Prime Minister warned
as number of homeless hits record levels
Tory MPs have told Theresa May that tackling homelessness
will be a key test of her commitment to social justice after official figures
showed it had risen to its highest level for nearly a decade. A total of 15,170
households were classed as homeless in the three months to June 2016 - a jump
of 10% on the same period last year. Around a third of these are in London,
according to new figures from the Department for Communities and Local
Government (DCLG). The last time a higher level was recorded in England was in
the period April-June 2008, when 15,680 households were classed as homeless. Tory
MP Bob Blackman, who is bringing his Homelessness Reduction Bill to the Commons
for debate on October 28, said the figures were a national disgrace. His
Private Member's Bill will impose a duty on local authorities to help prevent
people at risk of losing their homes from becoming homeless and it is likely to
need Government support to become law. A supporter of the Bill, Tory MP David
Burrowes, said the Bill would be a litmus test of Mrs May's social justice
credentials. The most common reason for losing a home was the ending of a
tenancy with a private landlord. This is now causing a greater proportion of
households to become homeless than at any point since current records began in
1998 - roughly a third (32%) of all reported cases in the three months to June
2016. Shelter chief executive, Campbell Robb, said: "Every day at Shelter
we hear from families struggling to keep their heads above water when faced
with the double blow of welfare cuts and expensive, unstable private renting,
with far too many ultimately losing the battle to stay in their home. "On
top of this, stripped-back budgets and a drought of affordable homes are making
it increasingly difficult for overburdened councils to find homeless families
anywhere suitable to live." DAILY MAIL
Osborne says the Bank
of England's quantitative easing makes the rich richer
The former chancellor, George Osborne, has said that money
printing by the Bank of England has made the rich richer and that interest rate
cuts have hurt savers. Speaking from Washington in an interview with Bloomberg
TV, Mr Osborne said: “We need to offset the very necessary loose monetary
policy and the distributional consequences that it is having. Essentially it
makes the rich richer and makes life difficult for ordinary savers.” “There’s a
role for government policy not in stopping that monetary policy which keeps the
economy strong but in mitigating its impact. I think all of us who believe in
free markets need to work harder to find an answer to the anger that people
clearly feel out there.” The Bank produced its own analysis in 2012 which
showed that its quantitative easing (QE) scheme – which it restarted in August
to support the economy in the wake of the Brexit vote – inflates asset values. And
the Bank has acknowledged that the rich have more of these assets than the
poor, meaning they automatically benefit more. Yet, as chancellor, Mr Osborne
never commented on the distributional consequences of the Bank of England’s
monetary stimulus measures or interest rate cuts, despite widespread complaints
from some groups that QE was making the rich richer. His June 2015 budget was
also widely criticised for entailing a much bigger cut to the incomes of poorer
families than those in the top half of the distribution, as he slashed £12bn
from the benefits bill by 2020. In the wake of the 2015 general election Mr
Osborne also scrapped the Treasury’s distributional analysis charts showing the
impact of overall budget tax and welfare changes, which critics said was born
of a desire to disguise the regressive nature of his policies. The Institute
for Fiscal studies has however, continued to publish the charts. Mr Osborne
did, however, implement policies in office designed to help savers, such as
pensioner bonds for the elderly and a virtual elimination of tax on savers’
interest income. In August the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee voted to
increased its £375bn asset purchase programme by a further £70bn, made up of
£60bn of Government bonds and £10bn of corporate bonds. INDEPENDENT
Thousands more NHS
operations cancelled than figures show, report claims
Official figures in May showed the number of hospital
operations in England cancelled at the last minute because of a lack of staff
or beds rose to 74,086, its highest in 15 years. However, that statistic only
records cancellations on the day of admission. About half of English NHS trusts
admitted in response to Freedom of Information requests that they had cancelled
nearly 42,000 operations between one and three days before patients were
admitted. The new figures give a picture more in line with official figures
published in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where the definition of
last-minute cancellations is wider and is taken over several days. May’s
official figures marked the worst record of cancellations for the NHS in
England since 2001-02, when 81,743 patients had procedures cancelled on the day
they were supposed to happen. Experts warned that the data was a sign of the
pressures on the health service. At the time, Clare Marx, president of the
Royal College of Surgeons, said that pressures on A&E units, staff
shortages, and bed shortages due to a lack of social care for discharged
patients were contributing to the problem. An NHS England spokesperson said:
“The proportion of patients seeing their operations cancelled at the last
minute remains under 1% in spite of record numbers of operations being
scheduled... Our national data collection rightly requires trusts to focus on
monitoring the number of last-minute cancellations, as this is where the most
distress is caused for patients.” GUARDIAN
'Deeply unfair' fees
of up to £900 for the poorest energy customers should be scrapped, says
watchdog
When households run up a large energy bill they are unable
to pay, their energy provider often installs a prepayment meter to recoup the
debt over time. Households have to use the meter to pay for their energy in
advance so they cannot get further into debt. Every time they top up, a
proportion of the balance is also taken to help eat away at the debt. However
energy companies often charge between £200 and £900 to install the meters,
including other costs. These sometimes include up to £17 to send the indebted
customer a letter. Ofgem today called for a cap of between £100 and £150 on the
amount energy customers have to pay, as well as a blanket ban on these fees for
the most vulnerable energy customers. If a household does not pay up an energy
debt, the supplier can apply for a court order to fit a prepayment meter, even
if it's against their will. This is generally done as a last resort when a
resolution can't be found to repay the debt. But providers often charge
'warrant costs' to customers for the installation. This can include fees for
administration and locksmith charges if firms need access to a property, and
can be as much as £900, according to Ofgem. In 2015, the average amount charged
was £400 per installation, which includes costs such as court fees, and 86,000
meters were installed under warrant. But as the customers having meters
installed under warrant are already struggling to afford their energy bills,
the extra fees are likely to push them into even more debt. The watchdog says
of those currently with a prepayment meter, around eight per cent of gas and
six per cent of electricity customers are in debt to their energy supplier. Ofgem
says the fees should be wiped out for the most vulnerable customers such as
those in financial hardship, those with physical and mental health issues and
those with learning disabilities. Following the Competitions and Markets
Authority investigation into the energy market, the amount prepayment customers
pay will be cut by around £75 per customer from April 2017. This temporary
price cap for the four millions households on prepayment meters will be
introduced until all homes can be fitted with smart meters by 2019. This cap
was bought in because the cheapest tariffs for those customers are currently
£260 to £320 more expensive than for those with a standard meter. DAILY MAIL
Executive pay to be
investigated by MPs
MPs have launched an inquiry into corporate governance,
focusing on executive pay, worker representation in the boardroom and the lack
of women in senior positions. The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee has
recently held inquiries into BHS and Sports Direct. The investment arm of
insurer Legal and General has also warned Britain's top companies to curb
executive pay. It said that significant shareholder opposition "should not
be ignored". Companies should take note if more than 20% of shareholders
voted against a pay deal, Legal and General said. It comes after the Prime
Minister recently pledged to overhaul the way businesses are run. BP, WPP and
Smith and Nephew have been among the big companies where investors have
revolted against boardroom pay. In April, 59% of BP shareholders voted against
a 20% pay rise for chief executive Bob Dudley, worth £14m. However, that vote
was not binding and Mr Dudley received the rise despite BP's falling profits. In
2013, amid growing investor unhappiness over excessive pay, the government gave
shareholders a binding vote every three years on a firm's pay policy. At BP,
the next binding vote is in 2017. MPs will look at the factors which have led
to a steep rise in executive pay over the past 30 years in comparison with the
salaries of more junior employees. Mr Wright said: "We on the committee
are also keen to explore the issue of ever growing pay increases to executives,
especially when there often seems to be very little connection with company
performance or any pay rises to the vast majority of employees. The High Pay
Centre thinktank released a study in August which showed that on average chief
executives were paid 140 times more than their employees. Prime Minister
Theresa May has said she wants shareholders to have the power to veto executive
pay every year, and wants companies to publish figures showing the difference
between the average worker's salary and that of the chief executive. She also
wants employees to sit on the committee that oversees how much bosses are paid.
Last week, Sports Direct said it would put work representatives on the board
after it came under fire for its treatment of its workers at its troubled
Shirebrook warehouse. BBC NEWS
Volkswagens produce
double the legal emissions limit a year after dieselgate - but it's the
cleanest carmaker of them all
Sunday marked the 12 month anniversary since 'dieselgate'
first erupted: when United States Environmental Protection Agency revealed that
some Volkswagen diesel models were fitted with defeat devices specifically
aimed at cheating emissions tests. But one year on from the biggest automotive
scandal in modern times, Volkswagen has been found to be selling the least
polluting cars of any vehicle manufacturer. Transport & Environment found
that VW models currently being sold new in dealerships still emitted double the
Euro6 nitrogen oxides (NOx) requirement - but that's cleaner than any other
carmaker. The findings were published on Monday as part of the motoring
environmental agency's report Dieselgate: Who? What? How?, which also found
that not one single mainstream car brand complies with the current Euro 6 air
pollution limits for diesel cars and vans in real-world driving. Tests were
conducted on around 230 diesel models in total. Data was taken from
investigations conducted by the British, French and German governments, as well
as a large public database, all of which were based on real-world on-road
figures rather than laboratory measurements. Fiat and Suzuki diesel cars were
found to be the dirtiest of all, on average polluting 15 times more than the
legal NOx limit determined by Euro 6 standards. Renault and Nissan vehicles
exceed the limit more than 14 times, Vauxhalls were found to pollute 10 times
more the restriction while Volkswagen diesel cars polluted twice as much as the
Euro 6 target. The motoring group said the results of the emissions tests shone
light on the 'scandalous cover up' within the automotive sector and called for
action to clean-up tailpipe pollutants of vehicles in Europe. Greg Archer,
clean vehicles director at T&E, said: 'The true scandal of Dieselgate in
Europe is national regulators turning a blind eye to the glaring evidence of
test cheating with the sole purpose of protecting their national carmakers or
their own business.' Despite committing to rectifying all 1.2 million UK diesel
models affected by the scandal by the end of 2016, VW has admitted it has only
managed to fix 10 per cent of all impacted cars so far. DAILY MAIL
Apple pays £89m tax
fine for underreporting income in Japan
Apple has been ordered to pay about 12bn yen (£89m) in taxes
for improperly reporting income associated with its Japan iTunes unit,
according to reports. The news comes weeks after the EU hit Apple with a record
£11bn tax penalty, ruling its 25-year “sweetheart deal” with Ireland was
illegal. Apple’s unit in question has reportedly paid the amount that was asked
by the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau. The tax authority argued that the iTunes
unit, which sends parts of its profits earned from fees paid by Japanese
subscribers to another Apple unit based in Ireland, had not been paying a
withholding tax on these earnings in Japan, according to local broadcaster NHK.
It was not immediately clear when the bureau issued the penalty or when Apple
agreed to pay it, and the tech giant did not respond to a request for comment. The
EU has been a strong critic of multinational companies such as Apple, Starbucks
and Fiat Chrysler that have benefited from keeping their money overseas. The
move allows these companies to avoid paying hefty taxes they could face by
bringing the money back to the US. European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in
charge of competition policy said that EU member states cannot give tax benefits
to selected companies, after Apple was ruled to pay £11bn in tax to Ireland
last month. “This is illegal under EU state aid rules. The commission’s
investigation concluded that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple,
which enabled it to pay substantially less tax than other businesses over many
years,” she said. “In fact, this selective treatment allowed Apple to pay an
effective corporate tax rate of 1 per cent on its European profits in 2003 down
to 0.005 per cent in 2014.” Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said the Ireland
tax ruling was “total political crap” and “maddening”. INDEPENDENT
Rising London house
prices spark departure of thirtysomethings
Analysis by the group Generation Rent showed that 65,890
people in their 30s moved from London to another part of the UK in 2014-15, a
net loss of 30,410 in that age group. This was 48% higher than in 2011-12, when
20,590 more 30 to 39-year-olds moved out than moved in. Internal migration data
from the Office for National Statistics also showed a sharp increase in the
number of children leaving the capital. In 2014-15, 26,920 more children under
10 moved out of London than came in, compared with a difference of 19,980 three
years previously. Generation Rent said the exodus had taken place during a
period in which house prices in London rose by 37%, compared with 16% in the UK
as a whole, and rents increased by 10%, compared with 4% outside London. It
said almost two-thirds of people moving out of London had gone elsewhere in the
south-east and the east of England commuter belt, while 12% had moved to the
Midlands and 11% to the north of England. Only among twentysomethings are more
people moving into London than out; in 2014-15, there were 37,950 more people
in this age group living in the capital than the year before, a 3% increase. Research
by Lloyds bank found that moving to somewhere an hour’s commute from London
could mean paying hundreds of thousands of pounds less for a family home. While
the average price of a home in London transport zones one and two was £741,919,
in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, the average was £183,345, while in
Peterborough, it was £189,319, Lloyds said. GUARDIAN
