Devon residents have been left fearful of the impact that a ‘second Cranbrook’ to be built on the edge of Exeter could have. The new town is included in the draft version of the new East Devon Local Plan.

Mary Stenson www.devonlive.com 

With an exact location yet to be agreed, it is likely that it will be situated on the western side of East Devon close to the border with Exeter. The town’s boundary will be agreed by November 1, councillors on Friday were told.

Having been dubbed a ‘second Cranbrook’, some fear of the impact a new town with further housing could have on services and the environment in East Devon. Concerns have been raised about whether there is the infrastructure to cope with the influx of homes.

The plan suggests the new town is a long-term project, with new homes unlikely to be completed until around 2030 and anticipates that the overall development of the town could run beyond 2050. Other parts of the district were also highlighted in the Local Plan as areas that could see further housing.

The draft Local Plan policy says that they will require on-site social and community facilities in line with needs specifically generated by the development. It adds: “Development will need to occur and proceed on an agreed phased basis.

“The town will be built to distinctive high quality design standards with an explicit focus on sustainable construction and building operation and renewable energy production and use. Open spaces and facilities will be readily accessible to all residents with convenient and attractive pedestrian and cycle links to local destinations and access to high quality public transport services.”

The draft plan continues: “Infrastructure provision will need to come forward with overall development proposals. It will accommodate a full range of social, leisure, health, community and education facilities (including new schools) to meet the needs of all age groups that will live in the new town.

“Employment shall be made throughout the town to provide a range of business spaces suitable for the needs of businesses as they develop and grow and to accommodate a range of employment opportunities for residents of the new town and surrounding areas.

“A town centre will provide a focal point for retail, business and leisure activities and will be designed to create a vibrant day and night-time economy and this will be complemented by a series of smaller neighbourhood centres.”

But with work on Cranbrook’s town centre only beginning now, ten years after houses started to spring up, and people moved into the new town, there is scepticism from locals that the infrastructure would come alongside the housing. And while the concept of a second ‘new town’ for East Devon is not new, reaction to the proposals has been mixed at best.

For many, their most pressing concern was the need for additional services to cope with an increase in population in the area, including one person who asked: “Have they included health centre and GP practice in their proposals? Services are already at breaking point due to demand”.

One person agreed, adding that local services should be prioritised over housing, saying: “No mention of hospital or other amenities & improved infrastructure. They should be first followed by houses.”

Others suggested the need for other local resources to be developed to allow for increased demand, proposing: “Perhaps somewhere a new reservoir should be built as well”. Another said “Yet still no more recycling centres to cope with additional waste”.

The impact on the environment and local landscape was another point of discussion in response to the new development. Some feared that building new homes was “Destroying the Devon countryside one field at a time.”

Another disgruntled commenter agreed, explaining: “Building on prime farmland in an era when global food shortages are on the horizon, so we’ve been told. Pure genius. Well done. Take a bow.”

Some questioned the need for more housing after the development of Cranbrook in recent years. One said: “Haha finish Cranbrook before starting another project. I’d like to know where are these 8000 families coming from to fill the homes once built? They must have homes already”.

However, not everyone was unhappy with the plans, including one person who celebrated the news, saying: “Good… progress at last”.

Last week, a draft version of the new Local Plan for East Devon revealed hopes for another housing development, forming the basis of a new town. The full draft version of the East Devon Local Plan is set to be debated on November 1, before public consultation begins.

A correspondent says the South West Water platform has moved recently and sent a photo of it off Straight Point with, possibly, two tugs to the left.

Latest news on the “Nasty Party” – Owl

Liz Truss is teetering on the edge of performing another big U-turn as Tory MPs warned she would lose a vote on delivering a real-terms cut to benefits while new research showed the move could push an extra 450,000 people into poverty.

Aubrey Allegretti www.theguardian.com 

Despite desperate pleas for party unity from senior ministers after weeks of bitter infighting, the row over welfare threatened to overshadow the prime minister’s attempt to reassert her authority when the Commons returns from recess on Tuesday.

Fresh threats of moves to oust Truss if she digs in were also being discussed by MPs over the weekend, while senior Tories, including former chancellor George Osborne, warned the Conservatives ran the risk of a wipeout at the next election for embarking on a “political experiment”.

In their ring-around of colleagues on Sunday, government whips were warned that dozens of Tory backbenchers would rebel against benefits rising in line with earnings – about 5.5% – rather than September’s inflation figure, which stands at about 10%.

While no formal vote is required, it is believed that an amendment would be tabled to the finance bill which would force all MPs to show their hand.

Unease extends the full length of the party, with some figures in the cabinet thought to be pushing Truss to match the inflation increase. One government source put the number of backbenchers who would rebel at least 30, while another said No 10 would be “forced to cave”.

Truss’s U-turn last week to reinstate the top rate of tax after the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced it would be abolished in the mini-budget has given some Tory MPs heart they can force another climbdown. “She gave in on 45p, she’ll have to do so again,” said one.

In a sign Truss was softening her stance, a No 10 source insisted “nothing is decided” and added: “She will listen.”

It came as new analysis by a conservative thinktank, seen exclusively by the Guardian, showed low-income households with children, or people with disabilities, would bear the brunt of any move to uprate universal credit and other working-age benefits in line with earnings rather than inflation.

Such a move would swell UK relative poverty rates already at their highest level this century, the Legatum Institute said, as the cost of living crisis leaves millions of people struggling to pay energy bills and put food on the table regularly.

Legatum estimated more than 1.5 million more people in the UK will be in relative poverty this winter compared with before the Covid pandemic, even after the government’s energy support packages. Real-terms benefit cuts next April would boost the overall figure to 16 million, nearly a quarter of the UK population.

Tory peer Lady Stroud, the chief executive of Legatum, urged ministers to uprate benefits in full. “Failing to do so … would consign many on low incomes to a winter of impossible choices between heating their homes, putting food on the table or putting fuel in their car to get to work,” she said.

Conservatives from all wings of the party are angry Truss is prepared to drop Boris Johnson’s promise, made in May, to uprate benefits in full, potentially leaving millions of low-income families hundreds of pounds worse off in the middle of a cost of living crisis.

Those who have publicly opposed a real-terms cut to benefits include the Commons leader, Penny Mordaunt, the former chief Brexit negotiator Lord Frost, and the former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, who called the cuts “cruel” and “a lurch to the right”.

Stephen Crabb, a Conservative MP and former work and pensions secretary, said the Legatum findings were “further evidence cutting benefits in real terms will inevitably lead to an increase in poverty and hardship, at the worst possible time”.

The welfare budget was targeted by ministers after it became clear the government would need to cut billions from public spending after its disastrous mini-budget last month. Uprating by earnings would save the Treasury about £5bn, an option condemned by anti-poverty campaigners as “morally indefensible”.

The Legatum Institute analysis found uprating benefits in line with earnings rather than – as is the convention – September price inflation would result in 450,000 more people in poverty in 2023-24. Of these, 350,000 would be in households where someone works, and 250,000 in families that included a disabled person.

Such a cut would also result in a quarter of a million more people pushed into “deep poverty”, defined as an income at least 50% below the official poverty line. People in deep poverty are in near destitution, facing a constant struggle to afford basic essentials such as food, energy, clothing and toiletries.

Legatum also modelled the impact of an even more severe real-terms cut – freezing benefits at their 2022 levels. This would result in an extra 1 million people in relative poverty next year, including 700,000 people in deep poverty.

The findings were echoed in a separate study by the charity Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), which concluded 200,000 children – almost all in families where one parent is working – would be in poverty if benefits were raised in line with wages rather than inflation.

An analysis by consultants Policy in Practice estimated low-income families would be almost £400 a year worse off as a result of real-terms cuts. The cut is even larger for some groups, with in-work households losing out by £458 and couples with children £640 worse off.

Given the Conservatives’ poll ratings, which are hovering about 30 points behind Labour, some have warned Truss could lead the party to electoral annihilation.

Dorries on Sunday told the BBC that if an election were held tomorrow, the Tories would face a “complete wipeout”, while Osborne believed voters would judge the prime minister’s “political experiment” harshly. “I think a Tory wipeout is potentially on the cards, but we’ve got two years to run,” he told Channel 4.

However, Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, appealed for colleagues to come together and warned that inter-party division would only hamper delivery of policies, leading to defeat. He said the Conservatives had 24 months to win back trust, suggesting the election would be in October 2024.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said: “The secretary of state commences her statutory annual review of benefits and state pensions from late October using the most recent prices and earnings indices available.

“We are committed to looking after the most vulnerable which is why we’ve delivered at least £1,200 of support to families this winter while also saving households an average of £1,000 a year through our energy price guarantee. This support is on top of the annual working-age benefits bill which is over £87bn.”

A charity has accused the Environment Agency of being “missing in action” at the height of the pandemic after figures revealed inspections of companies’ monitoring at sewage treatment plants dramatically.

www.thetimes.co.uk

Each year the regulator inspects the self-monitoring that water companies undertake for discharges into rivers from the 6,327 wastewater treatment works across England and Wales to ensure the data withstands scrutiny. Between 2015 and 2019 there was an average of 475 inspections a year.

However, statistics released under freedom of information rules show inspections more than halved in 2020, to 223, before increasing last year to 334. The lack of oversight coincided with a period of water pollution incidents in English rivers that led the Environment Agency to threaten water bosses with jail sentences.

Christine Colvin, from The Rivers Trust, said: “Self-monitoring by the water companies can only work in a highly transparent and accountable environment. This was missing in action during 2020 and 2021 with the low level of visits.

“It’s now clear that complacency cannot continue and the public want urgent action to stop sewage pollution.”

Political pressure on water companies to tackle sewage spills is intensifying. Last week Ranil Jayawardena, the environment secretary, vowed to increase maximum fines from £250,000 to £250 million.

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said: “Site inspections of wastewater treatment works ran at a reduced rate during the pandemic in line with government advice to minimise the risk to staff, water company personnel and the public. This does not mean that regulation decreased.”

However, sources said that inspections could have been prioritised. One insider at the regulator said: “The Covid excuse is nonsense as both agency and water companies were key workers, unless they class these inspections as very low priority. Also, inspections can always be made up over a year, and the agency chose not to.”

Most Covid-related restrictions were relaxed in spring 2021. In another sign that suggests the drop could have been avoided if given greater priority, The Times understands there were several attempts to make checks remotely.

One source at the regulator said resourcing was the problem. “The inspections side has been pared back to the bone. The reason [for the fall] was a reduction in resources to the agency.”

Colvin said: “We need strong regulation. We need a regulator equipped to do the job, and site visits are an essential component of that work.”

Philip Dunne, Tory chairman of the environmental audit committee, which published a damning report on the state of England’s rivers in January, said: “It is clear reliance on self-monitoring has been part of the problem of sewage discharges in recent years. It is therefore more important than ever that audits and inspections carried out by the Environment Agency are robust.”

• Thousands of Environment Agency staff are to be balloted on a potential strike over pay, the Unison union said. This year workers voted to reject an offer of 2 per cent plus an additional £345.

Simon Clarke, the levelling up secretary, threatens to reignite the feud over housebuilding within the Conservative party with a significant “planning reset” that could water down environmental protections and affordable home requirements across England.

[According to this article Clarke has been meeting with several MPs who were staunch rebels on the planning reforms attempted by Johnson’s government. Would these include Simon Jupp? Unlikely – Owl]

Aubrey Allegretti www.theguardian.com 

The latest in Liz Truss’s string of supply side reforms – nicknamed “Operation Rolling Thunder” in Whitehall – is slated to be launched by Clarke within weeks, and is expected to see him argue for a flurry of housing development as part of the government’s “dash for growth”.

He will probably claim that creating new houses would be better to grow the British economy than reshuffling assets between older and younger generations, and wants to launch a charm offensive on voters who do not want new developments in their area – which would see him “fighting to turn nimbys into yimbys”.

Clarke has said building more houses should not mean compromising on quality, beauty or the environment. But he has drawn up plans, seen by the Guardian, to reduce barriers for developers in England.

The proposed measures include a bonfire of red tape pertaining to aspects of housing development such as EU rules, affordable housing, nutrient pollution and biodiversity improvements.

Government sources also said the target of building 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s had quietly been abandoned. They said it was unlikely to be officially abolished, as it had been a 2019 manifesto pledge, even though Truss hit out over the summer at “Soviet-style targets”.

But blue wall Tory MPs in the south-east of England are pressing for a firm commitment that the nationally imposed housing target will be dropped, and are wary of further planning reforms that would lead to a significant increase in development.

They are seeking to ensure local authorities maintain a “master veto” over developments before pledging their support to Clarke’s plan. This would keep any drastic new developments to areas that want them – but potentially limit the plans to turbocharge housing numbers.

One former minister said: “If we’re really going to fix the housing crisis, then you need something that’s profoundly radical. The problem is Liz probably doesn’t have a majority in parliament – so maybe this is the best they could do.”

Clarke is understood to have held meetings with several MPs who were staunch rebels on the planning reforms attempted by Johnson’s government, and is wary of again sparking a fierce backlash from backbenchers – particularly after a bitterly divisive Tory party conference.

Labour said the government must “think again” if their big idea was to “slash and burn regulations in a mythical search for growth”.

Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling-up secretary, said: “To get growth we need to invest to create good, well-paid jobs, get businesses thriving, and get money back in people’s pockets. The answer is not less affordable housing, fewer environmental protections, more fracking, new warehouses and tax giveaways for the largest corporations.

“We have a Tory economic crisis, made in Downing Street, being paid for by working people. The government should be reversing its disastrous budget, not doubling down on an approach that has crashed the economy.”

In his plans, Clarke is pushing for developers in England to be given “greater flexibility on affordable housing requirements”, and wants to ease requirements for builders to leave land in a better state for the environment than beforehand, known as “biodiversity net gain”.

Housing delays caused by nutrient pollution, when development contaminates nearby earth and surrounding bodies of water, are also to be reduced.

Clarke wants to scrap what he described as the “perverse outcomes of historic EU regulations and rulings that are currently blocking 100,000 homes in this country”. The aim is for these laws to be scrapped in the spring of 2023, well before all retained EU law falls off the statute book automatically by the end of next December.

Quangos viewed as having unnecessary interference in the planning system would also be shut out of the process, with some – such as Active Travel England, which is the agency responsible for promoting walking and cycling – told they no longer have a legal right to be consulted on planning applications. And Clarke wants to allow more people to convert agricultural and commercial properties into homes.

While his proposals have been submitted to No 10, Truss’s team have not given their signoff and other departments are yet to offer their response.

Amid concerns among some Conservative MPs that Boris Johnson’s levelling up agenda is dead, Clarke is also expected to recommit to the mission in a speech earmarked for 19 October.

A source said No 10 had pushed for Clarke’s announcement to be focused on planning, but the Teesside MP wanted to widen it to include more aspects of levelling up, growth and opportunity.

Truss’s team initially wanted eight big supply-side reform announcements across October, but given the torrent of criticism she has faced from many in her own party, the number could be slimmed down as Downing Street seeks to focus on “quality, not quantity”.

Last year, there were 216,490 new homes built in England. The figure was down by 11% compared with the previous year.

A government spokesperson said: “The government is committed to exploring policies that build the homes people need, deliver new jobs, support economic development and boost local economies.”

“You turn off if you want to”

Talks have been held to identify fresh sites for new homes in East Devon when the district council this week met to agree potential locations in Exmouth, Honiton and Sidmouth.

Local Democracy Reporter eastdevonnews.co.uk

East Devon is pressing ahead with its local plan 2020-2040 with recommendations to endorse the sites suggested for development, despite protests from several strategic planning committee members, writes local democracy reporter Georgia Cornish.

On Tuesday (September 6) the committee at East Devon District Council (EDDC) discussed a report outlining a number of preferred and “second best” sites for what they call tier one and two settlements around the district that may be suitable for development.

The tier system references a hierarchy of settlements being discussed, with tier one indicating places in Exmouth, tier two being Honiton and Sidmouth, three covering Axminster, Seaton, Ottery St Mary, Budleigh Salterton and Cranbrook and finally, tier four which includes Clyst St Mary, Uplyme, Colyton, Beer, Broadclyst, Lympstone, Woodbury and Dunkeswell.

Concerns raised in the report included the current plan failing to reach the desired number of new homes – it is currently expected to be 1,899 properties short.

Allocating additional “second best” sites could alleviate the shortfall in tiers one and two, with additional housing planned for tiers three and four once assessments have begun at that level.  Housing density, currently being modelled at “reasonably typical standard density levels,” could be increased too.  Other adjustments could limit the shortfall, as could expanding Cranbrook.

While some objections were raised about the locations of the proposed developments, more concern was expressed about the lack of infrastructure to support these new settlements.

Councillor Jess Bailey [Independent, West Hill and Aylesbeare] said the target for housing was “incredibly burdensome,” and that she feared the manner in which the proposed sites have been assessed is “too anecdotal”.

She called for more refined assessments, ones that outline what would happen should infrastructure such as schools and healthcare provision be lacking.

The lack of infrastructure across Devon has been highlighted recently in a BBC survey finding that no dental practices in the county are accepting adult NHS patients. The waiting list is reported to have reached 78,000 patients last summer, with an increasing number of dentists dropping patients from their NHS lists.

The recommendations, backed by the majority of committee members, will be applied to future plans and revisited at future meeting.

The strategic planning committee will meet again on Friday (September 9) to discuss plans for tier three and four settlements.

Liz Truss’s personal ratings are now even worse than those recorded for Boris Johnson at the height of the Partygate scandal, according to another Observer poll which will cause alarm among Tory MPs.

[And if it’s any consolation for her, Kwarteng’s approval is even worse.]

61% of all voters say there should be a general election this year, with a quarter against the idea.

Michael Savage www.theguardian.com 

Truss’s personal approval rating of -47 is now the worst ever recorded for a prime minister in an Opinium poll for the Observer. It is a worse rating than that recorded for Johnson during Partygate and Theresa May in the weeks before her resignation.

It suggests that the perception of the prime minister among voters has worsened despite the Tory party conference, when leaders and parties traditionally see a bump in support as they are given the chance to present their political vision.

Her net approval rating has fallen by 10 points since last week as a result of a significant rise in the number of voters who say they “disapprove” of the job she is doing. The figure was up nine points to 64%. Only 16% approve of the job she is doing. She has an overall approval rating of -47 after rounding is taken into account.

In a concerning sign for Truss, her approval figures are almost as bad among leave voters as remain voters. Among leavers, 61% disapprove of the job she is doing, while 19% approve. Among remainers, 74% disapprove, while 12% approve. Truss successfully won the mantle of the Brexiter candidate for the Tory leadership, despite having backed remain during the EU referendum campaign.

However, chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s ratings are even worse at -51 overall. It follows a mini-budget blamed for crashing the pound, inducing market chaos and leading to a major party conference U-turn over abolishing the top rate of tax. Keir Starmer’s figures are largely unchanged, with a net approval of +9.

With Truss facing opposition to her plans from her own MPs on several fronts, most voters (53%) think she should resign. Only 25% think she should remain Tory leader. Among voters who backed the Tories at the last election, 41% say she should remain in post, while 39% say she should resign.

Overall, Labour’s lead of 21 points is now the biggest Opinium has ever recorded, though the company started polling after the peak of New Labour’s popularity. Labour has tended to have smaller leads than recorded with other polling companies because of the way Opinium treats how likely voters are to cast a ballot.

After a Tory conference characterised by public spats among cabinet ministers over immigration, tax and welfare, voters were unsurprisingly clear on which party had enjoyed the better conference. Asked about Labour’s conference, 44% said it had gone well, with 12% believing it had gone badly. For the Conservatives, 19% thought it had gone well, with 49% saying it had gone badly.

The Conservatives are holding on to just 60% of their 2019 voting coalition. Labour is holding on to 87% of its 2019 voters. 61% of all voters say there should be a general election this year, with a quarter against the idea.

Adam Drummond, Opinium’s associate director, said: “The Conservative party conference has not, it seems safe to say, given the Truss administration the boost in the polls it might have hoped for. The fact that the prime minister seems determined to avoid up-rating universal credit in line with inflation puts her on the wrong side of public opinion on the issue.

“Even though voters generally like it when politicians U-turn to abandon unpopular policies, the fact that ‘U-turning to abandon unpopular policies’ seems to have defined her time in office so far means that she doesn’t even get the benefit of being seen as principled: her ratings for this are as poor as they are for being competent or being a strong leader.”

Opinium polled 2,023 people online from 5-7 October.

The “Pro-growth Coalition” unmasked!

Liz Truss is facing a rural revolt against her plans to prioritise a “dash for economic growth” over nature protection and the environment.

[The latest Opinium poll for the Observer, taken after the disastrous Tory conference in Birmingham last week, shows the biggest Labour lead ever recorded by the company.]

Helena Horton www.theguardian.com 

Senior party figures, including ministers under Boris Johnson’s premiership and former Tory leader William Hague, have joined the National Trust, the RSPB, the Angling Trust and Wildlife Trusts in criticising what they see as environmental vandalism.

It follows concerns Truss is treating the leading nature charities as part of a so-called “anti-growth coalition” that she claims to be confronting.

As MPs return to parliament, Truss is facing Tory revolts on several fronts in the wake of a chaotic party conference. Senior MPs believe she is now a “prisoner of the parliamentary party”, unable to force through controversial policies on tax, welfare and immigration. The environment has become the latest flashpoint.

Former nature minister Rebecca Pow, who resigned over Partygate, spoke out against the attack on nature organisations. Former environment secretary George Eustice is said to be dismayed at the way policies he championed are being dismantled.

Pow told the Observer: “The government must engage the full range of stakeholders when developing agricultural and environmental policies, including farmers and NGOs. They bring valuable evidence and are practitioners who deliver nature recovery and food production on the ground.

“As environment minister, I consulted them regularly when developing the Environment Act’s targets to improve and restore the environment. Similarly, their views were crucial in helping design ELMs to achieve those targets and set us on a trajectory for healthy ecosystems and sustainable food production.”

Nature groups are now working together to mobilise their millions of members against Conservative policies. With Tory support collapsing in the polls, the prospect of rural Conservatives deserting en masse will further alarm Tory MPs as they return to Westminster this week.

The latest Opinium poll for the Observer, taken after the disastrous Tory conference in Birmingham last week, shows the biggest Labour lead ever recorded by the company. Keir Starmer’s party holds a 21-point lead, while Truss’s personal approval rating is the worst the company has recorded for a prime minister.

Truss used her conference speech to attack an “anti-growth coalition” that included the green lobby.

Wildlife groups are concerned rare animals and plants could lose their protections when the promised “bonfire” of EU red tape happens later this year. Species are also at risk from the government’s plans to set up new investment zones. Truss’s growth plan says environmental legislation could be slashed to make development in these areas easier.

Though No 10 has promised to protect the environment, it has given no specific assurances for areas of outstanding natural beauty, sites of special scientific interest or national nature reserves. Nor has it stated that rare animals will be protected from development in investment zones.

Martin Salter at the Angling Trust said: “Given the government’s current problems it beggars belief that they have chosen this time to pick a fight with the public and groups concerned with protecting wildlife and the natural environment. The RSPB, Rivers Trust, National Trust, Wildlife Trusts between them represent in excess of 10 million voters. Add in a couple of million anglers and countless others who are appalled at seeing rivers polluted and green spaces destroyed for ever and you have created a massive ‘coalition of concern’. Liz Truss would do well to listen again to the advice of former Environment Secretary Michael Gove who has warned of the dangers of reneging on promises made to protect our rivers and natural environment.”

Craig Bennett, chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, said: “Restoring nature and creating a greener, healthier and more prosperous future must go hand in hand. To pit the economy and environment against each other is a retreat to the kind of outdated, failed ideological thinking that got us into this mess, not what’s needed to get us out of it. The Conservative Party was elected into Government on a promise to leave the environment in a better state for the next generation. It has no electoral mandate to do the opposite.”

Meanwhile, Hague wrote recently: “The idea that we can choose faster growth at the expense of our environment shows an inadequate understanding of those trends – that we are biological creatures that need a thriving ecosystem around us, not gods who can dispense with it if we wish.

“Crucially, it also reveals a misunderstanding of the future of growth. The great prizes for growth in the coming decades will go to cities that can breathe, with the trees that help that and the wildlife that proves it.” The Truss government has also prompted anger and confusion in rural Britain by deciding to review its post-Brexit farming payments scheme, the Environment Land Management scheme.

This was to pay farmers to farm sustainably, and also create habitats for wildlife. The scheme took six years to create, with wildlife organisations and farmers contributing. Many farmers signed up to pilot schemes having changed the way they work in order to be eligible for funds.

While some in the agricultural industry complained about elements of the scheme, such as little reward for upland farmers, that the paperwork was difficult to fill in and that the government has been low on detail for how to be eligible for future elements, the rural world was getting ready for the change.

Many were shocked and angered to find out that the government plans to review six years of work in six weeks, without warning.

The Labour party is now drawing up a list of rural and nature policies and making a point of defending the nature organisations attacked by the government.

Jim McMahon, the shadow environment secretary, said: “Instead of dismissing the opinions of experts, who represent millions of people’s views, the Conservatives should be listening to well-respected nature organisations’ concerns about the impact of their planned bonfire of environment regulations.

“Labour believes in protecting and enhancing our natural environment, not just because it’s the right thing to do for our planet, but because our nature and our coastal hotspots are a driver of jobs, economic growth and wellbeing in our great country.”

Commenting on the government’s attitude to nature, Sarah McMonagle, acting director of campaigns and policy at CPRE, the countryside charity, said: “Antagonising people who care about nature and the countryside is completely counterproductive.

“Over many years, Defra has engaged constructively with the environment sector and it’s important that continues.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “The environment, farming and economic growth go hand-in-hand and we want to support our farmers to produce high-quality food and enhance our natural environment. We are not scrapping our farming reforms, including the Environmental Land Management schemes. We are committed to halting the decline of nature by 2030 and will not undermine our obligations to the environment in pursuit of growth.”

What’s an old Etonian with a “brilliant” academic mind, variously described as: arrogant; tin-eared and, with only a few of week’s experience, a bit naive, to do when the debt collectors call? Especially when he has already crashed the pound and pushed up interest rates for everyone.

It increasingly looks like Plan A was to bounce the cabinet, the treasury and us with a wing and a prayer assumption that tax cuts would instantly be self-funding by immediately creating 2.5% growth. No questions asked nor needed for such obvious genius.

Except the experienced, real world, orthodox debt collectors called his bluff.

So what is his Plan B?

Austerity on a scale that will make Osborne look generous? – Owl

(Plan A looks a bit thin to Owl)

OBR forecasts likely to show £60bn-£70bn hole after Kwarteng’s mini-budget

Richard Partington www.theguardian.com (extract)

Kwasi Kwarteng has been handed independent forecasts on the state of the UK finances that are expected to show a hole of more than £60bn left by his sweeping tax cuts and a sharply slowing growth outlook.

At the end of a turbulent week for Liz Truss’s government, the chancellor was on Friday handed the initial predictions for the economy and public finances by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) which are likely to paint a gloomy picture.

Sir Charlie Bean, a ex-member of the independent watchdog and a former Bank of England deputy governor, said the document would probably show a large shortfall for the exchequer.

“It will be in the order of £60bn to £70bn relative to its previous forecasts,” he said, adding that Kwarteng would face three options: further U-turns on his tax-cutting plans, deep cuts to public spending, or risking the ire of already rattled financial markets by substantially adding to the national debt.

At 4.55pm on Monday the WhatsApp group of a collective of leftwing graphic designers started pinging excitedly after one member noticed something.

The chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, had given his speech to the Conservative party conference in front of a bright blue screen – almost a replica of screens used for computer-generated imagery (CGI).

Alexandra Topping www.theguardian.com 

By 5.23pm the group, Labour Party Graphic Designers, had tweeted a video of the chancellor, created by 22-year-old collective member Christian Walker, with news footage of the drop in the pound precipitated by his mini-budget rolling behind him.

Watch on twitter here

On Tuesday the background had not changed, and the group tweeted a video of the home secretary, Suella Braverman, against the opening of the Star Wars film The Force Awakens, with the words: “Lessons learned by the Conservative party yesterday: 0”.

Watch on twitter here

Convinced the screen would be changed for the prime minister’s speech, they held tight. But as Truss walked on stage on Wednesday – and stood in front of the same blue background – they got to work. “It was a race against time,” says Kevin Kennedy Ryan, who runs the group’s Twitter account. “We wanted to get it out as quickly as possible – I think we ended up posting just a couple of minutes after she finished.”

Watch on twitter here

The video, which shows Truss opening her speech against a backdrop of snaking food bank queues, sewage spewing into the sea, patients on trolleys in hospital corridors and graphs showing the increase in household bills and the falling pound, was accompanied by the words: “Political tip! Don’t stand in front of a bluescreen if you’re in the middle of crashing the country.”

Viewed 1.5m times since, Kennedy Ryan says the group wanted to create mischief (“there’s a lot of nuances to political communications, but winding up the other side is just great”) but – like all political design – there was a serious message. “We wanted to juxtapose this incredibly managed and polished impression that they were trying to present with the stark reality of what’s actually happening in this country,” he says.

Sana Iqbal, a member of the group, says good graphic design is a powerful tool to help amplify a political message. “It’s a great vehicle to persuade people, influence people, emotionally touch their hearts and minds – but it can’t win an election. You need substance at the core,” she says.

Labour Party Graphic Designers are a collective of mainly young creatives who support the party, but are not officially affiliated with them – as Kennedy Ryan puts it: “We’re just a bunch of nerds who do this in our spare time.”

The set-up works for Labour because they get instant, memeworthy and shareable content without having to produce it – and the ability to distance themselves if content oversteps the line, argues Iqbal. But it works for the creatives too: “We don’t have to stick to any guidelines. Nobody’s going to tell us off.”

Powerful political graphic design is, of course, not the preserve of the left. One of the most impactful political images in history came from 1978, in anticipation of the general election the following year – when Saatchi & Saatchi created the poster Labour Isn’t Working, featuring a long queue for unemployment benefit.

As the former Saatchi & Saatchi art director Martyn Walsh recalled it, “every newspaper put it on their front page, every TV station had it on the news […] By the end of the first week, both the poster and the name Saatchi & Saatchi were known in every household in Britain.”

The poster linked the Conservative party with strong design, but imagery has always been a fundamental part of the labour movement, argues Chris Burgess, the head of exhibitions and public programmes at Cambridge University library and an expert on political posters and imagery.

“Throughout its history, the Labour party has produced images creating a really strong identity,” he says, from the earliest images made for the labour movement such as Mothers Vote Labour, created by Gerald Spencer Pryse in 1919, to the upbeat image of Harold Wilson with a thumbs-up in 1964. “But while the party has often been at the forefront of political design, traditionally they just didn’t have as much money to put up as many posters.”

Kennedy Ryan argues this is still the case, but Labour-supporting creatives are capitalising on the digital revolution to produce fast, cheap and instantly shareable political graphic design.

“They’ve got the cash, but we’ve got the culture,” he says. “We’re using the human resources and the creativity of the people who want to fight for a better world, where the Conservatives, you know, have to pay people to go to their birthday parties and stag dos and do their graphic design.”

Boris Johnson accepted free accommodation worth £10,000 from the wife of the leading Tory donor who hosted his wedding party this summer, it has emerged.

Alexandra Topping www.theguardian.com 

The updated register of MPs’ interests shows that the former prime minister accepted a £10,000 gift from Lady Carole Bamford, for “concessionary use of accommodation for me and my family in September”.

Lord Anthony Bamford, a pro-Brexit Conservative peer who is chairman of construction equipment manufacturer JCB, has been a major Tory donor for decades. The billionaire entrepreneur, who supported Johnson’s successful leadership bid in 2019, has given more than £10m in donations and gifts to the party since 2001.

The latest register of MPs’ interests data published this week shows Liz Truss also accepted an £8,000 donation from Bamford, to cover “transport” during her leadership campaign.

It comes after the register showed that the prime minister was given more than £500,000 for her leadership campaign. Around half of that came from donors linked to hedge fund bosses, venture capitalists and other City financiers.

In July, Bamford hosted Boris and Carrie Johnson as they celebrated their wedding, which took place during lockdown in the grounds of his 18th-century mansion Daylesford House in the Cotswolds. Johnson had abandoned plans to hold the celebration at the prime minister’s official country residence, Chequers in Buckinghamshire. The “festival-esque” celebration is said to have included a steel band, rum punch, Abba songs and a conga.

A previous register of MPs’ financial interests showed that JCB paid Johnson £10,000 three days before he gave a speech at its headquarters in January 2019 in which he repeatedly praised the company’s business acumen and innovation. The speech in Staffordshire was primarily about Brexit, but mentioned JCB a number of times, noting at the start how the company had sold nearly 750,000 units of one model of digger.

He crashed a digger displaying the slogan “Get Brexit Done” through a wall of fake bricks marked “Gridlock” during a visit to a JCB factory in a stunt during the 2019 general election campaign.

In 2022 Johnson faced a backlash after using a visit to India visit to once again hail the success of JCB, over the use of its machinery in the mass demolition of homes.

Amid a fierce row about the demolition of mainly Muslim settlements in an area of Delhi hit by communal violence, TV footage showed JCB bulldozers being used to flatten properties.

The UK has opened a new licensing round for companies to explore for oil and gas in the North Sea.

By Jonah Fisher www.bbc.co.uk

Nearly 900 locations are being offered for exploration, with as many as 100 licences set to be awarded.

The decision is at odds with international climate scientists who say fossil fuel projects should be closed down, not expanded.

They say there can be no new projects if there is to be a chance of keeping global temperature rises under 1.5C.

Both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global body for climate science and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have expressed such a view.

The government’s own advisers on climate change said in a report earlier this year that the best way to ease consumers’ pain from high energy prices was to stop using fossil fuels rather than drill for more of them.

Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg says the new exploration will boost energy security and support skilled jobs.

And supporters of new exploration insist it is compatible with the government’s legal commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. They say the North Sea fossil fuel will replace imported fuel and so have a lower carbon footprint in production and transportation.

Licences are being made available for 898 sectors of the North Sea – known as blocks.

“Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine means it is now more important than ever that we make the most of sovereign energy resources,” Mr Rees-Mogg said in a statement.

The licensing process will be fast-tracked in parts of the North Sea that are near existing infrastructure and so have the potential to be developed quickly, according to the North Sea Transition Authority. It says the average time between discovery and first production is close to five years but that gap is shrinking.

Both campaigners and the oil industry agree that the reserves will not be large enough to have a significant impact on the prices consumers pay for energy in the UK.

“This government’s energy policy benefits fossil fuel companies and no-one else,” said Philip Evans, energy transition campaigner for Greenpeace UK.

“New oil and gas licences won’t lower energy bills for struggling families this winter or any winter soon nor provide energy security in the medium term.”

North Sea oil and gas production peaked about 20 years ago and since then the UK has gone from producing more oil and gas than it needs, to importing it from other countries.

Offshore Energies UK, which represents the oil and gas industry say there could be as much as 15 billion barrels of oil left in the North Sea. It says that new fields will be less polluting than their predecessors and in a statement said there would be an environmental “bonus”.

The decision to launch a licensing round follows the publication of the government’s “Climate Compatibility Checkpoint“, which “aims to ensure” the new exploration aligns with the UK’s climate objectives.

The checkpoint criteria covers emissions from oil and gas production and how those emissions compare internationally but take no account of the carbon dioxide emitted when the oil and gas are burnt.

More changes to local news following change of ownership of the Archant portfolio of titles.

The continued vitality of local news is so important to local democracy. – Owl

Sidmouth Herald Staff www.sidmouthherald.co.uk 

Newsquest, the UK’s leading local media group, has announced the appointment of Tim Lethaby as Editor of its titles in East Devon.

Tim has taken on an expanded role within the company as Regional Editor for the South West region, which includes the Sidmouth Herald, Exmouth Journal, Midweek Herald, Budleigh Journal and Ottery Herald.

These titles were previously owned by the Archant media group, which was bought by Newsquest earlier this year.

Tim was previously Editor for Newquest’s Somerset region, which includes the Somerset County Gazette, Bridgwater Mercury, Burnham & Highbridge Weekly News, and Chard & Ilminster News.

He will continue to run the editorial department of these titles, along with the other former Archant titles the Weston Mercury and North Somerset Times.

Tim has previously been Editor of the Western Gazette, the Mid Somerset Series of Newspapers, and the Blackmore Vale Magazine. He joined Newsquest in December last year from Nub News where he was Southwest Regional Editor.

He said: “I am delighted to be take on this new adventure with some of the most well-known news titles in the South West.

“I am relishing the prospect of leading these great regional news brands. The opportunity to further develop the titles’ digital offering through quality local content is incredibly exciting.

“As someone who is West Country born and bred, the opportunity to take the reins at titles that I have always held in high regard was not one I could ignore, and I am looking forward to working with what is clearly an incredibly talented team.

“Of course, at the heart of these titles are the readers and I would love to hear from everyone about what they like, and don’t like, so it will help me shape the publications and their websites moving forward.

“I will also soon be organising some Meet the Editor sessions in local cafes and coffee shops to chat to the readers in person about what the community feels are the main issues that we need to focus on.”

Tim has lived in the West Country all his life, and has attended far too many festivals, wassails and Somerset County Cricket Club matches than he can remember.

As well as a love for Somerset Cricket, Tim is a long-suffering supporter of Aston Villa and Bath Rugby.

The Government’s proposed investment zones will deliver the “slums of the future” and do little to boost growth, planning experts have warned.

Richard Vaughan inews.co.uk 

Liz Truss has championed the creation of the “full fat freeports” in 38 different parts of the country as part of her “supply side reforms” to fuel growth in the economy.

But deep concerns over the plans have begun to emerge after the bidding process was opened earlier this week, which risks creating 38 different sets of planning regimes across the country.

According to the Government’s own guidance, authorities that are successful at the expression of interest stage will then work with officials on their plans, “including agreeing the specific tax incentives, planning liberalisation, and wider support for the local economy”.

But Hugh Ellis, policy director at the Town and Country Planning Association, said the plans will create “total chaos”.

“There will be real world consequences to scrapping planning regulations in these areas. It will mean developers scrapping affordable housing and flood protections. It will mean ditching habitat and other environmental protections,” he said.

“But above all, it just wont work. They’ve tried this before and it made no difference to growth. All it will do is create slums of the future because if you leave planning to the developers, it just leads to slums.”

The Government’s investment zones policy bears a striking resemblance to the 38 enterprise zones, which were introduced by the Thatcher government between 1981 and 1996.

In an Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) fiscal forecast report published in October 2021, the watchdog said the economic effects of enterprise zones and freeports would “probably be difficult to discern even in retrospect”.

The OBR report also stated: “More broadly, experience of enterprise zones around the world points to little difference in performance between cities with zones and those without, with stronger determinants of performance being existing infrastructure and transportation links.”

i understands there is still disagreement within the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) as to the size of the new zones, meaning it is unclear whether they will be on the scale of industrial estates or entire sub-regions.

There are also concerns that the new proposals could allow development on environmentally protected sites, sites of special scientific interest and even national parks, although Levelling Up Secretary Simon Clarke attempted to placate fears of development on the latter this week at the Tory conference.

The CPRE, the countryside charity, warned the proposals looked similar to the planning reforms introduced by Boris Johnson that sought to strip out local consent and sparked a backbench rebellion and the loss of Chesham and Amersham to the Liberal Democrats.

Paul Miner, acting director of campaigns and policy at the CPRE, said the investment zones may succeed if they took into account local plans if the plans have gone through local consent. But, he warned: “If these areas are foisted on communities as a fait accomplis, then people will have real concerns.”

A DLUHC spokeswoman said: “Investment zones will drive growth by incentivising businesses to start, grow, and innovate by cutting taxes and restrictive red tape that hinders development.

“They will not be imposed by Government and will only be in areas where there is demand and need. This will bring much needed investment, quality jobs, higher wages and housing that local communities want and need.”

See here for his connection to Knotty Ash.

Is he on Boris Johnson’s Lavender List? He can be counted on to vote in the Lords as instructed and move on from his wife’s indiscretions in the “secret diaries”.

Floreat Etona!  – Owl

Brexit-backing Conservatives who supported Boris Johnson will be appointed to the House of Lords within days to reduce the chances of Tory legislation being defeated.

Ben Riley-Smith, Political Editor www.telegraph.co.uk – (Extract)

The Telegraph can reveal the full list of political peerages that is on the brink of being announced by Downing Street, subject to last-minute tweaks.

There are 15 Conservatives on the current list to become new peers, more than all the other political parties combined. Labour is due to get just eight new Lords.

Paul Dacre, the former Daily Mail editor, is set to become a Tory peer. He had been lined up by Mr Johnson for the chairman of the media regulator Ofcom, but the move fell through.

Sir Michael Hintze, the businessman and Conservative donor, is also in line to be elevated. He has given £4.7 million in donations, according to the Electoral Commission database.

Andrew Roberts, the historian who has written positively about Mr Johnson, and Tony Sewell, who investigated ethnic disparities for the Prime Minister, will get peerages.

There are also five former Tory MPs on the list – Stewart Jackson, Sir Hugo Swire, Angie Bray, Graham Evans and Sir Nicholas Soames…

….Dominic Johnson, the investor who set up Somerset Capital Management with Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Business Secretary, will get a peerage to become a trade minister.

…The list of political peerages was drawn up by Mr Johnson and his team when they were in Downing Street and has been scrutinised for months by an oversight body.

It is different to the list of resignation honours that Mr Johnson drew up when he was ousted as Prime Minister. That is weeks or even months away from publication….

In December 2021 DCC’s planning committee went against their officers’ recommendation and refused permission for the latest planning application  from Aggregate Industries UK Ltd. 

The scheme would have seen up to 1.5 million tonnes of sand and gravel dug up on the site over the next 10 to 12 years, before being transported 23 miles by road to Hillhead Quarry in Mid Devon for processing. 

DCC is defending this decision at the appeal.

Accounts of what has happened can be found on Cllr Jess Bailey’s blog here with day to day accounts from Goger Giles

The history of this application can be found by using “Straitgate” as search term in the East Devon Watch search box.

“Liz Truss’s failure to appoint an independent ethics adviser has shown that instead of turning the page on years of Tory sleaze, this prime minister is allowing it to fester on her watch.

“Labour will clean up politics by establishing an Independent Ethics and Integrity Commission to restore standards in public life.”

Andrew Woodcock www.independent.co.uk

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has accused Liz Truss of allowing sleaze to “fester” at the heart of her government by failing to appoint an independent ethics adviser a month after taking over from Boris Johnson.

Ms Rayner wrote to the prime minister’s most senior civil servant, cabinet secretary Simon Case, to urge him to open inquiries into a trio of questions over ethics within government raised since Ms Truss entered Downing Street.

She said that the events of the past month suggested that Ms Truss’s administration was “no better” than the one led by Mr Johnson, showing “scant regard for standards in public office”.

In her letter, seen by The Independent, Ms Rayner asked for assurances that allegations relating to Ms Truss’s adviser Mark Fullbrook, chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Treasury minister Chris Philp were being “thoroughly investigated” in the absence of an Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests, who would normally be responsible for such an inquiry.

The call comes after The Independent revealed that Ms Truss accepted help during her leadership campaign form a former minister who had reached a financial settlement with a woman after being accused of sexual harassment.

During the leadership campaign, the PM dismissed calls to appoint an ethics adviser, saying that she knew “the difference between right and wrong”.

The most recent No 10 ethics adviser, Lord Geidt, resigned in June in protest at Mr Johnson’s willingness to consider measures which would breach the ministerial code. His predecessor Sir Alex Allan quit in 2020 when Johnson overruled his finding that then home secretary Priti Patel had bullied staff.

Ms Rayner said: “A month into her premiership, the prime minister has failed to fill the ethical void at the heart of Downing Street left by her predecessor.

“Liz Truss’s failure to appoint an independent ethics adviser has shown that instead of turning the page on years of Tory sleaze, this prime minister is allowing it to fester on her watch.

“Labour will clean up politics by establishing an Independent Ethics and Integrity Commission to restore standards in public life.”

Ms Rayner told the cabinet secretary that the four-month absence of an adviser to enforce the ministerial code “cannot be a sustainable state of affairs”.

She demanded confirmation that an inquiry had been opened into the decision to allow Mr Fullbrook and two other No 10 advisers to be paid by his PR company Fullbrook Strategies, rather than by the government.

“The public deserve answers on how and why this was allowed to happen and what sensitive and privileged information No 10’s on-loan lobbyists may have had access to at the heart of government,” she said.

She asked Mr Case to look into questions of “propriety” raised by Mr Kwarteng’s attendance at a drinks party with City financiers on the evening of his mini-Budget.

She urged him to establish whether any guests at the party were provided with privileged information which might have allowed them to profit from the subsequent crash in the financial markets.

“A thorough investigation is now required into whether market sensitive insider information has been improperly exchanged to enable Tory donors and hedge funders to profiteer,” she said.

And she called on Mr Case to take action to “shed light” on the decision that Treasury chief secretary Chris Philp should be kept out of discussions on planning and housing issues because of his own property interests.

“The chancellor’s effective deputy still retains ministerial responsibilities for housing and planning policy despite retaining lucrative property interests,” said Ms Rayner. “It is now incumbent on Downing Street to explain what action has been taken to prevent such a naked conflict of interest that could affect government decision-making.”

Ms Rayner told the cabinet secretary that in the absence of an independent ethics adviser, it fell to him to inquire into any conflicts of interest or breaches of the ministerial code.

“There is a clear pattern of behaviour developing at the heart of this government which must be stamped out,” she said. “Tory ministers are governing in the interests of the richest one per cent, leaving working families to carry the can for their mistakes.

“Public trust is already hanging by a thread and this cabinet must be held accountable.”

Exploiting new oil and gas fields is “radically at odds” with the UK’s commitments to fight climate change, according to a new report.

By Jonah Fisher www.bbc.co.uk

Researchers from Global Energy Monitor (GEM) also calculated the greenhouse gas emissions if all the North Sea’s reserves were extracted and burnt.

They said it would lead to the UK exceeding its legally binding carbon budget by almost two-fold.

A new licensing round for North Sea oil and gas is set to be launched soon.

The report looked at the reserves in the 21 largest North Sea oil and gas fields that have already been licensed and are awaiting final approval. It says that if those reserves were extracted and burnt it would release the equivalent of 920m tonnes of CO2. That’s more than the total annual emissions of many countries.

“If the UK claims to be a climate leader, it cannot allow these new fields to start up, nor hold another licensing round,” Scott Zimmerman, lead author of the GEM report “Hooked on Hydrocarbons“, told BBC News.

Prime Minister Liz Truss says she is committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050. But her government has also lifted a moratorium on fracking of shale gas and said it will award new licences for North Sea oil and gas.

“We are taking decisive action to reinforce our energy security,” Ms Truss told the Conservative party conference.

“We are opening more gas fields in the North Sea and delivering more renewables and nuclear energy. That is how we will protect the great British environment, deliver on our commitment to net zero and tackle climate change,” she said.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), the United Nations, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have warned there can be no new fossil fuel projects if there is to be any chance of keeping global temperature rises under 1.5 degrees.

Business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg has spoken of his desire to extract “every last drop” of North Sea oil. The GEM report also looked what the environmental consequences of that might be, estimating that if all undeveloped and undiscovered (currently unlicensed) oil and gas were extracted and burnt it would release the equivalent of 7,602m tonnes of CO2. That’s more than the total UK carbon budget for the 14 years from 2023 to 2037.

A UK government spokesperson called the GEM report “unfounded speculation”.

“The Government remain fully committed to the legally binding target of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” the spokesperson said.