Here is Owl’s theory:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2019/04/04/flybe-leaving-or-not-on-a-jet-plane/
and, in today’s Sunday Times its Chief Executive says:
“… Flybe will be profitable [for Virgin] … It has established slots at Heathrow and hundreds in Manchester. What will the rebranded carrier be called? “Virgin Something”. We have not made up our mind”. …”
Source: Sunday Times business supplement, page 6
Round One to Owl!
“… In total, there are 35 tax, benefit and pension changes coming into effect on 6 April, plus the increase in the minimum wage from 1 April. The winners are those in higher income bands – up to £100,000 – who will gain significantly from the rise in tax thresholds, although some of that will be pegged back by NI rises.
The losers are those on very low incomes, who gain little from the increase in the personal allowance, and whose benefits will be frozen again. An ongoing work and pensions select committee inquiry suggested affected households will be between £888 and £1,845 worse off in real terms in the coming tax year as a result of the various caps and freezes since 2010-11. …”
The Signs of Things to Come!
“At least 200 people have applied to stand as candidates for the new Independent Group if the UK takes part in European elections next month – amid growing signs that the contest could turn into a “proxy referendum” on whether to leave or remain in the EU.
The Observer has been told that one pro-EU former Tory cabinet minister and several former MPs and MEPs from the main parties have also put their names forward in the hope of being selected by TIG. If the UK has to extend its membership by several more months, the EU has made clear it will have to take part in elections to the Brussels and Strasbourg parliament on 23 May.
The Independent Group’s team of eight former Labour and three former Tory MPs – all strongly pro-Remain and in favour of a second referendum – have applied to the Electoral Commission to register as a party and take part in the elections under the name Change UK – The Independent Group.
They believe the May elections across the EU could serve as an ideal and timely electoral launchpad for their fledgling party, and plan to use the slogan #rulemakersnotruletakers.
They want to stand candidates for all 73 seats across the 12 UK regions and believe the contest, conducted under a regional-list system in which seats are allocated to parties in proportion to their share of the vote, could give them their first electoral successes, particularly in the Remain-dominated London and South East regions. …”
“The housing crisis has become a central issue in British politics, with a shortage of social housing forcing millions into expensive, shabby private rentals; locking a generation out of home ownership; and causing a massive increase in street homelessness.
Help to Buy, a government-backed loan to supplement mortgages for first-time buyers, remains the Conservatives’ biggest housing intervention. But it sucks.
Even the Tory press thinks it’s rubbish. Last month, the Daily Mail’s Money Editor wrote that Help to Buy was a “flawed plan” that “would bump up house prices, boost builders’ profits and increase debt”. In the same month, the normally Tory-supporting Times analysed the Help to Buy figures and argued that “while it has boosted profits for house builders, it has failed to provide the greater supply of new homes that is needed”. The Times worried that even those lucky enough to get a Help to Buy house might now be stuck in “negative equity”, with “young people … being left in overpriced homes that they will struggle to sell”.
For its part, the solidly Tory Sun also worries that sticking with Help to Buy and failing to offer something to increasingly angry private renters could cost the Tories the next election.
So why is the government so keen on the scheme? The answer could literally be around the necks of delegates at this year’s Tory conference. The Conservative party sells advertising space, charging corporations to brand the lanyards that house the security passes conference attendees must wear at all times inside the Conference “secure zone”. Lanyards for this year’s Conservative Conference in Birmingham bear the name “Thakeham Homes”, a property developer making profits with help from Help to Buy.
Thakeham Homes is a Sussex-based residential property developer with an extensive “landbank” throughout the Home Counties. According to its latest accounts, Thakeham believes it is doing well because of “low interest rates and increased demand from first time buyers, supported by Help to Buy”.
In 2018, Thakeham’s turnover jumped 64 percent, to around £30 million. The company’s profits jumped from £100,000 to £4 million. The firm says that Help to Buy helped it boost its business; according to the accounts, “the adaptation of our planning strategy to increase the percentage of Help to Buy eligible properties within our schemes has yielded an increased sales rate and has enabled our resilience in light of the effects of Brexit on the wider market”.
Thakeham says it is “encouraged by continued political support” for Help to Buy, and seems to be encouraging that “continued political support” by giving the governing party cash. According to Conservative Party sales brochures, Lanyard Sponsorship costs around £16,500 (2016 brochure).
Thakeham’s sponsorship extends beyond lanyards. Thakeham Homes began donating to the Tories in 2017 and have now given £107,00 in total.
I asked Thakeham if its Conservative donations were a way of encouraging continued government support for Help to Buy. Their spokesperson: “Yes, we do donate to the Conservative Party and we think it is important as over 50 percent of our construction is for public sector partners. Thakeham contract builds for housing associations and local councils; placemaking and seeking to enhance and create new communities.”
He added: “The amount of product we sell via Help to Buy is small in proportion when compared to our contract build for housing associations and local councils for whom we deliver affordable homes.”
Help to Buy was introduced by Chancellor George Osborne in 2013. It offers a zero-interest loan to buyers of new-build houses costing up to £600,000. Loans are worth up to 20 percent of the cost. The Treasury has loaned a whopping £7 billion on the scheme – that’s a massive and much-criticised intervention in the market.
The criticisms will continue to be made – even from those sympathetic to the Tories. But money also talks. Thakeham is not the only firm benefitting from the multi-billion scheme who in turn give the Conservative Party cash.
In 2015, companies owned by businessman John Bloor started donating to the Tories. Bloor’s firms have since donated £1 million, and Bloor has attended Tory dinners with Theresa May, Philip Hammond and other ministers. Most of Bloor’s money comes from his housebuilding firm, Bloor Homes. According to its latest company accounts, Bloor Homes’ turnover is up 27 percent to £917 million. Profits have leapt by 58 percent, to £152 million. The average price of each Bloor home sold has increased from £275,000 to £300,000 in a year.
The accounts explain this performance by saying “the housing market has been strong” thanks to “the government backed Help to Buy scheme”.
I asked John Bloor Homes if the Bloor donations were a way of encouraging continuation of the Help to Buy scheme. A spokesperson said: “Bloor Homes continues to provide, via various tenure and financial structures, much needed housing from social rent all the way through to private ownership, driven by clear demographic and affordability demands.”
There are also jobs for Tories in Help to Buy firms. Since 2016, Angela Knight has been a director of housing firm Taylor Wimpey. She is paid £60,000 a year for this part-time “Non-Executive” job on the board. Knight was a former Conservative minister who is still “in” with top Tories. In fact, George Osborne – who launched Help to Buy – also gave Knight a job at the Treasury, which runs the scheme. Knight is currently the Treasury’s “Chair of the Office for Tax Simplification”. According to Taylor Wimpey’s accounts, the firm made £589 million in profit this year, with around 39 percent of sales relying on Help to Buy.
If the Sun is right, backing Help to Buy instead of investing in more social homes and regulating rents could sink the Tories, as voters hurt by the housing crisis desert the party. But the donations from Help to Buy-backed companies – not to mention the post-ministerial jobs they offer – might encourage them to stick with the scheme.
@SolHughesWriter”
A correspondent informs Owl:
“I have been interested to see your website and in particular reference to the barn in East Budleigh where bats are present.
I drove past the barn recently and found that the barn door, which was previously ill fitting, which would have allowed easy entry and exit for the bats from the barn, has now been sealed with large sheets of plywood. [picture above]
This may have been to replace an unsafe door….but my fear is that it may have been done to prevent the flight of bats from and to their roost.
If the obstruction of the flight of bats is successful the bats will die and there will be no bats to protect.. Thereby allowing CDE to demolish the barn….
This is similar to the practice of netting trees and hedges, to prevent birds nesting, which then allows developers to cut down trees and hedges they would otherwise be unable to do if nests were present.”
Surely if homes are built properly, at the right price and without greedy director bonuses very little customer care would be needed and no culture change would be required! And if you can’t build enough decent houses due to skills deficits, you set up a training scheme OR build fewer houses.
That will be £1 million consultancy fee for Owl within 14 days, please.
“The UK’s most profitable housebuilder, Persimmon, is launching an independent review of its customer care, culture and the quality of its work as it attempts to move on from an executive pay scandal and complaints over its new-build homes.
The review, to be led by an independent chair, Stephanie Barwise QC of Atkin Chambers, will look into Persimmon’s customer care approach, systems and culture, quality assurance processes, and the speed and consistency of its response to issues. It said the findings would be published by the last quarter of 2019.
Persimmon faced an investor revolt last year after a pay scheme tying rewards to share price performance c aused a furore, with £500m in bonuses paid out to 150 executives amid a sector-record annual profit of £1.1bn on the back of the government’s help to buy scheme. …”
” … Research from the organisation, which represents the interests of homeowners to the house building industry, suggest that only two-thirds of new homeowners are happy with the way their builder resolved any defects with their home.
And even the developers themselves acknowledge the problem.
The Home Builders Federation own satisfaction surveys show a rise in the number of customers reporting snags – from 93% in 2015 to 99% in 2018.
That data comes just weeks after the government said they were considering removing Persimmon from the Help To Buy scheme after increasing concerns over the quality of its building work.
‘Major failings’
And there is rising alarm from consumers and experts about the severity of these so-called snags.
Timothy Waitt has become a specialist on construction cases at Anthony Gold solicitors. “I’m not talking about dodgy kitchen units – I’m talking about major structural failings that affect health and safety.”
Mr Waitt is getting enquiries on a near-daily basis on these kinds problems and is fearful a skills shortage in construction means that is just the tip of the iceberg.
“I do not think we’re talking about deliberate decisions to miss out on key expensive structural elements,” he explains.
“This is about carelessness. I think that is arising is that people are making mistakes, potentially because they do not realise the significance of what they are doing, due to a lack of training, a lack of experience and a lack of supervision.” …
A Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson says the government wants to see more good quality homes: “We know more needs to be done to protect consumers, and our New Homes Ombudsman will protect the rights of homebuyers and hold developers to account.”
Today’s picture is of how a map of a proposed Jurassic Coast National Park could look.
Dorset is enthusiastic about it and welcomes it. Independents on the district council are also enthusiastic and welcome it. The ruling Tory majority on East Devon District Council has ruled it out.
Why?
Because they would lose control of planning:
There are some who woyld say they never had control of planning and others who would say they have too much; few would say they have it about right.
“A school is forced to turn off lights one day a week because of Tory cuts.
Campaigners said the head made the decision to provide cash elsewhere in the budget.
Other schools are closing at lunchtime on Fridays to save money while some heads are working shifts at other schools to raise funds.
There are also reports of heads cleaning toilets as well as acting as caretakers while support staff face the axe.
Sue McMahon, of West Yorkshire group Calderdale Against School Cuts, said the shocking accounts were from a survey of schools which showed senior staff in “an intolerable position”.
She added: “We recently told of a caretaker working without the lights on. It is the same with the primary school with no lights.” The school is not being named for fear of driving away parents. …”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/cash-strapped-primary-school-forced-14241472
Owl says: Good news for East Budleigh, fighting to keep a barn which harbours rare bats which Clinton Devon Estates want to pull down. But then again, a fine of a few thousand pounds will just mean them recouping the cost in even higher property prices! BUT take nore of the last sentence!
“Jenna Kara, 29, and Tina Kara, 34, directors of Landrose Developments Ltd, started tearing down the bungalow in Stanmore, north-west London, in 2016.
The company pleaded guilty at Willesden Magistrates’ Court to damaging or destroying the breeding site.
District Judge Denis Brennan said the punishment for ignoring environmental law would “always outweigh” gain.
The court heard the developers had pressed ahead with the demolition despite an expert reporting the site was home to soprano pipistrelle bats – a protected species in the UK and Europe.
Surveys at the site also indicated the presence of common pipistrelle bats, which are another protected species.
Passing sentence, District Judge Brennan said: “In my judgment, the act of demolition was clearly deliberate and flew in the face of advice and knowledge of the existence of the bat roost.
“The most obvious effect is local but it also has national implications because these bats are an endangered species by the very fact of being protected.” …
The offence is contrary to the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010 and means the company will be barred from bidding to do certain projects.
“Ministers have been accused of “selling off the NHS family silver” after figures revealed that the amount of health service land being earmarked for sale to private developers is soaring.
The NHS is seeking buyers for 718 different plots of land or buildings it owns across England, prompting fears that underfunding has forced cash-strapped NHS trusts to dispose of vital assets.
The total of 718 sites represents a 72% rise on the 418 plots the NHS deemed as surplus to requirements two years ago.
Nurses priced out of housing developments on former NHS sites
The number of sites on the market that NHS bosses say are currently being used for clinical or medical purposes is also rising fast, from 117 last year to 140 – almost one in five of the total.
Seven of the top 10 sites with the highest value fall into that category. They include a part of Heatherwood hospital in Ascot, Berkshire – which is used by patients from Theresa May’s nearby Maidenhead constituency – valued at £35m, and part of the site of Birmingham’s City hospital (£18.8m).
Labour said the figures, contained in the NHS’s annual register of land for sale, showed that hospitals were being forced into a “firesale of assets” after years of being starved of resources while the government had restricted annual budget rises to 1% since 2010.
“Hospitals are struggling to cope with cutbacks from the Tories. The answer should be a serious long-term government-funded investment plan and not selling off the NHS’s family silver,” said Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary.
Last year a government-commissioned report by Sir Robert Naylor, a former University College London hospital chief executive, said the NHS could raise £6bn from taking a more “commercial approach” to disposing of land.
Ministers approve of the growing selloffs, which they say will help generate receipts that NHS trusts can then use to redevelop their facilities and build homes for staff.
The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, voiced unease. It said the selloffs were short-sighted and could leave hospitals with too little space to expand in future.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the chair of the BMA council, said: “These figure show a staggering increase in sale of NHS land in the last two years. This begs serious questions as to the reason for this surge. Was this land actually surplus or are these sales being used to plug financial deficits in hospital trusts as a result of a decade of underfunding?
“It is vital to safeguard the sale of NHS land and estate from perverse short-term financial incentives, and which may result in a reduction in estate and facilities that is insufficient to meet the future needs of patients. These figures demand scrutiny. Selling land shouldn’t be a way for the health service to make up for austerity-era cuts – especially if it could come at the expense of patient care.”
The total amount of land involved in the NHS asset sale has grown from 545.7 hectares (1,348 acres) in 2015-16 to 1,332 hectares in 2016-17 and 1,749.4 hectares last year, according to research undertaken by the House of Commons library for Ashworth.
The Department of Health and Social Care defended the rise in sales. A spokesperson said: “As part of the long-term plan for the NHS we are committed to making taxpayers’ money go further, including getting the best use out of the land and buildings the NHS owns.
“We are helping trusts dispose of surplus land or buildings so that money is saved and spent instead on improving patient care, whilst freeing up space for much needed new homes, including for NHS staff.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/sep/09/nhs-land-earmarked-for-sale-to-developers
“More generous tax relief means the government is providing more in-work cash support to Britain’s richest households than poor families are receiving, according to a left-leaning thinktank.
A study by the Fabian Society said nearly half the savings made in welfare payments in recent years had gone on increases in the tax-free personal allowance, rather than being used for deficit reduction.
The thinktank accused the government of increasing inequality by stealth and called for a five-year freeze on tax-free allowances to “rescue social security”.
The Fabian Society added that the first priority for any money saved from freezing tax allowances should probably be using it to make universal credit more generous, but said consideration should also be given to a basic income – a payment given unconditionally to all citizens.
Both the chancellor, Philip Hammond, and his predecessor, George Osborne, raised tax allowances while keeping a tight rein on benefits.
The result of this approach, according to the thinktank, is that on average, households in the fourth and fifth income quintiles (the top 40%) receive more in tax relief than households in the poorest fifth get in means-tested benefits.
The Fabian Society study showed the cost of tax allowances had increased by 43% from £95bn to £136bn from 2012-13 to 2017-18. Over the same period, social security payments to working-age adults and children fell from £95bn to £94bn. As a share of national income, tax allowances rose from 5.6% to 6.4%, while payments to working-age adults and children fell from 5.5% to 4.4%. …”
From the blog of DCC Independent Councillor Claire Wright:
“There has been a delay now for sometime in Devon on the implementation of fibre to the home broadband. This means individual connections from the fibre cables in the road to each house.
A huge operation that was started by BT and in the past two years or so, operated by Gigaclear under the management of Connecting Devon and Somerset (Devon and Somerset County Councils).
Unfortunately, the timetable has slipped last autumn, partly due to the collapse of Carillion (Gigaclear were partners with a Carillion subsidiary engineering company) and partly due to the enormity of the Devon operation and road layouts.
One of the problems has been traditional Devon banks which have apparently been a challenge as the company usually digs up grass verges to install cables. Devon banks are also (quite rightly) protected under planning policy.
Connecting Devon and Somerset have had to apply for a funding extension from the government to allow for the extension of this work. This has been agreed in principle but won’t be endorsed nor the money received until the next comprehensive spending review later this year.
So without the firm confirmation contract extension funding and other logistical issues, there is still a delay of an unknown number of months.
This is deeply disappointing indeed and incredibly frustrating for communities such as Aylesbeare which doesn’t even have superfast broadband so residents are putting up with speeds of less than one megabit. I’m also aware that there are people living on the edges of communities who also have poor broadband service.
For residents and communities frustrated at the lack of connectivity there are other options, such as a voucher scheme to offset the cost of roof aerials for individual properties. For a bigger scheme involving whole communities, telecommunications companies can quote for a village service.
There are no easy solutions at the moment unfortunately and this is deeply frustrating for me and for many people in my ward.
Please email me if you have any questions at claire@claire-wright.org
I will update you when I know more.”
Owl says: many people are only one robot away from Universal Credit …
“You could soon be replaced by a robot as data reveals two out of every five jobs in East Devon could be lost to automation.
The data, measured in 2017 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), shows that 42,000 jobs in the area could be partially or totally replaced by machines over the coming years.
This equates to 44 per cent of occupations and of them, 9% of them are at high risk meaning they have a more than 70% chance of being replaced by machines.
The threat was medium for a further 60 per cent of jobs as the chances of automation are between 30 and 70 per cent.
East Devon was less vulnerable to the impact of automation in 2017 than six years earlier when 49 per cent of jobs were at risk of being replaced by machines.
The ONS analysed the jobs of 20 million people across England in 2017 and found that 7.4 per cent were at high risk of being replaced.
70 per cent of the roles at high risk of automation are currently held by women.
People aged 20 to 24 years old are most likely to be at risk of having their job replaced and low-skilled occupations, like waiting or shelf stacking, face the highest risk.
Jobs requiring higher qualifications, such as medical practitioners and higher education teachers, are less susceptible to computerisation.
An ONS spokesperson said: “The exact reasons for the decrease in the proportion of roles at risk of automation are unclear but it is possible that automation of some jobs has already happened.
“Additionally, while the overall number of jobs has increased, the majority of these are in occupations that are at low or medium risk suggesting that the labour market may be changing to jobs that require more complex and less routine skills.”
Felicity Burch, the CBI’s director of innovation and digital, said technology is predominantly putting jobs held by women and low-skilled occupations at risk.
She said: “The picture is complicated, as ONS’s own analysis shows that some of the roles most at risk of automation saw a boost in recent years.
“Furthermore, we know that the more businesses invest in new technology, the more likely they are to create new roles.”
https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/east-devon-jobs-robots-1-5973184
(photo: Camping and Caravan Club)
This is Ladram Bay Holiday Park – owned by the high-profile Carter family who also own Greendale Business Park (more on that in a later post).
The photograph was taken in 2015 since which it has grown more. Residents of Otterton are tearing their hair out at the heavy vehicle traffic using its roads to move large caravans and mobile homes on and off the site. DCC independent councillor Claire Wright has tried to help but one EDDC Tory councillor (Tom Wright) nearly sabotaged her latest attempt:
and planning policies for the destination are in tatters:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2018/09/08/unrest-in-otterton-planning-policies-in-shambles/
* after the big disgraced Tory councillor Graham Brown debacle, EDDC’s internal auditors (South West Audit Partnership) were given a consultancy contract to investigate his influence on planning decisions while running his own planning consultancy in East Devon. The report was wishy-washy to say the least, as reported by EDW here:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2013/11/11/council-anti-corruption-report-slated-by-campaigners/
“Audit firms should be banned from carrying out consultancy services, according to a report of MPs.
The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee this week released a report into the future of audit, launched after recent accounting scandals at firms including Carillion and Patisserie Valerie.
Among a raft of conclusions, it said that audit firms currently face conflict of interests if they also carry out advisory services, leading to lower quality auditing.
Committee chair Rachel Reeves said: “For the big firms, audits seem too often to be the route to milking the cash-cow of consultancy business.
“The client relationship, and the conflicts of interest which abound, undermine the professional scepticism needed to deliver reliable, high-quality audits.
“Splitting audit from non-audit business would be a big step to boosting the culture of challenge needed to deliver high-quality audits.”
The report said that non-audit profits currently subsidise the pay of audit partners within firms.
“We do not think that this is a healthy state of affairs,” it said.
“Audit partners must not be or feel indebted to non-audit partners.
“That frame of mind can only lead to audit partners being mindful of the interests of the non-audit practice, when we expect them to serve the interests of the firm, its shareholders and the wider public.”
Paul Diviani (former Tory Leader) still living in Yarty Ward but standing in Broadclyst. Very helpful if Cranbrook extension needs highly localised support.
Stuart Hughes (formerly Monster Raving Loony Party and Conservative (no – not the same thing) ) now standing as “Independent”. still has a few more parties to go through yet!
Disgraced Lib Dem ex-Mayor of Seaton Peter Burrows standing again for District for the same party, along with his wife and 6 other candidates including two East Devon Alliance.
Fair proportion of REAL independents but several suspiciously right-leaning ones who have always followed the Tory line in the past and who seem to easily get on to committees …..
Contested towns and parishes listed but not uncontested towns and parishes (eg Cranbrook, Seaton) whereas uncontested districts are listed.
East Devon Alliance has strong showing, including Chairman Paul Arnott in Colyton.
