Iain Duncan Smith accused of ‘losing his cool’ in housing benefit outburst
October 14, 2011 No Comment
Welfare secretary attacks Child Poverty Action Group charity for ‘irresponsible behaviour’ in challenging benefit reforms in court Campaigners accused the welfare secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, of “losing his cool” after the cabinet minister launched an extraordinary attack against a charity for challenging the government’s proposed housing benefit reforms in the courts, describing the action as “ridiculous … irresponsible behaviour (and) an ill-judged PR stunt” which resulted in “a massive waste of taxpayers’ money and court time”. The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) had sought to overturn the government’s cap on housing benefit, arguing in the high court that such a move would result in the “social cleansing” of expensive areas of the UK. The caps mean that benefits paid to the poor to cover rents cannot exceed £250 a week for a one-bedroom property, £290 for two bedrooms, £340 for three bedrooms and £400 for four bedrooms. The government’s own assessment shows that groups affected include people with disabilities, teenage mothers and ethnic minority families. Charities had argued that the effect would be felt first in the capital, saying 9,000 London households facing would have to leave their homes as a result of the caps – and about 4,600 would be unable to find anywhere else to live “locally”. This could mean upwards of 20,000 children having to move, 14,000 out of their local area, resulting in disruption to education, health and social services. The Social Security Advisory Committee advised the government not to proceed with the changes, arguing that the risks – of increasing levels of homelessness, crime and serious disruption to poor children’s schooling – outweighed any financial savings. However the judge dismissed CPAG’s claim – essentially agreeing with the government that the purpose of housing benefit was not to prevent homelessness, but to help claimants with their rent while also protecting the public purse. Ministers were within their rights to cut back spending. Duncan Smith said: “CPAG’s challenge to our housing benefit reforms was an ill-judged PR stunt, and amounts to nothing more than a massive waste of taxpayers’ money and court time.” He added: “The cost of housing benefit has spiralled completely out of control, and this judgment is further vindication that our reforms will ensure support is in place for those who need it, but stop the crazy excesses we have seen in recent years of people on benefits living in houses that those in work could not afford.” He warned that campaigners should “think twice” before challenging the government. “I sincerely hope CPAG will think twice before repeating this ridiculous and irresponsible behaviour in future,” he said. Anti-poverty groups were “shocked” by the outburst. Bob Holman, the community activist who has known the former Tory leader since he toured Glasgow’s Easterhouse scheme with him in 2002, said the cabinet secretary had cracked under the “pressure of daily criticism”. “It’s CPAG’s job and duty to challenge the government when it thinks that poor children are losing out. Going nuts is a sign of [Duncan Smith] cracking under the pressure of criticism. He’s just had the Institute of Fiscal Studies tell the world that there’ll be half a million more kids in poverty in this parliament. Unemployment is 2.5m. He’s losing his cool over CPAG. But he’s wrong.” Housing benefit provides means-tested support for the housing costs of 4.8 million poor families. Duncan Smith claimed that expenditure on housing benefit would reach £24.7bn by 2014/15 and that the new measures, amounting to £2.4bn in savings, were necessary. CPAG’s chief executive, Alison Garnham, said that she was “surprised” at the minister’s outburst. The case had been accepted as being valid in law back in July by the judge, the charity’s lawyers acted for free and the trial took a little over a day. “CPAG has a right to use the courts and we will continue to challenge government policy we believe to be unjust and unlawful,” Garnham said. She pointed out that it was not just the unemployed who would suffer. “This is not about jobless versus working families – it is precisely working families that will be hardest hit by this measure. For example, 80% of those claiming housing benefit in London are working. Savings may not be made either because, as has been pointed out by the office of the secretary of state for Communities and Local Government, an expensive burden is going to be placed on many Greater London authorities by increased homelessness and the relocation of families.” Iain Duncan Smith Housing benefit Communities Housing Benefits Welfare Randeep Ramesh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Oliver Letwin faces investigation after disposing of documents in park bin
October 14, 2011 No Comment
Revelation that PM’s chief policy adviser has been seen throwing away papers in public bin sparks concern over security risks The office of the Information Commissioner has confirmed it is investigating claims that the Conservative minister Oliver Letwin has been disposing of government documents in bins in a park close to Downing Street. The revelation that Letwin, David Cameron’s chief policy adviser, has been seen throwing away documents in the park on five occasions has sparked concern about potential security risks as well as data protection breaches. The Labour MP and shadow minister without portfolio Michael Dugher has written to the cabinet secretary, Gus O’Donnell, to demand an investigation into the classification of any discarded documents and whether strict procedures for the disposal of government documents were breached. The office of the Information Commissioner is examining whether a lax disposal of the documents could involve a breach of the Data Protection Act. A spokeswoman said: “We are aware of the allegations and are making inquiries. Keeping personal data secure is a key principle of the Data Protection Act, and the ICO takes any breach of that principle very seriously.” The Daily Mirror reported that Letwin discarded more than 100 papers, including correspondence on terrorism and national security and constituents’ private details. The paper described the Cabinet Office minister’s actions as a “security breach”, but a spokesman for Letwin insisted the papers were not of a sensitive nature. The spokesman said: “Oliver Letwin does some of his parliamentary and constituency correspondence in the park before going to work, and sometimes disposes of copies of letters there.” One of the documents thrown away by Letwin was said to describe how intelligence chiefs “failed to get the truth” about Britain’s involvement in terrorist interrogations. Dugher said: “This shows how out of touch Oliver Letwin and Conservatives really are. He and the rest of the Tory-led government are treating the public and their constituents with contempt by handling sensitive correspondence in this cavalier way.” In his letter to O’Donnell, Dugher wrote: “Civil servants are subject to disciplinary procedures if the proper processes are not adhered to. It cannot be that there is one rule for ministers and another for everyone else.” Letwin, the MP for West Dorset, is an early riser who does a morning circuit of St James’s Park, usually starting at 5.30am. In this period he dictates letters for typing by his secretary during the day. The Labour backbencher Jeremy Corbyn told Radio 5 Live that while he enjoyed the “idea of ministers walking around the park in the morning”, carrying confidential documents was wrong. “It’s a remarkably silly thing to do,” the MP for Islington North said. “I quite like the idea of a minister walking around the park in the morning and thinking about things and maybe reading papers – but to then dump them all in a bin is really very stupid, because he could easily be spotted and followed and anybody could then pick them up. “Whatever these documents were, that’s obviously wrong – but he could also be carrying around constituents’ letters, which are often highly personal and very confidential. “There are plenty of ways of getting rid of sensitive documents. All the parliamentary papers are shredded and so are the ones in the House of Commons and presumably the ministry as well.” The revelations present a further headache for Cameron in a week during which Downing Street has been forced onto the back foot over the defence secretary, Liam Fox. Zac Goldsmith, the Tory MP for Richmond, tweeted: “How is Oliver Letwin working in the park newsworthy?! Whoever in Labour has asked for (yet another) inquiry shd be put to sleep.” Oliver Letwin Conservatives Liberal-Conservative coalition Hélène Mulholland Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
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Coalition of environmentalists says promises being undermined by agenda to push for economic growth ‘at almost any cost’ The government is failing to deliver on most of its commitments to help wildlife and the countryside, a coalition of leading conservation groups has said. The groups said that, while ministers had performed well as green champions on the international stage, promises to protect the environment at home were being undermined by a short-term agenda to push for economic growth “at almost any cost”. An assessment, backed by 29 organisations, used a traffic light system to see whether 16 government pledges on the environment were being backed by policies that are well designed and on track. The Nature Check report by the Wildlife and Countryside Link criticised the government over a number of controversial policies, which conservationists argued showed that ministers were failing to protect nature. They included the reliance on a badger cull to tackle bovine TB, attempts by ministers to dispose of publicly owned forests to businesses and charities and the row over changes to the planning system, which opponents fear will lead to damaging development in the countryside. Only two of the promises outlined in the government’s coalition agreement have been given a green approval rating in the report, but the environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, insisted the government was working to implement green policies. She told the BBC’s Today programme: “The government is 15 months into its life. You can’t expect it to achieve everything in the first year.” She pointed to developments such as the department’s natural environment white paper, published in June, which included protecting wildlife and the creation of new nature improvement areas, and said the new planning system would only favour sustainable development. “George Osborne has stumped up for a green investment bank,” she added. “In the letter David Cameron wrote to the National Trust, he said he believes sustainable development has environmental and social dimensions as well as the economic one.” Ministers earned the backing of conservation groups for action on pledges to oppose the resumption of commercial whaling and press for a ban on ivory sales . A further seven commitments were given an amber rating because the groups said ministers were failing to support positive ambition and rhetoric with effective policies. Seven more pledges were given a red light, including promising to reform the planning system to give people more of a say on what happened in their neighbourhoods and to create a presumption in favour of sustainable development in planning. The Conservation groups said ministers were also failing to deliver well-designed policies on time include preventing unnecessary building in flood plains and ensuring that measures to look after the seas and open access to the coast are implemented effectively. Martin Harper, the conservation director of the RSPB, one of the groups in the coalition, said: “These are 16 policy areas where the government has promised tough action – but that is not what we are seeing. “In these financially straitened times, politicians may be tempted to ignore the natural environment in favour of economic growth, but this kind of short-termist attitude won’t wash with a British public that expects the government to protect the countryside and wildlife we all hold dear.” Harper said a healthy natural environment was not “an aspirational luxury for times of plenty” but was vital for the future wellbeing of the economy and society. Green politics Liberal-Conservative coalition Caroline Spelman Wildlife James Meikle guardian.co.uk
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Energy regulator unveils proposals for ‘radical reform’ of the energy market, as it reveals the net margin for a typical customer has risen from £15 in June to £125 in October Ofgem has revealed that the big six utility companies are making £125 a year out of each of their dual fuel customers. This figure has risen by 733% in just four months. The energy regulator put simple tariffs and clearer bills at the centre of proposals for “radical reform” of the energy market this morning as it warned a lack of transparency is stifling competition in the market, apparently underlined by a profit margin that has risen from 1.3% on the average bill in June to 9% in October, following a wave of tariff increases. Ofgem said its plans would make it easier for consumers – currently faced with more than 400 tariffs to choose from – to compare prices. The watchdog will set a fixed standing charge on top of which the companies will have to offer a variable price per unit, making bills clearer and price comparison easier. This means there will be no complicating factors such as discounts, with the only changeable element on a bill the price per unit of gas or electricity. “So the lower the price the smaller the bill – with no exceptions,” Ofgem said. The regulator also revealed that the average household energy bill now stands at £1,345 a year on a rolling 12-month average, compared with £1,170 in June. In news that will outrage consumer groups who have long argued that energy companies make too much money from cash-strapped customers, Ofgem also revealed that over the same period, the net margin for a typical standard tariff dual fuel customer has risen from £15 a year, as measured in June, to £125 in October. Yesterday, an undercover investigation by consumer body Which? revealed that the number of energy tariffs available to householders is so vast, and the options so complex, that staff at energy companies have no idea which is the best deal . Which? called each of the six major energy suppliers 12 times in a week to get advice on the cheapest deal. Despite being asked clearly for the lowest cost option in each case, in nearly a third of the calls the firms failed to offer their cheapest tariff. Staff also gave questionable advice about potential savings, cashback deals and fixed prices. Alistair Buchanan, Ofgem’s chief executive, said a looming £200bn investment drive to green the UK’s energy supply would only put further pressure on bills, adding further momentum to the need for reform. “When consumers face energy bills at around £1,345 they must have complete confidence that this price is set by companies competing in a fully competitive market. At the moment that is not the case,” he said. “That is why a radical break with the past is needed. Ofgem’s tariff reforms offer the quickest way to create a market where consumers can have confidence that prices are set by effective competition. Suppliers have told Ofgem they want to restore confidence in the industry and now they have the chance to do so.” Prices have risen sharply in recent months, leading to warnings of rising “fuel poverty” – defined as any household that spends 10% of median income on electricity or gas – amid sub-inflation wage growth and a faltering economic recovery. Last week, the government announced an industry-funded Warm Home Discount scheme , which offers a £120 rebate off the bills of those considered most vulnerable this winter. One of the big six firms, Scottish and Southern Energy, reacted to the political furore this week by announcing it would auction all the electricity that it produces on the day-ahead market , breaking a convention that has previously seen all the big utilities generate and distribute their power, known as combining “upstream and downstream” activities, another bugbear for critics. Ofgem said the simplification of tariffs was the “first of four waves of reform” which would include plans due in November to help business users, and in December decisions on proposals “to break the stranglehold of the big six in the wholesale electricity market”. Britain’s energy minister Chris Huhne last month pledged “to get tough with the big six energy companies”, while earlier this year Ofgem threatened energy companies with a formal referral to the Competition Commission if they didn’t transform their prices and stop confusing customers. It said consumers were being “bamboozled” with the number of different energy tariffs now available. Energy bills Household bills Family finances Consumer affairs Energy industry Energy Dan Milmo Lisa Bachelor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Morgan Spurlock: ‘I asked cigarette and gun companies for money to make a film’
October 14, 2011 No Comment
The man behind Super Size Me has made a documentary about product placement – and funded it by featuring a fruit juice. Here, he reveals the murky world of movie sponsorship Two years ago, Morgan Spurlock rang Abercrombie & Fitch to offer them his services as a model. The response wasn’t wholly positive. “Have you looked in the mirror?” the company’s press agent asked. “You’re pale. You’re out of shape. You’re not very good-looking. You have a moustache. You’re going bald.” That offending ‘tache shakes with laughter at the memory. “She broke down every flaw for me. She said I was an ugly person. She was very, very offended by my offer.” So Spurlock – pale skin quickly thickening – returned to his phone book and called more companies hoping to cut a deal; 600 in all, of which he scored with 15. This 2% success rate left him with a “tremendous sense of despair”, a heightened empathy for call centre workers and, finally, a film: POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (though sadly the cameras weren’t rolling when Abercrombie slapped him down). An examination of how films are funded by product placement, and paid for in exactly this way, The Greatest Movie is a doddle to flog, especially for such an expert salesman. The crowds at the Sheffield Doc/Fest , where we meet in June, lap up his Barnum-style charm; putty in his light-touch jazz hands. Spurlock is a breath of confident showmanship in a genre not notorious for it, just as The Greatest Movie is light relief amid the tub-thumping and brow-furrowing. It’s more intricately gimmicky than McDonalds-for-a-month experiment Super Size Me (2004), the film that introduced us to Spurlock’s brand of human guinea-piggery. And more tone-appropriate than his second, the bounty-hunting travelogue Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? (2008), the critical mauling of which seemed likely, for a time, to spell the end of his big-screen career (he hasn’t read his press since). The Greatest Movie was dreamed up in January 2009, but it took nine months of ring-rounds before anyone took the bait. “There were countless times when we were just like: fuck, what if nobody comes on board? There was no plan B.” Then, the first handshake: vaguely eco roll-on deodorant Ban. Then Sheetz, the petrol station chain, then a dribble more interest, then the hotel chain Hyatt, and, eventually, the big kill: a headline sponsor, who paid $1m in exchange for their brand running above the title. In fact POM , a pomegranate juice outfit that was 39th on Spurlock’s list of drinks, has more than paid their way. For it’s they who’ve unexpectedly added spice to the mix: since the film’s release, POM’s claims over the cardiovascular and prostate benefits of concerted swigging have been the subject of action by the US Federal Trade Commission , which POM is challenging. (“If I were to drink this for a year,” says Spurlock, “I’d get the greatest erection ever sold .”) What Spurlock wanted was more of this kind of controversy. “We tried to get the shittiest people to give us money. The worst corporations. Gun manufacturers. I thought: we gotta get rifles in the movie, things that actually kill people. I called cigarette companies. I called BP. They wanted nothing to do with it. There was a real ethical conversation to be had about where to draw the line. It’s a shame we couldn’t do it.” What one is left with is a film that worries at the limits of personal integrity. Spurlock now believes the moment art hops into bed with commerce “there’s a 100% chance the content will get corrupted”. For cash-strapped film-makers, he thinks the only route forward is to shoot commercials for cash and then self-fund your documentaries. It’s hardly a new dilemma. “Art has had sponsors for centuries. People would have their work subsidised, whether by the rich or the church, and then take the money and then go off and fight the man on the side. Now I’ve got all these commercial offers flooding in, and the question is: can I take that money and then go and blast the doors open on other types of arena?” To some extent, the dilemma that emerges most pressingly from The Greatest Movie is not one for the artist but the consumer. “Making this film has made me infinitely more aware of how I want to raise my kid,” says Spurlock. “It’s made me much more cognisant of where I want to spend my money. If you wanna live in a box your whole life then maybe you shouldn’t see the movie.” Part of the sell of the film is its interactivity: getting involved with it, in any capacity, is an extension of the experiment itself. When you see it, when you read these words, you’ll be fulfilling some of those obligations (ticket stubs sold, media impressions managed) demanded by the investors. On some level you’re as implicated as those residents of Altoona, Pennsylvania, who took $25,000 to rename their city POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, PA for two months this summer. It also raises intriguing teases about to what extent people – in their professional and personal lives – are reliant on their own brand (Spurlock’s is professionally analysed in the hope that’ll match him more closely with potential investors, and comes back as “mindful/playful”). When he asks people on the street to deconstruct their USP, they’re acute and funny; but they don’t take it seriously. Should we? Ought people to have a more accurate sense of commodity value? Spurlock takes a holistic approach. “I think your sense of self should be your commodity value – period. You’re marketing yourself every day based on that self-worth.” Isn’t that different: what you produce, rather than what you are? “But it’s an extension of who you are, of your sense of self. Whether you stand for quality or value or truth.” With Spurlock, of course, the separation of self and occupation is an unusually sticky one. His personality has long been his wares to hawk; right from his first break hosting an MTV dare show in which punters would scoff unsavouries for cash (full jar of mayo = $235, worm burrito = $265). So perhaps it’s natural he tends to overestimate the connection for others. “My father was an entrepreneur,” he says. “And he was all about hard work and saying what you mean and meaning what you say. He never had a contract; if he shook your hand, that was all you’re needed. And that as a person bled into him as a businessman.” Spurlock is the same: an honest, average Joe. But he’s also canny enough to know that being a human guinea pig, no matter how high-falutin’ the experiment, isn’t something you can necessarily keep doing into middle age (he’s 40). Spurlock’s shtick – a consumer superhero who confronts people we all might if we had the gumption – either needs to toughen up to enable him to take on harder targets, or to adapt. The former isn’t going to happen: Spurlock is a natural cheerleader who likes being liked and feels at home in the mainstream (upcoming documentary subjects are the comic convention Comic-Con and sports agents). But that’s not to say he’s not without serious artistic ambition. The goal of all documentarians, he says, is “to get their film into the cinema”. Digital release may ensure an audience, but “is it the best-case scenario for you as a film-maker? Of course not. Is that what you wanted? No.” And Spurlock would, as it happens, like to make the move into fiction – when we chat in June, he talks about “getting his feet wet with a $10m project … of course I would love to do that. You’d know how the story ends, which is just the best thing ever. You would have a finite shoot period. You wouldn’t just have to keep on shooting until you stop.” He enthuses about the Peter Jackson model – going from Heavenly Creatures straight to Lord of the Rings. At the time, it sounded like a pipe dream; since then, details have emerged of Little Green Men, an adaptation of the Christopher Buckley novel about a political talkshow host who is abducted by aliens, on which Spurlock seems to be installed in the director’s chair. It’ll be fascinating to see whether he pulls it off, and without resorting to product placement. Pepto-Bismol Presents: Little Green Men, anyone? Morgan Spurlock Documentary Catherine Shoard guardian.co.uk
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Northern Ireland will be last region to fully switch over to digital television, with process likely to be completed under budget The UK’s analogue TV era will come to an end on 24 October 2012, it has been announced. Eighty years from the first experimental broadcasts, the old five-channel system will be switched off for good. The date will also signal the completion of digital television switchover which started in 2008,. David Scott, the Digital UK chief executive, said: “The analogue era was a defining period for TV but the fully digital age will be even better, with a greater choice of channels for viewers everywhere. “I’m looking forward to October next year when we will have brought the benefits of digital to every corner of the country.” At its conclusion in 2012, inside the timetable set out by the government, more than 15 million new viewers will have been brought into coverage for Freeview services, Digital UK said. Digital UK added it was on course to complete the project at least £53m under budget. The last analogue TV signals will be switched off in Northern Ireland where “virtually all” households will receive the new digital signal “including half a million viewers who cannot receive it now”. The first experimental analogue television broadcasts started in August 1932. Official BBC broadcasting launched in 1936 and the corporation went on to inform and entertain viewers with coverage of landmark events such as the moon landings and classic shows from Nationwide to Morecambe and Wise. The UK’s switchover programme started in 2008. •
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Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the eurozone’s fourth largest economy by one notch 8.58am: UBS global chief economist Paul Donovan is not convinced today’s G20 summit will solve the debt crisis. Here are a few highlights from his comments published this morning: The G20 finance ministers gather together to drink champagne, consume foie gras, and spend taxpayers’ money on flights to Paris. There is some chatter of agreeing further assistance for the IMF. Agreement is unlikely now (maybe later). Agreeing substantive policies is not what the G20 is for. Donovan is not pinning his hopes on the European Central Bank’s leadership either: The ECB’s Trichet has demonstrated the dangers of having a non-economist running a central bank by declaring that the ECB should be lender of last resort. Of course the ECB should be lender of last resort. That is the function of a central bank. This is economics 101. (Trichet retires in two weeks). In conclusion, despite Slovakia’s approval of a strengthened European Financial Stability Facility, he feels a solution is some way off: Slovakia has approved EFSF version 2.0. This still does not do the job, however, and we need to reboot and upgrade. Banking recapitalisation is still necessary – helping those countries that can not (or will not in the future) be able to help their banks. 8.45am: Back to UBS, Fitch has downgraded the bank’s rating from A+ to A, and put seven other European and U.S. banks under review, citing stressed economies and financial markets and regulatory reform. Barclays, Bank, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse Group, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group have all been put on notice for possible downgrades. Fitch said the cuts would in most cases be one notch, although it could impose two notches in some instances. Michael Hewson, market analyst at CMC Markets, said Europe’s banks would have to take a bigger write down on their sovereign debt holdings than current talk suggests: Today sees the beginning of another G20 finance ministers meeting and they will certainly have a lot to talk about now that Slovakia has finally ratified the EFSF [European Financial Stability Facility] bailout fund changes. Problems still remain and have increased in size since the original July 21st meeting with significant debate about how to recapitalise Europe’s banks as well as increasing the private sector involvement in relation to Greece. There has been talk of haircuts being increased to between 30-50%, a start but still nowhere near big enough. There has also been talk of how to go about making the EFSF bigger in size with widespread disagreement on how to go about this. 8.18am: Good morning and welcome to the live blog with me, Juliette Garside. Today’s focus is on the European debt crisis, with national leaders gathering for the latest G20 talks in Paris, and news of credit rating downgrades for Spain and Switzerland’s UBS bank. The London markets were left unphased by the news, with the FTSE 100 index opening some 10 points higher at 5413. Standard & Poor’s cut Spain’s credit rating this morning, from AA- to AA, sending the euro lower and echoing last week’s move by Fitch. S&P explained its decision to cut the country’s long term rating by pointing to Spain’s high unemployment, tightening credit and high private sector debt. The agency said: Despite signs of resilience in economic performance during 2011, we see heightened risks to Spain’s growth prospects due to high unemployment, tighter financial conditions, the still high level of private sector debt, and the likely economic slowdown in Spain’s main trading partners. S&P is worried that labour market reforms in the eurozone’s fourth largest economy are incomplete, and that there will be further asset deterioration at its banks. The agency now thinks Spain will see economic growth of just 1% in 2012, down from its February forecast of 1.5%, and warns there may be further downgrades to come. We could lower the ratings again if, consistent with our downside scenario, the economy contracts in 2012, Spain’s fiscal position significantly deviates from the government’s budgetary targets, or additional labour market and other growth-enhancing reforms are delayed. European debt crisis Europe Spain G20 UBS Juliette Garside guardian.co.uk
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Number of first-time buyers drops to lowest level for a year as mortgage lenders freeze out those with small deposits The number of first-time buyers fell in September 2011 to the lowest level in almost a year as a result of mortgage providers approving fewer loans for borrowers with small deposits, according to the latest e.surv mortgage monitor. Mortgage approvals in the cheapest price bracket (up to £250,000, which is considered typical first-timer property) accounted for only 22% of the total market in September, the lowest since November 2010 and well down on the 30% seen in 2006 when the housing market was near its peak. Approvals for mortgages with a deposit of 25% or under fell to their lowest number since February, at 33.5% of all loans approved for purchase, compared with 43.2% in September 2007 The average loan-to-value in the cheapest price bracket fell to 66% – far below the 76% LTV seen in September 2006, as borrowers found it harder to secure mortgages with a smaller deposit. E.surv said the decline in lower-income buyers fuelled a 1.7% total fall in mortgage purchase approvals in September, to 51,524, down from 52,410 in August. But approvals on homes in all price brackets above £250,000 remained steady. Richard Sexton, business development director of e.surv , said: “With the economy in peril from every angle, lenders are playing it safe and training their sights on wealthier borrowers. But for those who can access mortgage finance, life is particularly sweet. “Lenders are falling over themselves trying to offer the lowest fixed-rate deals, and the good news is that they look odds-on to remain particularly cheap for the foreseeable future. But that won’t be of much comfort to first-time buyers who can’t build the big deposit required to access these rates.” Matt Griffiths of first-time buyer campaign website PricedOut.org.uk agreed that conditions were leading to a widening gap between homeowners and prospective buyers. He said: “For those blessed with home ownership, very low bank rates are giving large cash windfalls whilst saving capital values from sharp falls. But for those not on the ladder the financial storm is hitting their ability to get a mortgage whilst rental inflation hits their ability to save.” The research came as lender HSBC announced it intended to make £350m of lending available to borrowers with small deposits. Separate research from LSL Property Services showed a 0.3% fall in house prices in September. David Newnes, director of LSL, said the modest summer recovery in the housing market “came to an abrupt end in September”. He added: “There are still serious barriers to a sustained property market recovery. Outside London, prices are falling throughout England and Wales and this has contributed to a fall in the average house price.” First-time buyers Property Mortgages Mortgage lending figures Housing market Real estate Mark King guardian.co.uk
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Radiation level on Tokyo street was 17 times recommended limit but came from radium kept under house floorboards Concerns that contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi plant had spread to Tokyo subsided on Friday after high levels of radiation recorded along a street in the city were linked to old bottles of radium stored beneath the floorboards of a nearby house. Researchers had recorded radiation of 3.35 microsieverts per hour along a street in Setagaya ward, a higher level than in some parts of the 12-mile (20km) exclusion zone around the nuclear plant. An investigation traced the contamination to several bottles that had been stored in a cardboard box beneath an empty house. The bottles recorded radiation levels in excess of those measurable on a low-dose radiation counter, said Setegaya’s mayor, Nobuto Hosaka. Science ministry officials believed the bottles contained radium-226, a radioactive material used in fluorescent paint on watch faces and in medical devices, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. Radiation levels inside the house dropped significantly after the bottles were placed inside a lead container, reports said. The hourly reading in the Setagaya hotspot, located close to a nursery school, was equivalent to 17.6 millisieverts (mSv) a year, according to science ministry calculations, just below the 20mSv a year required to trigger an evacuation and more than 17 times the internationally recommended level for the general public. Officials said the area had been cordoned off, adding that the contamination levels did not pose a threat to health. The reading in Tokyo was taken a metre above the ground near a hedge, according to the public broadcaster NHK. Other spots along the same street showed lower readings. Although this recent incident is not connected to the Fukushima disaster, the discovery comes amid concern that fallout from the plant may have spread over a much wider area than previously thought. Kyodo News reported that a citizens’ group detected levels as high as 5.82 microsieverts an hour in a park in the town of Funabashi, Chiba prefecture, 130 miles from Fukushima. That is five times higher than the highest levels recorded in the city since the 11 March disaster. Earlier this week officials in Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, said they had found abnormally high levels of strontium-90 in sediment on the roof of a block of flats. The radioactive isotope, which has a half-life of 29 years, can accumulate in the bones and cause bone cancer and leukaemia. In September officials in Yokohama said they had detected 40,200 becquerels of radioactive caesium per kilogram of sediment collected from a roadside ditch. The task of identifying how far the contamination has spread, and in what quantities, is proving difficult. Wind direction and topology can cause radiation to spread unevenly, and particles are more likely to gather in ditches and other places that accumulate dust and rainwater. Setagaya ward officials said they would screen more than 250 other locations in the area over the next month. Radiation levels in the neighbourhood, which has a population of more than 840,000, have not dropped despite decontamination efforts. Children have been warned to avoid the recently discovered hotspot, now blocked off by several plastic cones, on their way to and from school. “I thought the reading must have been a mistake when I first saw it,” Hosaka told the broadcaster TBS on Thursday. “Once we have confirmed the readings as high we will push ahead with decontamination efforts.” Japan Japan disaster Nuclear power Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk
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Nature Check report assesses government’s progress on pledges to protect the natural environment The government is failing to deliver on most of its commitments to help wildlife and the countryside, a coalition of leading conservation groups said on Friday. An assessment backed by 29 organisations has used a traffic light system to see whether 16 government pledges on the natural environment are being backed by policies which are well-designed and on track. The Nature Check report criticises the government over a number of controversial policies which conservationists say show ministers are failing to keep their promises on protecting nature. They include the reliance on a badger cull to tackle bovine TB , attempts by ministers to dispose of publicly owned forests to businesses and charities and the current row over changes to the planning system which opponents fear will lead to a return to damaging development in the countryside. Just two of the promises outlined in the government’s coalition agreement have been given a green approval rating in the report published by the Wildlife and Countryside Link umbrella group today. The government has earned the backing of the conservation groups for its action on pledges to oppose the resumption of commercial whaling and to press for a ban on ivory sales . A further seven commitments have been given an amber rating because the groups say ministers are failing to support positive ambition and rhetoric with effective policies. Seven more pledges are given a red light, including promising to reform the planning system to give neighbourhoods more of a say in their local area and to create a presumption in favour of sustainable development in planning. Other areas where the conservation groups say the government is failing to deliver well-designed policies on time include preventing unnecessary building in flood plains and ensuring measures to look after the seas and open access to the coast are implemented effectively. Martin Harper, conservation director of the RSPB, one of the groups in the coalition, said: “These are 16 policy areas where the government has promised tough action, but that is not what we are seeing. “In these financially straitened times politicians may be tempted to ignore the natural environment in favour of economic growth – but this kind of short-termist attitude won’t wash with a British public which expects the government to protect the countryside and wildlife we all hold dear.” He said a healthy natural environment was not “an aspirational luxury for times of plenty”, but was vital for the future wellbeing of the economy and society. Neil Sinden, policy and campaigns director for the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said the government would not be the greenest ever, as it claimed , if it continued with a “business as usual” approach to economic growth. Wildlife Conservation Green politics guardian.co.uk
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