Ofwat, which in December heavily criticised some of the country’s biggest suppliers over the size of dividend payments relative to their financial performance, said the new rules would also mean water companies would “maintain a higher level of overall financial health”.
“When deciding on dividend payments to investors, water companies need to take stock of their performance for customers, the environment, and the company’s overall financial health,” said David Black, the Ofwat chief executive.
“Too often, this has not been the case. That is why we’re implementing changes that will allow us to better hold companies to account and take enforcement action when they get it wrong.”
Ofwat, which is taking a tough stance with water companies after criticism that for years the firms have not been properly regulated, said its new rules would improve the attractiveness of investment in the sector as well as “protect customers and the health of our waterways”.
In December, Ofwat released a report that found poor performance was “the norm” at many water companies, in particular naming Northumbrian Water, Southern Water, South West Water, Thames Water, Welsh Water and Yorkshire Water.
The regulator is modifying water company licences to ensure they have a strong credit rating, with the power to stop them paying dividends if their financial health is at risk.
In addition, licences will be changed to require companies to also take into account “service delivery for customers and the environment” when deciding whether to pay dividends.
“We hope the introduction of these new powers will focus minds around company board tables on the importance of responsible decision making and openness with customers and other stakeholders. And if that isn’t the case, we will act.”
Last month, the government accepted a Liberal Democrat amendment to the UK infrastructure bank bill that would mean taxpayer money would be able to fund water companies only if they produce a costed and timed plan for ending sewage spills into waterways.
Commenting on Ofwat’s new powers, the water minister, Rebecca Pow, said: “It is wrong for water companies to be responsible for environmental damage and poor performance but not face the penalties.
“It has been happening too often and it needs to stop. These new powers, made possible through our Environment Act, will enable Ofwat to clamp down on excessive cash payouts and make sure companies put customers first.”
Liberal Democrat Julian Brazil, opposition leader at Devon County Council who also sits on South Hams District Council, was speaking after a number of Devon bids to the fund’s second round were rejected at the start of the year.
These included a bid by Teignbridge District Council for government cash to create a new cycle route between Newton Abbot and Torquay, a new relief road for Cullompton in Mid Devon, and an East Devon bid for the Axe Valley.
A number of applications were successful though, with a total of £45 million going towards an extension to Dinan Way in Exmouth and town centre transport improvements, a new railway station at Okehampton and a Clean Maritime Innovation Centre in Appledore.
The levelling-up fund awarded £1.7 billion to projects in October 2021 and another £2.1 billion in January. So far, more than £300 million of this has been handed out to projects in the south west.
However, speaking to Devoncast from Radio Exe, Cllr Brazil said of the process: “I do find the way that the government hands out this money, with all the strings attached, is absolutely the wrong way to go about it.
“If you want to give levelling-up money to communities, give it to local authorities and let them decide how they want to spend it. But I think this [process] of making areas compete against each other is timely, costly and I don’t think, in the end, will necessarily produce the best results.”
He also criticised the “over-centralised” spread of power in the country: “Westminster has the money and it will decide, and I just think that’s disappointing. I’d much prefer to see that funding devolved down to the regions or to Devon itself and [let] Devon County decide.
“Much closer to the people. Much more democratically accountable.”
Labour’s shadow secretary of state for levelling-up, housing and communities, Lisa Nandy, has also criticised the bidding process and the “Hunger Games-style beauty contest for levelling-up funds.”
But Councillor Philip Skinner, leader of the Conservative group on East Devon District Council, defended the process, telling Devoncast: “We’ve been securing money in this way for a long time now, and in actual fact it’s really a good public process. It’s not hidden from view from anybody.”
He hailed the £15.7 million of cash given to Exmouth from the fund and said: “It is very unfortunate when other authorities – Teignbridge and the like – put bids in and you don’t win, but you don’t always get things on the first round.”
Cllr Skinner added: “Local authorities really need to work up schemes to get them put forward to government, so if you can imagine it’s almost like putting a business plan forward to a bank. And this is almost the same sort of process.
“So, what the government is saying is ‘we’re not just going to dole out money to you for you to prop up what may be things that are not actually going to deliver for the money that’s come from central government,’ and it’s making local authorities really focus and concentrate. And I think it’s a good thing.”
There is expected to be a third round of the fund within the next year, in which unsuccessful councils are likely to be able to bid again.
Fifteen years of wage stagnation has left British workers £11,000 worse off per year, according to research shared exclusively with BBC Panorama.
The figures come from the Resolution Foundation think tank, which focuses on low-to-middle income households.
It also found typical UK household incomes have fallen further behind those in Germany. In 2008, the gap was over £500 a year, now it is £4,000.
The Treasury says the UK economy is more resilient than many predicted.
In his Budget speech last week, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt acknowledged there is still enormous pressure on people’s finances.
In recent months, wages have failed to keep up with rising costs, meaning that millions of Britons have, in effect, had a pay cut.
But experts have told Panorama that problems with incomes go much further back.
The Resolution Foundation calculated that had wages continued to grow as they were before the financial crash of 2008, the average worker would make £11,000 more per year than they do now, taking rising prices into account.
And Ipsos polling of more than 6,000 adults suggested that two-thirds of them think the economy is going to get worse in the coming year.
Lower wages than our neighbours
At the Budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said that inflation, which measures how prices change over time, “destroys the value of hard-earned pay”.
The government argues that problems with living standards are the result of rising prices, which have been driven up by the war in Ukraine and the legacy of Covid.
But the roots of the cost-of-living crisis go deeper.
In fact, what are known as “real wages” haven’t seen sustained growth for 15 years.
Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, says that the wage stagnation of the past decade and a half is “almost completely unprecedented”.
“Nobody who’s alive and working in the British economy today has ever seen anything like this.
“This is definitely not what normal looks like. This is what failure looks like,” he added.
Xiaowei Xu, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, describes this as an “absolutely massive difference in living standards” that ends nearly 60 years of consistent growth.
The online polling of 6,189 adults conducted by Ipsos in February suggests that one in four people are struggling on their current income, and nearly half are worried about their financial situation.
British wage stagnation has also meant the UK is not keeping up with its neighbours – as the comparison between typical household incomes in the UK and Germany by the Resolution Foundation shows.
The productivity problem
So what’s behind this stall in wage growth? Economists say the key to increasing wages is productivity – a measure of workers’ output.
“Productivity is how much you produce with a unit of labour or with a machine,” says Dr Mohamed El-Erian, a former deputy director of the International Monetary Fund and president at Queens’ College Cambridge.
“The more you can produce, the more you get rewarded for it.”
The UK has lower productivity than countries such as France and Germany, and the gap is getting bigger.
Since the financial crash of 2008, many countries have struggled to increase productivity. But the UK has struggled more than most.
It averages growth of 0.4% a year, well below the average of developed nations. One reason for that is the make-up of the UK economy.
Services, like finance, retail, hospitality and leisure, make up 80% of our economy. It is traditionally harder to increase productivity in these areas.
But that’s not the only factor. Our slow productivity growth is partly down to decades of low investment.
A failure to invest
One commonly-accepted way to increase productivity is by increasing investment.
New technology, machinery, buildings and skills are all ways to boost the amount that workers can achieve.
Panorama visited Callestick Farm in Cornwall which recently invested more than £1m in order to make more ice cream – part of a new deal with Marks and Spencer.
New equipment, including a spiral freezer that chills ice cream much more quickly, has tripled the amount they make every day. More ice cream per day means more ice cream for sale.
It’s a productivity boost that can lead, in the long term, to more cash for pay rises. It shows the difference that investment can make, whether in new equipment, infrastructure or training.
But the UK has historically failed to invest as much as it could.
On average, capital investment has only been worth 16% of the total value of the economy in the years since 1997.
That’s the lowest proportion of any developed country in that period.
Prof Diane Coyle of Cambridge University told Panorama: “A lack of investment over decades has held back the economy, and made the UK less resilient than comparable countries to shocks like Brexit, Covid and the invasion of Ukraine.”
What effect has Brexit had?
Since 2020, the government has increased its own investment, but business investment hasn’t kept up. A big part of that story is what has happened since the Brexit referendum.
The Office for Budget Responsibility, the government’s independent watchdog, says that since the UK’s vote to leave the European Union in 2016, business investment in the UK has “stalled”.
They say that while shocks, including the pandemic and energy price rises, have hurt investment everywhere, UK investment “has continued to underperform relative to other G7 countries”.
Since 2016, as well as Covid and the war in Ukraine, there have been five prime ministers, years of uncertainty over Brexit, and the financial turmoil of Liz Truss’s leadership.
“Any economist would tell you the number one thing you can do to incentivise business investment, and therefore drive growth, is to have stability and certainty and strong institutions,” says Tim Pitt, a former senior adviser to Conservative chancellors Sajid Javid and Philip Hammond.
“We seem to have gone out of our way over the past few years to undermine some of those things.”
The government says Brexit is a long-term plan. When he became prime minister, Rishi Sunak spoke of “building an economy that embraces the opportunities of Brexit”.
That is a question for the future, but right now business investment in the UK is low compared to other developed economies.
That’s been true for years, and it’s been exacerbated in the short term by Brexit.
At the Budget last week, the chancellor didn’t deny the UK has problems that need addressing.
When Panorama put its findings to the government, a Treasury spokesman said the government was increasing incentives for investment and pointed to low unemployment – and its plan to increase growth – as signs the country was on the right track.
But what remains to be seen is if the plan can match the scale of the problem.
Additional reporting by Sachin Croker and Lora Jones
A landmark devolution deal for the greater Devon region, which transfers new money and powers into the hands of local Leaders across Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, has moved a step closer today with the backing of the Government’s Levelling Up Minister Dehenna Davison.
What then happens to the unaccountable, unelected: “Heart of the South West” LEP and “The great South West”? – Owl
Outline approval has been given for a Devon-wide devolution deal which could bring greater local control and allow partners to tap into additional resources to help tackle key local priorities such as affordable housing, better public transport and connectivity, and providing for the skills the local economy needs.
Importantly, the deal would not require a change to the established democratic structures across the area or the need for an elected Mayor as in other devolution deals across the country.
Instead, the new powers would be devolved to a partnership of existing local councils who would deliver on a joint programme working alongside a wide range of other local stakeholders.
Local partners across Devon have now been invited to work together to prepare a Final Business Case to present to Government for final approval later in the year.
Any final deal would require local consent with the full agreement of all the constituent councils as well as Parliamentary approval.
Welcoming the opportunity and Government’s backing for a local deal without the need for an elected mayor, councillor John Hart, Leader of Devon County Council and Chair of the local Devolution Partnership said: “This could be an important first step towards getting more local control to deliver on the big issues affecting local people and help us get access to much needed new investment.
“At its heart, it is all about building a better future for our children and young people, creating more opportunities for all, and backing local people and businesses to succeed.
“We have a strong local partnership and a devolution deal would bring new local powers and fresh resources to help us work together to tackle the big local priorities such as affordable housing, better public transport and providing for the skills our economy needs.
“We have been talking with the Government about this for some time and now it’s time to deliver.”
Cllr Steve Darling, Leader of Torbay Council, said: “This is a welcome opportunity to work with partners across Devon and with Government to build on the foundations we are already putting in place around our electronics, photonics, tourism and fishing industries. We hope that this will accelerate our plans to ensure our residents have the skills, housing and infrastructure to benefit from a brighter, thriving place.
“The partnership administration in Torbay has sought, over the past four years, to empower its community more and we anticipate that this deal will now empower communities across Devon with powers that have previously been ceded to central government. We have an ambitious agenda for making Torbay the premier resort in the UK and are keen to work with partners across the area to drive the regeneration and growing aspirations of our local communities.
“Whilst we are at the early stage of these negotiations, we expect that a Devolution Deal will enable us to tackle the challenges that Torbay faces including our housing crisis, climate change and the need for better paid jobs for local people.”
Cllr Phil Bialyk, Leader of Exeter City Council and Chair of the Devon Districts Forum, said: “We’ve been speaking to the Government about the need for a devolution deal which maintains the current structure of local councils while providing access to much-needed new funding for Devon.
“This has been a real partnership approach, and it is great that the Government appears to understand that by working together locally with key stakeholders we can achieve great things for all of our residents throughout the county.”
Rishi Sunak will lose “dozens” of Conservatives seats at the next general election if he fails to stop sewage being pumped into rivers, according to Sir Ed Davey.
The Liberal Democrats’ leader pressed for greater action on “one of the biggest environmental crimes in our country” as he spoke at his party’s spring conference in York.
Water companies are only permitted to release sewage during periods of heavy rain so the system does not back up – but campaigners last year warned firms released raw sewage into UK rivers and seas almost 150 times during dry weather in a 12-month period.
Sir Ed made clear issue has become a key battleground for the Lib Dems in local and nation elections, as they bid for swifter progress to prevent sewage dumping.
Calling the Tories “mutinous pirates”, he said voters want “an end to the Conservatives letting water companies get away with pumping filthy sewage straight into our rivers”.
He added: “That is one of the biggest environmental crimes in our country today and it’s a crime that will cost the Conservatives dozens of seats if they don’t act”.
Government plans released last month outlined how water companies in England will be required to explain why sewage spillages into rivers and seas are happening and what is being done to fix them.
Ministers are also consulting on making it easier and quicker to slap polluting companies with penalties, so they are made to pay immediately rather than wait for lengthy criminal prosecutions to conclude.
Sir Ed earlier compared Tory MPs to “mutinous pirates” as Britain encountered choppy waters, telling Lib Dem members: “We needed Hornblower. They gave us Pugwash.”
Accusing the government of “total defeatism” and having “nothing left to offer”, the Lib Dem leader said: “Take economic growth. Remember when governments used to talk about targeting three, four, five per cent? Rishi Sunak’s target – anything above zero.
He added: “It’s like a mid-table football club with a new manager, targeting to avoid relegation rather than a place in the Champions League. The way Conservative MPs talk nowadays, it’s like they know the truth: their government needs to be put out of its misery.”
The party leader received sustained applause from members as he spoke of the need to “repair our broken relationship with Europe” after Brexit.
He claimed the Lib Dems have a “real plan to fix Britain’s trade”, which will “tear down the Conservatives’ trade barriers, rip up their red tape, and rebuild the ties of trust and friendship with our European neighbours”.
Sir Ed has not committed to re-joining the EU single market immediately, but the party adopted a position of seeking to single market membership once “the ties of trust and friendship are renewed” after the 2022 spring conference.
The party’s four-point for closer ties includes stronger links on education programmes; a UK-EU returns agreement on asylum seekers; greater access for British agri-food products to the single market; and an eventual effort to re-join the single market once trust is restored.
Tory chairman Greg Hands dismissed Sunday’s conference attack by Sir Ed, firing back: “Time and time again, the Liberal Democrats have shown they cannot be trusted to deliver for the British people. They are out of touch with the people’s priorities on key issues like housing, energy and immigration.”
Devon’s roads have come under fresh fire as councillors heard about the plight of a local father who lost a night’s work and subsequently a day’s salary after a pothole ruined one of his tyres.
It comes as Barnstaple Town Council resolved to write to Devon County, raise the issue with potholes to Selaine Saxby MP for North Devon, and support a campaign to ensure the government adequately funds public services.
Speaking at the meeting and putting forward the motion to take action, Councillor Peter Leaver said: “I was talking to a resident – Mark – a young man with a young family and a food delivery driver. He told me he’s on a zero-hours contract and that most of his work is at night. He worries every night when he goes out delivering food as he hit a pothole twice last year and ruined a tyre on his car. Not only does he lose that night’s work, but it costs him a day’s salary to get it repaired. There’s a real cost to people.
“Mark said that sometimes it’s like you’re driving your car in a third-world country, but we’re the sixth wealthiest nation in the world, and I don’t understand how we can’t get something as simple as looking after our roads right.”
He continued: “It’s a huge failure of government cuts to local services, and it’s a failure of the county council as well. Only two weeks ago Devon County Council voted a small increase in the budget for road repairs and the Liberal Democrat councillors gave them the opportunity to increase that budget by £ 3 million for road repairs and road safety without the need to increase council tax and they turned down that opportunity.”
Councillor Ian Roome, speaking as Devon County division member for Barnstaple North, said: “The biggest thing my inbox is filled with at Devon County at the moment is potholes. People are complaining that they’re not watching where they’re going because they’re looking where the potholes are so they can dodge them; it’s really awful.
“For anyone who uses a cycle, it’s even worse. Devon County Council’s specification for when a pothole gets repaired is worse for cyclists. I’ve been told some of the reported potholes don’t meet the defect safety standard even though they would be terrible for somebody to go over on a pushbike.”
Cllr Roome said he recently asked Devon Highways how much it would cost to get the roads to an acceptable standard. He continued: “They told me there was red, amber and green classification. To bring the Devon roads up from red to amber, which isn’t top level, would cost £167 million. The roads are terrible, and Devon County Council says they’re getting around to the backlog.”
The proposed development by Aura Power is for a subsidy-free solar farm of up to 49.9 MW capacity that would generate enough renewable electricity to supply the equivalent of over 12,000 typical homes or to power 18,000 electric vehicles annually.
Aura Power say it would save an estimated 11,500 tonnes of CO2 per year, making a substantial contribution to local and national net zero targets. Now councillors are being recommended to back the scheme.
This proposal is one of a number of solar developments which have recently been considered in East Devon. Some 60,000 panels were proposed covering more than 200 acres of land across a total of 27 farm fields in nearby Marsh Green.
But campaigners who opposed plans for a huge solar farm on farmland in East Devon were left to celebrate when back in December planners rejected the scheme. Devon CPRE, the Devon branch of the countryside charity, feared councillors in East Devon would back the proposal officers made for the development south of the settlement at Marsh Green to the East of Rockbeare alongside the A30 to be approved, only for councillors by six votes to four to reject the scheme.
Again though, East Devon District Council’s planning committee, when they meet on Tuesday, March 28, are being recommended to approve this plan for land east of Rutton Farm on Rull Lane. Officers say that despite the concerns raised, the scheme should go ahead. A total of 31 representations have been received, consisting of 24 objections and seven in support.
“Concerns about the impact of the proposed solar farm on residential amenity have been raised by a number of people residing in the vicinity of the site,” the report says. “However, the proposal site would not immediately adjoin the curtilage boundary of any residential property, and the hedges on the boundary would be enhanced as part of the works.
“It is considered that the site is a sufficient distance from other solar developments, either existing or with extant permissions, in the area to ensure, that there would not be a significant cumulative visual impact. In terms of other cumulative impacts, it is considered that there would be no significant harm arising from those circumstances
“It is considered that the proposed development would not have a detrimental impact on any listed buildings. Natural England has confirmed that the site and proposal is acceptable in terms of its impact upon the area and biodiversity. The Council’s Ecologist also supports the proposal in this regard.
“The proposal is considered acceptable in terms of its impact on archaeology, highway safety, aviation, railways, trees and hedges, and flooding and drainage – although, in some cases, conditions relating to those matters are proposed. It is recommended that this application is approved.”
Homeowners face having their new-build properties flattened after a developer built some of them too high. Families have been told they risk losing their homes because they were built on higher ground than they should have been
Persimmon Homes was granted permission for 125 homes. But it has now emerged the ground level of the estate was raised by 2.4 metres to make the site flat. It has led to complaints from neighbours in nearby streets that some of the new homes are ‘over-bearing’ and ‘blocking sunlight’, with councillors likening the change to ‘adding an extra storey’.
Now Persimmon – which has outline planning for a further 135 homes on nearby land – has applied for retrospective permission to keep the houses as they are. It is also looking at mitigation measures such as tree and hedgerow planting to provide ‘visual screening,’ StokeonTrentLive reports.
But if permission is refused and a compromise can’t be reached, those living there could see their properties flattened, the chairman of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council’s planning committee warned. And the council’s lawyers have advised that the homes could have ‘no value’ on the open market anyway as they were sold without proper planning permission.
Planners have deferred a decision so talks can take place with residents. It is understood that eight of the 125 properties are affected.
Legal advisor Justin Price-Jones told a meeting of the planning committee: “It does surprise me somewhat that properties of some considerable value, no doubt, have been sold without planning permission because they’d have absolutely zero value on the market, to my mind at least.” He said there were potentially ‘very serious consequences’ for people living in them if councillors decided to refuse the application.
He added: “Persimmon would have known when they sold it that they didn’t have planning permission. I imagine there’s a lot of people in this equation who don’t know how dire their situation is.” Resident Tracy Milward described the properties as ‘overbearing’, and claimed they blocked sunlight in their gardens.
She said: “This development has been built in breach of the planning application submitted. They have built too high, and too close to the surrounding properties. Consequently ours, and many of our neighbours’ properties are now dwarfed and dominated by this unsightly development.”
She said residents first raised concerns with the council in October 2021 but nothing was done to halt it. She also said it has caused them ‘stress and anxiety’.
She complained: “The system is broken. Persimmon appear to have manipulated planning regulations to their own advantage by submitting drawings they never intended to comply to and then add variations in retrospect. We feel they’re using the system and local communities.”
She said the council would effectively be giving the developer ‘carte blanche’ if they were given the go-ahead. Cheadle town councillor, Paulette Upton agreed, saying: “The plain fact is the developers have blatantly breached the planning permission and we seem to have allowed that to happen.
“Somebody needs to take accountability for this – it sends a shocking message to other developers that they can come to Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, put in a planning application and do what the hell they like.”
Committee chairman, Councillor Stephen Ellis said it was the worst situation he’d been put in, from two decades of being involved with planning decisions, and criticised the council’s planning department for not following up on complaints. He said: “It really is an unacceptable situation to be in – to have a committee consider that your brand new house – your home and your asset – could be flattened, it must be absolutely horrendous.
“I can’t believe we’ve placed either set of residents in this situation. I do feel angry in the way that Persimmon have done that.” Councillor Peter Jackson said a responsible developer would have sought adequate planning permission before carrying out the work.
He said: “I don’t think you’re treating local people with respect.” He also noted the developer still had to return to the council with plans for the second phase of the development – and asked what confidence the committee could have that they would be built correctly.
Councillor Keith Flunder said residents living in the Persimmon houses wouldn’t answer the door during a site visit due to fear. He said: “Those people who are now living in those houses, overlooking the other houses, are in fear – knowing this is coming here today – there’s a potential at the end of it all where we knock them down.”
The council’s head of development Ben Haywood told councillors: “Ultimately it’s a decision for members [of the planning committee] whether the relationship between properties is an acceptable one, and which residents could reasonably be expected to experience.”
He said despite the plans not being followed, officers were still recommending approval for retrospective planning permission. A Persimmon North West spokesperson said: “Planning permission for Pottery Gardens was granted by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council in December 2020.
“The application discussed by the planning committee last week sought non-material amendments to some existing homes in line with this planning permission. While the application was recommended for approval, this has been deferred by the planning committee to allow for further engagement with local residents.
“We fully appreciate the issues that have been raised and have therefore already written to residents requesting time to meet and agree solutions that address these concerns as soon as possible.”
A council spokesman said: “The planning application was considered by the Planning Applications Committee on March 9. Following their site visit and having been addressed by members of the public and the developer, the committee resolved to defer its decision, due to concerns over the impact on a number of existing neighbouring residents.
“At no time did the committee request the demolition of the new houses, but requested that officers, in consultation with the developer and local residents, consider whether mitigation measures could be secured to address their concerns. Consequently, the planning application will be presented back to the planning committee once this has been carried out.”
Outrage at the unusual level of control imposed on media coverage of the home secretary’s trip to Rwanda has grown this weekend during Suella Braverman’s first hours in the country.
Prominent names, including news presenters, academics and opposition MPs expressed shock at what they considered the partisan reporting of the trip from the right-wing news organisations invited to join the trip. The Guardian, BBC, Mirror, Independent and i Newspaper were barred.
Braverman and her Home Office team flew out on Friday to promote the government’s plan to deport asylum seekers to the African country in a controversial deal signed last April by her predecessor, Priti Patel. No one has been relocated to the country so far, as the plan faces legal challenges, but a Home Office source said on Saturday that that they were “certainly working towards getting the flights off before the summer”.
Braverman appeared in a series of photo-ops, laughing with a group of children and posing in front of an accommodation block set to host asylum seekers. In comments that alarmed human rights campaigners, she described the homes as “really beautiful, high quality, welcoming”.
“I quite like your interior designer,” she added. “I need some advice myself.”
The Telegraph, whose reporter was one of a handful from right-wing outlets picked by the Home Office to join the trip, wrote gushingly about the accommodation. “The houses provide families with off street car parking, fibre optic broadband, front and back gardens, an eco-design that also combats humidity and gases rising from the ground and decor that would not look out of place in a British town house.”
Jon Sopel, the BBC’s former North American editor, told the Observer that the row over who was being allowed to cover the trip, with left-leaning or liberal news organisations left out, immediately reminded him of the pressure put on White House political journalists during the presidency of Donald Trump.
“This sounds familiar, that was my first thought,” said Sopel, now the co-host of The News Agents current affairs podcast. “There was a period when several newspaper titles were not going to be allowed in to press briefings. But the difference in America was that the Correspondents Association immediately pointed to the First Amendment of the Constitution and it was not allowed to happen.”
While a smaller group of political reporters, or “pool”, is sometimes conventionally set up for trips where security concerns are paramount, the understanding is usually that all information will be shared with the wider mix of national reporting teams.
Under Boris Johnson’s premiership there were other alleged attempts to vet the reporters and filter the questions at news briefings and press conferences.
Clive Myrie, the BBC’s news anchor, retweeted the Guardian’s critical account of the trip, while other British journalists expressed surprise that approved reporters were prepared to go along with the vetting process. “It is not very collegiate,” said one former newspaper editor on Saturday.
Michela Wrong, a British journalist and author of a recent book on Rwanda, Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad, said the timing of Braverman’s visit was “grotesque”.
“Rwanda and DRC are on the brink of all-out war. The M23 guerrilla group, a Rwandan proxy, has sent 600,000-800,000 Congolese villagers fleeing their homes and Braverman is happily validating the African leader widely recognised to be responsible for the destabilisation of the African Great Lakes.
“Britain should be discussing slapping sanctions on Rwanda – it is the only message Kagame responds to – rather than planning to send migrants there.”
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, was among political opponents who pointed out that time spent in Rwanda publicising Conservative policy was funded by the public purse. She added: “Suella Braverman has still not come clean on the number of people Rwanda will really take in practice or the full cost to the British taxpayer.
“Already the home secretary has written Rwanda cheques for at least £140m even though she has admitted the scheme is failing and the Home Office says it has a high risk of fraud. Instead of expensive PR stunts she should put that money into going after the smuggling gangs to stop dangerous boat crossings.”
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said the trip was “an expensive distraction from the immoral, unworkable Braverman Bill”. He added: “Suella Braverman is wasting taxpayers’ money to flaunt the Conservative party’s latest vanity project in Rwanda. Liberal Democrats will oppose this appalling, anti-refugee law, which is nothing more than a criminal traffickers’ charter.”
On Saturday night the home secretary hailed the partnership with Rwanda after meeting her counterpart, Vincent Biruta. They announced that they had signed an update to their memorandum of understanding, expanding the partnership further “to all categories of people who pass through safe countries and make illegal and dangerous journeys to the UK”.
Braverman said: “We cannot continue to see people risking their lives crossing the Channel, which is why I am pleased to strengthen our agreement even further with the government of Rwanda so we can address the global migration crisis head on.
“Rwanda is a progressive, rapidly growing economy at the forefront of innovation – I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing first-hand the rich opportunities this country can provide to relocated people through our partnership.”
A Rwandan government spokesperson said the country was “ready to absorb the thousands that will come from the UK”.
The number of recorded potholes in Devon is on track to be lower than last year, despite January’s total being the highest in a single month for three years.
Figures by Devon County Council, which excludes Torbay and Plymouth, shows 34,199 recorded potholes in the 11 full months of 2022/23, compared to 44,263 the previous year.
However, almost 7,400 were recorded in January, the most since March 2020. A report to be presented to a council scrutiny meeting on Thursday [23 March] blames this on “the cycle of very wet weather followed by very cold spells.”
It adds: “The number of potholes waiting for repair with our contractor peaked at almost 3,000 at the end of January, however through the use of additional and carefully coordinated resources this number reduced significantly on a day-to-day basis, with as many as 2,200 potholes being repaired each week.
“This has been achieved by doubling the number of pothole gangs across the network from 20 to 40, as well as additional hours and weekend working.”
It comes as the government announced a further £9.4 million for pothole repairs in Devon this week, as part of £200 million extra for the whole country in chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s budget.
County council leader John Hart (Conservative, Bickleigh & Wembury) said: “I’m delighted that the chancellor has announced extra money for us to tackle potholes.
“I’d like to thank all our MPs for their support, especially those identified by the chancellor who he said had lobbied very strongly on our behalf.”
Tory MPs Selaine Saxby (North Devon), Gary Streeter (SW Devon) and Anne Marie Morris (Newton Abbot) were all given a mention at the dispatch box by Mr Hunt.
Councillor Stuart Hughes (Conservative, Sidmouth), Devon’s highways chief, said this winter’s weather has had significant impact on the condition of Devon’s 8,000-mile road network – the longest in England.
“We’ve seen the worst conditions for potholes, with torrential rain and very cold snaps that have played havoc with the condition of our roads.
“We welcome this additional funding, which will contribute to our extensive maintenance and repair programme.”
The UK is still on course to be the only big wealthy economy to register negative growth this year, despite an upturn in growth prospects, according to new international forecasts.
Projections from the Organisation for Economic Coordination and Development (OECD) show that the UK economy will be an outlier among wealthier countries with an annual contraction in growth this year of 0.2 per cent.
That is 0.2 percentage points better than the OECD’s last forecast in November but remains the worst performance among the richest countries.
The OECD’s forecast matches updated projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which said this week that the economy would narrowly avoid a technical recession this year, defined as two quarters of negative growth. The improved outlook is the result of lower energy prices and resilient consumer and business sentiment recorded this year. The economy will experience a “mild” recovery of 0.9 per cent next year, according to the OECD forecast.
Germany, which was expected to be the worst-performing economy in the eurozone, will now record positive growth of 0.3 per cent rather than a 0.3 per cent contraction, according to the OECD, which also upgraded its projections for Italy, Spain and France. The single currency area is on course to record annual growth of 0.8 per cent this year and global growth to fall from 3.2 per cent in 2022 to 2.6 per cent.
The United States, the world’s largest economy, will record growth of 1.5 per cent this year, 0.5 percentage points better than the last forecast, before slowing to growth of 0.9 per cent in 2024, partly as a result of aggressive monetary tightening from the US Federal Reserve.
Headline inflation in the UK is on course to average 6.7 per cent this year, in line with the likes of Germany and Italy. The OBR expects consumer price inflation to drop to 2.9 per cent by the end of the year.
The OECD said growth across the world economy would remain below pre-pandemic trends but falling inflation would give a bigger boost to incomes this year than expected. “The improvement in the outlook is still fragile,” it said. “Risks have become somewhat better balanced but remain tilted to the downside. Uncertainty about the course of the war in Ukraine and its broader consequences is a key concern.”
Amid concerns over global financial stability following the collapse of three US banks this week the report warned that further interest rate rises could “continue to expose financial vulnerabilities” in the markets.
Problems in parts of the financial system in recent months, including the UK’s pension fund crisis, will require central banks to carry out “clear communication” over the shrinking of their balance sheets to “minimise the risk of contagion”, the OECD said.
“Higher interest rates could also have stronger effects on economic growth than expected, particularly if they expose underlying financial vulnerabilities. While a cooling of overheated markets, including real estate markets, and repricing of financial portfolios are standard channels through which monetary policy takes effect, the full impact of higher interest rates is hard to gauge.”
James Hunt, the chancellor, said: “The British economy has proven more resilient than many expected, outperforming many forecasts to be the fastest growing economy in the G7 last year, and is on track to avoid recession.
“Earlier this week I set out a plan to grow the economy by unleashing business investment and helping more people into work, alongside extending our significant energy bill support to help with rising prices, made possible by our windfall tax on energy profits.”
It seems from an article on here today that even turnips will be off the menu. The largest grower of turnips who is in Coffeys constituency has given up growing them. He supplied a huge percentage of UKs turnips.
The UKs largest tomato growers are also giving up growing tomatoes on an 18 hectare sight in Norfolk ,and one of largest growers of cucumbers is also ceasing growing them.
Many other crops will probably see a reduction of 25% in plantings this year.
All going well for those Brexit supporters who say we can just live off what we produce here and share it out.
The leadership of Plymouth City Council is coming under increasing pressure after instructing contractors to fell more than a hundred trees in Armada Way.
Environmentalist Chris Packham branded it “despicable vandalism.”
Council leader Richard Bingley issued an ‘executive order’ with little publicity on Tuesday, not long after a public consultation over the controversial plans ended.
The council wants to regenerate the city centre and plans to replace the felled trees with new semi-mature ones. Pit is spending £12.7 million to revamp Armada Way, with some of the money coming from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund for walking and cycling.
Last month, a protest group called Save the Trees of Armada Way, or Straw, got a stay of execution, but soon after that ended, the felling began. Security guards blocked off the highway once darkness fell, and the chainsaws went into action.
The council says it was best to chop the trees down at night for health and safety reasons.
Save the Trees got a High Court injunction, which was served on contractors at 1 a.m. on Wednesday, but only 15 trees were saved.
At 1am the local campaign to save the trees, Straw, obtained an injunction that halted the felling and saved 15 trees. They vow to continue their fight.
Alison White, of Straw said the council has “needlessly chopped down healthy mature trees. The people of Plymouth could not have made their views clearer that they were against this. It is a disgrace.”
Luke Pollard, the Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said: “It’s a scene of environmental devastation and utter council vandalism.
“I’m appalled at the actions of the Tory council. Sad day for our city.”
The Woodland Trust said it was “appalled” at the use of “secretive night-time operations”. “We hoped after direct conversations with Plymouth City Council that a far higher proportion of trees could have been retained,” they said.
Two local authorities have been put into special measures after struggling to recover from the bad investments and governance failings that pushed them into effective bankruptcy.
The London borough of Croydon and Thurrock borough council in Essex have been told that government-appointed managers will take over the day-to-day running of operations, including overseeing all major financial and senior staffing decisions.
The local government minister, Lee Rowley, also raised concerns about the post-bankruptcy progress of a third council, Slough, which he said showed “an unacceptable lack of urgency and focus … to resolve the situation it has placed itself in”.
The stepping up of government intervention at Thurrock and Croydon takes place against a backdrop of wider financial fragility in local authorities in England, which are desperately cutting services while putting up council tax and parking fees in an effort to remain financially solvent. About 12 councils are thought to be on the edge of effective bankruptcy.
Although Croydon and Thurrock were already being partially overseen by independent commissioners, ministers have been frustrated by what they see as the slow pace of recovery. The councils must make huge cuts to services and sell off assets to help bridge financial deficits running into hundreds of millions of pounds.
Croydon and Thurrock have set record council tax bills from April, putting them up by 15% and 10% respectively at a time when the typical council tax uprating in England for a council of their size is 5%.
The Tory-run Thurrock council declared effective bankruptcy just before Christmas after running up an unprecedented deficit when a series of risky investments in solar farms and other businesses turned sour. The resulting £500m hole in its finances is one of the biggest ever financial disasters in local government.
An interim report from inspectors identified a range of serious shortcomings in the management and governance of Thurrock. It criticised the council’s leadership for “unconscious incompetence” – a state brought on by endemic complacency, secrecy and a failure to properly scrutinise decisions.
Thurrock has a financial deficit this year of £470m, a long-term structural shortfall of £184m and debts of £1.3bn. As a consequence, the inspectors said the council was “equipped to do little more than a minimum level of [service] provision for the foreseeable future, if indeed they can continue [to provide services] at all”.
A final inspectors’ report on Thurrock was delayed after commissioners said they needed more time to unravel the scale of the corporate and financial failure. It is expected to be published imminently.
Councillors in North Devon have criticised plans to withdraw the homelessness prevention fund. Devon County Council recently confirmed that it is considering stopping its £1.5 million a year grant to district councils in the county as it can no longer afford it.
The council is currently consulting the public about the proposed service cut, which coincides with a recent increase in council tax. The money goes towards housing rough sleepers at managed living hostels. Around 250 people currently benefit from it at any given time.
Over 100 more people receive support from Sanctuary Supported Living’s countywide ‘floating’ service. Just under three quarters of a million pounds from that scheme helps households avoid homelessness.
Devon County Council gives £112,000 of the grant to North Devon District Council to house people at The Maples hostel in Barnstaple, which has nine beds. North Devon Councils’ response to the consultation will ask the county authority to continue paying the grant.
Liberal Democrat council leader, Cllr David Worden, representing South Molton, is concerned. “This is something that will come back on us if it is actually closed,” he said at a full council meeting.
We need to actually get them [Devon County Council] to understand that this is a service that really needs to continue. Vulnerable people will be suffering as a result of this, and this council will have to try and pick up the pieces.”
Cllr Worden’s Liberal Democrat colleague Cllr Helen Walker (Bickington) said the subsequent loss of drugs and alcohol specialists would be “disastrous,” while Green Party Cllr Netti Pearson (Ilfracombe) urged her colleagues to respond to the consultation to try to protect the service.
Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.
Exmouth is a large sandy resort beach at the mouth of the River Exe backed by a promenade and the town. A memento of its Victorian heyday fine gardens and parks also back the beach. There is a sewer overflow discharging through an outfall to the south east which may affect bathing water quality especially after heavy rainfall. Exmouth
Pollution Alert: Storm sewage has been discharged from a sewer overflow in this location within the past 48 hours.
….In recent years, a spotlight has been shone on storm overflows and CSOs. Water tourism is booming across our region, including windsurfing in places such as Exmouth and Sidmouth in my constituency. However, there is another reason why people have finally started talking about the issue: the Conservative Government have put in place a plan to improve our water, giving us all an opportunity to hold water companies to account.
!……Of course, in a perfect world, we would stop sewage spills completely and immediately. Sadly, that is virtually impossible in the short term; because of the pressure on our water infrastructure, we would risk the collapse of the entire water network, and the eye-watering costs involved mean we would need not just a magic money tree, but a whole forest.
Spaceport Cornwall and Cornwall Council have said that they want to “grow the space cluster” in Cornwall despite its main operator Virgin Orbit announcing it was pausing all activity. The US firm announced this morning that it was stopping all activity and that almost all staff would be on furlough as it tries to secure new investment.
The announcement comes just weeks after Virgin Orbit undertook its first launch from Spaceport Cornwall which ended in failure following an anomaly with the rocket which was set to launch small satellites into space. Virgin Orbit is a key partner with Spaceport Cornwall and currently the only company which has launch capability.
In its statement today Virgin Orbit said: “Virgin Orbit is initiating a company-wide operational pause, effective March 16, 2023, and anticipates providing an update on go-forward operations in the coming weeks.”
There were concerns about what January’s failed mission could mean for Spaceport Cornwall and Virgin Orbit has been reported as saying that it was unlikely to attempt another launch this year. It had originally been expected that the company would carry out several launches a year from Cornwall.
Spaceport Cornwall is a horizontal launch site which is suited to Virgin Orbit’s system which uses a modified jumbo jet with a rocket launcher system attached under a wing which is capable of launching satellites into orbit. The plane can take off from Cornwall and then deploy the rocket whilst in flight.
The site at Newquay is the only spaceport in the UK which has a licence, although a vertical launch spaceport is currently being developed at a site in Scotland. It is expected to have its first launch by the end of 2023.
Cornwall Council has invested more than £10million into Spaceport Cornwall and claimed that the venture will result in hundreds of new jobs and attract businesses in the space industry to Cornwall. There are already many companies in the Duchy which have links to the space industry including Goonhilly Earth Station.
Both Spaceport Cornwall and Cornwall Council issued identical statements in response to today’s announcements from Virgin Orbit. Cornwall councillor Louis Gardner, Cabinet member for the economy, said: “It is clearly a difficult time for the Virgin Orbit team as they navigate the next stage of their company, and we will await further information from them as events unfold.
“Our focus at Spaceport Cornwall is to continue to grow the space cluster in Cornwall, alongside progressing relationships with spaceflight operators. We remain the only licensed spaceport in the UK and our plan is to build on that position.”
The Independent’s editorial on Jeremy Hunt and the £1bn apprenticeship rip-off was a fascinating read. Hunt must have noticed it, and if he does not it will reflect badly on him and his government. The question as to why we are funding “apprentice” courses for top executives on £100k a year is not difficult to answer.
It is the product of the Tory view that the public purse is their pork barrel. The notion that funding the MBA of an active employee on a six-figure salary, plus benefits no doubt, is equivalent to a young person learning a skill for life from an employer at what is frequently a low wage is an absurdity. And they are funded in mutual competition from the same pot!?
Like the needs of the Tory party and the needs of society, they are poles apart. It is ironic that Tory governments, while dipping their oversize and grasping mitts into public funds, simultaneously maintain the tax havens and trust arrangements that ensure supporters and funders do not contribute their fair share of tax to the public resources they consistently plunder.
We are still involved in the painfully slow process of assessing the PPE contract fiasco, another product of their greedy “fill your boots” philosophy. Hunt must act now; if he does not he underscores yet another Tory failure. We can safely assume that he will not deal with tax havens.
Budget plans to encourage people back to work will have limited impact and cost £70,000 a job, a think tank says.
Value for money? – Owl
By Daniel Thomas, Kevin Peachey & Lucy Hooker www.bbc.co.uk
The changes are expected to bring 110,000 back to work, which the Institute for Fiscal Studies said was “just a fraction” of the those who’d left work over the past two years.
The government will spend billions to boost labour supply via tax breaks on pensions and expanded free childcare.
It said the plans would help to grow the economy and raise living standards.
Paul Johnson, director of the IFS, said the government’s forecaster had calculated the overall plan to boost workforce numbers will cost around £7bn a year and increase employment by around 110,000.
“That’s a cost of nearly £70,000 per job,” he says.
While the chancellor “might have some success” it was likely to be modest given the large number of people “lost from the workforce in the last couple of years”, he added.
Persuading workers to work for longer is part of UK plans to boost growth, with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Wednesday announcement on tax and spending being dubbed the “Back to work Budget”.
Mr Johnson said the impact of annual net immigration numbers – assumed at 245,000 – would be far more significant for boosting employment.
The government said its independent finances watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had revised its outlook for economic growth upwards “by the largest amount ever in their forecasts” as a result of the Budget’s measures.
A spokesman added: “[The OBR] also says extending 30 hours of free childcare to parents of nine months to two year olds… will lead to many more increasing their hours – helping to grow the economy and raise living standards for everyone.”
The Budget also included measures to support disabled people who want to work, programmes to encourage retirees to take on jobs or apprenticeships, and changes to the rules around health-related benefits and universal credit.
On Wednesday, the OBR, noted that the impact of the back to work policies was uncertain, saying the final figure for the number of extra people in work could be half (or double) the main estimate of 110,000 workers.
That could, in turn, double or halve the cost-per-worker of the policy.
The OBR further estimate that extra workers will boost the size of the economy by 0.2% – equivalent to about £4.5bn, some of which the government will get back in extra taxes and a smaller benefits bill.
Wheel Cottage Exmouth Road Colaton Raleigh Devon EX10 0LERef. No: 23/0537/CPE | Validated: Fri 10 Mar 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
East Devon Watch 