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Water bills to rise 40% to fix sewage pollution crisis

We  paid off the debt before privatisation.

We have paid ££££ millions subsequently.

Why have the water companies failed to invest?

We are being ripped off! – Owl

Water companies are drawing up plans to increase household bills by up to 40 per cent to pay for the cost of tackling the sewage crisis and the consequences of climate change.

Oliver Wright, Adam Vaughan www.thetimes.co.uk

In a move that has alarmed ministers, England’s privatised utilities said that they needed the extra money to meet strict pollution targets.

The rises are due to be announced next year and could result in annual bills increasing from an average of about £450 to £680, plus inflation, in parts of the country.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, is due to raise the matter at a meeting on Wednesday with the water regulator Ofwat. Water prices rose in April by up to 11 per cent in some areas.

Under a process being run by Ofwat, England’s water companies have been asked to submit investment plans by October to fulfil commitments to tackle pollution from sewage. These include improving storm overflows discharging in or near designated bathing spots and improving 75 per cent of overflows discharging to high-priority nature sites.

Public consultation documents seen by The Times show that, to pay for the work, most companies are asking the regulator to approve real-terms price increases of, on average, 25 per cent between 2025 and 2030.

Among the biggest rises are those being proposed by Southern Water, which in 2021 was fined a record £90 million for dumping raw sewage into rivers and coastal waters. It admitted almost 7,000 illegal discharges from 16 treatment works between 2010 and 2015, including several sites in the Southampton area.

It proposes to increase its charges to customers from £432 to a minimum of £677 by 2030, although it suggests the figure could be as high as £793. This, the company says, would allow it to invest an additional £4 billion.

South East Water, which has just imposed a hosepipe ban on two million homes in Kent and Sussex, is planning to increase its bills by as much as 39 per cent by 2030.

Thames Water is proposing rises of 20 per cent while Wessex Water wants to put up its prices by 30 per cent.

Ofwat will scrutinise the plans before deciding whether to approve them next year. The fear in government is that the final price rise could be announced around the time of the next election.

A government source said that Hunt wanted to use the meeting with Ofwat and other consumer regulators to “understand the issues going on in the industry”.

Hunt is also concerned about price rises in other regulated industries such as telecoms and energy, which ministers fear are fuelling inflation.

Water UK, which represents the sector, recently apologised for sewage spills and said that it would spend £10 billion between now and 2030 to curb discharges into rivers and seas. That proposal alone is expected to add about £12 a year to water bills by 2030, according to government estimates.

The Times Clean It Up campaign has been calling for greater investment to tackle water pollution, acknowledging that water bills may have to rise but that the neediest customers should be protected.

A cross-party group of peers said in March that bills would probably have to increase after being flat or falling in real terms for 15 years. The Lords industry and regulators committee said that Ofwat had failed to make water companies spend enough in the past decade, “choosing to keep bills low at the expense of investment”.

Mike Keil, senior director at the Consumer Council for Water, said that while investment was needed, nearly a quarter of households were struggling to pay their water bills during the cost of living crisis. “Customers support the need for investment in enhancing the environment and the resilience of our water and sewerage services but we know that could lead to some substantial bill rises,” he said.

“Investment on the scale being proposed must come with a strong safety net to protect households that cannot afford their bill.”

Katy Taylor, Southern Water’s chief customer officer, said the company shared “everyone’s concerns about rising payments” during a cost of living crisis. But she added: “Our region poses a unique and specific set of challenges, which require significant investment moving forward. Meanwhile, we continue to support customers who need help to pay their bills, with a minimum 45 per cent discount offered to around 125,000 households.”

A spokesman for Water UK said: “There is an urgent need for investment to transform our rivers and seas, radically reduce leakage and protect future water resources. While it is clear bills will need to rise, the exact level is not yet known.

“Increases would be distributed across several years to make this more manageable for customers, and industry will take action to ensure that those who are less well-off are protected as much as possible.”

Ofwat said that it could not comment before the companies submitted their plans in October.

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Ministers weigh contingency plan for collapse of Thames Water

On Tuesday, Sarah Bentley, its chief executive for the last three years, resigned with immediate effect, saying: “The foundations of the turnaround that we have laid position the company for future success to improve service for customers and environmental performance.”

Now:

The government has begun drawing up contingency plans for the collapse of Thames Water amid growing doubts in Whitehall about the ability of Britain’s biggest water company to service its £14bn debt-pile.

Mark Kleinman news.sky.com

Sky News has learnt that ministers and Ofwat, the industry regulator, have started to hold discussions about the possibility of placing Thames Water into a special administration regime (SAR) that would effectively take the company into temporary public ownership.

Such an insolvency process was used by the government when the energy supplier Bulb collapsed in 2021, sparking concerns that it could cost taxpayers billions of pounds.

Ultimately, the Bulb administration is likely to have cost the public purse a far smaller sum, but water industry ownership restrictions which prevent consolidation mean this figure could be dwarfed if Thames Water was to fail.

The talks within Whitehall, which involve the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Ofwat and the Treasury, remain at a preliminary stage and relate at the moment only to contingency plans which may not need to be activated.

Thames Water serves 15m customers across London and the south-east of England, and has come under intense pressure in recent years because of its poor record on leaks, sewage contamination, executive pay and shareholder dividends.

On Tuesday, Sarah Bentley, its chief executive for the last three years, resigned with immediate effect, saying: “The foundations of the turnaround that we have laid position the company for future success to improve service for customers and environmental performance.”

In March, however, Sky News revealed that Thames Water was facing crunch talks over its finances and had hired Rothschild, the investment bank, and the law firm Slaughter & May, to explore financing options for the company.

The Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday night that Thames Water was still trying to raise £1bn from shareholders and that AlixPartners had been drafted in to advise on the company’s operational turnaround plans.

One industry source said that regulators had also sought advice from restructuring experts in recent weeks, although their identity was unclear.

Taking Thames Water into temporary public ownership would inevitably fuel calls from critics of the privatised water industry to renationalise all of the country’s major water companies.

Thames Water is owned by a consortium of pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, many of which are understood to be sceptical about delivering additional funding.

Its largest shareholder is Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (Omers), a vast Canadian pension fund, which holds a stake of nearly 32%, according to Thames Water’s website.

Others include China Investment Corporation, the country’s sovereign wealth fund; the Universities Superannuation Scheme, the UK’s biggest private pension fund; and Infinity Investments, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Hermes, which manages the BT Group pension scheme, is also a shareholder.

Thames Water employs about 7,000 people, and serves nearly a quarter of Britain’s population.

Ms Bentley’s exit, which came soon after a row about her declaration that she had surrendered a controversial annual bonus, also reflects deeper divisions about how to address the mounting crisis at the company.

Earlier this year, she said she was “heartbroken” about the company’s historical failings, blaming “decades of underinvestment”.

Alastair Cochran and Cathryn Ross have been named joint interim chief executives as a search for Ms Bentley’s replacement is conducted.

Thames Water has been fined numerous times, and is facing a deluge of regulatory probes.

In 2021, it was hit with a £4m penalty for allowing untreated sewage to escape into a river and park, while in August 2021, it was ordered to pay £11m for overcharging thousands of customers.

The range of financing options available to Thames Water’s board – whose chairman, the former SSE chief Ian Marchant, is also due to step down imminently – appears to be limited.

Nearly £1.4bn of the company’s bonds mature by the end of next year, with Ofwat price controls meaning water companies have little scope to generate additional income.

In an investor update published last September, Ms Bentley said that “the difficult external environment has increased the challenge of our turnaround”.

A year ago, the company said it had agreed with shareholders the injection of £500m of new equity funding, with a further £1bn expected to be delivered by the end of next year.

The additional shareholder funding formed part of a £2bn expenditure increase, taking its total spending during the current five-year regulatory period to £11.6bn.

In its September announcement, Thames Water said shareholders had “further evidenced their support for [Thames Water] and its business plan through an Equity Support Letter where the shareholders have committed to hold investment committee meetings (for their respective institutions) as a path to obtaining approval (in the discretion of the investment committee) for funding their pro rata share of conditional commitments in respect of the further £1bn of additional equity which is assumed in TWUL’s business plan”.

“Whilst this is not a legal commitment to fund…the [Thames Water] board believes it is reasonable to incorporate this additional £1bn of equity funding in its assessment.”

The company has not paid a dividend to its owners for the last six years.

Thames Water is not the only major water company to face questions about its financial resilience and operational track record.

Ofwat has also been in talks with others, including Southern Water and Yorkshire Water, in recent years about strengthening balance sheets amid performance issues.

The financial collapse of Britain’s biggest water company, and its implications for the model of water ownership, would inevitably become a major political debating point in the run-up to the next general election.

Some critics of privatisation have demanded that the government consider mutual ownership structures, which would prohibit returns to shareholders and guarantee that profits would be reinvested in improving the sector’s dire performance, while upgrading water infrastructure assets.

In total, tens of billions of pounds have been handed to shareholders in water utilities across Britain since privatisation, stoking public and political anger given the industry’s frequent mishaps.

DEFRA, Ofwat and Thames Water were all contacted for comment on Tuesday evening.

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Jupp, PPS to Secretary of State for Transport, gets to  meet Rail Minister.  

Why did it take so long?

Simon Jupp, Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Transport since last November, gets to meet one of the ministerial members of the team! (And tries to impress his new constituency voters in Cullompton.)

“Just a word in your ear minister. (Oh, and can we have a photo op as well?)”.

In his latest weekly column he also claims to have successfully secured funding for a new school to replace Tipton St John Primary, £15.7 million from the Levelling Up Fund to reduce congestion in East Devon by building the Dinan Way extension, a new police station for Exmouth, reopening Honiton’s police station to the public, and multi-million-pound support for Exeter Airport during the pandemic.

Owl thinks Simon exaggerates his contribution to getting long overdue infrastructure funding in place and thought Alison Hernandez was claiming the credit for hiking our Council Tax to reverse austerity cuts in policing.

I met with the Rail Minister to discuss investment in trains in Devon

Simon Jupp www.midweekherald.co.uk

As your MP, I will continue to push for investment in local roads, railways, broadband, jobs and skills training.

Recently, I met with the Rail Minister, Huw Merriman MP, to discuss train services and investment in Devon.

The reopening of the Dartmoor Line is a major success. Passenger services have returned between Exeter and Okehampton for the first time in nearly 50 years thanks to the government’s Restoring Your Railway programme.

A new station at Marsh Barton will open on Tuesday 4th July. It will be served by hourly GWR services between Paignton and Exmouth, with additional trains at peak times.

I know Cullompton needs a railway station and I’ll continue to push for it at every opportunity. After a successful campaign by the former MP, Neil Parish, the government awarded funding for proposals to be drawn up and now Network Rail are leading the project. Beware of others who may try and claim the credit as the project develops thanks to the determination of the former MP and Conservative government.

I also provided feedback to the Rail Minister on services on the West of England and Avocet lines. Each week I use the train between Exeter and London Paddington or Waterloo. I experience first-hand the frustrations of passengers that I often hear about in my postbag concerning reliability and punctuality.

I visited Exton train station on the Avocet Line last year after concerns from the community about the inadequate shelter. I raised the complaints with GWR. Despite assurances scoping work for a new shelter would get a solution, no concrete progress is evident so I have raised this with GWR again.

Since I was elected in 2019, I have successfully secured funding for a new school to replace Tipton St John Primary, £15.7 million from the Levelling Up Fund to reduce congestion in East Devon by building the Dinan Way extension, a new police station for Exmouth, reopening Honiton’s police station to the public, and multi-million-pound support for Exeter Airport during the pandemic.

I have a proven track record and will continue to work hard for everyone I represent.

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Dog becomes ill after swimming at Maer Rocks in Exmouth

Are dogs on the beach the new “Canaries in the cage”? – Owl

One holidaymaker is demanding answers after her dog became ill after paddling in the sea around Maer Rocks in Exmouth. 

Spokesperson for the Environment Agency: “We had no pollution incidents recorded for Mear Rocks on June 11, nor for the two days before.”

Adam Manning www.exmouthjournal.co.uk

Diane Crestwell, her husband and dog Benji came to Exmouth on holiday on June 11.

They were enjoying the sunshine, and Benji decided to go for a dip in the sea.

He was in the water for about 20 minutes but became ill after getting out.

The dog had serious diarrhoea, and Diane had to stay outside with Benji as she didn’t want to bring Benji into their hotel.

Diane said: “The hotel staff were absolutely lovely, they could not do enough to help us and were sympathetic to Benji.” 

Diane consulted an Exmouth vet but decided to get Benji back home to see their local vet, about 300 miles away in West Yorkshire.  

She said: “We decided to just get Benji home at this point, it wasn’t nice travelling all that way with a dog with diarrhoea, as you can imagine.” 

After a few weeks, Benji has now recovered after being given various creams, steroids and a paste to go into his food.

Diane said: “Since then, I have been trying to get some answers to why Benji was so ill after being in the sea for such a short time.

“I contacted Exmouth Town Council, who told me to call East Devon District Council, who then told me to the Environment Agency, and I’ve still had no answers. 

“I contacted South West Water but haven’t heard back from them. I’m just so angry, his illness must have been from going into the sea at Maer Rocks.

“We took him to the vets before the holiday and he was healthy. It was as soon as he got into the water that he became ill so it must have been something there that disagreed with him. 

“I just want to make dog walkers aware that this happened to us and see if dog walkers or swimmers have had similar experiences. 

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “We’re sorry to hear about the dog being ill.

“However, we had no pollution incidents recorded for Mear Rocks on June 11, nor for the two days before.

“Cases of suspected pollution can be reported to us at any time by ringing 0800 80 70 60.”

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Planning applications validated by EDDC for week beginning 12 June

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Staff moves between water firms and their regulators sparks calls for sewage corruption probe

Now we need to add “revolving doors” to the lexicon to account for failures in the water industry to clean up its act. – Owl

Arj Singh inews.co.uk

There is a “revolving door” of executives between regulators supposed to clamp down on sewage spills and water companies, raising questions about a “conflict of interest”, an investigation has revealed.

At least six senior current industry staff members have been identified as moving jobs between regulators including Ofwat and the Environment Agency and water firms such as Southern, Northumbrian and South West Water.

It has triggered warnings that regulators could feel “sympathetic to their mates at their former company” or “water company executives who know how to avoid regulations”, and calls for the anti-corruption watchdog Acoba (Advisory Committee on Business Appointments) to investigate.

The investigation by the Liberal Democrats found that despite the movements between such organisations, numerous freedom of information requests and parliamentary questions submitted by the party indicated the Government holds no data on how many former water company employees work for industry regulators.

Lib Dem environment spokesman Tim Farron said: “This raises questions about conflict of interest. You could have regulators who feel sympathetic to mates at their former company, or water company executives who know how to avoid regulations.

“If this is happening, then the whole thing is a farce.”

Mr Farron, a former leader of the Lib Dems, added: “I fear we may now have a revolving door between water companies, the regulator and even government agencies. We can’t have a cosy job club in this industry given the environmental scandals being committed. There needs to be an independent investigation into this.”

The Liberal Democrats have called for Ofwat to be scrapped and replaced with a new water and sewage regulator in England and Wales amid controversy over levels of sewage spills in waterways across the UK.

Both Ofwat and the Environment Agency have previously been criticised for allegedly failing to punish water companies for sewage discharges in rivers and coastal areas as well as high levels of water leaks from its aging pipe network.

Environment Agency figures for last year show there were a total of 301,091 sewage spills in UK waterways in 2022, an average of 824 a day.

However, in March Ofwat promised to block water companies from paying dividends to shareholders if they fail to protect the environment after securing new powers.

Last month, water companies apologised for repeated sewage spills as industry body Water UK pledged to invest £10bn to cut the number of incidents by up to 140,000 a year by 2030.

i understands that for one of the executives in question, the Environment Agency ensured the worker recused themselves from relevant discussions and decision-making during their notice period before going on to work for a water company.

The Government also stressed it has robust procedures in place to prevent conflicts of interest, including the Treasury’s corporate governance code.

A Government spokesman said: “We continue to work alongside the Environment Agency to toughen up enforcement against underperforming and polluting water companies. This includes securing record fines of over £147m, launching a major criminal investigation into potential non-compliance at wastewater treatment works and driving up monitoring to ensure the public can see what is going on.”

“We have also set the strictest targets ever on water companies to reduce sewage discharges through our Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, which will drive the largest infrastructure programme in their history – an estimated £56bn in capital investment over the next 25 years, driving more improvements.”

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PM prepared to make decisions ‘people may not like’ on public sector pay awards

But hang on. 

Pay rises for the top10% UK earners have outstripped those of the rest of the workforce (see below).

The Prime Minister has warned he will not shy away from making decisions “people may not like” to control inflation as he again refused to commit to accepting recommendations for public sector pay rises.

Ministers have suggested they could choose to ignore advice by independent review bodies to hike public sector pay as part of UK Government attempts to calm the rate of rising prices — an option the Prime Minister has refused to take off the table. (various sources)

In Toryland pay restraint only applies to the “little people”. – Owl

Union fury as figures show pay rises among top earners driving inflation

Toby Helm www.theguardian.com 

Pay rises for the top 10% of UK earners, including City bosses, have clearly outstripped those for the rest of the workforce and been prime drivers of recent inflation and soaring interest rates, according to new analysis of official figures.

After a week that saw interest rates rise for the 13th consecutive time, by 0.5 percentage points, to their highest level level since 2008, the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, angered union leaders by appearing to blame low and middle earners for wage demands that had fuelled the crisis.

But figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that since January, annual wage increases are only becoming more generous among the top 10% of earners, while the rest of the working population is suffering a decline in wage growth.

Analysis by the TUC of official figures also shows that workers among the top 1% of earners, with an annual income of at least £180,000, were paid 7.9% more than last year, up from 3.7% in January.

By contrast, those who are paid £59,000 a year saw the rate of their wage rises fall from 7.2% to 5.5% a year, while workers receiving £26,300 a year saw an even bigger fall in annual wage rises, from 9.5% in January to 4.7% in April.

Last year, the increasing cost of gas and electricity and the higher price of food were blamed for rising inflation.

But the ONS said May’s 8.7% inflation rate, unchanged from April, was mainly due to a surge in demand for discretionary services, including restaurants, hotels, entertainment and flights abroad.

More than 1.2 million people work in financial services and several million more in business services, many of them with high levels of disposable income to spend on non-essential items.

The TUC’s head of economics, Nicola Smith, said the ONS figures showed the wrong people were being blamed.

“Scapegoating people in work for high inflation is wrong. There is no evidence of high or accelerating wage increases across 90% of the workforce. If anything, the data shows wage rises are slowing and most workers are suffering real-terms wage cuts,” she said.

After the rate increase decision, Bailey said: “The UK cannot continue to have the current level of wage increases.”

On Saturday, as anger over pay unfairness and the rising cost of living grew, union leaders rounded on ministers over suggestions they were now ready to overrule the official pay review bodies (PRBs) if they recommended “unsustainable” increases, after the Bank governor’s comments.

Unison’s assistant general secretary, Jon Richards, said: “In the last pay round, the government spent months hiding behind the NHS pay review body. Ridiculous claims ministers couldn’t intervene with the PRB led to strikes and much needless disruption to patients and services.

“For the prime minister to be pondering blocking the other pay review bodies is utterly farcical.”

Responding to reports that ministers could even block pay rises recommended by the School Teachers’ Review Body, Patrick Roach, general secretary of teachers’ union NASUWT, said if that was the case, they would have misled parliament.

“In recent weeks [education secretary] Gillian Keegan has been insistent that the pay review body process will determine teachers’ pay. Our members will be asking whether she has deliberately misled parliament and the country. She must now show some integrity.”

Referring to the threat of more strike action in schools, he added: “We have been calling on the education secretary to return to the negotiating table to find a resolution that will command the support of teachers and headteachers. She must do so immediately.

“If the government chooses to ignore the recommendations of the pay review body, this will have profound consequences for future industrial relations, with industrial action likely in the autumn.”

On Saturday, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves wrote to the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, urging him to work with the Financial Conduct Authority to ensure savers are rewarded fairly as interest rates rise.

“With interest rates going up across the board for mortgage holders, it’s only right that savers should get the bang for their buck they deserve. The government should be working with the regulator and the banks now to make sure competition for savings is working.”

Data from financial information service Moneyfacts shows the spread between mortgage rates and saving rates for two-year products grew from 1.08 percentage points in November 2019 to 1.65 percentage points now – an increase of more than half a point.

Rishi Sunak has staked his credibility on halving inflation by the end of this year, a promise that most economists now believe he may struggle to keep.

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“Don’t panic Mr Mainwaring”

“I want people to be reassured that we’ve got to hold our nerve, stick to the plan and we will get through this.” 

No not:

But him:

“I’m here to tell you that I am totally, 100% on it. And it is going to be OK and we are going to get through this and that is the most important thing I wanted to let you know today.”

Er – what is the plan? – Owl

[With apologies to “Dad’s Army”, though Rishi Sunak wrote the script.]

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Are our Beavers under threat from Thérèse Coffey?

They are not essential.

“For what it’s worth, I think there are more important things than beavers,” she told a meeting of bankers and insurers in London.

Return of beavers to the wild ‘is being blocked by Defra dam’

Adam Vaughan www.thetimes.co.uk 

The government’s plan to “build back beaver” by releasing the animals into the wild is being blocked by Thérèse Coffey’s department, conservationists claim.

The environment secretary said last week that beavers were not essential to meeting the global biodiversity targets the UK helped to set last year.

“For what it’s worth, I think there are more important things than beavers,” she told a meeting of bankers and insurers in London.

Boris Johnson said in 2021 that the UK would “build back beaver” as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) consulted on the issue. Defra gave beavers enhanced legal protections last year, seen as a key step in paving the way for releases.

Yet officials are telling beaver proponents that they can be released only into enclosures, not into the wider environment. Coffey said the department was “still considering” the proposal.

Her lukewarm view on the return of beavers is at odds with some senior officials. Tony Juniper, chairman of the regulator Natural England, speaking minutes before Coffey, said the reintroduction of beavers in the “right catchments” would be “very helpful” for the recovery of wetlands.

Juniper also told a recent event on the restoration of chalk streams that beavers could help with some of the water shortages facing the south and east of England. He said that beavers on the River Glaven in Norfolk had kept the head of the river flowing.

Beavers are considered a “keystone” species in ecosystems. The habitats they create can help other species. They have been mooted as a way to reduce the risk of flooding, because their dams can slow the flow of flood water.

Wildlife groups wrote to Defra in February asking for clarity about the release of beavers. Trudy Harrison, an environment minister, told them that Defra was continuing its “work with Natural England”.

Beavers were hunted to extinction in England but in 2014 they were photographed on the River Otter in Devon, the first in the wild for centuries. Defra initially planned to trap the beavers but granted them a licence to stay in 2015. A five-year trial concluded they were beneficial to the environment.

The Wildlife Trusts, a network of charities that runs beaver enclosures, said it was being hampered by a lack of government leadership. Rob Stoneman, a director, said: “The government has inexplicably blocked the return of beavers to the wild.”

Beaver projects being considered include one on the Isle of Wight and enclosures exist in Kent, Cornwall, Essex, Derbyshire and Cheshire.

The government is believed to be waiting for a report by the environment select committee on the reintroduction of the species. A Defra official said: “Beavers are just one of several formerly native species we have supported the reintroduction of.”

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Flagship Exeter hotel being built next to M5 – Science Park

Maybe this will increase the footfall on the Redhayes Bridge, opened in 2011 at a cost of £3.75m, part of the Exeter Growth Point £5.5m regeneration project linking Exeter to Cranbrook and the Scienced Park.

A local wag refers to this bridge as the “Franklin Memorial Bridge” and tries to spot it being used every time they pass underneath. 

Owl has been informed that sightings of pedestrians or cyclists are rare but is open to other experiences.

(Cllr. Ray Franklin was the EDDC portfolio holder for strategic growth and regeneration during the “creative” phase of the “Build, build, build” Tory regime.)

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com

Work has begun on a flagship new hotel to be built right next to the M5 at the Exeter Science Park. The 142-room hotel will feature meeting rooms, a restaurant, bar, gym, gardens, and numerous car charging points – and is a new sustainable net zero hotel.

Zeal Hotels has signed an Exclusivity Agreement with IHG Hotels & Resorts for the hotel, which will be managed by Valor Hospitality. The property, which is due to open next year, is aiming for a minimum BREEAM rating of Excellent, with a target of Outstanding. Solar panels will ensure that the hotel will generate all the energy it requires.

Planning permission has been granted for the 142-room hotel and construction is due to begin next month. It will feature a meeting room, restaurant, bar, gym, gardens, and numerous car charging points and is the first of a number of sustainable hotels Zeal Hotels plans to open.

Dr Sally Basker, chief executive, Exeter Science Park Limited, said: “It’s very exciting to see work begin on Zeal’s innovative, ‘mindfully modern’ highly-sustainable, low-carbon hotel that will complement Exeter Science Park’s existing net zero carbon buildings.

“This collaboration launches the next phase of growth at Exeter Science Park and we anticipate there will be great synergy for both organisations, with Zeal bringing many benefits to our businesses, which will be reciprocated through the Science Park providing facilities, such as meeting spaces, for Zeal Hotel residents.

“We’re delighted to build on existing success to deliver an innovative, low-carbon destination that supports the development of a vibrant, STEMM community delivering extraordinary growth for our south-west region.”

Tim Wheeldon, managing director, Zeal Hotels, said: “The final pieces of our plan to create the first net zero carbon branded hotel are coming together and we are thrilled to be starting work on this innovative and highly sustainable project.

“Hospitality has been lagging behind other industries in its commitment to net zero carbon and we are looking forward to welcoming guests to join us on our journey. A fundamental requirement in the design of our new hotel is that it can be replicated and we are now seeking additional development opportunities in strategic locations throughout the UK.”

Cllr Rufus Gilbert, Cabinet Member for Economic Recovery and Skills, said: “It’s excellent news that Exeter Science Park has been chosen as the home for this pioneering development and it matches our net zero carbon ambitions in Devon. The vision of the Science Park has always been to encourage innovation and sustainability, and that’s exactly what this exciting project provides.”

Exeter Science Park is located close to junction 29 of the M5, providing a base for a number of science, technology and engineering companies. The hotel is expected to welcome guests using Exeter Science Park, Exeter Business Park and Exeter Airport, as well as guests travelling to Devon and Cornwall, all of whom will be able to use the hotel’s EV charging points.

Locally-sourced food and beverage will be a focal point of the hotel operation.

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More unexpected consequences of working from home 

It’s not only causing water shortages but is now fuelling deforestation!

Soft, strong….and not as recycled as it used to be 

James Tapper www.theguardian.com 

Hoarding during the Covid-19 pandemic underlined just how important loo roll is to the British public. But working from home had another unexpected effect: less waste paper from offices, which means less recycled material to make toilet roll.

New research by Ethical Consumer magazine shows that the three main toilet brands have cut the amount of recycled paper in their tissues. It said the use of virgin wood pulp was fuelling deforestation, although paper-industry advocates dispute this.

The consumer organisation recommended that people avoid buying Andrex, Velvet, Cushelle, Regina and Nicky because more material used to make them is taken from felled trees.

It found that Kimberly-Clark, which makes Andrex, cut the amount of recycled fibre it uses for tissue and personalcare products to 19.3% in 2021, down from 29.7% in 2011.

It used less fibre, down from 3.53m tonnes to 2.85m, but almost all the reduction was in recycled fibres, while virgin-pulp use fell only slightly.

Sofidel, maker of Regina and Nicky, cut recycled fibres from 8.9% in 2019 to 7.3% in 2021.

And Essity, which makes Velvet and Cushelle, cut the amount of recycled paper in its products from 2.1m tonnes in 2018 (40%) to 1.9m tonnes in 2022 (36%) while it increased slightly the amount of fibre taken from pulp.

Shanta Bhavnani, a researcher at Ethical Consumer and the author of the report, said: “There’s so much awareness now of the importance of trees in addressing climate change so it’s really disappointing to see the big toilet paper companies cutting their use of recycled fibres.

“But it’s encouraging to see the growth in the number of alternative toilet paper products, as it means consumers now have many more sustainable options.”

She cited a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a US environmental body, that said logging in the northern hemisphere was having an impact on Canada’s boreal forests, with 11.3m hectares (28m acres) of forest felled from 1996 to 2015 – almost the size of England.

Recycling is more efficient than cutting down trees as it produces less wastewater and other waste and requires less energy, according to the Environmental Paper Network, a global coalition of more than 150 civil society organisations, which also says that making tissue from recycled paper uses one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions of virgin wood.

However, Two Sides, a membership organisation for forestry, pulp and other paper manufacturers, said that it was misleading to say paper production contributed to deforestation since “all trees used for making paper products are replanted”.

It said European forests had grown from 2005 to 2015 and 74% of all paper used in Europe was recycled.

It added that virgin pulp was required to maintain the recycling chain, as fibres degrade over time, so that paper can be recycled 3.8 times on average, though others say fibres can last up to six times or more.

All three companies named in the report take virgin wood from certified schemes like the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC). But Ethical Consumer said these schemes had previously suffered from poor oversight and labels such as “FSC mix” were from forests that were not audited.

It recommended that people buy toilet roll made from recycled paper or sustainably sourced bamboo pulp with no plastic packaging.

Gareth Lucy, Essity UK’s communications director, said that he was disappointed by the report because there had been a big drop in the availability of waste paper during the pandemic – “from the huge reduction in office paper waste as workplaces were closed, and the transition of household bills and documents from paper to online”.

He added that Essity had been researching how to make tissue from other sources such as wheat straw. “Essity has identified and developed ways to process new sources of recycled paper, such as from used paper towels and takeaway coffee cups, and has invested in a new state-of-the-art recycled paper facility that can process a lower grade of recycle fibre.”

A Kimberly-Clark spokesperson said it was aiming to end the use of natural forest fibre by 2030 and that its UK operation uses 77% fast-growing, farmed eucalyptus fibres.

“Of the remaining 23%, we’re working towards reducing them further through the use of innovative technology, for example using enzymes to give the tissue paper the necessary strength” the spokesperson said.

Sofidel was contacted but declined to comment.

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26 Jun 2023

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Britons’ earlier deaths linked to NHS underinvestment – study

Summary of the findings of the King’s Fund comparison of NHS with 19 other health care systems.

Underinvestment, including in numbers of beds. 

On staff: NHS had strikingly low levels of key clinical staff, including doctors and nurses, and is heavily reliant on medical professionals trained abroad. UK exported a huge amount of nursing talent that is trained in the country and not held onto, instead making up large percentages of medical workforces in countries such as Australia and New Zealand. (the Independent)

Denis Campbell www.theguardian.com 

Britons die sooner from cancer and heart disease than people in many other rich countries, partly because of the NHS’s lack of beds, staff and scanners, a study has found.

The UK “underperforms significantly” on tackling its biggest killer diseases, in part because the NHS has been weakened by years of underinvestment, according to the report from the King’s Fund health thinktank. It “performs poorly” as judged by the number of avoidable deaths resulting from disease and injury and also by fatalities that could have been prevented had patients received better or quicker treatment.

The comparative study of 19 well-off nations concluded that Britain achieves only “below average” health outcomes because it spends a “below average” amount for every person on healthcare.

The sobering findings come 10 days before celebrations across the four home nations to mark the 75th anniversary of the NHS’s creation on 5 July 1948 by the postwar Labour government.

The King’s Fund pinpoints the NHS’s lack of doctors and nurses as one of the main reasons the service is struggling as judged by many of the criteria used in the thinktank’s analysis. On Thursday, the government will finally publish its long-awaited workforce plan to tackle staff shortages, which Rishi Sunak said on Sunday would be “one of the most significant announcements in the history of the NHS”.

The 118-page report compares the resources available to the NHS across the UK, and its performance, with those of the health systems in countries including France, Germany, Sweden, Japan, Singapore and the US. Among its main conclusions are that in the UK:

  • Life expectancy is second worst among the 19 countries studied.
  • People who have a heart attack or stroke are more likely to die as a result than in almost every other country studied, including within 30 days of admission to hospital.
  • Survival rates for many of the most commonly occurring cancers, including breast, colon, cervix, rectum, lung and stomach, are “below average”
  • Access to NHS dental care is “worryingly threadbare in some areas”.
  • There are fewer CT and MRI scanners than in any of the other countries studied, and the number of hospital beds is the second smallest, owing to historical underinvestment in capital spending.

“The NHS … trails behind its international cousins on some key markers of a good healthcare system. We are not by any means where we should be,” said Siva Anandaciva, the author of the report and the King’s Fund’s chief analyst.

Anandaciva dismissed assertions by ministers in recent years that Covid-19 was to blame for much of the NHS’s increasing fragility and inability to provide urgent care promptly. The impact of the pandemic merely “compounded the consequences of more than a decade of squeezed investment in staff, equipment and wider services that keep us well”, he added.

On Sunday, Sunak repeated to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that the delays in care provision, which are the worst in the history of the NHS, and England’s waiting list of 7.3 million, were “because we’ve had a pandemic”.

The report, which draws on data collected by bodies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Office for National Statistics, also found that “people in the UK are profoundly dissatisfied with the current state of health services”. Despite the NHS’s difficulties, though, support for its founding principles – as a taxpayer-funded system that is available to all and free at the point of use – remains strong, with little appetite for radical reform.

The report also highlights the fact that in Britain, unlike in some other countries, people do not have to pay to access healthcare, though long waiting times are forcing growing numbers to do so. It also praises the NHS for its efficiency, low use of second-line antibiotics and management of diabetes.

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, the British Heart Foundation’s associate medical director, said that Britain’s poor record on cardiovascular health was a result of “a deadly combination of the Covid-19 pandemic, extreme and ongoing pressure on what was an already stretched health service, not enough NHS staff and space, deep-rooted health inequalities, and poor population health”

Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, urged ministers to make smoking obsolete, increasing the number of cancer screenings and plugging gaps in the cancer workforce to improve diagnosis and survival.

The Department of Health and Social Care did not respond directly to the King’s Fund’s findings. Instead, a spokesperson said only that: “This report recognises the NHS is one of the most efficiently run healthcare systems and we are investing up to £14.1bn to improve services and cut waiting lists, one of the government’s top five priorities.

“There are record numbers of staff working in the NHS with over 53,600 more people compared to a year ago, including over 5,400 more doctors and over 12,900 more nurses.”

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25 Jun 2023

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Water company blames people who work from home for hosepipe ban

If you’re still working from home following the Covid pandemic, then it’s your fault a hosepipe ban is coming into place – at least that’s what one water company says.

Ben Ashton metro.co.uk 

South East Water has laid blame at the door of those who aren’t going into an office for the first hosepipe ban of the summer that will be imposed on Monday. 

The water company, which supplies more than two million homes and businesses, says it has been left with ‘no choice but to restrict the use of hosepipes and sprinklers until further notice’.

Households across Kent and Sussex will be affected by the ban and company chief executive David Hinton claimed people working from home was a ‘key factor’ because it has ‘increased drinking water demand’.

In a letter to customers, he wrote: ‘Over the past three years the way in which drinking water is being used across the south east has changed considerably.

‘The rise of working from home has increased drinking water demand in commuter towns by around 20% over a very short period, testing our existing infrastructure.’

Mr Hinton also blamed low rainfall since April, which he said had left water butts empty, as well as a recent spell of hot weather causing a spike in demand for drinking water.

‘Our reservoir and aquifer stocks of raw water, essential to our water supply but not ready to be used, are in a good position,’ he said.

‘However, demand for treated mains water, which takes time to process and deliver, was greater than we could meet.

‘Over the past week we have needed to find water to supply the equivalent of an additional four towns the size of Maidstone or Eastbourne, every day.’

One South East Water customer accused Mr Hinton of ‘victim blaming’ and described his letter as ‘a deflection from the real issue’.

Jutta Wrobel, 61, an artist in the village of Wadhurst, East Sussex, said: ‘It’s not a suitable response, neither is the paddling pool story or the idea they didn’t see summer coming – they’re all trivial sideshows.

‘This is a deflection from the real issue which is how to stop South East Water paying away all our money in dividends rather than reinvesting in our water infrastructure, which is a public utility and a human right.

‘We are supposed to be the Garden of England. We are not supposed to have hosepipe bans for two years running.’

The married grandmother of four started an online petition demanding a change of ownership of South East Water after she was left without mains water for five days earlier this month.

She added: ‘The barrage of victim blaming by South East Water is what I think has riled people up.

‘I’m interested in what the regulator is doing about it and whether there will be meaningful sanctions imposed on South East Water.’

Greg Clark, the Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells, told The Times: ‘Their only job is to deliver drinking water. But in my constituency, they have run out of water twice in six months – once just before Christmas when we had a cold snap, and now after a small and unexceptional heatwave.

‘What they’re describing in terms of people working for home is by no means specific to this area. There has been for some time a tendency for people to work more from home. A water company should be able to predict and accommodate for this.’

A spokeswoman for the water regulator Ofwat told The Times: ‘South East Water must do better to predict and manage operational issues, help customers, and engage with them on what is happening and why.

‘Customers will be asking why, for the second time in six months, their water company is being caught out by the weather.’

South East Water’s Head of Service Management, Steve Andrews, said: ‘We announced the Temporary Use Ban (TUB) on Friday 16 June. 

‘Following a period of consultation, we will be able to take action against customers who contravene the hosepipe restrictions from Monday, 26 June.

‘The restrictions have been introduced to ensure that we can deliver drinking water to all our customers consistently.

‘Since the TUB was introduced, we have seen customer demand reduce, bringing down the high demand for tap water. We want to thank our customers for being mindful of their water use and remind them to continue to use water wisely over the coming weekend.’

A hospipe ban has also been introduced in the south-west of England this month.

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24 Jun 2023

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Devon MPs seek assurances on nursery funding

Providers need help with rising costs.

A cross-party delegation of MPs from Devon has taken the case for nursery education in the county to the top.

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

They met the secretary of state for education and the minister for children to discuss the challenges facing nursery provision in the south west.

The meeting followed representations from nursery owners in both Plymouth and Torbay about the challenges they face. 

Torbay’s Conservative MP Kevin Foster and Plymouth Sutton and Devonport Labour MP Luke Pollard headed the push for action on issues affecting the sector in the region, along with Cheryl Hadland, the founder and chair of Tops Day Nurseries, a Dorset-based company that has branches in Devon, including  in one Babbacombe and several in Plymouth.

The MPs raised issues such as support for training new staff, energy costs, increasing staff wages and business rates.

Following changes announced in the March budget, eligibility for childcare is being expanded significantly over the next two years, with increases in the amount of childcare costs which can be reclaimed under Universal Credit due later this month.

But the delegation stressed that challenges facing local nurseries must be addressed if the sector is to sustain itself and be able to increase capacity to meet the demand for places which will follow the expansion of eligibility.

The two ministers explained how the budget for childcare will increase to £8 billion over the next two years, and that a significant increase in the hourly rate paid to providers is due in September.

They pledged to look at how the system for apprenticeship training supports the childcare sector, and at how commercial childcare providers pay business rates but those based in schools and churches don’t.

Mr Foster said later: “The expansion of eligibility will help many local families, but it is vital the funding package works for providers as well.


“We set out clearly the challenges local nurseries are facing and it was encouraging to have confirmation that further details of funding will be with local providers shortly.”

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Unacceptably high backlog in local government audit system may get worse before improving 

“Our Committee warned in 2021 that the system of local government audit was close to breaking point. Disappointingly, since then the situation has only gotten worse. The cases of Croydon, Slough, Thurrock and Woking councils all should serve as flashing red signals for the Government, and our report finds that the rot risks spreading to central government finance and the NHS.” Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee

I.e. the system is bust! – Owl

committees.parliament.uk 

The unacceptably high backlog of audit opinions for local government bodies may get worse before it gets better. A Public Accounts Committee report today says that delays to publishing audited accounts for local government bodies increases the risk of governance or financial issues being identified too late, and hinders accountability for £100 billion in local government spending, with knock-on impacts for central government and the NHS.

Only 12% of local government bodies received audit opinions on their finances in time to publish accounts for 2021-22 within the already extended deadline for local authority accounts publication. Over 400 local government bodies missed this deadline, with the cumulative backlog of unpublished opinions rising to 632 for 2021-22. The scale of the issue suggests the position for 2022-23 may deteriorate, with the Government and Financial Reporting Council (FRC), worryingly, unable to say when these issues will be addressed.

The risk of significant financial or governance issues being detected too late increases significantly where audits are delayed and with the same pool of auditors working across other sectors, audits of other areas of public spending including the NHS and central government risk being delayed.

The PAC’s report calls for the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA), Government’s preferred choice as system leader, to be established. While PAC stressed this point in a 2021 report, there are still few signs of it happening. ‘Shadow’ arrangements with the FRC taking on responsibility to lead local audit have also not yet formally started, meaning the system remains fragmented with deep-rooted challenges remaining unaddressed. The Committee also urges the Government and FRC to set out how it will tackle the long-standing challenges in building capacity, capability and leadership in local audit, while expressing disappointment that there has been little progress despite warnings in the past.

Chair’s comments

Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Committee, said:

“Our Committee warned in 2021 that the system of local government audit was close to breaking point. Disappointingly, since then the situation has only gotten worse. The cases of Croydon, Slough, Thurrock and Woking councils all should serve as flashing red signals for the Government, and our report finds that the rot risks spreading to central government finance and the NHS.

There needs to be more resilience in the local audit market if the situation is to improve. Our inquiry heard there are fewer than 100 key audit partners registered to perform local audit, a worryingly low number. The Government must get its hands round this problem as a matter of urgency. It’s local taxpayers and service users who lose out when serious financial issues arise. The lack of timely accounts leaves council tax payers in the dark.”

Deputy Chair’s comments

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Deputy Chair of the Committee, said:

“The cumulative delay of auditing 632 Local Authority 2021-2022 accounts is a really serious matter, hindering accountability of £100 billion of local government spending. 

How many more horror stories such as Croydon, Slough, Thurrock, and more recently the shocking case of Woking council are there remaining undetected, which ultimately always have to be bailed out at huge costs to the taxpayer? The fragility of the number of qualified people and firms tending to carry out these important audits means that the system will only get worse before it gets better.

Our report makes a number of important recommendations, such as the role of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to strengthen Local Government Authority, and importantly when its successor the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA) will be set up.”

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23 Jun 2023

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East Devon property price rises among the region’s steepest

In the last year, average price levels in East Devon have increased by nearly 8 per cent, according to UK House Price Index statistics.

Ryan Collins www.exmouthjournal.co.uk 

In March 2022, the average price for all property types in the county was £344,699, with this figure today sitting at £372,043. In comparison, the average house price in the South West region is at £326,423, with an increase of 5.5 per cent in the last year.

The housing market has been volatile over the last two years, with last year’s mini-budget and difficulties posed by the pandemic resulting in direct impacts on house prices.

In the South West, Cornwall sits lowest for average house price increase in the past year at 4.9 per cent, followed by Dorset and North Somerset – both at around 6 per cent.

Talking to the Journal in April, Kim Kinnaird, mortgages director at Halifax, said: “When we delve deeper into the cost of Britain’s seaside homes, it’s clear that there is a broad spectrum in house prices.

“Second home ownership undoubtedly plays a role in driving up prices in the most desirable locations. While house prices in any location are driven by factors such as supply and demand and interest rates, there are also socio-economic factors at play.”

To see the full house prices report, visit https://landregistry.data.gov.uk/

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23 Jun 2023

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Cranbrook is getting even bigger

A major expansion of Cranbrook for up to 870 homes and other facilities has been agreed in principle.

“A total of 15 per cent of the properties – around 131 – are planned to be ‘affordable’, while four per cent of the plots will be set aside for custom and self-builders.” – Watch this space! Owl

Ollie Heptinstall, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

East Devon District Council’s planning committee approved the outline application for much of the Bluehayes site, on the west of the town, at a meeting on Tuesday.

The town’s expansion also include space for a primary school, sport and recreational facilities, community uses, green infrastructure, as well as a mixed-use area of shops, food and drink and professional services.

Changes to the highway network include a new roundabout on London Road, a new secondary route from Station Road, as well new access to Burrough Fields and Cranbrook railway station.

The Bluehayes site, which lies between the existing Cranbrook development and Broadclyst station, is one of four proposed expansion areas.

As a result, council officers recommended approval, concluding it would “support the growth of Cranbrook” and “make a significant contribution to local housing demands including affordable housing in a sustainable location.”

But some concerns were raised by public speakers, including on certain access points, the position of some facilities, and the development’s impact on the privacy of existing homes.

One local resident, speaking on behalf of Bluehayes Lane, wants mitigations against any “substantial loss of amenity” caused by the development, which she said could “remove the ability of our children to freely play and explore the lane.”

Broadclyst Parish Council also objected, with concerns including the development putting pressure on a nearby railway bridge and the potential impact on Station Road.

But an agent on behalf of the applicant, Taylor Wimpey UK, said there would be “wide benefits,” including “biodiversity net gain, active travel, healthy communities, affordable housing and custom self-build plots.”

A total of 15 per cent of the properties – around 131 – are planned to be ‘affordable’, while four per cent of the plots will be set aside for custom and self-builders.

“I believe that, working as groups of stakeholders together, the proposals will result in a community that residents and the council can rightly be proud,” the agent concluded.

Councillors approved the application by a margin of eight votes to one, subject to a number of conditions and a section 106 developer contribution towards local amenities being signed.

But one of those in favour, Steve Gazzard, added: “I do hope that concerns will be taken on board by the developer when we come to the full application.”

The final, detailed reserved matters application will be considered by the committee at a later date.

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23 Jun 2023

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Everyone the Tories are blaming for Britain’s mortgage crisis — except themselves

Everyone the Tories are blaming for Britain’s mortgage crisis — except themselves

Andrew Bailey? Vladimir Putin? A bat in Wuhan? You decide!

Andrew McDonald  www.politico.eu

LONDON — The “Tory mortgage penalty,” a high-profile banker or Vladimir Putin — take your pick of who is to blame for Britain’s mounting economic crisis.

The U.K.’s ruling Conservative Party is growing jittery in the face of stubbornly high inflation, which Thursday pushed the Bank of England to raise interest rates for the 13th consecutive time — a move which will hit U.K. mortgage-holders hard.

Hiking rates to 5 percent — a level not seen in 15 years — will result in an immediate sharp rise in monthly payments for some mortgage-holders, and the prospect of higher payments in the near future for others. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, some 1.4 million mortgage holders will see their disposable incomes fall by more than 20 percent.

“People are very concerned about what is being described as the mortgage bomb about to go off,” the senior Tory MP Jake Berry told Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in the Commons Tuesday. A former Tory Cabinet minister told POLITICO that it was now “clear we’re going to lose the next election.”

Labour is keen to brand the crisis the “Tory mortgage penalty” — pointing to both the governing party’s long period in office, and the rapid economic meltdown triggered by Liz Truss’ short spell in Downing Street.

Conservatives, unsurprisingly, are equally keen to point the finger elsewhere.

POLITICO has a run-through of the Conservative blame game as panic starts to set in.

Andrew Bailey

No one is taking more heat from the Tories than Andrew Bailey — the Bank of England governor.

Bailey has been under fire for a while from backbench MPs. But after days of Conservative ministers also not-so-subtly hinting that the independent central bank is at fault for the current crisis, Transport Secretary Mark Harper went further Wednesday night.

“Some people make that criticism, yes, and there was a decision to make at the beginning about whether inflation was transitory or not,” Harper told Sky News, when asked if the Bank had been too slow to raise interest rates.

A government aide insisted this was an observation on how far ahead of the curve Sunak was in realizing the threat of inflation, rather than a comment on the bank. Harper added that the government retains full confidence in Bailey. That coded criticism is significant, and rare, due to the Bank’s independent status.

The criticism — which has also come from some of the chancellor’s economic advisers — centers around the bank’s failure to accurately judge the extent of inflation and prepare accordingly. As recently as March this year Bailey said there would be a “sharp fall” in inflation this year. That is yet to bear out.

“It is true that the BoE and much of the world did not have a model that forecast the peak or persistence of inflation,” Giles Wilkes, a former No. 10 special adviser on economic policy, said. “But for the government to blame the Bank is to assert that they somehow wanted much higher and tighter policy, and would have gone for it, had they only had a good Bank there.

“It is like a teenager, suffering from a hangover after raiding the parental cellar, blaming the parents for not making the door stronger,” he added.

Gordon Brown

The Bank of England has been independent since 1997 — when Labour’s then-chancellor Gordon Brown took the decision to set the bank free of government interference as one of his first acts on entering the Treasury.

Treasury Minister Andrew Griffith pointedly reminded MPs of that decision in parliament Tuesday, as Tories questioned the timing and level of Bank interest rate rises.

“The Bank of England sets the base rate, which can have an effect on mortgage pricing, and the Bank has been independent since the decision of the then-Labour Government in 1997,” Griffith said. That assertion — and the not-so-subtle hint that Brown, rather than the current government, should be blamed for any of the Bank’s decisions — was greeted with some minor tittering in the Commons.

Ex-Prime Minister Liz Truss toyed with the idea of reviewing the Bank’s independence. But Sunak and his government have never indicated that they would reverse Brown’s decision to make the Bank independent.

Brown has also been the subject of criticism for his decision to scrap tax relief on mortgage interest payments, a decision he made in 2000. The right-leaning Daily Telegraph newspaper wrote this week that the move “added £270 a year to your mortgage payments.”

Liam Byrne

Also on the Tory hit list is that last Labour government in general. When asked, by Labour’s Pat McFadden, to apologize to homeowners, Griffith instead referenced the record of a government that *checks notes* left office more than 13 years ago.

“I ask him whether he has learned the lesson from what we saw with the last Labour government, who spent their way through the nation’s finances and whose most lasting contribution to the economy was a note that we inherited from the then chief secretary to the treasury saying there was no money left,” Griffith said, referencing the Conservatives’ favorite election prop — a handwritten note from Liam Byrne as Labour left government joking that “there is no money” left in the Treasury.

Having played a starring role in the Conservatives’ successful 2015 election campaign, the letter has reappeared of late — largely thanks to the enthusiastic new Tory Chairman Greg Hands, who has tweeted out the letter 42 times and counting.

“Joking” is the key word however. Byrne was following an old tradition of Treasury ministers leaving light-hearted letters to their successors.

Vladimir Putin … and a bat in Wuhan

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine sent the global economy tumbling — at a time it was still struggling to rebound following the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are all dealing with the consequences of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the aftermath of the pandemic,” Hunt argued in the Commons Tuesday.

The war in Ukraine contributed to a huge increase in energy prices as well as causing general supply chain and economic damage, while multibillion-pound COVID support schemes drawn up by Sunak fueled inflation.

But despite the global circumstances, it remains the case that the U.K. economy has the highest inflation and second slowest growth in the G7, according to the OECD.

The general public

One of Jeremy Hunt’s economic advisers also turned their fire on, erm, the rest of you.

Speaking on the BBC’s Today program Wednesday, Karen Ward — a JP Morgan strategist and member of Hunt’s economic council — suggested the Bank of England had failed to discourage workers from asking for pay rises.

“[The Bank of England] have to create uncertainty and frailty, because it’s only when companies feel nervous about the future that they will think ‘well, maybe I won’t put through that price rise,’ or workers, when they’re a little bit less confident about their job, think ‘oh, I won’t push my boss for that higher pay,” Ward said.

Ward added that the Bank should trigger a recession, in order to discourage Brits from — in her eyes — further inflationary spending and pay rise requests. Given U.K. wages have not grown at the same rate as inflation, that may not prove a popular call.

“It’s sort of quite understandable that workers would be asking for pay rises and wanting to maintain their living standards,” Institute for Fiscal Studies research economist Tom Wernham said. “But it is generally the fact that efforts to reduce inflation are going to be economically painful.”

… and the things they definitely aren’t blaming

Prominent former chancellors: Britain’s mortgage woes have arguably been further exacerbated by government support packages brought in over the past decade to support an already-overheated housing market, such as ex-Chancellor George Osborne’s notorious Help-to-Buy scheme and Sunak’s own COVID-era stamp duty holiday, which critics say lured people into buying property with an illusion of affordability.

Liz Truss: The short-lived former U.K. PM did more than many to tank the Conservatives’ reputation for economic competency. Miatta Fahnbulleh, a Labour candidate and left-wing economist, summed up the opposition’s argument when she claimed Truss’ mini-budget put an “incompetency premium” into the mortgage market.

Austerity: The merits of deep government cuts under former Prime Minister David Cameron in the 2010s, following the global financial crash, are still much debated. Defenders argue it got the U.K. economy back on track and ready to weather subsequent global crises, while detractors argue it strangled economic growth through a lack of investment. “You underinvest in things and eventually they get worse,” said Wilkes, who advised Cameron’s successor, Theresa May.

Brexit: The rupture of Britain’s exit from the European Union was the third major shock to the U.K. economy in as many years, alongside the pandemic and war in Ukraine. Most economists believe Brexit has had a significant and largely negative impact on the U.K. economy, while the government’s economic watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, has stuck by its March 2020 prediction that Brexit would ultimately reduce productivity and U.K. GDP by 4 percent. It was in this context that Nigel Farage, the architect of Brexit, told the BBC that “Brexit has failed.” Tory MPs are mostly keeping mum.

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Inflation remains high and interest rise to 5%: what’s the plan? 

Rishi Sunak: “I’m here to tell you that I am totally, 100% on it. And it is going to be OK and we are going to get through this and that is the most important thing I wanted to let you know today.” 

Foreign secretary James Cleverly mocked by BBC as he struggles to explain PM’s prices plan

Adam Forrest www.independent.co.uk

Floundering foreign secretary James Cleverly was left red faced in a bruising BBC interview when he was put on the spot over the inflation crisis.

Challenged six times to say how Rishi Sunak planned to cut price rises, Mr Cleverly stumbled in his replies – and was at one point greeted with laughter by BBC Radio 4 interviewer Amol Rajan.

Eventually Mr Rajan ended the interview abruptly, silencing Mr Cleverly and saying: “We’re going to the weather.”

Their painful exchange in full

Amol Rajan: ‘What is the PM’s plan to halve inflation?’

James Cleverly: ‘By making sure the economy is more productive economy, through, er, training, through um, er, er, you know, apprenticeships…’

AR: ‘That won’t bring inflation down. What is the PM planning to do about it?’

JC: ‘You have to deal with things in the short, medium and long term.’

AR: ‘Yes, so what is the PM’s plan?’

JC: ‘As I, er, say, er, the, er, point is, with things like, erm, driving down the implications of, er, you know, fuel and food.’

AR: ‘Sorry … what is the PM’s short-term plan?’

JC: ‘Well, one of the things we, er, one of the main vehicles for short term, er, addressing inflation is interest rates…’

AR: ‘The PM doesn’t control that so what is his plan, what is he going to do?’

JC: ‘Not all the levers of control are in the government’s hands…’

AR heard laughing in the background

JC: ‘… the choice was made to have an independent Bank of England.’

AR (sarcastically): ‘I really appreciate the economics lesson about the decision to make the Bank of England independent in the 1990s … What is the PM doing to get inflation down?’

JC: ‘One of the reasons we have been thoughtful and cautious on public sector pay awards is that we knew it’s one of those things that brings inflationary pressures … that is in stark comparison to the Labour party.’

At this point a clearly exasperated AR tries to end the the interview.

JC: ‘We have over many, many decades got used to large-scale, relatively low-skilled inflation [sic] – that has had a drag effect on productivity…’

AR: ‘We have to go to the weather.’

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22 Jun 2023

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Covid: How do UK pandemic death rates compare?

The UK had one of the worst increases in death rates of major European economies during the Covid pandemic, BBC analysis has found.

By Robert Cuffe & Libby Rogers www.bbc.co.uk 

Death rates in the UK were more than 5% higher on average each year of the pandemic than in the years just before it, largely driven by a huge death toll in the first year.

That was above the increase seen in France, Spain or Germany, but below Italy and significantly lower than the US.

Comparing death rates across countries

Back in April and May 2020, the UK was seeing one of the worst waves of Covid deaths in the world.

But Prof Sir Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, warned against international comparisons of Covid deaths too early in the pandemic.

Instead, he recommended looking at deaths for any reason, since they do not depend on what a country calls a Covid death.

And he said analyses should take account of the age profile of each country, which can explain a lot of differences in death rates.

We have built a database of those figures, collecting data for the last eight years from a range of European countries, as well as the US and New Zealand.

Now the UK’s long-awaited Covid inquiry is under way and Sir Chris is about to give evidence for the first time.

And as the World Health Organization has declared an end to the global health emergency, we have looked back at three years of pandemic deaths, starting in March 2020.

We compared countries by measuring how much their death rates rose from those seen in the five years before the pandemic.

Over the three years to February 2023, the UK’s death rates went up by more than 5%, which is more than France, Germany and Spain (all up between 3% and 4.5%), but by less than Italy’s (up more than 6%).

The US and Eastern European countries like Poland were even harder hit, with death rates more than 10% above their pre-pandemic levels over the three years to February 2023.

In contrast, death rates fell in countries like Sweden and Norway and also New Zealand, who contained the virus successfully before its vaccination programme took off.

The year-by-year figures tell different stories for each country.

For the UK, they point to early losses followed by significant success in 2022.

How do the UK’s deaths compare each year?

The UK was one of the worst-hit countries in the first year of the pandemic, with death rates running 15% above those before it started.

The combination of a terrible first wave and the rapid spread of the alpha (or Kent) variant just as the vaccine rollout was getting going contributed to a huge death toll.

Many eastern European countries like Poland avoided the spring 2020 wave but overtook the UK in numbers of deaths in the winter of 2020-21.

The US continued to have steadily increasing death rates during the summer of 2020 and by the end of the year, it passed the UK’s total.

Death rates fell in many European nations in the second year of the pandemic as vaccine programmes got under way.

The UK’s vaccine rollout is regarded as a “global exemplar”, says Prof Devi Sridhar of University of Edinburgh.

That is not just number of doses, it was also getting them to the people most at risk.

And the UK looked better than any major European economy bar Spain in that second year – with death rates below historical averages.

In the third year, death rates rose in many countries as they opened up again.

Some of the largest rebounds we found were in countries like Germany, New Zealand and Norway, who had fared better in the first two years of the pandemic (and well overall).

Norway had far fewer deaths than Sweden in the first year of the pandemic but over the three years the two countries look more similar.

It is hard to read straight across from Scandinavian countries to the UK, cautions Prof Sridhar, arguing “we’d never look like either Sweden or Norway”, and describing them as “healthier, wealthier and more equal” countries that are very different to the UK.

Lessons for the UK

It would take many inquiries to tease apart the effect of all the possible reasons behind every nation’s pandemic outcomes: preparedness, population health, lockdown timing and severity, social support, vaccine rollout and health care provision and others.

But some argue that there are lessons for the UK that need to be learned even before we think about future pandemics.

The UK’s heavy pandemic death toll “built on a decade of lacklustre performance on life expectancy” says Veena Raleigh, of the King’s Fund, a health think tank. She argues that government action to improve population health and turn that around has “never been more urgent”.

Methods

We collected data on deaths in five-year age groups and population estimates/projections from Eurostat, the Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, the Northern Ireland Statistics Research Agency, the Centre for Disease Control, United States Census Bureau and Stats NZ.

We calculated the death rate in each age group and combined them to form an age-adjusted death rate using the 2013 European Standard Population.

Some nations did not have the full set of age bands. For example, US figures used 10-year age bands between five and 24 and above 55. Broader age bands can exaggerate excess mortality figures like the ones we calculated, in the order of a percentage point.

Additional journalism by Callum Thomson, Isabella Worth, Jana Tauschinski, Liana Bravo and Wesley Stephenson