Carillion – the Tory story
Sunday Telegraph: “NHS crisis fuelled by closure of 1,000 care homes”
“The growing NHS crisis has been fuelled by the closure of almost 1,000 care homes housing more than 30,000 pensioners, research suggests.
It comes as NHS figures show the worst Accident & Emergency crisis on record, amid a 37 per cent rise in the numbers stuck in hospital for want of social care, since 2010.
Experts said hospitals were being overwhelmed by the spread of flu because they had almost no spare capacity to cope with surges in demand.
The report by industry analysts shows that in the last decade, 929 care homes housing 31,201 pensioners have closed, at a time when the population is ageing rapidly.
The research from LaingBuisson show care homes going out of business at an ever increasing rate, with 224 care homes closed between March 2016 and March 2017, amounting to more than 2,000 beds. …”
The article (behind a pay wall) goes on to say that blocked beds have risen by 37% in 7 years … charities accused successive governments of “failure of leadership” … a senior researcher at the King’s Fund said it was “chickens coming home to roost” after underfunding.
Two whipping Tories – or just one?
Anyone notice how Brandon Lewis (Chairman, Conservative Party – whose new job is to whip the ageing party’s members into better digital shape) looks and sounds just like EDDC Conservative Councillor Phil Twiss (the man who is their Chief Whip but assures us he has never whipped anyone ever and who has been in charge of EDDC’s digital policies).
Has anyone ever seen them in the same room together!
A GP speaks from the very, very sharp end with shocking information
A Devon GP shared this on the Save our Hospitals website:
“I put this post on my constituency [Labour] womens FB group.
I am an NHS GP- ex partner at ELM surgery- went off with burnout 2014- locuming since 2015 including at 2 practices that have handed back their contracts one has closed and the other in merging with Mount Gould.
I went to an important meeting last night- Arranged by GPs worried about the situation in Primary care in Plymouth and looking for a way forward.
About 30-40 GPs turned up (not bad for a short notice meeting on a Friday night which started when most of us would normally be at work!) We also had some patients representing their practices’ Patient participation groups and someone from Health Education England (responsible for workforce planning in the future/training GPs etc). Luke Pollard- Labour MP was the only MP to turn up. I know it was short notice (I think the venue was only confirmed on 2/1/18) but even so you would have thought may be the potential collapse of Primary Care in your constituency may be quite important to any MP?
It was a great opportunity for us to share issues and think about what could solve them and this is the summary:
Firstly – our wonderful NHS is one of the more cost-effective, safe and efficient health systems in the World and GPs are very cheap and cost effective within that.
Primary Care throughout the UK is being overstretched because of major cuts to services that support particularly our most vulnerable patients- cuts to: Mental Health Teams for adults and children, MIND and other charities, Drug and Alcohol services, Probation, Health visiting, School nurses, District nurses (40% vacancy rates in Plymouth), Social Care and unfair benefit cuts and sanctions etcetc.
Plymouth has a population with higher levels of deprivation than the UK average. These cuts are therefore more severely affecting our Primary care services (but there are similar problems in many similar areas).
Secondly: The NHS and Social Care have been severely underfunded for the past 7 years and now this has reached a tipping point.
GPs are working longer hours, seeing more patients and trying to continue to provide excellent, cost-effective care but are becoming burnt out and demoralised and therefore are retiring early, leaving permanent positions or leaving the UK or medicine.
It is also harder to recruit practice nurses as there is a massive shortage of nurses nationally. As practices are becoming more short staffed the remaining clinicians become even more pressurised and eventually become ill or leave or hand back their contracts.
Now 12-13% of Plymouth patients are from “failed practices”. We have a shortfall of between 26 (LMC figures) and 35 (Healthwatch figures) Full time equivalent GPs in Plymouth. Caretaker organisations – which look after these patient populations until new providers are found- are paid much more per patient than GPs are- I have heard unsubstantiated quotes of £300 per annum compared with GPs £115 per annum if we tick all the Government’s boxes and claim everything we can.
This works sort of as an insurance system where those that need little care sort of subsidise us for the patients that need a lot of care. Yet there is no money or help from NHS England forthcoming to go to practices before they fold. Also neighbouring practices are being put under extreme pressure because NHS England is not allowing any planning for the new patients. Adjoining practices must just keep their lists open without any inkling of how many patients could ultimately join their list. (my friend’s practice may have to take between 0 and 1800 patients within the next 3 months as an adjacent practices closes- when a similar thing happened in 2006 they were allowed to have a planned list of patients and recruit staff to serve those extra patients, WELL in advance)
We are also not allowed to move notes direct to the adjoining practice and Capita is taking 6 months to move notes between practices (much less when NHS run) and the GP2GP computer transfer is only working for 1 in 3 patients. Most patients who move before their practice closes are the ones that require the most care and are the most complex. The other patients, who maybe only see a GP every few years do not move until they need care again therefore effectively financially disadvantaging the new practice too.”
A new East Devon Business Forum?
And just how will EDDC decide who are the top 50 employers? Turnover, number of employees, closeness to Woodbury or Otterton? Or big developers? Businesses submitting the most planning applications or biggest landholders? Or might it be social responsibility – lol? Environmental credentials – lol? Employee stakeholders – lol?
And how will they treat these “top 50 compared to the bottom several thousand?
Shades of the discredited, run by disgraced ex-councillor Graham Brown, East Devon Business Forum? And, here it comes again – scrutiny … conflicts of interest …
Owl ruffles its feathers …
“For the many or the few” to quote someone-or-other!
“Develop more effective business engagement though:
1) Publishing quarterly business bulletins and increasing SME readership;
2) Identifying and establishing communication with up to 6 Key Ambassador businesses in East Devon
3) developing and maintaining a contact list of our top 50 employers;
4) Identifying and making contact with businesses comprising our 4 GESP priority sectors (Smart Logistics, Data Analytics, Knowledge Based Industries and Environmental Futures).
Click to access 170118-joint-overview-scrutiny-agenda-combined.pdf
Businesses can now pay EDDC for “consultancy” for fast-track food hygeine certificates
Another conflict of interest? Gamekeeper AND poacher?
“Our commercial premises team will explore the feasibility of offering a range of business advice and support services to local businesses. We will offer an enhanced food hygiene registration scheme to those businesses who would like consultancy time specifically dedicated to helping them improve their regulatory compliance generally and their food hygiene rating score in particular. We will market support package options (to include training, coaching and auditing) to newly registered businesses this year.”
Click to access 170118-joint-overview-scrutiny-agenda-combined.pdf
Green spaces – use them or possibly see them flogged off
Owl says: health benefits of public open spaces? Pah! Flog ‘em, flog ‘em!
“ Corporate Green Space policy 1 –
Survey, plot and categorise all council managed green/open space across the district (including housing land, and allotment sites)
assess sites based on a range of criteria including;
strategic importance,
accessibility,
alternative or additional use,
levels of use, amenity value,
ability to protect our outstanding environment and cost.
Identify which sites are suitable for retention, community transfer or disposal taking into account our corporate policies, our Local Plan and open space study.
Click to access 170118-joint-overview-scrutiny-agenda-combined.pdf
Do our council officers have enough to do?
Owl says: And if EDDC pitches for these services and does not get them , who foots the bill and what work will the officers NOT have done that we are paying for? And what about that dang conflict of interest?
“We will explore the potential benefits that might arise from working with other local authorities including Exeter City Council, Teignbridge District Council and Mid Devon District Council to deliver advice, support, training and auditing services to businesses across the region.”
Click to access 170118-joint-overview-scrutiny-agenda-combined.pdf
EDDC: “More open spaces to be closed for private events, say council”
And all for £35,000 … our PUBLIC open spaces paying for their new HQ?
Or planning a money-spinner for Grenadier?
“East Devon District Council agenda papers say the authority is planning to close public spaces like Manor Gardens and Exmouth beach for privately-rented events.
Exmouth’s beach, parks and gardens could be closed to the public for privately-rented events such as weddings and festivals, under new proposals.
According to East Devon District Council (EDDC) agenda papers, the authority is considering hiring an events officer to ‘actively market’ its open spaces.
Previously, Exmouth’s Manor Gardens has been closed to the public for private occasions such as weddings and an open-air cinema. An area on the seafront was also used for the observation wheel last summer.
Proposals in the joint overview and scrutiny committee agenda say that these sites could be used for a big screen to show sports and music events.
There could also be Christmas markets, food fairs, and beach volleyball or surf lifesaving championships.
The agenda, for the meeting taking place on Wednesday, January 17, also says £100,000 could be set aside from EDDC’s capital reserve and that charges would be ‘in line with the private sector’.
EDDC says all parks, gardens and beaches are being considered as host venues and that town and parish councils will be consulted.
An EDDC spokeswoman said: “As part of the council’s objective to develop an outstanding economy through being more commercial, we have been making steady progress in improving our events offer and rentals of our assets such as parks and gardens.
“Last year we increased events income from £10,000 to £35,000.
“This has already included a wedding in Manor Gardens, Exmouth, the Exmouth Observation Wheel and other ticketed events such as open-air cinema, where the park or area was closed to the public.
“We consult with the local town or parish council and elected members before such events go ahead.
“Any East Devon District Council parks, gardens, beaches or open spaces will be considered by the council for events bookings or private functions.
“Charges will be in line with the private sector and anyone interested in making a booking, should contact the council on 01395 517528 or visit http://eastdevon.gov.uk/events.”
http://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/exmouth-beaches-parks-rented-out-privately-1-5351545
Oliver Letwin in charge of investigating land banking! First target Tories identify – NHS land!
Owl says: A High Tory who adores privatisation in charge of investigating developers! Pull the other one! AND this is the man who:
“… Speaking to consultancy firm KPMG on 27 July 2011, Letwin caused controversy after stating that you cannot have “innovation and excellence” without “real discipline and some fear on the part of the providers” in the public sector. This was widely reported, with The Guardian headline stating Letwin says ‘public sector workers need “discipline and fear.”
This is the Tory Conservative Home press release says about this – and identifies NHS land as ripe for fast development:
“Sir Oliver Letwin is undertaking a review for the Government on “land banking” by property developers. It will seek to “explain the significant gap between housing completions and the amount of land allocated or permissioned and make recommendations for closing the gap”.
The delays are certainly a source of frustration. “Use it, or lose it,” is that great rallying cry – forgetting that planning permission routinely expires after three years under the current rules. In any case if property developers expect prices to be going up why would that be a reason not to build the homes – which they could then delay selling? I suspect delays are more usually caused by the planning system and difficulties raising the required capital.
We will see what Sir Oliver makes of it. But as he knows better than anyone, the worst culprit when it comes to land banking is the state itself – at least based on the broad definition of sitting on surplus land that could be developed. I have quoted from his memoirs, the examples of the Ministry of Defence and Network Rail. Even in London where we are all so squashed, Transport for London owns land equivalent to the size of Camden.
Another prime culprit is the National Health Service Chris Philp, the Conservative MP for Croydon South, wrote on this site last month that:
“The NHS alone sits on enough surplus land for more than 500,000 homes.”
In his paper for the Centre for Policy Studies, Homes for Everyone, Philp elaborates:
“In its 2017 report on surplus land, NHS Digital identified 1,332 hectares of surplus land across a total of 563 sites. Just 91 hectares of surplus land had been sold previously, with 11 hectares of those sold during 2016/17 – less than 1% of the potential total. At that rate, it would take 112 years to dispose of all the surplus NHS land. (A further 135 hectares is set to be sold by 2020, which is still only ten per cent of the available spare land.) If the NHS was to release its entire 1,332 hectares of surplus land for housing, as many as 533,000 new homes could be created.”
Actually if you look at the data it is likely that the potential is much greater. The NHS Trusts were marking their own homework. They can always say that some bit of unused land isn’t surplus as they might think of something to do with it some time. Then we had 75 of the 236 Trusts that responded denying having any surplus land.
But anyway, the acknowledged 1,332 hectares (that’s 3,291 acres since you ask) is a useful starting point. Surely this is something that councillors should help to pursue? After all, the housing shortage and the financial pressure on the NHS are two of the biggest political concerns of our time – releasing this land for development could help with both.
Perhaps the scrutiny remit of Health and Wellbeing Boards could be extended to cover it. But council leaders should also be chasing the NHS about all these derelict sites. They should be actively encouraged to seek outline planning permission so that the proceeds from sales could be increased. Of course Philip is right that central Government should doing far more. But let’s also get some pressure going locally.”
“Thousands of homeowners earning more than £100,000 have been given at least £250 million in taxpayers’ money as part of the Government’s Help to Buy scheme”
“Thousands of wealthy homeowners in Britain are receiving hundreds of million of pounds from public money under the Government’s scheme designed to help first-time buyers.
A staggering 5,545 homeowners earning more than £100,000-a-year have benefited from Help to Buy scheme which is aimed at helping people get on the housing ladder.
Data analysis also revealed that of the 5,545 homeowners earning more than £100,000-a-year, 1,287 of those already owned a property.
If householders earning above £100,000 received the same size loan as other groups on average, it would mean they are claiming at least £280m of public money in the past five years.
Richer households are likely to buyer more expensive homes, which could mean the true figure is much higher. …“
“Rogue landlords making millions out of housing benefits”
Owl says: Chances of this government legislating to stop this – zero. They couldn’t even pass a law saying rented housing should be habitable:
“Highly organised gangs of rogue landlords are making millions every year out of the housing benefit system by enticing desperate local authorities to place single homeless people in micro-flats in shoddily converted and dangerous former family homes.
Three-bed houses, where the maximum weekly housing benefit for flat-sharers is under £100 a person, are being converted into as many as six tiny self-contained studios – as little as 10 sq m in size. Each then qualifies for housing benefit of £181 a week, enabling a landlord to squeeze £56,000 a year in rent from a property on London’s fringes, all paid from public funds. The £56,000 compares with the typical £6,200 annual rent on a three-bed council house.
A previously unpublished government report into a £700,000 project to tackle the scam, released this week under freedom of information laws, shows that councils are struggling to contain the spread of the “lockdown” model, which has taken hold in at least 12 London boroughs since 2015.
It warns of “well organised but unscrupulous landlords” profiting despite some councils – including Hackney, Bexley and Greenwich – launching prosecutions, raids and prohibition orders. …”
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jan/13/landlords-housing-benefit
John Lewis pension fund investing in controversial home leaseholds
“Thousands of young homebuyers remain trapped in virtually brand-new homes made unsaleable by spiralling ground rents and abandoned by developers such as Taylor Wimpey, despite a ban on the charges promised by the government.
Guardian Money can also reveal that the £5bn John Lewis pension fund is behind the soaring rents that have made the lives of some homeowners a misery. …”
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jan/13/ground-rent-young-homebuyers-charges
“Councillor tries to undo resignation but council says no”
“A strange turn of events in Wigan:
Chaos reigned yesterday after Wigan Council insisted an independent councillor could not reverse his decision to quit the chamber.
Coun Steve Jones, independent representative for Bryn ward, performed a dramatic U-turn when he posted on Facebook that he was staying on. This came just a few days after he announced he was stepping down on February 20 for personal reasons.
However, the town hall has now insisted that he actually resigned on the day he said he would step down and a notice of casual vacancy for a new councillor has already been published…
Coun Jones [had told the council]: “With a lot of thought I have to inform you that as of the 20th of February 2018 I will be resigning my role as an elected councillor for Wigan Council.”
The law says that a resignation takes effect when received, but is a resignation that is described as being for a date in the future really a resignation before that date? I think the lawyers will have some fun with this one.
In the meantime, he has since turned up to a council meeting and insisted on taking his seat as a councillor. Only when the meeting was adjourned did he agree to move to the public gallery.
Councillor Jones’s vacillation over whether or not to resign may be connected with the run of controversies he has recently been in, with a caution for assault, a drink driving conviction, a series of aggressive social media postings about the council’s Chief Executive and a warning that he would not be able to vote on the council’s budget as he was behind with his council tax payments.”
https://www.markpack.org.uk/153788/steve-jones-wigan-council/
“French hospital offers to do cancelled NHS operations”
“A French hospital has invited NHS patients whose operations have been cancelled because of winter overcrowding to be treated free in Calais.
Despite a flu outbreak even worse than the one in Britain, France has said it has plenty of space for British patients for routine surgery paid for by the NHS.
As NHS hospitals warn that people are dying on corridors, and abandon a three-month waiting time target for routine operations, Calais Hospital is trying to tempt Britons with private rooms, en suite bathrooms, free parking, English-speaking staff, wi-fi and waits of less than a month.
Under a deal struck in 2015, patients can opt for surgery in France and the NHS in Kent will pay standard rates to Calais Hospital. The hospital can take 400 NHS patients a year, it says. “When the NHS is forced to cancel all non-urgent surgery until February, NHS patients can turn to the Centre Hospitalier de Calais.”
NHS England told hospitals last week to cancel routine operations to make space for rising numbers of winter patients. This week the heads of half of England’s A&E departments told Theresa May that hundreds of patients were being treated in corridors.
Santé Publique France, the French health service, reports 423 GP consultations for flu-like symptoms per 100,000 people, more than ten times the rate in England. However, fewer end up on wards, with 1,265 admissions to hospital, compared with an estimated 4,000 in England.
Thaddée Segard, a businessman who helped to broker the deal with Calais, said he did not expect flu to cause difficulties. “The difference between UK and French hospitals’ capacity is merely a question of state policies,” he said.
South Kent Coast Clinical Commissioning Group said it had yet to see an upsurge in referrals.
The Royal College of GPs said yesterday that flu had “taken off” in Britain, with twice as many consultations as last year. It warned that flu was so unpredictable it was impossible to know whether it would become an epidemic.
Pat Cattini, of the Infection Prevention Society, advised people who catch flu: “The best thing to do is take yourself away from other people until you feel better, which can take a week. If you do bring it into GP waiting rooms you’re potentially going to infect others.”
Source: The Times (pay wall)
Privatisation – win, win for companies; lose, lose for us
“The dirty secret of PFI and all government attempts to pass public services into the private realm is that the shareholders make profits while the taxpayers remain on the hook for any losses.”
… Should Carillion go down, there will be another truckload of questions for Grayling. He awarded the firm its £1.4bn HS2 contract last July – by which time the writing was already on the wall. That job from the Department of Transport may have helped tide Carillion over for a bit – but why did the transport secretary give the work to a company that was already in existential difficulties? A firm known to have grown too quickly by borrowing hundreds of millions. A firm that just a few months later came under investigation of the Financial Conduct Authority. I have long thought that Grayling is less serious minister and more an unexploded landmine. I just wonder what the trigger will be.
But what happens to that minister is just one debacle of many as far as Carillion is concerned. Today you may never have heard of Carillion. Soon you may wish it had remained that way.
Otterton – results of meeting called by Independent councillors
Meeting organised by EDDC Independent East Devon Alliance Councillor Geoff Jung and Independent DCC Councillor Claire Wright – several practical measures suggested but major worries over retrospective planning applications:
What happens when a massive privatised contracts company goes belly up?
Answer: our government looks for ways to use OUR money to bail it out.
Carillion (formerly more plainly called Tarmac) owes £1.5 billion.
Why? Because it underbid for contracts and then racked up massive losses even when offering minimal services.
Why does it matter? Because it is a major contractor for the HS2 rail line and it also maintains 50,000 homes for the Ministry of Defence, manages nearly 900 schools, has NHS contracts and also manages highways and prisons and works with National Grid. It employs 43,000 people worldwide.
Imagine if Jeremy Corbyn had suggested it should be nationalised!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42656879
and much more information here:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/12/building-company-carillion-collapse-schools-roads-hospitals-hs2-taxpayers-bill
“New Tory Housing Secretary Sajid Javid was Director of his brother’s £11m buy-to-let property firm”
“Theresa May and the Conservatives have come in for fierce criticism today after it was exposed that the brother of newly appointed Housing Secretary Sajid Javid is the owner of a buy-to-let property company worth an estimated £11m – a firm which the new Housing Secretary Mr Javid was, incredibly, a Director of as recently as 2005.
Added to the fact that he was a Director of his own brother’s multi-million pound property business, the new Housing Secretary, Mr Javid, is also a private landlord himself.
Javid has previously voted to phase out secure tenancies for the very poorest people – those living in social housing. He was also one of 72 landlord Tory MPs to vote against a bill requiring private landlords such as himself to ensure that their properties were ‘fit for human habitation‘. …
Cranbrook Herald reports on estate rent charges
Owl broke this story on 2January:
https://eastdevonwatch.org/2018/01/02/cranbrook-residents-very-unhappy-about-estate-rent-charge-bills/
Now Cranbrook Herald has taken it up:
“The unexpected demand for payment caused uproar on social media, distressing many during the festive break.
One resident said the company which sent the letter was using ‘scare-mongering tactics’.
Another said the matter was a ‘disgrace’.
The estate and asset management company Blenheims sent the bill on behalf of the Cranbrook Consortium and FPCR (which provides the town’s landscape and horicultural services).
In the letter – delivered to all Cranbrook households on Friday, December 22 – Blenheims explained that the annual Estate Rent Charge (ERC), which meets the cost of maintaining the public open spaces and amenity areas had been reviewed.
Previously set at £150 per annum – based on an ‘historic and initial assessment of the annual costs’ – the Consortium had increased the ERC to £231.76, to reflect actual accounting figures. These suggested that the total costs of the 2017-18 ERC were £370,816. Split between 1,600 properties, this came to £231.76 per household.
In many cases, the £231.76 demand was reduced to £194.26, taking into account an initial quarterly ERC instalment paid by residents of £37.50.
The letter implied that the £194.26 needed to be paid in one sum. There was also confusion about when the money needed to be paid, with some residents believing it had to be within 10 working days.
There was no suggestion of being able to pay in instalments (although Blenheims has since said that there are three payment dates – January 22, February 1 and March 1).
Having received their bills, Cranbrook residents found Blenheims had shut for Christmas, and initially there was no one available to discuss the issue.
At the request of Cranbrook Town Council (CTC), the Reverend Lythan Nevard – Cranbrook’s minister and a Belonging to Cranbrook Facebook moderator – offered advice for residents, posting her thoughts on social media.
On January 2, CTC posted its own advice on its website, describing the timing of the letter as ‘unfortunate’, and Blenheims has since issued a ‘frequently asked questions’ (FAQ) document.
“I think the timing of the Blenheims’ letter was poor at best,” said a Cranbrook resident, who did not wish to be named. “Some people were concerned that if they just cancelled their direct debits, they would end up with bailiffs at their door after Christmas.”
“It was a disgrace to receive a letter demanding payment of £231.76 within ten days, and especially at this time of the year,” said another resident.
In its FAQ to residents, Blenheims said the payment demand was issued on December 22 in advance of the next collection date, December 25, and was ‘in accordance’ with residents’ ERC deed.
It also issued advice for those that had cancelled their direct debit or hadn’t returned their mandate and explained why the ERC was being increased and why residents – who are already paying council tax – were being charged for ERC.
Neither Blenheims nor the Consortium have provided the Herald with further comment on this matter.
CTC is currently finalising details of taking over the town’s ERC. If draft agreements are approved, from April 6, 2018, the ERC will be paid as part of EDDC’s council tax, with any increase in the element of the council tax payable to CTC.”
http://www.cranbrookherald.com/news/cranbrook-estate-rent-charge-1-5349929
