What a crowd. The new health secretary’s husband runs British Sugar, the new environment minister’s wife is an executive at water polluting Anglian Water, the PM’s wife was a non dom when he was Chancellor, and that is all we know so far ……

South West Water is being asked to justify its “bland” responses on planning applications, given the rise in sewage spills in Devon’s river and coastal waters. Torridge District Council wants the company to be removed from the list of consultees and an independent organisation to oversee new developments.

Alison Stephenson www.devonlive.com

And it plans to ask other councils in Devon to support its request to government. In his motion to the council, Cllr Peter Christie (Green, Bideford North) said he is fed up with SWW’s response of “has no objection” when it is asked to give a view on new plans.

“Over the last decade, this is the answer we get, with very few exceptions. Clearly, given the current state of our rivers and coastal waters there is a major problem – and it appears to be overlooked that SWW have a vested interest in more development as it means more customers locked into paying them, as water and sewage services are a monopoly service.”

He told the council that according to SWW’s website, in Bideford last year there were 24 sewage spills, 31 in Buckleigh, 144 in Abbotsham, 117 at Weare Giffard and 25 in Torrington.

“South West Water will take the money for every new house but are not doing what they should be doing in tackling the infrastructure.”

He said in the late 1970s and 80s a ‘sewage embargo’ was placed on Bideford and house building stopped for several years because the town’s infrastructure couldn’t cope.

“Nothing has really changed, they cannot cope with the sewage capacity and water availability is also an issue when we have a drought.”

Cllr Annie Brenton (Lab, Bideford West) said there is a large new development under construction in Bideford beyond Atlantic Village and the council needs to be “really careful and scrupulous” about planning details for drains and sewerage.

“The welfare of our people and our rivers and our sea is just as important as making money,” Cllr Brenton said.

Cllr Simon Newcombe (Con, Winkleigh) said independent was “all very good” but if it was not legally enforceable it was not worth the money spent on it.

Cllr David Brenton (Lab, Bideford South) said: “We should be getting Ofwat here. They are supposed to be the ones that are regulating and monitoring this, but they don’t.

“They have the teeth, but they don’t use them. It’s a quango of course, we know how loaded they are, but we need to get them here and ask them ‘what are you doing about the spills in our rivers and seas’.”

South West Water responded to DevonLive saying: “South West Water is not a statutory consultee to planning but we are an interested party as a statutory undertaker. We have a duty to support growth and make sure there is adequate capacity in the network.

“Even though we are not a statutory consultee, South West Water does review 30,000 planning applications each year and where we believe it is appropriate, we will add relevant comments on planning applications for consideration by the Planning Authority.

“It is a requirement under building regulations to ensure full separation of foul and surface water for any new property that is built and this would fall to the Local Authority to respond to.

“To support the ongoing conversation between South West Water, North Devon District Council and Torridge Council, an initial workshop between officers was held in October to explore how we can work better together to ensure well informed decision making and add further value to the planning process. It was agreed at this meeting that in the interests of sharing information and knowledge, this group will continue to meet regularly.

“We continuously review our approach to ensure we provide robust responses to planning applications and we will be contacting Councillor Christie to discuss his concerns.”

Tories start to tear themselves apart (again).

Enough is enough, I have submitted my vote of no confidence letter to the Chairman of the 1922. It is time for Rishi Sunak to go and replace him with a ‘real’ Conservative party leader. – Andrea Jenkyns MP

Some readers are already ahead of Owl by recalling how she “gestured” to the crowd when appointed Education Minister showing what she thought of “the little people”.

The debate lasted about half an hour, Richard Foord received a lot of support while the Minister wriggled.

From Hansard

Richard Foord (Tiverton and Honiton) (LD)

I would like to welcome the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the hon. Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins), to her place.

I rise to raise the pressing situation facing the community hospital at Seaton in the part of east Devon that I represent. I am very grateful for the opportunity to outline why plans to strip away a whole wing of the hospital pose a serious risk to the long-term viability of the hospital, and how small actions by the Government can unlock this space and provide huge benefits for the local communities.

Seaton Hospital is one of 12 community hospitals that provide vital services in my corner of Devon which were given over to NHS Property Services in 2016. Seaton Hospital provides a range of services and clinics that enable people to be cared for closer to home in their own community. I would like to take a moment to give hon. and right hon. Members an idea of the range of services that the hospital currently provides. They include a dedicated Chime audiology service, aneurysm screening, bladder and bowel treatments, and child and adolescent mental health services—we heard a lot about that in today’s health debate—as well as access to a dietician, ear, nose and throat specialists, general medicine, orthoptists, support for those with Parkinson’s, physiotherapy, podiatry, retinal screening, speech and language therapy, and stoma treatments. I could go on.

The hospital also acts as a hub for the growing number of so-called at-home care services. We appreciate that community hospitals have been increasingly moving over to services provided in the community at home. That includes provision for those who are frail and need regular care, or are reaching the end of their life. Indeed, the Seaton & District Hospital League of Friends supports the hospice at home professionals, who provide care to people and their families in those most difficult times of a person’s life or in a family’s life.

Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)

I commend the hon. Gentleman for securing this debate. When someone evaluates what a community hospital does, they find that it is about much more than finance and making sure that the books balance. It is about all the things the hon. Gentleman has referred to. The community hospital in my constituency is where my three children were born some 30-plus years ago. It is where I took my youngest son when he broke his arm. It is where I took my other boy when he put his hand through a glass window and had to go to hospital for surgery. That is what a community hospital is about, and that feeling is replicated by every one of my constituents. When the hon. Gentleman speaks about his local community hospital, I am quite sure that he has the same passion, belief and commitment to that hospital, because it is part of the community, and that is how it is measured, not by finance.

Richard Foord 

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. His anecdotes about what that hospital has done for his family and community are absolutely the same sort of thing as I hear from constituents every time I speak to them.

Seaton Hospital was built in 1988 to provide better local access to medical care and treatment for people across the Axe valley. It serves people not only in Seaton but in Colyton, Colyford, Beer, Axmouth and other villages dotted around the east Devon countryside. Originally, the plan was that people would not have to travel so far for their treatment. Given that the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital is perhaps 30 miles away—20 miles at least—people felt that acute provision was on their doorsteps, which is what they wanted.

Simon Jupp (East Devon) (Con)

The hon. Member is making a stand for a community hospital used by people in both our constituencies, and I congratulate him on having secured the debate. I live less than 10 miles from Seaton Hospital. So many residents raised funds to build the wing, which first opened back in 1991. Does the hon. Member agree that it would be so wrong for local residents to have to pay twice for a building that they helped to fundraise for and build?

Richard Foord 

The hon. Member makes an excellent point. It is exactly right that Seaton Community Hospital was built by local people. Let me expand on that important point, because a lot of people have talked to me about this and I want to relay to the House the feelings they have spoken to me about at recent local community meetings.

The hospital was built over two storeys and updated in 1990 with an acute wing, which was funded not just 50% by the local community but 100% by local donations. The important thing to note is that the construction would not have been possible at all were it not for the contributions by local individuals. For example, the Seaton & District Hospital League of Friends had a scheme called “Be a brick: donate to Seaton Hospital”. People could make a small contribution—whatever they could afford—and get a little brick as a memento to demonstrate that they had contributed to Seaton Community Hospital. The charity is still a vocal champion of the hospital to this day. The project would not have happened had it not been for the generosity of the local people. What comes with that is a sense of ownership that I cannot really stress enough. There is a really strong feeling that the hospital does not belong to some amorphous NHS: it is their hospital. They paid for it, they were treated in it and it belongs to them.

Several weeks ago, I was contacted by the League of Friends charity after it learned from the Devon NHS that the plan is to hand over the two-storey wing from the Devon NHS to NHS Property Services. The charity was concerned that this could lead, eventually, to the selling off of the hospital wing, and even to its demolition. As soon as I heard that, alarm bells were set ringing for me. It is clear that Devon’s integrated care board is keen to wash its hands of the facility as quickly as it can. In essence, the facility is in special measures, and in a financially dire place. The wing is costing the Devon NHS about £300,000 a year, billed by NHS Property Services.

I was not all that familiar with NHS Property Services a year ago. I had heard of it, but I was under the impression that it was just another division of the NHS. I looked into it a bit further, and I found that it is responsible for the maintenance and support of most local NHS facilities. I was surprised to find that it is a Government-owned company, legally owned by one shareholder. The single shareholder for NHS Property Services is the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. As of today, the hon. Member for Louth and Horncastle can congratulate herself on taking on NHS Property Services as her new holding. How can it be the case that a hospital built with the generous support of local people is now owned directly by NHS Property Services, rather than those local people?

In 2016, the Government transferred that facility over to NHS Property Services and implemented a consolidated charging policy to levy charges for rent, maintenance and service charges. Some of those charges are extortionate. We are talking about £300,000 a year, which is £247 a square metre. On paper, it might seem prudent to organise the NHS with some commercial expertise in charge of some of these facilities. However, we have to bear it in mind that the people running NHS Property Services are not necessarily thinking about it through the lens of health and social care; they are thinking about how they can maximise the utility of space and make savings to put money back into budgets.

That is worrying, because what I am hearing is that the offer being made to NHS Devon is, “If you wash your hands of this facility, you will receive 50% of the proceeds of the sale”—that will be to the NHS Devon integrated care board—“and 50% of the proceeds will go back into central coffers, back to Whitehall and back into the very large pot that is the NHS.” The House can imagine what that is like for an individual constituent in my part of east Devon, who has contributed perhaps tens or hundreds of pounds—as much as they could afford—in decades gone by, perhaps through a direct debit or regular payment, to maintain the facility. To hear that those decades of investment will be put back into a big pool in London, a long way away, is pretty sickening.

There has been an understandable backlash from people right across my corner of Devon. I have been to a couple of public meetings in recent weeks since the news broke. At Colyford Memorial Hall a couple of weeks ago, there were more than 200 people. It is a cliché to say there was standing room only, but there was no standing room—there was a long queue of people outside in the rain wanting to get into the meeting. People had one overriding feeling that they wanted to convey to me, and that they wanted me to convey to the Minister and to others gathered here this evening: they created this hospital and they are deeply offended by the idea that it might be taken away. What put salt into those wounds was the idea that that should happen with zero public consultation.

Wendy Chamberlain (North East Fife) (LD)

My hon. Friend is making a passionate speech on behalf of his community. What strikes me is that when the community came forward and made those contributions or bought those bricks, they did not do so to save the hospital at that point. I am pretty sure, like the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), that they made that contribution to maintain the hospital for future generations. I am not surprised that it feels like a betrayal to my hon. Friend’s constituents.

Richard Foord 

I very much thank my hon. Friend for her contribution. She is exactly right. I point to two specific conversations I have had with constituents recently. 

The first was with someone who lives in Seaton, who was close enough to the hospital that she could walk there. Her husband died in the hospital and she was able to go and see him in his final days. She welled up—more than that, tears rolled down her cheeks—as she told me about her husband, who she was able to see in his final days.

Now we have moved to a situation in which patients are cared for at home. Of course, that means that some of the staff previously based out of the community hospital are driving to people’s driveways and providing that care in their homes. That works for some individuals, but the other day I had a lady in my surgery who was almost shaking with nervousness because her husband, whom she loved dearly, had just been discharged from the acute hospital in Exeter and she was charged with looking after him but did not feel able to look after his needs, as he was overcoming his operation towards the end of his life. We are putting some of our constituents in a really difficult situation that they do not feel equipped for.

The reason for the beds being removed from the hospital in 2017 related to so-called workforce issues. There was a substantial consultation of local people in 2017 when beds were removed from local hospitals, but I fear that following that consultation, which showed the outrage and indignation of local people, the NHS does not want to get involved such a consultation exercise again, hence the desire for the ICB to get shot of the building as soon as possible.

The ICB was talking about getting shot of it by the end of this calendar year, although that has gone to Devon County Council’s health scrutiny committee, so it may be pushed into next year. What we need tonight is an intervention from the Minister in relation to NHS Property Services, which is charging a clinical rate for a space that has not been used for acute medicine—it has not had clinical beds in it—since 2017. Organisations are coming forward with a desire to use it not for clinical use but as a care hub to provide other services.

I want to make hon. Members aware of how those clinical beds got removed in the first place. In 2017, there was deep concern that the removal of the beds was an arbitrary decision made following a last-minute intervention by the then right hon. Member for East Devon, Hugo, now Lord Swire. In fact, it is revealed in a book by his wife, Sasha, that Seaton Hospital was to be kept open, with its beds maintained, but, because of that last-minute intervention by Hugo Swire, the bed closures moved to Seaton and the Sidmouth Hospital beds remained.

As a result of that decision, there was no additional funding to set up extra services at Seaton. Instead, the ICB began charging this exceedingly high rent for an empty space. What we really need to do is reduce that rental fee from its clinical rate to one that acknowledges that there are community alternatives. The palliative care nursing team can operate out of this space, and organisations such as Restore and hospice at home carers can work out of it, too. The friends of Seaton and District Hospital are coming up with a strong business plan, but they do need more time to develop it and a concessionary rate—not the clinical rate—to operate from it. If no solution is found, the ward is most likely to be either sold off or demolished. Again—I cannot stress this enough—we need to do this for the people who feel that they paid for the hospital.

There is a precedent for it, and I am grateful to the hon. Member for St Ives (Derek Thomas) for letting me know that the hospital in Cornwall was saved from the jaws of NHS Property Services. However, there is a big difference between what I am proposing for Seaton and what happened at St Ives. St Ives hospital was paid for by a single philanthropist. As we have heard, Seaton Hospital was paid for with contributions—or subscriptions —from thousands of people.

Jim Shannon 

The widow’s mite.

Richard Foord 

Exactly.

Finally, when it comes to healthcare infrastructure in rural areas such as mine, it is so much harder to rebuild something once it has been removed than to maintain it. We saw in coastal and rural communities such as mine the damage that the closure of cottage hospitals caused, and the impact of removing beds from community hospitals. We must put a stop to that, before our rural healthcare centres are left empty skeletal shells of their former selves, where they were once hubs of love and care. I am looking forward to the Minister’s response and hope that she will agree to work constructively with me, as Seaton’s MP, to ensure a fair deal for local people and to protect our hospital for the people who bought and contributed to it.

The Minister for Social Care (Helen Whately)

I congratulate the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Richard Foord) on securing this debate. I appreciate his interest and concern about the future of Seaton community hospital. As he said, it was built only as a result of a huge fundraising campaign in the local community, which was matched pound for pound by the NHS. It therefore holds a lot of importance for the hon. Member’s constituents. I fully understand his interest in making best use of the facilities. I know that my hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Simon Jupp) also wants to see this situation resolved, and I met him earlier to talk about it. I remind the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton that decisions about the use of NHS property such as this community hospital are taken at a local level—as they should be—and not by a Minister in Whitehall.

It may be helpful to recap some of the history, as the hon. Member covered in his speech. Between 2015 and 2017, the then NHS clinical commissioning group—CCG—undertook a recommissioning of community services in Devon. That was about introducing a new model of care—more integrated and more community based, with more people receiving care at home. I heard him raise concerns about that model and the shift to getting care closer to the community. My ministerial brief includes supporting the discharge of people from acute hospitals to try to care for more people in their own homes. Some patients spend longer in hospital than is good for their recovery, so for many people it is much better that, when they are declared fit for discharge, they recover and receive care at home.

Returning to the situation of this particular community hospital, as part of the commissioning change there was a change of lead NHS trust as the provider of services in local community hospitals. That meant that ownership of 12 community hospitals, including Seaton, was transferred from the former NHS provider trust to NHS Property Services, as the hon. Member spoke about. NHS Property Services’ model of charging a market rent for properties is to build an incentive to make good long-term decisions about the use of buildings. NHS Property Services then invests that income into those properties and the services that they provide.

At the point of transfer, many community hospitals in Devon had a large amount of empty space. The transfer happened on the basis that the NHS commissioning body—now the ICB—would be responsible for the full cost of that space. The costs include the recovery of the market rent and service charges, such as energy, rates, cleaning and maintenance. Over the past seven years, progress has been made to identify sustainable, alternative healthcare uses for vacant spaces in other community hospitals in Devon, such as in Axminster and Ottery St Mary’s. However, I understand that Seaton and some others still have significant amounts of vacant space. In addition, the ICB and NHS Property Services have worked closely with the voluntary sector, and have supported local initiatives in some properties, such as the Waffle café at Seaton Hospital. However, it is for the local commissioners—not NHS Property Services—to determine the best use of the healthcare spaces that they are responsible for.

Despite sincere efforts from the ICB, I understand that no sustainable healthcare use has been identified for the former ward space at Seaton, which adds up to about half the hospital space. I know the hon. Member’s constituents are frustrated by this situation. Local community groups have expressed an interest in taking on some of the empty ward space, but they see the level of charges as an insurmountable barrier. The ICB has explored a range of potential healthcare uses with NHS providers, but the proposals have not yet come to fruition, so I know the situation is not satisfactory for them either.

The costs to the system of the vacant space are a pressure on the health budget. Clearly, having unused space is not a good use of resources and, ultimately, taxpayers’ money.

Helen Whately 

It is important to note that NHSPS operates on a cost recovery basis. That means any reduction in its charges counts as a loss to the health budget if it is not directly offset by actual cost reductions in the facilities. As the hon. Member mentioned, the annual charges for the vacant space in this facility are approximately £300,000, of which £140,000 is the rental charge. The rest is spent on a share of the utilities, business rates, maintenance and cleaning costs for the property.

Richard Foord 

I am grateful to the Minister for explaining the charge-back system. Could she explain why the NHS is charging the NHS and hence the NHS cannot have this space, and why it cannot be used for health purposes? Could she explain the charging mechanism a little bit more please?

Helen Whately 

The hon. Gentleman says it cannot be used for health purposes. What I understand is that what is being looked at is what healthcare it can be used for, albeit recognising the shift of more care into the community and the changing model of care. On the way the system works, in essence the philosophy behind NHSPS is to ensure that best possible use is made of property. If there are no charges associated with the use of buildings, we could get lots of buildings sitting empty and there is not the same incentive to ensure the best possible use of facilities and resources. That is the philosophy behind having this kind of system. I think he mentioned in his speech bringing specific expertise together as part of the organisation that is NHSPS. I hope that addresses his query.

Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)

Will the Minister give way?

Helen Whately 

I will make a bit of progress, if that is all right.

As I outlined, the ICB is required to pay for the costs and it is not sustainable for the ward space to remain empty for a further lengthy period of time. When an ICB decides there is no long-term healthcare use for an asset, it will usually be sold to allow the funds to be reinvested elsewhere. I have been told that that is not the plan in the case of Seaton community hospital, not least because half the building is an operational health facility and the ICB is fully committed to keeping those services open. I also appreciate that a huge fundraising effort was put in by the local community to build the wing at the hospital in the first place, a point that my hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Simon Jupp) made when he intervened earlier, and so selling the facility would not be what the community wants.

We know that providing high-quality care and support in the community benefits patients, and their carers and families, helping people to stay well and independent for longer. Across the country, we have achieved a lot as part of our commitment to move more care out into the community. For example, urgent community response services are doing a great job of helping to keep people out of hospital when they are at risk of a crisis. Virtual wards or hospital-at-home services are providing hospital-level care in people’s own homes, helping to avoid admissions to hospital and allowing earlier discharge, and ensuring extra support is there if somebody is concerned about being discharged home, or, as I heard the hon. Member mention, is concerned about a family member being discharged home.

Richard Foord 

I am grateful to the Minister for raising the concept of the virtual ward in this context. It reminds me a little of conversations that I have had with constituents in recent months about the virtual shopping experience, the virtual rail ticket purchasing experience, and the difficulty that they are having in dealing with humans. I think that the last thing people want when it comes to health and social care is “virtual”. They want the human touch.

Helen Whately 

I can only encourage the hon. Gentleman to visit a team that supports a virtual ward, and speak to some patients who have been cared for through hospital at home or virtual wards. I have done both, and the feedback from patients is phenomenally positive. If someone is concerned about being discharged and supported in this way, it does not happen, but many people would much rather recover in their own homes with that support than be in a hospital where it is hard to get a good night’s sleep because there so much going on around them. Moreover, while people recover in their own homes, beds are freed up for people who really need acute hospital care on site.

A third model that is doing very well in helping people to receive care close to home is the proactive care model delivered by multidisciplinary neighbourhood teams. These are real game-changers, helping people to live independently and stay out of hospital. The teams consist of—among others—doctors, nurses, care workers, allied healthcare professionals, all coming together to ensure that people have the care that they need in order not to be going in and out of hospital, as sometimes happens when people become unwell.

While I fully understand the hon. Gentleman’s frustration, I have been assured that the integrated care board, local providers and NHS Property Services are working together to resolve the situation at Seaton Hospital to ensure that facilities—and, indeed, funds—are put to good use for patients.

Another idea for Christmas! Owl

Philip, a local author and campaigner who fought to save the hospital and library, has published his final book. “Sadly, thousands of people end their working lives, frustrated and tired mentally and physically. Many will reflect on how different their careers might have been and ponder earlier incidents, major or trivial, in which they might have reacted differently. Some, lacking interests, will sink into a frustrating retirement. I wanted to explore this in my new book.

“Michael Johnson, retired and living in Torquay, has lost interest in virtually everything and suffers from boredom and a sense of futility. His sense of humour has vanished. His wife, Ann, desperate for a change and failing to jolt him into returning to be the man she married, visits Aberdeen to see friends. Michael, confronted by powerful dreams, is persuaded by one to visit London whilst Ann is away. Determined to right a few wrongs, suffered when young, he creates some situations in which his dormant sense of imaginative humour returns. The couple’s experiences, when apart, have challenging repercussions especially when Michael is visited by someone whom he met in London. Weeks later, one sinister dream has a dramatic impact on the family.”

“I hope that the book reveals a sensitive and sympathetic understanding of the problems many face but that it is balanced by an imaginative humour aimed at the way we live today”.

The book is available from The Curious Otter Bookshop in Ottery St. Mary and Amazon. It can also be ordered via all good bookshops.

An idea for a Christmas Present.

Owl understands that they are available at several bookshops in Sidmouth, Ottery and Tiverton.

I originally wrote them in 12 separate “books”, each with about 30 pieces, many of them topical/satirical pieces often about Bojo, but decided when publishing to discard about 70 pieces that soon seemed dated in their detail.

The following twelve “books” of verse were written over a period of three years from early 2020, during a turbulent time for this country.

Prompted by La Fontaine, I have aimed for variety. To him and, of course, Aesop I am deeply indebted.

I make no excuses, however, for the fact that some of these pieces are not fables in the strict sense of the word.

The cover, by local artist, Mike Baldwin, is based on the following fable: The Ass in the Lion’s Skin

Mike Temple

Here is another called: The Developers’ Charter

[These poems are reproduced as images because Owl has had difficulty in loading them onto an EDW page whilst retaining the original verse structure. – The trials and tribulations of Word Press “updates” and “improvements”]

• Campaigners warn Britons  missing out on vital care as NHS is ‘erecting barriers’

Shaun Wooller www.dailymail.co.uk (Extract)

The NHS is discriminating against elderly patients with one in six GP practices now taking bookings online only, a study suggests.

Campaigners warn Britons are missing out on vital care as the NHS is ‘erecting barriers’ that limit opportunities to see a family doctor face-to-face.

This is forcing people into private healthcare or overcrowded A&E departments and hits those without internet access hardest, over-60s group Silver Voices said.

Its poll of 1,200 members reveals 76 per cent have experienced difficulties in obtaining a face-to-face GP appointment.

Eighty per cent have been forced to accept a telephone consultation and 71 per cent begrudgingly saw another member of practice staff…..

Sir Keir Starmer is on course for a landslide general election victory bigger than 1997, despite party tensions over the Israel–Hamas conflict.

Archie Mitchell www.independent.co.uk

The Labour leader would become prime minister with a 212-seat majority if an election were held tomorrow, according to a Survation poll on behalf of the UK Spirits Alliance.

The survey, based on new constituency boundaries taking effect at the next election, is the first of its kind since Hamas launched a wave of terror attacks on Israel on 7 October.

In the month since, Sir Keir’s party has been plagued by infighting over whether to call for a ceasefire as the civilian death toll grows in Gaza.

The Labour leader has defied pressure to call for an end to Israel’s assault, warning that to do so would solely benefit Hamas.

He has instead called for “humanitarian pauses” to allow aid into the besieged Strip, in line with the UK and US governments.

But several frontbenchers have rejected the principle of “collective responsibility”, breaking the party line and backing a ceasefire. Last week Imran Hussain, the MP for Bradford East, announced he was quitting his role as shadow minister for the new deal for working people, to be able to “strongly advocate” for a ceasefire.

Almost 50 Labour councillors have quit and hundreds of local representatives oppose the leadership’s stance.

Despite the weeks of infighting dominating media coverage of Labour, the new poll suggests the party could secure 431 seats, compared to the Conservatives on 156.

In his 1997 victory, Sir Tony Blair won 418 seats, compared with Sir John Major’s Tories on 165, securing a 179-seat majority.

The Survation poll, reported by The Sunday Times, suggests nine cabinet ministers would lose their seats, including former leadership contender Penny Mordaunt, seen by many as a major contender to replace Rishi Sunak.

Other major scalps that are expected include defence secretary Grant Shapps, transport secretary Mark Harper, work and pensions secretary Mel Stride and justice secretary Alex Chalk.

A separate Opinium poll this weekend revealed Labour’s lead over the Conservatives has increased to 17 points, up from 15 a fortnight ago.

Labour now has 43 per cent of the vote share, while the Conservatives are on 26 per cent.

Opinium said Labour and Sir Keir have taken some “big hits” in terms of public perception over the conflict in Gaza, but the Conservatives have “let them off the hook”.

James Crouch, Opinium’s head of policy and public affairs, said: “The government seems to have let Labour off the hook on what could have been a very difficult week for the opposition.

“Labour’s response to the conflict in the Middle East has made the party look less united, and Starmer look much weaker than before. However, by the end of the week the news had moved on to Conservative divisions and indecision, leaving the door open to a 17-point Labour lead in the polls.”

“Unfortunately, the government has been sending mixed messages to industry about the net zero transition – which could mean we lose out on the cheaper [energy] bills and good jobs that will come from building the industries of the future here in Britain.” Sam Richards, a former climate and energy adviser in No 10.

Toby Helm www.theguardian.com 

The government has received no new applications for onshore wind farms in England since cabinet ministers eased planning rules earlier this year – in a further sign that Rishi Sunak’s anti-green policy shift is driving investment abroad.

So far this year, only one new project, with a single turbine, has become fully operational in England, with many more being built in the EU – and in Scotland and Wales, where planning rules are less burdensome. This is despite renewables being seen as the cleanest and safest form of power, and having wide public support.

Since early September, when the communities secretary, Michael Gove, and energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, introduced changes to planning rules, claiming these would boost onshore wind investment, there have been no applications to local authorities, according to the industry’s representative body, RenewableUK, which has studied data held by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

The fall-off in onshore wind projects in England contrasts with rapid increases in investment in Germany, France and Sweden.

The collapse will add to growing unease in Whitehall after no one bid for licences in the latest auction for offshore wind projects because the price companies could charge for the energy was set at too low a rate.

The Observer understands that, with panic setting in behind the scenes, ministers will announce a new framework of pricing within days to try to attract more investment into the sector before it is too late. There is also dismay among civil servants and government advisers, past and present, over the effect that recent government pronouncements on the green agenda have had on companies’ investment thinking.

In last week’s king’s speech, the government announced an energy bill with plans for a new annual system of oil and gas licences, despite the UK’s commitment to net zero targets, prompting outrage from the green lobby. Coutinho said more oil and gas “wouldn’t necessarily bring bills down”.

Sam Richards, a former climate and energy adviser in No 10, who now runs Britain Remade, a campaign group promoting economic growth, said recent anti-green rhetoric from the government risked lasting damage to the UK’s bid to be in the vanguard of a green industrial revolution.

“Unfortunately, the government has been sending mixed messages to industry about the net zero transition – which could mean we lose out on the cheaper [energy] bills and good jobs that will come from building the industries of the future here in Britain,” he said.

James Robottom, head of policy at RenewableUK, the body representing about 500 companies in the sector, said other countries were doing far more to maximise opportunities. “Unprecedented financial incentives are being offered to renewable energy developers by the US and the EU,” he said. “International competition to secure private investment in clean energy projects is intense as other countries seek to lure developers away from the UK to work elsewhere”.

He added: “The government’s very slight changes to the planning system aren’t going to bring about a significant increase in the number of new onshore wind farms in England. There are still restrictions to onshore wind that aren’t faced by any other infrastructure – despite widespread cross-party support to end the de facto ban – which is dampening the confidence of investors who would otherwise be interested. Local communities that support onshore wind are being denied the chance to benefit from cheap clean power.”

In 2015, before the government changed planning rules to make it easier for local people to block onshore wind farms in their areas, there were 158 new onshore projects in England, involving the construction of 228 new turbines. By last year, only two projects, involving four new turbines, were built in England.

Ed Miliband, Labour spokesperson for energy security and net zero, said: “The British people are paying the price of this government’s dogmatic, ideological and self-defeating opposition to home-grown clean power – in higher bills, energy insecurity and failure on climate.

“The Conservatives presented an energy bill that won’t bring bills down. Their supposed lifting of the onshore wind ban doesn’t do anything of the kind and it is costing families £180 every year on their bills.”

The government said that across the whole of the UK – not just England – substantial progress was being made. “The last Contracts for Difference round saw a record number of successful projects across renewables, including onshore wind projects.

“The streamlined National Planning Policy Framework aims to make it easier and quicker for onshore wind projects to come forward where there is local support.”

Bang goes the Lib Dem’s best recruiting officer! – Owl

Suella Braverman has been sacked as home secretary, after she defied No 10 over an article accusing the Met Police of bias in the policing of protests.

By Sam Francis www.bbc.co.uk

Mrs Braverman was accused of stoking tension in the article ahead of pro-Palestinian protests in London over the weekend.

Her replacement has not been announced.

The sacking kickstarts what is expected to be a major Cabinet reshuffle by Mr Sunak as he reshapes his top team ahead of next week’s Autumn Statement.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly was seen entering Downing Street on Monday morning and there was speculation he would replace Mrs Braverman as home secretary.

Another arrival at Number 10 was former prime minister David Cameron, prompting suggestions he would be returning to government as foreign secretary.

Mr Cameron, who has been out of Parliament since he stood down as a prime minister in 2016, could be given a seat in the House of Lords to take up his new position.

Mrs Braverman was sacked following days of a political firestorm sparked when she wrote an article for The Times newspaper, in which she accused the police of bias.

The article was not cleared by No10 and it later emerged Mrs Braverman had defied a Downing Street request to tone the article down.

Mrs Braverman was accused of stoking tensions surrounding a pro-Palestinian march on Armistice Day.

The “bottom line for the NHS” this winter is “the financial bottom line”. 

Rishi Sunak’s pledge to slash NHS waiting lists has effectively been downgraded, the Observer has been told, amid an increase in the number of patients in England waiting longer than 18 months for treatment.

Michael Savage www.theguardian.com 

Hospital leaders are warning that morale is low, staff absences are high, and funds for new equipment and repairs are having to be raided ahead of winter. They have now been told to prioritise controlling costs in favour of some of the extra work being done towards the prime minister’s pledge to bring down waits.

The news comes as the latest data reveals that one key waiting time target is heading in the wrong direction. The number of people waiting more than 18 months for treatment climbed back above 10,000 in September – a similar level to that recorded in March, and up from 8,998 in August.

With trusts already frustrated that they will not be fully compensated for costs created by NHS strikes, hospital leaders and analysts said that a memo sent last week effectively signalled the downgrading of No 10’s battle against waiting lists.

The memo said that to show “how you will deliver financial balance”, trusts needed a treatment plan “identifying the insourcing/outsourcing and waiting list initiatives you still consider necessary within a balanced financial plan”. One NHS finance chief said they believed it was the first time in a decade that they had been told the “bottom line for the NHS” this winter was “the financial bottom line”.

Sally Gainsbury, senior policy analyst at the Nuffield Trust, said the NHS was in a “precarious” position going into winter. “The NHS has now been asked to scale back the additional efforts and expenditure it was incurring in order to work through the record-high elective backlog – waiting lists – and focus instead on emergency and urgent cases,” she said. “The message is that further expenditure to reduce the waiting list – such as extra weekend clinics and theatres – just isn’t affordable within the budget constraints, so it is serious, especially for patients who may already have been on a list for months.

“Twelve-hour trolley waits are at the point they were this time last year. Staff sickness absence rate is extremely high ahead of winter. And then there is the issue of ongoing strikes. The small amount of extra cash from the Treasury this week isn’t going to solve the financial problems.” She said that the budget for buildings and equipment was “being raided” to cope.

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said the government had effectively abandoned its ambitions. “This is the government waving the white flag on Sunak’s pledge to cut waiting lists,” he said. “The PM would rather blame NHS staff than take responsibility and fix the problem himself. No wonder waiting lists have trebled since 2010. The longer we give the Conservatives, the longer patients wait.”

Tim Gardner, assistant director of policy at the Health Foundation, said that if the government was saving extra NHS funding for the forthcoming autumn statement, it would be “far too late to shift the dial on what’s likely to be a challenging winter for emergency departments”.

“There does seem to have been a distinct shift in priorities,” he said. “Financial control seems to be coming through more strongly, along with an increased focus on urgent and emergency care and patient safety, possibly in anticipation of what could be a difficult winter. As a consequence, progress on elective waiting lists appears to be a lower priority than it was.”

With the service struggling, NHS bosses are desperate for further strike action to be avoided. Junior doctors and consultants continue to demand the reopening of the pay deal offered by the government. Radiographers also walked out last month.

The CEO of NHS Providers, Sir Julian Hartley, urged ministers to resolve the disputes once and for all. “We haven’t even hit the worst of winter yet the pressure is being felt right across hospitals and mental health and community services, as demand for care continues to outstrip capacity,” he said. “This hiatus in strike action while talks continue between the government and doctors’ unions couldn’t have come soon enough. The last thing the NHS needs as we head into another challenging winter is more industrial action.”

Dr Adrian Boyle, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said he anticipated that the months ahead would be “as difficult as last winter”. “There’s nearly 150,000 people in one month who spent more than 12 hours in emergency departments,” he said. “That’s a bad indicator of us going into a difficult winter, so we’re worried.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Cutting waiting lists is one of our top five priorities, and despite disruption from strikes, 18-month waits are down more than 90% from their peak in September 2021. We’re backing the NHS with billions of investment to improve performance, with an additional £800m allocated this winter to support emergency care and tackle the longest waits.”

So let’s demolish the Seaton Hospital Wing! – Owl

The UK faces an ageing crisis and healthcare must step in, England’s chief medical officer, Prof Sir Chris Whitty, warns in his annual report.

By Michelle Roberts www.bbc.co.uk

People are living longer but some spend many of their later years in bad health – and that has to change, he said.

Based on projections, the elderly boom will be in rural, largely coastal, areas and these places are often poor cousins when it comes to provision.

In deprived regions, age-related issues emerge 10 years earlier, on average.

While young people flock to wealthy cities, areas such as Scarborough, North Norfolk or the south coast of England are going to age “rapidly and predictably”, says the report – Sir Chris’s fourth in the role.

He told me: “We’ve really got to get serious about the areas of the country where ageing is happening very fast, and we’ve got to do it now.

“It’s possible to compress the period of time that people spend in ill health…because otherwise we will end up with large numbers of people leading much more dependent lives.”

Providing services and environments suitable for older adults in these areas is an absolute priority, the report says.

Much of the NHS’s work is already caring for an ageing population, and that is set to increase.

The fact that people are living longer compared to a century ago is “a triumph of medicine and public health”.

But the emphasis needs to be on quality, not quantity, says the report.

It says major action in two areas could help turn things around:

• Policies to reduce disease and disability and help people to exercise, eat well and stay fit
• Making housing, transport and other parts of the environment more elderly friendly, so people can live out their lives as independently as possible

Sir Chris explained: “Houses are built for young families…and if you project forward to the middle of the century, a quarter of the population will be over 65, yet we still have a housing stock not designed for that age group.”

He said people should adopt “old-fashioned” methods to stay healthy.

“Having lots of exercise, having mental stimulation and a social network, eating a reasonably balanced diet… these are things which are old-fashioned, but they still work.”

People should also make choices about what care they do and don’t want, and doctors should refrain from over-treating.

Improving quality of life in older age sometimes means less medicine, not more, says the report.

Sir Chris said: “That might be, ‘I want to go to hospital but I don’t want to go to intensive care’. It might be, ‘I want to have treatment but I don’t want to have an operation’. Or it might be ‘I don’t want any more treatment at all’. The conversation needs to be had.”

Prof Dame Carol Black, from the Centre for Ageing Better, said: “Many people are facing enormous challenges and hardship in their later years, as this report makes clear.  

“We don’t all have an equal opportunity to age well. Wealth, work, housing, discrimination; all play a significant role in the huge gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest areas of the country.”

Paul Farmer, chief executive at Age UK, called for a cross-government ageing strategy, and a minister for older people to help drive forward change.

“We can already see how the failure to invest in delivering the right services and support is leading to worse outcomes for older people and entirely avoidable problems,” he said.

“Older people are isolated at home if the design of our communities means they can’t safely go out. People end up falling, and in the back of an ambulance if our built environment is full of trip hazards.

“Our hospitals are over capacity at least in part, due to the failure to provide adequate social care and community services to enable people to stay safe and well at home. None of this is inevitable. Getting it right would have immeasurable benefits.”

Shoppers will be able to stop-off in East Devon car parks all day for £2 in a bid to boost the district’s high streets.

East Devon Reporter eastdevonnews.co.uk

The winter deal, which began on Wednesday, November 1 and runs until the end of march 2024, wants to encourage people to buy locally and support businesses.

Tickets purchased will be valid until midnight.

East Devon District Council (EDDC) says that, with Christmas around the corner, residents and visitors can enjoy a full day out without having to rush back to their cars.

It is hoped that reduced will help to boost trade throughout the festive season and especially in the quieter months of January and February.

Councillor Paul Hayward, portfolio holder for finance and assets, said: “We recognise that our local high streets are always keen to see shoppers stay that little bit longer to keep their tills ringing, and so I am delighted to bring back our winter parking offer – £2 all day, in any car park across the district.”

A list of EDDC car parks can be found here.

Sideshore Car Park in Exmouth, Otter Estuary Nature Reserve in Budleigh Salterton, and Lyme Street in Axminster, are not included in the offer as they are managed by EDDC but are privately-owned.

Motorists can use the RingGo app to pay when they park and enter the dedicated ‘winter offer’ location code ‘42973’.

Alternatively, drivers can buy a paper ticket from one of EDDC’s machines using cash or card.

The council says that, although printed tickets may not display an expiry time of midnight, they will still be valid for the whole day.

Seaton top of TV news as Scrutiny backs us

Jack Rowland and I addressed a crowded Devon Health Scrutiny Committee meeting yesterday and were very well received. The Committee asked for a full report at their January meeting, and agreed to request the ICB and NHSPS to pause disposal and to negotiate seriously with us in the meanwhile. We got really great TV coverage, with Seaton leading the regional news on both channels for the first time I can remember!

Leafleting, Petition and Day of Action. 10,000 leaflets will be available from Seaton Print this Monday or Tuesday – please contact us to help deliver in your area, if you have not already done so. We will be leafleting and petitioning on Saturday 18th as planned, meeting outside the Tramway in Seaton and the Mariners in Beer.

Petition. Please sign and share online (https://www.change.org/p/save-seaton-hospital) but we also need to collect physical signatures wherever possible people, including where leafleting. The first sheets are already being returned.

• Please help get the petition forms into local shops, etc.
• Please note that completed forms should now be delivered to the League of Friends shops in Fore Street in envelopes addressed to Kirstine House.

OTHER NEWS. 

The Steering Committee will meet at the Hospital on Thursday 16th. 

Sarah Wollaston. Supporters have received emails saying that their letters will be ‘sent to the appropriate department’ – please insist that they are sent to her personally and copied to other members of the Board. 

Emails to some addresses have bounced back. Please check with friends who were at the meeting to see if they’re getting these emails, and if not ask them to contact me to make sure their correct addresses are on the list.

Report reveals growing crisis for renters in Devon and Cornwall 

A major new report by the University of Plymouth and local Citizens Advice services has shone a spotlight on the damaging effects of the government’s three-year freeze on Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates for local private sector renters.

The report, Sometimes I Sit on the Sofa and Cry, tells the stories of local people struggling to keep up with soaring rents and eviction notices.

It also contains suggestions to help ease the crisis, including an increase in LHA, an emergency cap on rents and provision of more affordable homes.

The research (which focused on the South Hams, Plymouth and SE Cornwall) found that average rents in the area have been outstripping the level of LHA support since 2015 but the gap has now grown to 12%.

The increase in people facing eviction has also led to big increases in bills for temporary accommodation for local authorities.

In Cornwall, the figure has risen from £9.5 million in 2020/21 to £18.4million in 2022/23 while for South Hams District Council, the figure has risen from £115k to £476k in the same period.

The report is the result of a collaboration between local Citizens Advice charities in the South Hams, Plymouth and Cornwall and the Plymouth Business School.

It was funded following a successful bid to the University’s Get Involved Awards 2023 programme.

Hospitals will reduce the number of operations they perform over the next few months after ministers rejected an NHS plea for £1bn to cover the cost of strikes by staff.

Denis Campbell www.theguardian.com 

The move makes it even more unlikely that Rishi Sunak will be able to deliver his promise to cut NHS waiting lists, one of the five key pledges he said voters should judge him by.

NHS England had been in discussion with the Department of Health and Social Care and the Treasury for months over what it hoped would be a bailout of at least £1bn of genuinely new money. It has instead been forced to recycle what is mostly funding from within its existing budget in order to hand £800m to local NHS bodies to help lessen deficits, expected to hit £160m in the case of some services.

Leaders in NHS England were left disappointed and concerned after ministers decided to largely disregard their £1bn request and give them only £100m.

Responding to the government’s snub, NHS England announced that it would now relax its drive to tackle the backlog of people waiting for hospital care, which stands at 7.75 million, the largest number on record.

It initially committed this financial year to undertaking 107% of the number of planned operations it did in 2019-20, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. It cut that to 105% in July and has now lowered that target to 103% to help save money.

It could mean that the NHS will struggle to realise its ambition to ensure that by next spring no one will have been waiting for hospital care for more than 65 weeks. It also raises serious questions about how realistic Sunak’s hope is that the waiting list will have stopped growing by next year, when the UK will hold a general election.

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said: “The white flag has been waved on Sunak’s pledge to cut waiting lists – 700,000 fewer patients will now be treated than planned [in 2023-24], thanks to the Conservatives’ mismanagement of the NHS.”

Saffron Cordery, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said leaders of health service trusts were feeling “a deep sense of frustration over the lack of extra funding from the Treasury to help the NHS tackle the fallout from nearly a year of industrial action”.

NHS England will also cut back planned spending on technology and improvements to hospitals’ facilities, again to free up the £800m; its budget is due to be £16.7bn this year.

Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said the £800m was “clearly insufficient” to cover the deficit that the 42 regional “integrated care systems” of the NHS were on track to incur.

The health service needed the level of emergency funding to be at least £1bn, Taylor said, because that was what the strikes by doctors, nurses and other staff since last December had cost it.

Julian Kelly, NHS England’s finance chief and deputy chief executive, told its board meeting last month that the walkouts had cost the service £1.1bn by the end of July.

NHS leaders had hoped that the understanding of the service by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, gleaned from his six years as the health secretary, would lead him to provide a substantial sum. His failure to do so, bar the £100m, is also a setback for Steve Barclay, the current health secretary, who had been lobbying him to find the £1bn the NHS said it needed.

Sally Gainsbury, a senior policy analyst at the Nuffield Trust thinktank, said the NHS had been “forced to scale back ambitions to bring down record waiting lists to help get patients seen quicker”. She said: “This will ultimately mean some people will wait longer for their operations and treatment than the NHS had hoped and planned.”

Sally Warren, the director of policy at the King’s Fund, warned that the £800m would prove to be too little if consultants and junior doctors continued with strikes. There is cautious optimism in the NHS that a deal to end walkouts by consultants may come soon, before winter adds to the already intense strain felt by the NHS.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are backing the NHS and social care with record funding and have made up to £14.1bn available to tackle the backlog caused by the pandemic and cut waiting lists, which is one of the government’s five key priorities.

Last night BBC Spotlight reported that campaigners had been successful in convincing Devon County Council’s health Scrutiny Committee to ask for a reconsideration of plans to demolish a wing of Seaton Hospital. This has been left empty for six years at a “cost” of  £1.8m years [transfer of funds from Devon to central NHS coffers – Owl], but could have been used for providing health services. 

The Scrutiny Committe has asked that the Integrated Care Board and NHS Property Services discuss how to use it for health services and provide a report for their next meeting in January. Meanwhile they have asked for the plan to “dispose” of the wing to be paused.

Teignmouth campaigners also convinced the committee to appeal to the Health Secretary against closing their hospital.

A fuller account will follow.

NAO finds NHS Property Services charging framework not working.

Almost £700 million either written off or still unpaid as too many NHS organisations and GPs seem to regard paying for their premises as “optional”. [Tenants were not always fully charged for rent and services before the Service took on ownership and Property Services doesn’t have the same powers as a commercial landlord – see NAO full report] 

Investigation into NHS Property Services Limited 2019 www.nao.org.uk

The Department created the Service in 2011 to manage NHS property. To a large extent the Service has, albeit slowly, succeeded in improving the professional support required, collecting data, streamlining contracts and identifying market rental rates. However, more than eight years later, it still does not have the powers it needs to work effectively, as the Department originally intended, and the accuracy of bills is still disputed. In our view, too many NHS organisations and GPs seem to regard paying for their premises as optional, with almost £700 million either written off or still unpaid. The framework for charging for NHS property is not working effectively and the Department urgently needs to address the fundamental causes of this unsatisfactory situation.

“The system for charging for NHS property is not working effectively and the Department urgently needs to address the fundamental causes of this unsatisfactory situation.”

Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO 2019

Devon is set to see its special needs deficit surge beyond £160 million – a new record – as pressure mounts on the service.

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

A report to the council’s cabinet meeting today (8 November) shows the deficit relating to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is forecast to be £37 million this financial year, up more than half-a-million pounds in just two months.

This pushes the cumulative total to a predicted £163 million by next April.

The council agreed in September to cut spending in a bid to create a £10 million reserve that it could use to contribute towards the deficit.

Progress has been made, with £7 million in savings identified as achievable, and with plans ongoing to secure the remaining £3 million.

The report for councillors notes that “unlike in previous years”, the council’s finance team and its counterpart at the Devon Integrated Care Board are supporting the delivery of services “on budget within a particularly challenging environment”.

But it warns of continued hurdles.

“There are, however, emerging risks within Children and Young People’s Futures with increasing numbers of complex placements and continued pressure associated with excessive agency costs,” the report said.

“In response additional intensive work and the establishment of a cross-council placement taskforce is seeking to address this issue at pace.”

It added there had been “significant progress” in stabilising management tiers within the SEND system, with the level of interim managers reducing by 70 per cent since February.

Guidance from central government means that local authorities can hold their SEND deficits off their balance sheet, meaning any shortfall is essentially ring-fenced away from the main budget.

Devon’s Lib Dem leader, Councillor Julian Brazil (South Hams), said that many authorities are struggling with funding SEND services, but that the county is “an outlier in a bad way” in terms of its service.

“We’re surrounded by good and excellent authorities while Ofsted has rated us inadequate,” he said.

“We are failing vulnerable children, and these are the people we need to support.

“The issue hasn’t been given the time and effort it has needed.”

A spokesperson for Devon County Council acknowledged the predicted £162 million figure “could be the highest the SEND overspend has been at the end of the financial year,” adding that this had been accumulated over a number of years.

“Devon – like a number of other councils – is negotiating for extra funds with government, and we hope to have good news after Christmas,” the spokesperson said.

“The government has told all top tier councils to hold the overspend in a separate account off the main budget.

“As for the overall budget predictions, we’ve made substantial progress since the summer of 2022 when an overall overspend for 22/23 of over £40 million was predicted.

“After a cross-council exercise to reduce spending and increase income, we actually finished the year in the black.”

Devon’s children’s services were rated inadequate in 2020, and a letter from Ofsted in January this year said its visit to the county showed its leaders had “not ensured that all children who come into their care know early enough what the permanent and secure arrangements are for their lives”.

“There has not been enough progress for children in this area of practice since the full inspection three years ago,” it added.

However, it did acknowledge the “energy and strong commitment” of middle and frontline managers who were trying to maintain a level of continuity and implement an improvement plan.

NHS Property Services was established in 2011 as part of the “disastrous” Andrew Lansley reforms. Its purpose is to manage, maintain and improve NHS properties in England and facilities previously owned by strategic health authorities and primary care trusts. 

It is intended to drive efficiency by charging hospitals a “market rent” for the land and buildings they use. But this transfer of funds from one public sector pocket to another comes with considerable administrative costs including £57m in staff costs alone, and consequences. 

Richard Foord MP reports that the NHS Property Services, locally, is seeking to charge local charities and community groups a “market rate” that has been pitched at the upper-end clinical rate.

It raises the question of how applicable the adoption of commercial accounting is to public sector activity and what rental NHS Property Services might reasonably charge.

Valuable publicly owned sites, accessible to communities, are a strategic asset, not some commodity that can be sold off to the highest bidder..

Community schools aren’t treated in this way.

Just how NHS  Property Services sets their rates is a mystery and certainly challengeable. This has been demonstrated in a recent High Court case, supported by the BMA, when a group of GPs agreed an out of court settlement in which their rental was significantly reduced.

The crazy thing is that this asset, the Seaton hospital wing funded by the local community, could be lost because NHS Devon is forecasting another budget deficit of more than £40m and wants to ”save” £300,000 a year by not paying rent to NHS Property Services, though it is short of beds.

According to the NAO  NHS Property Services is also struggling to meet its financial and performance objectives. In fact it posted over £1bn “losses” between 2012/13 and 2018/19 (some of this attributable to “asset revaluations”}.  

What NHS Devon might gain, NHS Property Services Ltd (sole shareholder, Health Secretary, Steve Barclay) will lose.

So there does seem a very real possibility that the hospital wing could be demolished and sold as a building site to “balance” the books.

Receipts from NHS Property Services sales are reinvested at a National, rather than local, level.

Is this another example of levelling up? – Owl

Local Democracy Reporter eastdevonnews.co.uk

Hundreds of residents packed a community hall in an impassioned bid to save a wing of Seaton Hospital it is feared could be demolished.

They say the wing’s construction was funded entirely by the community and that they should therefore have the say about its future – rather than just the NHS, writes Local Democracy Reporter Bradley Gerrard.

Devon’s Integrated Care Board (ICB), which because of its financial deficit is in special measures, pays a market rate of rent on the wing to governemnt-owned NHS Property Services (NHSPS), is considering handing it back to its landlord to save money.

However, campaigners fear that if that happens, the wing could be demolished.

Martin Shaw, a former county councillor, organised the meeting at Colyford Memorial Hall on Friday, November 3, attended by an estimated 250 people.

Mr Shaw said campaigners were ‘looking at all possible solutions to save the hospital [wing]’ and to find a way to provide other services to complement the hospital’s existing offering.

“We are now in a position where the NHS [in Devon]is looking to hand the building back, and there is the potential for the wing to be sold or demolished, which is why we are all here today,” said Mr Shaw.

Dr Mark Welland, chair of the Seaton and District Hospital League of Friends, said a major issue in his discussions with the Devon ICB and NHSPS related to the costs of rent.

“There have been several meetings between the League of Friends and the NHS in terms of securing some of the void space in Seaton Hospital, but in each discussion it seems to always come up against one seemingly unmoveable problem, which is the amount that NHSPS demands for renting the space,” he added.

Dr Welland said the NHS charges the Devon ICB roughly £200,000 per year for the space that is currently empty and where campaigners want additional services to go.

“We have a real opportunity with this void space to do good things,” he added. “While the hospital continues to house NHS clinics, physiotherapy and community rehab and nursing services, there is an opportunity for the likes of the League of Friends and [community interest company]Re:store to put further services in.”

He added that it had only been when the League of Friends recently approached NHS Property Services to secure space in the void area for the Seaton hospice-at-home service that the NHS disclosed there was a plan to lose it.

The meeting heard that a previous plan in 2019 created by Seaton Area Health Matters to buy the hospital outright and then rent space out at concessionary rates to local groups, had progressed well until a stumbling block prevented campaigners from securing funding. Shortly after, the pandemic started and the plans were shelved.

Paul Arnott, leader of East Devon District Council, said he couldn’t make any promises on his own, but assured campaigners that the authority was keen to help.

“This issue has already been discussed and we have the capacity to take on Public Works Loans Board loans, so it may be that East Devon has a role to play,” he said.

He said any potential financial help from the council would need to be agreed by councillors, but that it could form part of a financial package with other donors to save the hospital.

“We are a way from that yet, but East Devon District Council, as the closest body democratically that is able to do something financially about this situation, does stand ready to help, but any details have to be subject to confirmation.”

Tiverton and Honiton MP Richard Foord, who raised the plight of Seaton Hospital at Prime Minister’s questions last month, said the strength of feeling in the community showed how important the hospital is.

“The local community fundraised to pay for this hospital, with small donations from people, including those in this hall, contributing to it, and people don’t feel they should be asked to pay twice to save it,” he said.

“As such, we’re calling on NHS Property Services to charge a concessionary rate to use this facility as a health hub for people in Seaton and the surrounding villages.”

He added that Seaton Hospital was handed to NHS Property Services in 2016, and that that organisation’s one shareholder – Secretary of State for Health Steve Barclay – could intervene.

“If the secretary of state wanted to, he could change [the rental rate]tomorrow and ensure Seaton Hospital is available for use by the local community,” Mr Foord added.

Many residents hailed the care at Seaton Hospital, with community organisations such as hospital transport services suggesting that significant round-trips for many outpatients to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in Exeter could be avoided if services at Seaton’s expanded.

The meeting also heard that the average age in Seaton, and the prevalence of age-related diseases such as dementia, were higher than the national average, making the campaigners’ plans for a health hub that would house additional services even more important.

Representatives from the Devon ICB and NHS Property Services were invited to the meeting, but did not attend.

Mr Shaw asked for attendees to vote on creating a steering committee comprising the meeting’s speakers, which included Mr Foord, Dr Welland, Cllr Arnott and other stakeholders, to pursue the matter.

This was supported, and Mr Shaw now hopes to lobby Devon County Council’s health scrutiny committee later this month to support the Seaton Hospital campaign. Mr Foord is set to discuss the issue again in parliament later in the month, too.

NHS Devon has previously said the site’s high rent and other charges – which it said amounted to £300,000 a year – were a ‘poor use of taxpayers’ money at a time when we are forecasting another budget deficit of more than £40 million this year’.

“In recent months, we have been talking to local health, care and community partners to see if they are interested and financially able to take on the space, but no viable schemes have been received and we started the process of handing the ward space back to NHS Property Services (NHSPS) so we can save the money that is currently being wasted on it,” a spokesperson said.

“We have always been very happy to talk to prospective occupants of the space if they have a financially viable scheme to take it on – and we remain so.”

MP Mr Foord said after the meeting: “The future of Seaton Community Hospital is one which concerns everyone living in and around the Axe Valley. Today’s packed public meeting, attended by hundreds of people, clearly demonstrates the strength of feeling locally.

“The hospital belongs to the community.  Members of the community and volunteer groups raised millions to help fund construction and equipment – including the very ward that is now threatened with demolition. We cannot allow it to be taken away from those who worked so hard to build it.

“NHS Property Services needs to review the way they rent out facilities such as this. Seeking to charge local charities and community groups a market rate that has been pitched at the upper-end clinical rate is short-sighted and wrong.

“I have met recently with NHS Devon, NHS Property Services, and the Seaton Hospital League of Friends charity. There are potential solutions, but we need the political will from those in Government who have the power to make these decisions.

“NHS Property Services is a Government-owned company with just one shareholder, the Health Secretary Steve Barclay. He has the power to resolve this situation and secure the long-term future of our hospital, and other small rural hospitals across the country.

“I will continue to raise the threat posed by these damaging proposals and fight to save the whole of this local hospital for the community. Local people have made plain to me this afternoon that they feel that the Hospital is theirs – and in their eyes – not available for NHS Property Services to sell.”