Architects’ report claims new three-bedroom houses are being constructed 8% smaller than guidelines advise The Royal Institute of British Architects has criticised the “shoe box” sized homes now being built in Britain. Ahead of its inquiry into housing needs, RIBA claims that many of the new homes being constructed are too small for the number of people expected to live in them. The institute says the average new three-bedroom house is 8% smaller than the recently adopted standard for homes in London, with floor space of 88 sq metres (947 sq ft). That is 8 sq metres short of the recommended space, the equivalent of a single bedroom. One-bedroom properties, at an average of 46 sq metres, are 4 sq metres short of the recommended size, it adds in its recent report The Case for Space. RIBA suggests that potential buyers are being short-changed and fobbed off with “shameful shoe box homes”. The London Housing Design Guide, adopted in the past year or so, lays down, among other features, minimum space standards for new properties, based on factors such as the average quantity of furnishings as well as number of occupants. The RIBA inquiry, to be conducted by Sir John Banham, a former director-general of the CBI and former chair of the Tarmac group, is expected to report by next summer and will feed into the government’s proposals to alter planning rules. The inquiry will seek the views of architects, builders, planners and purchasers. Banham said: “”There are some fundamental issues that need to be addressed to ensure we have more of the right kind of affordable homes in villages, towns and cities … new thinking and financing approaches will be needed.” Anna Scott-Marshall, RIBA’s head of policy, said that the organisation’s Future Homes Commission would address issues such as housing costs, building quality, design and layout, including factors such as the amount of light in a property. “We need to look into affordability and the mechanisms that need to be in place to enable people to buy,” she said. Housing Real estate Housing market Planning policy Architecture Stephen Bates guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Young girl among dead as latest in string of violent assaults in public places fuels concern over mental illness and stress A man with an axe has attacked children and parents walking on a city street in central China, killing four people and wounding two, according to a local official. Villagers have identified the perpetrator of the attack, on the outskirts of the city of Gongyi, as a local farmer with a history of mental illness, the city government spokesman said. He said one young girl was among those killed while another was seriously wounded when the alleged assailant, Wang Hongbin, began attacking people on a main street in Gongyi’s Shecun township at about 8.40am. The spokesman said Wang had been detained but gave no other details. Gongyi is in the heavily populated Henan province, in China’s grain belt. A string of attacks at schools, retirement homes and on city streets in China has left dozens of people dead and scores more wounded since the start of 2010. Last month, a worker slashed children with a knife at a daycare centre for migrant workers in eastern China, wounding eight of them. Reports said the female attacker had suffered a “psychotic episode”. In one of the worst attacks, seven children and two adults were killed at a kindergarten in the north of the country in May last year. While seemingly unrelated, the attacks have prompted calls for more attention to serious mental illnesses and concern over rising stress levels in Chinese society. Assailants in most attacks were mentally unstable, bore grudges against their victims or were angry over personal failures. Schools around China boosted security last year, with more guards at entrances. China guardian.co.uk
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Security forces kill remaining insurgents after attack on foreign embassies and Nato base from high-rise building An assault by Taliban insurgents on the heart of Kabul’s diplomatic and military enclave ended after 20 hours when security forces killed the last of six attackers, a spokesman for the ministry of the interior has said “The operation just ended and six terrorists were killed by police. Details on casualties will be announced later,” the spokesman, Sediq Sediqqi, said on Twitter. The insurgents had holed up in a multistorey building still under construction and launched their attack early on Tuesday afternoon, firing rockets towards the US and other embassies and the headquarters of Nato-led foreign forces . Afghan security forces backed by Nato and Afghan attack helicopters fought Taliban insurgents floor by floor in the building in the longest sustained attack on the capital since the US-led invasion a decade ago. One or two fighters held out overnight in the high-rise building, the site of the most spectacular of four co-ordinated attacks across the city. Suicide bombers had targeted police buildings in other parts of the city. At least nine people were killed and 23 were wounded in four attacks, and the ability of the Taliban to penetrate Kabul was a clear show of strength before a planned handover of security to Afghan forces in 2014. The insurgents were armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers, AK-47 assault rifles and suicide bomb vests, a Taliban spokesman said. But the amount of time during which the squad held off foreign and Afghan troops prompted speculation they had access weapons and ammunition hidden in the building before the attack. Gunfire continued throughout the night, with residents of nearby buildings staying indoors with their lights off, as children panicked and helicopters flew low overhead. “It would go silent for 30 to 35 minutes and then there were explosions and the sound of heavy machine guns,” the Taliban spokesman said. Explosions were interspersed with gunfire all afternoon on Tuesday and several rockets landed in the wealthy Wazir Akbar Khan district, near the British and other embassies. One hit a school bus but it appeared to have been empty at the time. “There was almost certainly either a breakdown in security among the Afghans with responsibility for Kabul or an intelligence failure,” said Andrew Exum, from the Centre for a New American Security. On the day the attack started, a US Senate panel approved a $1.6bn (£1bn) cut in projected US funding for Afghan security forces, part of a significant reduction in outlays for training and equipping Afghan army and police expected in the coming years. The US and British embassies and the Nato-led coalition said all their staff were safe. Violence is at its worst since US-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government in late 2001, with high levels of foreign troop deaths and record civilian casualties. The assault was the second big attack in the city in under a month after suicide bombers targeted the British Council headquarters in mid-August, killing nine people. In late June, insurgents launched an assault on a hotel in the capital used by westerners, killing at least 10. Afghanistan Global terrorism US national security United States Nato guardian.co.uk
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Moody’s has cut Société Générale and Credit Agricole’s credit ratings – just hours ahead of crucial talks between Germany, France and Greece 8.45am: Here’s some early analysis of the French banking downgrade from Jill Treanor, our banking correspondent: Markets have been expecting the downgrade by Moody’s to come today or on Thursday, because the agency had warned it might downgrade them three months ago. Since then, the French banks been trying to prevent such a move: SocGen announced €4bn of asset sales on Monday – but was still downgraded. BNP Paribas’s balance sheet reduction programme announced earlier today appears to have stalled a downgrade for now. But Greece isn’t the only worry as Moody’s talks about the “structural challenges to banks’ funding and liquidity profiles” for the sector. This may be more of a concern. Just as happened to UK banks in 2007 and 2008, funds in the US are much more reluctant to lend money to French banks. The boss of SocGen described this yesterday as a “new world which is a bit disturbing”, but stressed at the presentation in New York that the bank was able to find dollars from elsewhere and alter its funding needs in the markets. All the French banks need to convince the markets that they can keep funding themselves, otherwise the rumours of a government bail out will refuse to go away. You can read the full report of SocGen CEO Frédéric Oudéa’s trip to New York here . 8.24am: French banks shares have fallen sharply again following Moody’s downgrade — and despite Christian Noyer’s admirable optimism : Société Générale has been hardest hit, losing 4.2% in the first 20mins of trading. Credit Crédit Agricole is faring slightly better, down 3.2% at pixel time. The biggest faller, perhaps surprisingly, is BNP Paribas, whose shares have tumbled by 5.1%. It dodged a downgrade – and announced a €70bn asset sale plan. City analysts, though, reckon BNP is on borrowed time. As Michael Hewson, market analyst at CMC Markets, puts it: Surely it can only be a matter of time before BNP Paribas follows in their wake, as the bank announces a restructuring plan to increase capital, probably in order to head off a downgrade at the pass. 8.12am: France’s answer to Mervyn King, Bank of France governor Christian Noyer , has just responded to the downgrade — with a classic Gallic shrug. Speaking to a French radio station, Noyer described the downgrades of two of France’s largest banks as “relatively good news”. Moody’s decision just means French banks now had equivalent ratings to European peers, he argued: French banks have an excellent rating, the same level as other major European banks, HSBC, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse. There’s no really bad news on the way, and Moody’s says the level of capital of French banks allows them to absorb any potential losses on sovereign debt.” The downgrade was “very small”, Noyer added. 8.02am: The City had been braced for Moody’s to downgrade the French banks, since it put the sector on negative watch three months ago. The move is a blow to Europe’s political leaders as they attempt to persuade the financial markets that Greece’s problems can be contained. Moody’s said that funding conditions in the banking sector had worsened since it started its review – particularly bad news for French banks, which hold $56.7bn (£36bn) of Greek debt. Here’s the full details of the downgrade: The debt and deposit ratings for SocGen were moved from Aa3 to Aa2. The bank’s overall strength rating, currently at C+, remains under review, Moody’s said, with a one notch downgrade likely. Credit Agricole’s overall bank strength rating was downgraded from C+ to C, while its long-term debt and deposit ratings were moved down to Aa1 from Aa2. BNP Paribas’s rating, meanwhile, remains on review as Moody’s considers its reliance on wholesale funding, the ratings agency said. In SocGen’s case, Moody’s said that the bank could cover losses on Greek, Portuguese and Irish debt, but added: “Nevertheless, SocGen’s wholesale funding, the majority of which is short-term, is still high in absolute terms and may pose a vulnerability given considerable market tension.” The debt and deposit ratings were downgraded to reflect changes in Moody’s assumptions about the level of support the French government might provide in the event of a crisis, it added. Credit Agricole’s exposure to Greek debt had led to its downgrade: “Moody’s has concluded that although GCA has considerable capital resources to absorb potential losses arising over time from these risks, the exposures themselves are too large to be consistent with existing ratings.” Moody’s had said in June that it was putting the three banks under review. 7.45am: Good morning. It’s another crunch day for Europe, as the debt crisis that has convulsed the region for months intensifies. As dawn broke over the City of London, Moody’s slashed the credit ratings of two of France’s biggest banks – Société Générale and Credit Agricole. Both have major holdings of Greek debt – leaving them vulnerable to a default. A third bank, BNP Paribas, was spared a downgrade, for now, but is planning to sell €70bn (£60.6bn) of assets to patch up its capital reserves. The move comes as Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel prepare to hold crisis talks with Greek prime minister George Papandreou . Italy will also be in focus, as the Italian parliament votes on Silvio Berlusconi’s controversial austerity plan. Back in the UK, the latest unemployment data is released at 9.30am – an opportunity to see how Britain’s own economy is faring. So, a big day for the eurozone, and beyond. We’ll bring you the latest action and reaction throughout the day. European debt crisis Europe France Financial crisis Société Générale European banks Banking Graeme Wearden Alex Hawkes guardian.co.uk
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Unicef blames the fact that Britons are working longer hours and as a result parents are buying off children with ‘branded goods’ British children are caught in a “materialistic trap” in which they are unable to spend enough time with their families and instead are bought off with “branded goods” by their parents, the United Nation’s children’s agency Unicef warns. Three years ago, Unicef ranked the UK at the bottom of a league table for child wellbeing across 21 industrialised countries, by looking at poverty, family relationships, and health. It attempted to discover why children fared better in nations which were both more equal to the UK – Sweden – and more unequal, such as Spain. The results were startling. Children in all three countries told researchers that their happiness is dependent on having time with family and friends and having “plenty to do outdoors”. Despite that, parents in the UK, especially those in low-income families, said they felt “tremendous pressure from society to buy material goods for their children”. This pressure was felt most acutely in low-income homes. To help alleviate such pressures, Unicef calls for a series of measures. It says the government should follow the example of Sweden by banning television advertising aimed at children younger than 12. The UN also calls for government to pay all employees and subcontracted workers the living wage, the minimum pay rate required for a worker to provide their family with the essentials of life, which in London is £8.30 per hour. Anita Tiessen, deputy director of Unicef UK, said that much of the problem was the “long working hours of British families . Parents have a much greater pressure in fulfilling the commitment to their children. They try to make up for this by buying their children branded clothes, trainers, technology.” By comparison, this “consumer culture” does not exist in Sweden or Spain. In Scandinavia, child care duties are more equally shared and family time is prioritised. In Spain, where women tend to stay at home there is a great reliance on the extended family with grandparents and uncles and aunts helping out with children. “Consumer culture in the UK contrasts starkly with Sweden and Spain, where family time is prioritised, children and families are under less pressure to own material goods and children have greater access to activities out of the home,” said the report. The children’s agency also says that, in an age of austerity and in the aftermath of the riots, local authorities need to be honest about the impact of public spending cuts on children – so that “funding is protected for play facilities and free leisure activities for children and families is protected”. Kate Mulley, head of policy development and research at the charity Action for Children, said that the report showed “some families are facing enormous and growing pressures that undermine family life. These are the families we need to focus on to help them overcome multiple and complex problems.” She said that “substantial cuts are reducing publicly funded activities and support available for children, young people and families who are often already at breaking point. “Not only are these services critical in developing the social and emotional skills needed to maximise children and young people’s potential but they help prevent intergenerational cycles of deprivation. The government needs to stop just hearing young people and actually listen to them.” Children United Nations Parents and parenting Randeep Ramesh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Unicef blames the fact that Britons are working longer hours and as a result parents are buying off children with ‘branded goods’ British children are caught in a “materialistic trap” in which they are unable to spend enough time with their families and instead are bought off with “branded goods” by their parents, the United Nation’s children’s agency Unicef warns. Three years ago, Unicef ranked the UK at the bottom of a league table for child wellbeing across 21 industrialised countries, by looking at poverty, family relationships, and health. It attempted to discover why children fared better in nations which were both more equal to the UK – Sweden – and more unequal, such as Spain. The results were startling. Children in all three countries told researchers that their happiness is dependent on having time with family and friends and having “plenty to do outdoors”. Despite that, parents in the UK, especially those in low-income families, said they felt “tremendous pressure from society to buy material goods for their children”. This pressure was felt most acutely in low-income homes. To help alleviate such pressures, Unicef calls for a series of measures. It says the government should follow the example of Sweden by banning television advertising aimed at children younger than 12. The UN also calls for government to pay all employees and subcontracted workers the living wage, the minimum pay rate required for a worker to provide their family with the essentials of life, which in London is £8.30 per hour. Anita Tiessen, deputy director of Unicef UK, said that much of the problem was the “long working hours of British families . Parents have a much greater pressure in fulfilling the commitment to their children. They try to make up for this by buying their children branded clothes, trainers, technology.” By comparison, this “consumer culture” does not exist in Sweden or Spain. In Scandinavia, child care duties are more equally shared and family time is prioritised. In Spain, where women tend to stay at home there is a great reliance on the extended family with grandparents and uncles and aunts helping out with children. “Consumer culture in the UK contrasts starkly with Sweden and Spain, where family time is prioritised, children and families are under less pressure to own material goods and children have greater access to activities out of the home,” said the report. The children’s agency also says that, in an age of austerity and in the aftermath of the riots, local authorities need to be honest about the impact of public spending cuts on children – so that “funding is protected for play facilities and free leisure activities for children and families is protected”. Kate Mulley, head of policy development and research at the charity Action for Children, said that the report showed “some families are facing enormous and growing pressures that undermine family life. These are the families we need to focus on to help them overcome multiple and complex problems.” She said that “substantial cuts are reducing publicly funded activities and support available for children, young people and families who are often already at breaking point. “Not only are these services critical in developing the social and emotional skills needed to maximise children and young people’s potential but they help prevent intergenerational cycles of deprivation. The government needs to stop just hearing young people and actually listen to them.” Children United Nations Parents and parenting Randeep Ramesh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Krugman on Social Security Circa 1996: ‘The Ponzi Game Will Soon Be Over’
September 13, 2011 No Comment
As NewsBusters reported Tuesday, liberal media outlets and their members have been talking about Social Security being a Ponzi scheme since at least 1967. Add New York Times columnist Paul Krugman to the list of detractors as demonstrated by something he wrote for the December 1996/January 1997 issue of Boston Review: Social Security is structured from the point of view of the recipients as if it were an ordinary retirement plan: what you get out depends on what you put in. So it does not look like a redistributionist scheme. In practice it has turned out to be strongly redistributionist, but only because of its Ponzi game aspect, in which each generation takes more out than it put in. Well, the Ponzi game will soon be over, thanks to changing demographics, so that the typical recipient henceforth will get only about as much as he or she put in (and today's young may well get less than they put in). This was in stark contrast to what Krugman wrote at the Times in November 2007 partially in response to Chris Matthews and the late Tim Russert having the nerve to discuss the Ponziesque nature of Social Security on live television: Consider, for example, this exchange about Social Security between Chris Matthews of MSNBC and Tim Russert of NBC, on a recent edition of Mr. Matthews’s program “Hardball.” Mr. Russert : “Everyone knows Social Security, as it’s constructed, is not going to be in the same place it’s going to be for the next generation, Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives.” Mr. Matthews: “It’s a bad Ponzi scheme, at this point.” Mr. Russert : “Yes.” But the “everyone” who knows that Social Security is doomed doesn’t include anyone who actually understands the numbers. In fact, the whole Beltway obsession with the fiscal burden of an aging population is misguided.
Continue reading …Discredited NYT Issa Story Used as Basis for Left Group’s Ethics Complaint
September 13, 2011 No Comment
It would appear that there is a reason beyond alleged “journalistic integrity” why the New York Times hasn't pulled its error-riddled, only partially corrected mid-August story by Eric Lichtblau (“A Businessman in Congress Helps His District and Himself”) about California Republican Congressman Darrell Issa. Issa has identified 13 serious errors in the Times story, the cumulative effect of which, in the words of Powerline's John Hinderaker several weeks ago, show the story to be “nothing but lies and fabrications … (which) never should have been published.” The Times has corrected three. Though it appears to be dead wrong on the other ten, it hasn't given any further quarter and won't pull the story. Its Public Editor, as Clay Waters at NewsBusters noted, has found Issa's request for a retraction “troubling.” What's really troubling is that it appears that the Times's intransigence is from all appearances the result of a coordinated effort to neutralize Issa. That isn't how an early Tuesday report at The Hill (“Rep. Issa hit with ethics allegations”) described it, but it's impossible to escape the implications: A liberal advocacy group is filing an ethics complaint against Rep. Darrell Issa, alleging that the California Republican has repeatedly used his public office for personal gain. The group, American Family Voices, is planning to file the complaint with the House Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) on Tuesday. The five-page complaint, which was obtained by The Hill, accuses Issa of using his position as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to add to his multimillion-dollar fortune. An Issa spokesman on Monday said the allegations have absolutely no merit and are part of a smear campaign spearheaded by the White House. The complaint alleges that Issa pressured the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to halt an investigation of Goldman Sachs shortly after he bought a huge stake in one of Goldman’s high-yield mutual funds. It also claims Issa used his authority to improperly defend Merrill Lynch, a firm with “which he has a significant financial interest,” the document states. “In fact and in appearance, Rep. Issa has repeatedly — and impermissibly — used his public position to promote his private financial interests,” Mike Lux, president of American Family Voices, wrote in a letter to former Reps. Porter Goss (R-Fla.) and David Skaggs (D-Colo.), co-chairmen of the OCE. A spokesman for Issa said the complaint is part of an effort orchestrated by the White House to discredit its critics. “This complaint is entirely without merit. The White House has used an assortment of outside progressive groups in an effort to attack Oversight and Chairman Issa directly. This is just their latest salvo in an ongoing effort to obstruct oversight,” said Frederick Hill, Issa’s spokesman. So American Family Voices (AFV; press release here ) is using a story which should never have been published to file an ethics complaint which should never have been brought so that the congressman who is hot on the trail of the Gunwallker and other Obama administration can have his credibility and integrity dragged through the mud. Again, in case it's not clear, the Times's refusal to pull its story seems to be based on the need to provide a basis for AFV's complaint than on dogged defense of the truth. And who is AFV? No surprise here : American Family Voices serves as an umbrella group that helps fund a broad network of organizations – including civil rights, environmental, women’s rights, consumer advocacy and health care organizations, and multi-issue think tanks – and build their infrastructure, both in the field and in communications. We also fill gaps in the progressive movement by conducting research and providing strategic messaging and public relations work that nobody is doing, which helps to drive new media stories. AFV's somewhat dated Projects page indicates that it is the driving force behind Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and “the Progressive Donor Network.” And though I wouldn't want to mistake by confusing people with the same names, AFV's board is from all appearances “progressively” connected. Powerline's Hinderaker described the situation perfectly in a Tuesday post : This is how the Left operates: they pay for lies to be published, and then demand investigations on the basis of those lies. … The word “corruption” is often tossed around in connection with politics, generally wrongly. In my opinion, this story illustrates the real corruption that infects our public life. Indeed. Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .
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US poverty rate swells for third year to 15.1% with the number of poor in 2010 the largest on record A record 46 million Americans were living in poverty in 2010, pushing the US poverty rate to its highest level since 1993, according to a government report on Tuesday on the grim effects of stubbornly high unemployment. Underscoring the economic challenges that face President Barack Obama and Congress, the US census Bureau said the poverty rate rose for a third consecutive year to hit 15.1% in 2010. The number in poverty was the largest since the government first began publishing estimates in 1959. The report surfaces at a time when the economic straits of ordinary Americans are at the forefront of the 2012 election campaign. Obama is suffering from low job approval ratings on the economy and evidence of rising poverty could give popular momentum to the $450 billion job-creation program he unveiled last week. The census data also could come into play in the deliberations of a bipartisan super committee in Congress, which has been charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in budget savings over 10 years by 23 November. The United States has the highest poverty rate among developed countries, according to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The poverty line for an American family of four with two children is an income $22,113 a year. The data showed that children under 18 suffered the highest poverty rate, 22%, compared with adults and the elderly. In a sign of decline for middle-income Americans, the figures showed continued decline in the number of Americans with employer-provided health insurance, while the ranks of the uninsured hovered just below the 50 million mark. Underlying the census data was a rate of economic growth too meager to compensate for the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs from 2009 to 2010, as the recession officially ended but the jobless rate shot up from 9.3% to 9.6%. “All of this deterioration in the labor market caused incomes to drop, poverty to rise and people to lose their health insurance,” said Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute think tank. “One of the immediately obvious issues this brings up is that there is no relief in sight.” The numbers would have been worse, analysts said, but for government assistance programs including extended unemployment compensation, stimulus spending and Obama’s health reforms, which appeared to reduce the number of uninsured young adults. In Obama’s hometown of Chicago, Salvation Army Major David Harvey knows well the effects of grinding poverty on the city’s South Side, where he attended a food giveaway on Tuesday. “There are more families falling into poverty,” he said. “That’s multiplied on the South Side of Chicago where there are pockets with 20%, or more, unemployment.” You’ve got people crying for jobs. They move out of state to get jobs because employers are leaving because of the tax increases here,” Harvey said. The poverty rate increased for non-Hispanic whites, blacks and Hispanics but did not differ significantly for Asians. Blacks and Hispanics together accounted for 54% of the poor with whites at 9.9% and Asians at 12.1%. The South fared worst among US regions, recording the highest poverty rate, a significant drop in median income and the largest number of residents without health insurance. Broken down by state, Mississippi had the highest share of poor people, at 22.7%, according to calculations by the census Bureau. It was followed by Louisiana, the District of Columbia, Georgia, New Mexico and Arizona. On the other end of the scale, New Hampshire had the lowest share, at 6.6%. The administration was quick to seize on data showing a 2.1% drop in uninsured young adults, aged 18 to 24, as evidence that families were benefiting from an Obama healthcare reform that allows parents to extend their coverage to children as old as 25. The Affordable Care Act is the centerpiece of Obama’s domestic policy agenda but has come under fierce attack from Republicans including presidential candidates who hope to challenge the president in the 2012 general election. “We expect even more will gain coverage in 2011 when the policy is fully phased in,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a blog posting. United States Poverty Social exclusion guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …TIME Video: George W. Bush’s ‘Most Nervous Moment’ Was…a Baseball Game?
September 13, 2011 No Comment
President George W. Bush sat down with TIME to recount his September 11 experience. But his comments about baseball captured the most attention. He spoke to TIME’s Kira Pollack about Game 3 of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks, at Yankee Stadium where he threw out the first pitch.
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