberal Democrat MP who served as Postal Affairs minister in the coalition government at the time, answered a parliamentary debate on the scandal. She pointed to the independent role of Second Sight.

The following year, in March 2015, as it prepared to submit its full report, 11 months after the decision had been taken, Second Sight’s contract was terminated and the Post Office brought investigation of the sub-postmasters’ cases in-house.

Lord Arbuthnot, a former MP and vocal critic of the handling of victims in this scandal told the BBC that the government has to take responsibility “for everything that went wrong” in relation to the sub-postmasters.

“It’s a distinctly corrupt, murky story that goes right the way into government and it’s deeply worrying,” he said.

The prime minister’s spokesperson said on Friday it was “right” that there was an inquiry ongoing and pointed out that the reports related to a previous administration.

“It is for the inquiry to establish culpability and to look at what lessons have to be learned. For the government’s part we are co-operating and supporting the inquiry fully,” the spokesperson added.

Alice Perkins and Paula Vennells didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Linklaters also did not comment.

Chris Aujard and Richard Callard said through public relations advisers that they would not comment while the inquiry was ongoing.

UK Government Investments declined to comment.

Jo Swinson said: “The latest revelations about the Project Sparrow meetings and decisions show the extent of the cover-up by Post Office Ltd – they were kept secret from Parliament and the public, and from ministers too.

“Not only did the Post Office directors, including the government official, choose not to tell ministers, they instead briefed the opposite. Repeatedly they told me that Post Office Ltd had never seen anything that would undermine any of their prosecutions, something that we now know is simply not true.”

A Post Office spokesperson said: “We never discuss individuals and it would be inappropriate to comment on allegations being made outside of the Inquiry, whose role it is to consider all of the evidence on the issues it is examining and independently reach conclusions.

“We fully share the Public Inquiry’s aims to get to the truth of what happened in the past and accountability.”

Untreated sewage from burst pipes in Exmouth has prompted calls to the Government to stop forcing scores of new builds in parts of East Devon amid fears of more leaks from on overloaded infrastructure.

Local Democracy Reporter eastdevonnews.co.uk

It is “plain stupid” for the Government to require more houses to be built in East Devon when the sewage system has “already failed”, writes local democracy reporter Will Goddard.

That’s the belief of Councillor Geoff Jung after recent sewage pipe bursts in Exmouth which have led to tankers being used to transport waste through the town and the Environment Agency advising against swimming in the sea.

Cllr Jung (Lib Dem, Woodbury and Lympstone) recently told the district council’s strategic planning committee that these incidents “clearly demonstrate systematic ongoing failures both from South West Water and the Environment Agency”.

He said: “In Exmouth since 11 December, the water firm has been dealing with various major pipe bursts in the town, which has led to untreated sewage being taken from Phear Park by a convoy of trucks to Maer Road’s sewage pumping station and only in the last few days directly to Maer Lane sewage works.

“Failures have occurred predominantly between the pumping station in Phear Park and Maer Lane sewage works, where a temporary overground bypass has been hastily constructed but only yesterday operational.

“It is clear from what we see locally that despite assurances, the increasing sewage capacity together with the increased surface water from climate change events show that the present sewage infrastructure is failing.”

He continued: “By [the Government]forcing us to build more housing we are actually increasing the number of connections, thus increasing capacity to an already failed system. That’s plain stupid.”

Cllr Brian Bailey (Conservative, Exmouth Littleham) went further, calling for an embargo on allowing new homes to be built in certain areas.

He said: “[South West Water] are strangers to the truth and what they say to us. I think that’s the politest way of putting it.

“I would like to propose that we have a building embargo, and we can do it. We’re the authority.

“No more building in and around Exmouth or Woodbury or Lympstone or Topsham because the sewage system is not up to it. Otherwise, we’re going to let more and more houses in and it’s going to get worse.”

A spokesperson for South West Water said: “We would like to thank local residents for their continued patience whilst essential repair works in Exmouth are carried out and we are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

“We have successfully finished installing the temporary pipe which will divert flows around the damaged section of sewer, so we can now turn our attention to making a full repair. This progress means we no longer need to use tankers.”

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “We take all pollution incidents extremely seriously and we are currently investigating the burst pipe that was initially reported to the Environment Agency on 30 December 2023. South West Water has now resolved the issue and their pumping station is back in operation.

“In response to the pollution, we issued advice against bathing via our Swimfo webpage and through social media and informed East Devon District Council. During the incident, we worked closely with the water company to minimise the impact on the environment.

“We are continuing to investigate and will consider taking appropriate enforcement action when we have all the information required. The Environment Agency is urging SWW to deliver on its promised investment in Exmouth to reduce sewage spills.”

A correspondent reports that a large section of the lime kiln car park in Budlleigh has been coned off and is being used  for sewage tankers queuing to “load up”. The tankers ply their trade along the Seafront Parade and act like a “Dyno Rod” through Budleigh’s notorious High Street. 

South West Water’s “What’s happening in your area?” web site, which claims to show everything from community visits, planned works and bigger engineering projects in any are, shows nothing at the time of posting.

[And below “Why do water companies use sewage tankers?” (Hint: they are not required to report tanker movements)]

Trucks full of sewage are blighting some of England’s most beloved national parks as water companies scramble to patch up holes in their infrastructure, i has learned.

Lucie Heath inews.co.uk

Residents of villages in the New Forest and Lake District said sewage tankers have become a regular presence on their streets, bringing noise and pollution to previously quaint hamlets.

Last week i reported growing concerns about water companies’ use of tankers to transport high volumes of sewage around their network, often due to infrastructure failures such as burst sewers. In some cases, more than 200 trucks were sent to towns to deal with major pollution incidents.

Locals said the tankers caused endless problems, including bad smells, increased traffic and noise. Now people living in the country’s most protected landscapes say they are being forced to contend with similar issues.

“There’s pollution. There’s a film of fuel that is coming out of the lorries. There’s sewage… there’s debris,” said Amanda Irwin, who lives in the village of Troutbeck, three miles north of Windermere in the Lake District.

The vehicles, she said, had “decimated” lanes in her village: “We’ve got massive craters in [the lanes] because of these huge lorries.”

About four years ago, the local water company United Utilities began regularly sending tankers to a pumping station in Calgarth, which is a 10-minute drive from Ms Irwin’s village.

The “juggernaut” trucks, she said, are being used by the company to relieve pressure on its pumping station nearly “every time it rains”.

In winter it means tankers are travelling past her home, and a local school, “almost every day”, including throughout the night.

“They come and they operate 24/7 so there are two or three of these huge lorries relaying between the pumping station and wherever they go.

“There was a big heavy spell of rain just before Christmas and we’ve had them nearly every day since then. We had about a week where it was dry and they stopped, but they’re back again.”

Local residents have complained about the issue to United Utilities, and claim they have been offered money or flowers as compensation.

“That was not what we wanted,” said Ms Irwin. “We wanted answers and we wanted to know what the long-term solution was going to be.”

She said the arrival of the tankers coincided with people in the local area becoming aware of how much raw sewage was being dumped into Lake Windermere – United Utilities dumped sewage for around 5,904 hours over a period of 246 days in 2022.

Water companies receive permits allowing them to discharge untreated waste into lakes and rivers during times of exceptional rainfall to prevent their network from becoming overwhelmed.

But firms have come under intense criticism in recent years as the public has become aware of how often this is happening. Water companies have been accused of a long-term failure to invest in their infrastructure to cope with pressures including population growth and climate change.

Raw sewage was discharged into England’s rivers, lakes and coastal water more than 384,000 times in 2022.

Matt Staniek, a conservationist and campaigner based in the Lake District, told i Calgarth is not the only location where United Utilities is using tankers to deal with capacity issues in its network when it rains.

“There are just tankers everywhere,” he said, speaking to i on a rainy day in January. “From me driving from Windermere to Ambleside, which is a 15-minute drive, I’ve seen seven tankers.”

Mr Staniek has tried to request data from United Utitlies under the Environment Information Regulations regarding their tanker operations, but has been repeatedly refused.

A spokesperson for United Utilities said the firm is using the tankers at Calgarth during periods of heavy rain to remove “excess water infiltration” from its network before it causes flooding or pollution. The sewage is then put back into the network somewhere nearby with more capacity.

They said United Utilities has already invested in relining pipework and has plans to install additional storage at Calgarth to alleviate the issue.

“In terms of storm water discharges, we are determined to play our part, improving our operations and their contribution to the overall health of Windermere. In the last five years we have halved the amount of phosphorus entering the lake from our operations,” the spokesperson said, adding that work will soon begin to reduce discharges from various treatment plants in the area.

Nearly 100 miles away from the Lake District, residents of villages on the eastern edge of the New Forest have also become used to the presence of sewage tankers on their streets.

“One of the features in recent months and years has been the fact that Southern Water’s infrastructure is failing on a regular basis,” David Harrison, a councillor representing Totton South and Marchwood, told i.

Mr Harrison said there has been “infrastructure breakdowns”, such as pumping station failures, about six times in the past six months.

“This carries with it the threat of pollution, but also it’s extremely costly because what happens is Southern Water employs fleets of tanker drivers to move the sewage from one area to another. I spoke to one of the tankers locally and he told me that it costs about £1,000 a day per vehicle.

“There are people who live on roads where these tankers line up and they see a dozen-odd tankers lining up and taking up road space. That can’t be the most attractive thing to have to live with.”

“We agree with our customers that any pollution event is unacceptable and we apologise when failures have occurred. To improve our performance, we are investing heavily in our wastewater treatment works in the New Forest, with £52m being spent across our Ashlett Creek, Slowhill Copse, Sway, Redlynch, Brockenhurst, Lyndhurst and Whiteparish sites.”

The Lake District and New Forest are not the only national parks that are battling a growing sewage crisis. Protected landscapes across the country are suffering due to the dumping of untreated waste into once pristine rivers and lakes.

An investigation by Greenpeace found that untreated sewage poured for more than 300,000 hours collectively into protected nature sites in 2022, with water bodies in nationals parks including the Lake District and Brecon Beacons among the worst hit.

This week the Campaign for National Parks wrote to political leaders urging them to prioritise stopping sewage pollution in protected lakes and rivers in their manifestos for the upcoming general election.

“In 2024, it’s a global disgrace that the UK treats its national parks like an open sewer,” the group’s chief executive, Dr Rose O’Neill, told i.

“It’s 75 years since national parks were founded in this country and the government and the water companies are squandering this legacy, failing in their legal duty to conserve and enhance the wildlife and natural beauty of national parks.

“That’s why we’ve written to all party leaders ahead of the election. They must take action now to save these most precious landscapes.”

Why do water companies use sewage tankers?

There are various reasons why a water company may use a tanker to transport sewage around its network. 

For example, it is common practise for firms to use trucks to transport “sludge”, which is a byproduct of the wastewater treatment process that can be turned into fertiliser for agriculture. Sludge is often transported from smaller treatment plants to larger ones that have the technology to treat it.

Companies also use tankers to deal with incidents such as burst pipes and pumping station failures, or to relieve pressure on its network when it is over capacity. 

As water companies are not required to report tanker movements, there is little data to understand how often tankers are being used and why. 

Some experts and campaigners believe the use of tankers may be increasing as a result of underinvestment in Britain’s sewer network. However, others say the use of tankers is part of standard practice. 

Dr Clive Dix, Chair UK’s vaccine taskforce, says all activities to prepare for next outbreak are ‘literally gone’ and vaccine manufacturers have been driven away.

The “Long Covid” legacy – Owl

Ian Sample www.theguardian.com 

The UK is less prepared for a pandemic than it was before the Covid crisis after driving away jab manufacturers and relying on a narrow range of shots, according to the country’s former vaccine chief.

Dr Clive Dix, who chaired the UK’s vaccine taskforce, told MPs on Wednesday there had been “a complete demise” of work to ensure the UK was better equipped with vaccines for the next pandemic, noting that all the activities were “literally gone”.

The vaccine taskforce is widely regarded as a rare highlight in Britain’s Covid response. It was led by the venture capitalist Kate Bingham and Dix, who took over as chair in December 2020, when Britain became the first country to roll out Covid jabs.

Speaking to the Commons science, innovation and technology committee, Dix said he and Bingham gave ministers a set of “strong recommendations” to make sure Britain was better prepared when the next pandemic hit, but these were not adopted or published. “[There were] activities already going on that were stopped,” he added.

Another big concern, Dix said, was the UK’s reliance on mRNA vaccines, the approach behind the Pfizer and Moderna Covid shots, to tackle future outbreaks. “That’s really scary,” he told the hearing. “The mRNA vaccines are not the be-all and end-all. They will only work if we know what the virus is and know the antigen,” he said, referring to the part of the virus that triggers the immune system.

Beyond failing to invest in a range of vaccine technologies, the UK also drove vaccine manufacturers away by treating them so poorly, Dix added, leaving the country in an even worse position than before Covid.

“What we’ve seen is a whole list of incompetent decisions,” Dix told MPs. “We have less resilience now because a lot of the manufacturers have walked away from the UK because of how badly they were treated at the tail end of the vaccine taskforce.”

He raised the case of Valneva, a French firm that mothballed a vaccine facility it had built in Scotland after the government cancelled its contract during final stage clinical trials. On scrapping the deal, former health secretary Sajid Javid said the UK would not have approved the vaccine, but the medicines regulator duly approved the shot. Dix called the comments “incompetence at the highest level”.

A statement read to the MPs from the Pandemic Sciences Institute at Oxford University echoed concerns about a lack of resilience, noting that Britain was not prepared for the recent mpox outbreak and “remains unprepared for an avian influenza outbreak”.

Prof Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, who gave evidence alongside Dix, said the danger was in preparing for a future pandemic exactly like Covid. While Covid vaccines took nearly a year to develop, they built on years of crucial research on coronaviruses. Work on dozens of other potential pandemic pathogens lagged far behind, he said.

“For me, we are really unsafe at this moment for future pandemic threats because we just don’t have that knowledge base that you need to even start the gun as we did in 2020,” he said. “And even then it took 11 months to have a vaccine.”

Campaigners in Okehampton are stepping up a fight to get inpatient beds back at the town’s hospital after fears its future could be hanging in the balance.

Alison Stephenson, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

It comes after plans by NHS Devon to return wards which have remained empty since 2017 to its property landlord NHS Property Services, saving £200,000 a year on rent.

NHS Devon, which is facing a £40 million deficit, wants to reduce spending on empty space, but the move has raised fears that hospital, said to be underused by health officials, could be further scaled down and closed.

As well as losing beds, the birthing centre has been closed for many years due, the NHS says, to a lack of midwives.

Representatives from Okehampton Hospital were among people protesting to save Devon hospitals at county hall this week, urging Devon County Council to put pressure on the NHS to recognise the importance of community facilities.

Cllr Jan Goffey of the North Dartmoor Health Initiative and an Okehampton Hamlets parish councillor has instigated a petition with fellow Liberal Democrats in West and Central Devon, asking the NHS to consider opening beds at Okehampton.

She said frail and elderly patients are being sent all over place to recuperate when they come out of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and is asking that Okehampton Hospital be considered as a special case because of its rurality.

“It takes five hours to get to Sidmouth and back by public transport and Tiverton is even longer. The stress that causes for an elderly spouse juggling bus times, train times and visiting hours, is immense.

“The wards at Okehampton need to be used but the rents are London prices and the costs to the NHS are ridiculous. We could have utilised the wards to assist the healthcare of our communities if the cost were more realistic to local funding.”

She said when the hospital was built in 2004, it had 36 community beds and a maternity unit and £250,000 raised for equipment by local people. Since then the population had increased from 6,000 to more than 9,000.

“We have a sizable population that is increasing all the time and this hospital could cater for many of their health needs. We have 50 clinics here but they are not promoted by the NHS. I know there have been assurances to some of the medical practitioners that the hospital is safe but I don’t believe it.

She added that a second medical practice, dental practice or children’s centre could be incorporated into the hospital if it was feasible economically.

Mark Wooding, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Central Devon said with hospital waiting lists at over seven million and bed-blocking an endemic problem it was hard to argue current policy against cottage hospitals is working.

NHS Devon says the ward at Okehampton closed in 2017 following a full public consultation.

It said the cost of bringing the beds back into use would be “significant”.

“Based on local discussions and our experience, we do not anticipate that local voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations would be able to take on the ward space,” it said.

Meanwhile, space in the rest of the hospital is “significantly under-utilised” and it would widen work with local partners to improve the use of space in the rest of the hospital to get better value.

Central Devon MP Mel Stride said: “I understand the concern to see the hospital used effectively and I continue to be in close discussions with the relevant parties.”

10 councils combine, but Plymouth stands alone.

A deal which will see Devon councils working together to access millions of pounds in government cash has been hailed as ‘a new chapter in an epic story’.

Guy Henderson, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

Levelling Up minister Jacob Young visited Paignton’s EPIC centre for high-tech innovation to rubber stamp a historic devolution deal which will bring together Devon County Council, Torbay Council and eight district councils.

More power will be given to what is called a ‘combined authority’ on issues such as adult education, local housing, net zero ambitions and training.

If the deal is approved after public consultation, only Plymouth City Council will sit outside the new body. The city was originally due to be part of the arrangement but pulled out, saying it felt it could retain more power by staying independent.

Torbay Council leader David Thomas (Con, Preston) said: “It’s fitting that we are here at the Epic Centre today, because we have an epic story to tell.

“In Torbay we have £100 million in investment secured already for the three towns, and today we are writing a new chapter in that epic story.

“We have a golden opportunity to conclude a deal that will lead to even more investment, more high-quality jobs, more training and more affordable homes all over Devon.”

And county council leader John Hart (Con, Bickleigh and Wembury) said the deal would encourage more people to invest in Devon, with jobs and homes for local people among the priorities.

He continued: “I’m sad that Plymouth isn’t with us, but we have still left an olive branch for them. We will keep the door open.”

The Devon and Torbay deal is the tenth set up by the government in the past two years.

Mr Young told an audience of local politicians and business leaders: “This is another important step forward in our national mission to level up economic growth opportunities and create a better quality of life for all.

“It means local and central government working hand in hand, giving local leaders who know and love this county best the money and power they need to unleash this area’s great potential.

“It is the start of a new era of greater prosperity for the people of Devon and Torbay.”

The public consultation begins next month.

Nearly one in three children are living in poverty in parts of Devon, as a new report reveals the poorest people would need to double their income just to escape extreme hardship. 

Annie Gouk www.devonlive.com 

The latest official figures show that a shocking 32.4 per cent of children in Torridge are living below the breadline – the highest rate in Devon. That compares to 23.9 per cent of children in the South Hams, which has the lowest rate in the county.

New analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reveals for the first time just how many thousands of pounds are needed by families to climb above the poverty line. For example, a couple with two children under 14 living in very deep poverty would need at least an extra £12,800 just to reach the breadline.

Very deep poverty is defined as a household income of less than 40 per cent of the average after housing costs – below £14,600 for a couple with two young children. And while the actual amount differs, every family from single parents to couples with no children living in this type of extreme hardship would essentially need to double their income to make ends meet.

The report warns that escaping hardship has also become much harder in the past two decades, with progress to eliminate poverty stalling since the Conservatives came to power in 2010. The number of people living in very deep poverty has increased from about 4.5 million in the mid-1990s to about six million in 2021/22, according to the latest official data.

The amount needed to escape very deep poverty has also increased significantly, rising by two-thirds compared to 1996/97. At that time, a couple with two primary-school aged children living in extreme poverty would have needed around £7,700 in today’s money to reach the breadline, compared to £12,800 in 2021/22.

Similarly, the average person in basic poverty has an income 29 per cent below the poverty line, with the gap up from 23 per cent in the mid-1990s. This is equivalent to a couple with two young children in poverty needing an additional £6,200 per year to reach the poverty line. In 1996/97 the gap was £3,300 after adjusting for inflation.

People are considered to be in poverty if they live in a household with income below 60 per cent of the average after housing costs for that year – below £21,900 for a couple with two children under 14, or less than £9,100 for a single adult with no kids.

Over one in five people in the UK (22 per cent) were in poverty in 2021/22 – 14.4 million people in total, including 8.1 million working-age adults, 4.2 million children and 2.1 million pensioners.

Paul Kissack, Group Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “It has been almost twenty years and six Prime Ministers since the last prolonged period of falling poverty in the UK. Instead, over the last two decades, we have seen poverty deepen, with more and more families falling further and further below the poverty line.

“Little wonder that the visceral signs of hardship and destitution are all around us – from rocketing use of foodbanks to growing numbers of homeless families. This is social failure at scale. It is a story of both moral and fiscal irresponsibility – an affront to the dignity of those living in hardship, while driving up pressures on public services like the NHS.

“It’s a story which can – and must – change. 2024 will be a year of choices, and any political party wishing to form a new Government must set out a practical and ambitious plan to turn back the tide on poverty in the UK. That plan – to ensure the dignity and respect of every member of our society – will be essential for achieving any broader ambitions for the country”.

As we approach a General Election, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation is calling on political parties to urgently address entrenched high levels of poverty by introducing an ‘Essentials Guarantee’ into Universal Credit, to ensure that everyone has a protected minimum amount of support to afford essentials like food and household bills.

A government spokesperson said it was supporting families with the cost of living, while absolute poverty had fallen since 2010. Absolute poverty is a tougher measure than the headline figure used by the JRF, which is defined as living in a household with income below 60 per cent of the median in 2010-11, adjusted for inflation.

The spokesperson said: “Children are five times less likely to experience poverty living in a household where all adults work, compared to those in workless households.

“That’s why we are investing billions breaking down barriers to work and supporting over 1 million low-income earners through our in-work progression offer – all while cutting taxes and curbing inflation so hard-working people have more money in their pocket.”

The government has updated insolvency laws for UK water companies to hedge against losses from potential state bailout funding.

Rhodri Morgan www.cityam.com

On 17th January, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) quietly updated its special administration regime (SAR) framework in a move that appears to protect government investments in water companies should they eventually become insolvent.

The procedure is secondary legislation, where a statutory instrument or document is published and is considered approved unless MPs table a motion in parliament to reject it within 40 days – a process known as negative procedure.

The update moves the government to the top of the priority order with regards to re-couping loans it has made to such a water company, leap-frogging other stakeholders who would be due money such as administrators and creditors.

DEFRA described the legislation as the “ultimate enforcement tool” with regards to monitoring performance of water companies in an accompanying explanatory note.

Colm Gibson, managing director at Berkeley Research Group, told City A.M. that investors should pay attention to the “increasing emphasis on using special administration for companies that perform poorly”.

“These changes make it harder for shareholders to mount a legal challenge if they disagree with the special administrator,” he added.

The changes are timely – Thames Water, the country’s largest water and sewage service provider, continues to struggle under a £18.3bn debt pile and recurring operational failures.

The most recent of these include the quadrupling of sewage spills in the last nine months of 2023 compared to the corresponding period in 2022, according to Thames Water data analysed by London’s City Hall.

New chief executive Andrew Weston said he was confident in the group’s ability to turn the ship around upon his appointment in December.

Nevertheless, these procedural changes cast greater wariness from Westminster over the company’s future prospects as major shareholders exit the company and warnings from both regulators and Westminster increase in frequency and severity.

A former water industry executive told City A.M. that while nationalisation doesn’t seem an immediate possibility, the government’s move shores up its coffers should bailout funds be needed.

“It’s a lesson from Bulb that it’s hard to get your money back, so they’ve changed the priority order” they said.

Former energy supplier Bulb entered into a special administration regime (SAR) after collapsing into administration in 2021 and the government footed a £3bn bill to protect the 1.5 million households affected and paid consultancy Teneo £49.9m as an advisor.

“I cannot imagine why the government would change the priority order here unless they had been asked by a water company to put money in.”

Defra and Thames Water have been contacted for comment.

“If to govern is to choose, then to campaign should be to present clear choices and trade-offs to the electorate. If the parties don’t do that clearly and honestly over the next year, we at IFS will do what we can to plug that gap.” Paul Johnson, Director IFS.

Larry Elliott www.theguardian.com 

Britain’s next government faces some of the toughest tax and spending choices for generations as it is forced to grapple with the impact of weak growth and high debt interest payments, a leading thinktank has said.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned that Jeremy Hunt’s much-predicted budget tax cuts risked being reversed or paid for by spending cuts, and urged the Conservative and Labour parties to “level” with voters before polling day.

Launching the IFS’s work programme for an expected autumn general election, the thinktank said the victorious party would have a “thorny” inheritance.

“Living standards have endured an unprecedentedly long stagnation. Taxes are at record levels for the UK (though remain low to middling by European standards). Public services are showing visible signs of strain and are, in many cases, performing less well than they were in 2010,” the report said.

Falling inflation and lower market interest rates have improved the short-term outlook for the public finances and provided Hunt with the scope for a giveaway package worth around £20bn. But the IFS said the chancellor needed to spell out what taxes would rise in the future or specify which services currently supplied by the state would be axed.

“Further tax rises and further cuts for most public services are built into current plans. But on official forecasts, this is only just enough to stabilise government debt as a fraction of national income,” the report said.

The thinktank said the challenges facing the next government were made more acute because a slow-growing economy would generate less in tax, and interest payments on the UK’s £2.7tn national debt would account for 9% of revenues on average across the next parliament.

Both the Conservatives and Labour have promised to reduce debt as a share of national income – which stands at just under 98% – but the IFS said this would be more difficult than at any time since the 1950s and would involve trade-offs. These included:

• A large cut to public investment over the rest of the decade, which would still fall even if Labour’s planned spending on its green prosperity plan was taken into account.
• Tough funding constraints, with concentration of spending on priority areas such as the NHS, schools and defence, implying cuts of £20bn in other unprotected departments.
• Plans by both parties to cut net migration to the UK had implications for the social care and higher education sectors, and neither party had talked about the higher care costs or the higher tuition fees for domestic students that would result from cutting numbers.
• Progress towards achieving net zero had involved picking most of the low-hanging fruit and the next steps – such as reducing emissions from buildings – would involve short-term costs on businesses and consumers.
• Spending on disability benefits was rising fast and required urgent attention, but previous efforts to rein in spending had struggled to achieve the stated objectives, while any general promises to cut spending would need to be accompanied by specific details as to who would lose out.

The IFS said that unlike wars and pandemics, the challenges facing an incoming government were predictable, but could not be dealt with by a government that ignored reality and the need to choose from competing options.

The thinktank’s director, Paul Johnson, said: “Now more than ever, as a country, we face some big decisions and trade-offs over what we want the state to do and how we’re going to pay for it. Those looking to form the next government should be honest about these trade-offs.

“If they are promising tax cuts, let’s hear where the spending cuts will fall. If they are going to raise, or even protect, spending, they should tell us where taxes will rise. Or parties might think that further increases in government debt are justified, in which case they should make the argument for why debt should be rising.

“If to govern is to choose, then to campaign should be to present clear choices and trade-offs to the electorate. If the parties don’t do that clearly and honestly over the next year, we at IFS will do what we can to plug that gap.”

Several “blue-sky” ideas have been put forward for how Exmouth could be given a facelift. Changes to the area around the railway station, the town and the seafront were suggested by consulting firm WSP at an East Devon District Council (EDDC) meeting this week.

Will Goddard www.devonlive.com 

An extended forecourt is proposed at the station, followed by a public space which could be used for events, as well as a children’s play area and visitor centre. A new leisure centre, theatre, GWRSA facility and multi-storey car park would also be built at the current Imperial Road short-stay car park.

The ideas are separate to Devon County Council ’s plans for the station area, which include new crossings and filling in the subway.

Heading into town, WSP suggests extending the public space along Church Street and introducing more foliage, and also creating a space alongside Tower Street Methodist Church to “reposition the town centre as a pedestrian-friendly place.”

At the seafront, the firm explains how Exmouth Pavilion could be turned into a sports facility to “complement the leisure centre,” with a new public space opposite in place of the Beach Gardens car park. “Sculptural stairs” towards the Ocean leisure complex could provide access to the beach and also provide seating.

The last of its proposals included a new “arts and culture hub” at Foxholes car park, a new multi-storey car park on Maer Road, and a pedestrianised Queen’s Drive towards Orcombe Point with “pods” for a variety of uses.

No car parking places would be lost, just “consolidated” and the concepts are not set in stone.

CGI of Exmouth’s Queen’s Drive ideas (WSP/ EDDC) (Image: WSP/ EDDC)

If all WSP’s ideas were to be implemented, it estimated the base cost could be just under £6 million between 2024 and 2026.

Cllr Olly Davey (Green, Exmouth Town) was impressed with the proposals, but says the public should be asked what they think.

He said: “I think it’s really important that we listen to local people as we go along.

“Unless we ensure that we take the people of Exmouth with us, we are going to get a lot of pushback.

“And it’s not always because people don’t like what we’re doing, but they resent the fact that they weren’t asked, they weren’t told, and they weren’t involved.

“So please let’s make sure that we really use meaningful consultation. We cannot run this and deliver it without the buy-in of the people of Exmouth.”

Cllr Geoff Jung (Lib Dem, Woodbury and Lympstone) said EDDC would need to think about sewage-related constraints.

CGI of Exmouth Esplanade ideas (WSP/ EDDC) (Image: WSP/ EDDC)

He said: “We need to work with the Environment Agency on the engineering and the climate resilience, and we need to work with South West Water with their infrastructure at the moment because South West Water pumping station is at Maer Road car park and there’s tanks underneath the car park, which we would have to consider when we’re putting a multi-storey car park there.

“We’ve also got sewage tanks underneath Imperial Road car park and again we’ll have to consider that. Having a car park and a sports hall above a sewage tank, there’s question marks there.

“We also need to work with [Devon County Council] highways because of their parking, the roads.

“It all forms part of a jigsaw. We’re well aware that South West Water are making big investments in Exmouth. And this project, a lot of these things will need to fit hand in hand with what they want to do.”

Richard Foord, MP for Tiverton & Honiton 

I have been a staunch advocate for older people in beautiful East Devon. This has included speaking up in Parliament for the Triple Lock on pensions, through to being a stickler for older people’s access to services through traditional means, such as high street bank branches, and railway ticket offices. Today, I would like to give up my column to younger people.

Last year Devon County Council spent just under £2million on all youth services across the county; an almost trivial sum in the context of their wider £1.7billion budget. A tiny fraction of this sum would make a huge difference to local volunteer groups that are supporting young people. I visited one such last week – Headlight, that does vital work in Axminster and Ottery St Mary.

Those of us who are adults now are merely custodians of our planet. Many of us seek to pass on to our children a world that is slightly better than the one we inherited. We Liberal Democrats seek to make policy decisions that look to the long term.

It is vital we ensure the voices of young people are heard. We should give them the opportunity to help shape our decision-making. That’s why the British Youth Council was established, and why the Youth Parliament plays a key role in giving a voice to young people across the country.

I learned recently that Devon will not be participating in the British Youth Council’s youth Parliament. I do understand the huge challenges facing local government finances, but I feel this decision to withdraw from the British Youth Council is wrong.

Last year, I was lucky enough to have one of Devon’s Youth Parliament members spend a week volunteering in my office. Emiko is passionate about ensuring young voices from rural and coastal communities are heard. She has used her time as an ‘MYP’ (Member of Youth Parliament) to encourage other young people to register to vote.

It was great to get to work with her. I am just sad that, as her term nears its end, there will not be another person like her taking up the mantle if Devon is to withdraw from the scheme.

Given climate change and the nature crisis, we need young people around the table now more than ever. We should seek to help them leave a great country to another generation who we may never see.

If we want to create thriving communities that remain attractive places for people to live, work, and start a family, then we must ensure we put our young people at the heart of our planning.

Thames Water must “get a grip” on river pollution, Sadiq Khan has said, after an analysis revealed the duration of sewage spills in London increased more than fourfold last year.

Adam Vaughan www.thetimes.co.uk /

“Frankly the current state of some of our rivers is appalling and only getting worse. Thames Water urgently need to up their game, and get a grip of the situation,” said the mayor of London.

Khan has invested considerable political capital in tackling air pollution, resisting pressure last summer for a U-turn on expanding the ultra low emissions zone. But this is the first time he has turned his focus on water pollution.

Data from Thames Water, analysed by City Hall, shows there were 6,590 hours of sewage spills in the last nine months of 2023, up from 1,420 hours for the same period in 2022. The figures only started being published in April 2022, preventing a full year comparison.

Between 25 and 31 December last year, sewage was dumped 18 hours a day on average, amid heavy rainfall.

Khan has written to Chris Weston, who was appointed chief executive of Thames Water last month, calling for more action. In the letter, he expressed his dismay at slow action on sewage spills into the River Wandle. Last year the river became the last in London to be downgraded from “good” ecological status, meaning close to its natural state, to “moderate”.

“I have many fond memories of walking alongside the Wandle with my family. As one of our few treasured chalk stream rivers, it is a truly precious asset, and I am deeply disappointed on behalf of Londoners that you have inherited an approach that is not prioritising its restoration,” Khan told Weston.

Storm overflows, which act as emergency valves on the sewer network, are designed to spill sewage into waterways during times of heavy rainfall. While 2022 was dry with a months-long drought in many parts of the country, 2023 was much wetter — July was the sixth wettest on record.

Thames Water, which has built a £4.5 billion “supersewer” under London that is expected to begin trial operations at the end of this year, noted it was still the only water firm to offer a real-time map of sewage spills into rivers. A spokesman said: “Taking action to improve the health of our rivers is a key focus for us and we are leading the way with our transparent approach to data.”

Khan also accused the government, which has a plan of effectively ending spills by 2050, of not doing enough to stop discharges of raw sewage. “Ministers are standing by and letting more and more dirty sewage flow into our rivers. We need tougher legislation that forces water companies to act as a matter of urgency,” he said.

However, the chief executives of ­England’s water companies were pressured this week over their record by Steve Barclay, the new environment secretary. At a meeting yesterday, he is understood to have told bosses he was “shocked and appalled” at what appears to be routine law-breaking due to pollution incidents in the water industry.

People in the room said Barclay made it clear that bonuses should not be paid to leaders of any companies where such illegality takes place. The Labour party this week reiterated its plan to ban bonuses at polluting firms, finding water bosses had taken £26 million in bonuses since the last election.

Meanwhile, England’s post-Brexit environment watchdog said the government may have broken the law through inaction on stopping farmers from polluting rivers.

In a ruling on a complaint by green groups ClientEarth and WWF, the Office for Environmental Protection said: “We believe Defra may have failed to comply with environmental law and, if it has, we consider that failure would be serious.” The complaint hinged on whether the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was sending enough inspectors to farms to check for breaches of water pollution rules.

A river in Lyme Regis is now closely monitored after tourists complained of a bad smell

“The government must [now] revise their guidelines and we hope this will help bring river pollution under control as soon as possible,” said Kyle Lischak, head of UK at ClientEarth, an environmental law charity.

A Defra spokesperson said: “We have set highly ambitious legally binding targets to reduce water pollution from agriculture, and just last year more than 4,000 farm inspections were carried out to ensure farmers comply with legal requirements.”

CULM Valley MP Richard Foord was celebrating on Wednesday (January 24) after winning his battle with the Government to stop water companies collecting and reporting on their own data on sewage discharges.

John Thorne www.wellington-today.co.uk 

Mr Foord, who represents parishes stretching from Hemyock to Holcombe Rogus, had campaigned against water companies being allowed to ‘mark their own homework’ on data showing whether or not they were illegally polluting rivers.

The responsibility for both collecting data on sewage discharges and reporting to Government on the data had been left with the private companies since 2009.

The ‘in-house’ data collection and assessment meant there was little oversight by Government or environmental regulators as to the ‘true’ scale of sewage discharges into watercourses.

Liberal Democrat Mr Foord tabled a Bill in Parliament last year which was expected to be debated next month and would make the Environment Agency legally responsible for checking data collected by water companies and offering its own assessment of the situation. [See www.midweekherald.co.uk December 2023]

Now, the Government has told the water companies the Environment Agency will be tasked with carrying out official inspections of its own.

The Government was also thought to be considering a ban on dividends being paid to water firm bosses if it was proven that illegal discharges were taking place. 

Mr Foord said: “I am delighted that Ministers have agreed to adopt my proposal, which ends the farce of water companies marking their own homework on sewage spills.

“Now, we need to see the Government go further and beef-up our regulators with the power to properly crack down on this negligence.

“These negligent firms have been allowed by the Government to get away with this for so long and it must be addressed.

“I will not stop fighting to ensure that Conservatives hear the anger from people across the Westcountry.”

Just papering over the cracks before the pre-election tax giveaway, beggaring the next government. – Owl

A £600m boost for local authorities will not fix the long-term funding issues faced by town halls up and down the country, a council group has said.

It warned that more funding will be required to meet the demand-led pressures councils are facing.

David Parsley inews.co.uk

Communities Secretary Michael Gove said he will raise the percentage by which councils’ core spending power increases each year, from 3 per cent to 4 per cent.

This boost to the Government’s funding guarantee amounts to a combined package of £600m and will increase councils’ core spending power up to £4.5bn in 2024-25.

The support package will primarily see an additional £500m added to the Social Care Grant to bolster budgets – a key concern raised by councils.

“We have listened to councils across England about the pressures they’re facing and have always stood ready to help those in need,” said Mr Gove.

“This additional £600m support package illustrates our commitment to local government. We are in their corner, and we support the incredible and often unsung work they do day-to-day to support people across the country.”

While council chiefs said the new emergency funding will help dozens of local authorities avoid falling into effective bankruptcy in the short-term, there remains concern over the longer-term financial issues that have resulted in budget cuts to many essential services.

“This increase in funding is welcome and will help councils in the short-term,” said Councillor Sir Stephen Houghton, chairman of the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities, which represents 47 urban councils.

“However, it won’t address the long-term funding gap or the need for reform of the broken local government finance model.”

Sir Stephen added: “This unprecedented increase before the final settlement shows that there is a growing understanding within the Government about the crisis in local government finances. These pressures have been well-documented for some time, so it is disappointing that the funding has only been announced at this late hour.

“More funding will be required to match the current level of demand-led pressures and stabilise the sector.”

The Local Government Association, which estimates councils in England face a £1.6bn funding gap in 2024-25, also believes the bailout will not be enough.

Its chair, Councillor Shaun Davies, said: “All councils will be using any positive additional money to reduce frontline service cuts but it will not be enough to cancel out these cuts completely or the council tax rises.”

The new funding deal follows calls from more than 40 Conservative MPs – including seven former cabinet members – for the Government to bail councils out ahead of this year’s expected general election.

Earlier this week, a group of more than 50 councils warned the Government they fear bankruptcy without emergency funding as many are spending almost half their budgets on emergency accommodation for homeless people.

There are also concerns that the additional funding will not be enough to solve the social care crisis.

Cathie Williams, joint chief executive of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the extra money was “much needed” and would be welcomed by people who receive and provide support.

But she added the scale of the pressures on budgets means more needs to be done to enable independence at home, support unpaid carers and address workforce shortages.

“We need to move from treating the symptoms to addressing the cause of the challenges we see in adult social care, like long waiting times and people missing out on care altogether,” said Ms Williams.

The local government finance settlement for next year includes a £64bn funding package.

The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said this was an average real terms increase of 6.5 per cent for councils.

Finance bosses at seven councils have issued at least one Section 114 notice since 2020, with three doing so last year.

The notices are an acknowledgment that the local authority cannot balance its books as required by law and lead to a freeze on non-essential spending on services.

Nottingham City Council became the latest authority to issue a Section 114 notice after forecasting a £23.4m budget deficit.

The county followed Birmingham City Council’s collapse in September.

As a result of the funding issues facing council across the country, households are expected to face large increases in council tax bills.

Local government sources have suggested that almost every council is likely to raise local taxes by 4.99 per cent, the largest increase permitted without seeking permission from the government for additional rises.

Earlier this month, Somerset Council warned that it will be forced to issue a Section 114 notice unless the Government permits it to increase council tax bills by 9.99 per cent.