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By ROB PARSONS - July 14 2022
Pastor Mick Fleming, who runs anti-poverty charity Church on the Street in the Lancashire town of Burnley , reckons local demand for its services has trebled over the past six months as the “horrendous” cost-of-living crisis takes its toll.
He says the situation is dire now but pales into comparison to what is expected in winter as energy prices again increase and people find budgets even more stretched. Among those to need help in the past few days are a mum who couldn’t afford nappies for her baby and a man asking for £1.50 as he couldn’t afford to get the bus to work.
As Jamie Lopez reports for LancsLive , new research suggests the town is among the country’s worst-hit places in how it is affected by inflation - as the proportion of household budgets spent on energy and groceries means those in Burnley are more affected than elsewhere.
According to the Centre for Cities , which rates the Lancashire towns of Blackpool and Blackburn as having the country's second and third-highest inflation rates, a big factor is the high percentage of inefficient housing stock which means more heating is required, sending bills even higher.
The think-tank says the cost of living crisis is further widening the North-South divide, with inflation already reaching double figures in urban areas in the North and rates rising significantly faster than in the South.
Latest estimates show inflation has made workers in the North £133 a month poorer on average; while workers in the South have lost around £103 a month - adding up to a difference of £360 a year.
The report 'Out of Pocket: The places at the sharp end of the cost of living crisis' says much of this disparity can be attributed to the fact that the North, Midlands and Wales have higher proportions of poorly-insulated housing and more reliance on cars, which leaves these areas exceptionally vulnerable to increasing fuel prices.
Centre for Cities Chief Executive Andrew Carter said: “These disparities prove that levelling up our cities to tackle spatial inequalities and futureproof the economy is more important than ever.
“In the short-term it is imperative that those most vulnerable are given the support they need to get through this crisis. Even while Westminster’s political situation is uncertain, ministers must act quickly to protect the areas most impacted and ensure they don’t fall even further behind.”
Meanwhile from today, the first £326 instalment of the Government’s Cost of Living Payments will start automatically hitting people’s bank accounts. Almost one in four families will benefit, Ministers say, with the second instalment of £324 to be sent later this year.
In the North East the Tyne and Wear Metro ’s electricity bills are set to jump by millions of pounds, as the struggling rail network grapples with the cost-of-living crisis. Bosses at operator Nexus predict its high voltage power bills will come in £4m higher than expected this year, as Local Democracy Reporter Dan Holland writes .
Meanwhile, a separate piece of research says high levels of debt, financial insecurity and fuel poverty in England’s “left behind” neighbourhoods mean residents will be hardest hit by soaring costs.
Areas identified as “left behind” have experienced a sharper rise in fuel poverty than other deprived areas, and are also disproportionately affected by rising energy caps.
Among the hardest hit areas are Orchard Park and Greenwood in Hull, Bloomfield in Blackpool and Grangetown in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland. The research was carried out by Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for “left behind” neighbourhoods as part of its inquiry into levelling up.
Government 'grinds to a halt' as Tory leadership hopefuls do battle
Speaking of levelling up, how are things going with the second round of bids to the Government's flagship £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund doling out millions of pounds for local leaders to "invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK"?
As it turns out, not so well. The online portal through which local councils can bid for money from the Levelling Up Fund was supposed to go live on May 31, but it is still not available over six weeks later.
According to the Government's gov.uk website : "The application portal will be opened as soon as possible and, once open, will be live for 2 weeks for applicants to put forward their bids."
Wigan MP and Labour's Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy said: "While Tory leadership candidates parade around Westminster doing their best Margaret Thatcher impersonations, government has ground to a halt.
"For over a decade the Conservatives have stripped money from our communities. Now they expect those same communities to wait even longer for just a partial refund. If only they put the same effort into levelling up as they put into trying to advance their own careers."
Town halls have prepared bids for the second tranche of the fund, including many that missed out during the first round of allocations last year. Trafford Council is hoping for money for health and wellbeing projects in Partington and improvements to Sale town centre.
It's like New Year's Eve every day for over-stretched NHS teams
For paramedics and others on the front line of the NHS, New Year's Eve is the benchmark for high demand. But in the North West, with a heatwave piling pressure on an already overstretched system, this level is now being hit on a daily basis.
As Helena Vesty writes for the Manchester Evening News , paramedics are arriving at work this week to face more than 100 patients who are waiting for an ambulance. On Tuesday, the North West Ambulance Service declared it would escalate to its highest level of alert.
The long waiting times, as ambulance crews deal with 21% more urgent life-threatening calls compared with this time last month, is leading some staff members to raise concerns about patient safety - fearing that patients are being left without aid for ‘hours’ in emergencies.
The ambulance crisis comes as hospitals, too, are urging people to only come to A&E if they have an emergency or life-threatening condition. Health chiefs at two of Greater Manchester’s hospitals are reporting that their emergency departments are very busy, with waits of longer than four hours.
In the Commons yesterday, Health Minister Maria Caulfield dismissed concerns over the impact of the heatwave on NHS services in Greater Manchester, saying there is no "magical way of avoiding such pressures".
She said "one of the factors affecting ambulance delays is the bed occupancy issue". And in response to questions from Northern MPs, she said: "We're not waiting for crisis, we've put in place £150 million of extra funding for the ambulance service, we're boosting the workforce, there's nearly 2,300 more 999 call handlers at the start of June."
There's 200,000 reasons why bereaved relatives want a Covid inquiry
A "deeply tragic milestone" was passed yesterday as the total death toll for Covid-19 passed 200,000. And in the North, there have been 53,143 deaths registered where Covid has been mentioned on the death certificate as the cause or contributing factor.
That's 13% of all deaths that have occurred since the start of 2020, compared to 12% across England and Wales, according to the Office for National Statistics.
As Claire Miller of Reach's Data Unit writes, of the deaths involving Covid, 28,849 took place in 2020, while 18,572 occurred in 2021 - with high death rates seen in the early part of the pandemic and also in early 2021 as the Alpha variant spread quickly. The vaccine programme has seen the number of deaths involving Covid slow, with 5,722 in the North so far in 2022.
Amos Waldman, a member of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said he feels grief, upset and anger at the UK death toll and that the public inquiry into the pandemic must start “as soon as possible”.
One of these is Mr Waldman’s grandmother, Sheila Lamb, 94, who moved into a care home in March 2020, and died with coronavirus just weeks later on April 2.
Mr Waldman, 42, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, said it is “difficult to put into words how traumatic it was”, and said the current high prevalence of cases is causing bereaved families like his to “relive some of that trauma”.
'French government must now apologise to Liverpool fans'
Liverpool football fans were unfairly blamed for the chaos which surrounded last season’s Champions League final in Paris to “divert attention” from the failure of the organisers, a French Senate report has found .
The Senate has heard from Reds supporters, along with French police and government officials and UEFA’s events director, Martin Kallen, since the match on May 28, which kicked off more than half an hour late.
France’s interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, initially laid the blame for the delays at the door of ticketless Liverpool supporters for the build-up of crowds at the perimeter of the Stade de France, with police also using tear gas on fans as they waited to gain entry.
The provisional report of its findings, published yesterday, stated: “It is unfair to have wanted to make supporters of the Liverpool team bear the responsibility for the disturbances that occurred, as the Minister of the Interior did to divert attention from the inability of the state to adequately manage the crowds present and to curb the action of several hundred violent and co-ordinated (local) delinquents.”
It was welcomed by Liverpool chief executive Billy Hogan, who called for an apology from the French government. Liverpool fans’ group Spirit of Shankly asked for the same plus the opening of a full parliamentary inquiry in France.
“I would say I was incredibly encouraged to see one of the senators specifically apologise to the Liverpool fans and to the Real Madrid fans for what happened on the night,” Hogan said on Liverpool’s official website. “And I would ask that the French government do the same."
Airport closure plans spark fury across political spectrum
The company that runs Doncaster Sheffield Airport was ‘in discussion’ with political leaders for a £20 million loan before announcing they could close the site to commercial flights and passengers, it emerged yesterday.
South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard made the claim following an announcement from Peel Group that they were considering shutting the airport due to a lack of financial viability, writes Local Democracy Reporter George Torr .
Airport bosses said despite growth in passenger numbers, DSA has ‘never achieved the critical mass required to become profitable’. They added the fundamental issue of a shortfall in passenger numbers was ‘exacerbated by the announcement of the unilateral withdrawal of the Wizz Air based aircraft’, leaving the airport with only one base carrier, namely TUI.
The announcement has sparked widespread condemnation from politicians across the aisle, business leaders and residents. Don Valley Tory MP Nick Fletcher said: “Doncaster is a city. It has an airport. It needs an airport."
Mayor Coppard said he was now seeking an ‘urgent meeting’ with Peel Group bosses. He said: "Prior to today’s announcement, my office was in discussion with Peel Group about a loan of £20m for the delivery of their plans for the airport, and have been in detailed discussion with government about further developing the connectivity of the DSA site."
More than 15,000 people have now signed a petition to 'Save Doncaster Sheffield' airport - check out the fury in the comments here.
On Twitter, Tory Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen used the news to point to his decision to take his local airport into public ownership after buying it from Peel for £40m.
He wrote: "Teesside would have gone the same way long ago if we hadn’t have saved it from Peel and protected jobs and connectivity for our region."
But local Labour MP Alex Cunningham criticised the use of "public money to buy the loss making airport". He added: "It's continued [to] lose vast sums of money and you've bailed it out using more public funds."
Could rowdy MPs be sent to Cheshire's salt mines?
There were furious scenes in the Commons yesterday as Speaker (and Chorley MP) Sir Lindsay Hoyle booted out two Alba Party MPs who had launched a noisy protest at the start of Prime Minister’s Questions.
And a little later in the House of Lords, a former Minister Lord Foulkes of Cumnock suggested Cheshire ’s salt mines could be useful in dealing with protesting MPs ejected from the chamber, reports Nick Lester of Press Association.
It came as peers pressed a transport minister in the Lords over the structural implications for the HS2 rail project of vast underground caverns from which salt had been extracted, along the proposed route between Crewe and Manchester.
The issue of the salt mines in Cheshire had been raised in the Lords by Labour peer Lord Berkeley in relation to the high-speed rail scheme. He questioned the steps being taken to avoid “significant settlements” and resulting speed restrictions on the HS2 route between Crewe and Manchester.
Responding, transport minister Baroness Vere of Norbiton said HS2 Ltd had undertaken ground investigations to increase the understanding of geological risks as well as drawing on information from other expert groups.
Referring to the Commons disruption, Lord Foulkes, who served as an MP and Scottish Office minister, said: “The way things are going down the other end, the salt mines might prove useful."
In Sir Lindsay's native Lancashire , scientists say some train delays could be caused by “space weather” after they found solar storms have caused malfunctions in railway signalling systems.
Research from Lancaster University will be presented this week claiming solar activity can cause electrical currents flowing on Earth to interfere with signals, turning them from green to red even if there are no trains nearby.
But there was no extraterrestrial explanation yesterday as the scale of issues that dogged the Merseyrail network last month was uncovered.
Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram told a committee that 28 faults were identified with the wheel bearings on Merseyrail trains in June bringing services across the region to a halt. Rail replacement buses had to be used on certain lines during the disruption and Merseyrail managing director Andy Heath was forced to offer an apology.
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Northern Stories
Protesters at Manchester Town Hall chanted ‘shame on you’ as councillors agreed to fund the expansion of Hough End Leisure Centre yesterday. The £11.9m budget increase for the project which would see 3G pitches and a car park built on fields off Princess Road in Chorlton was given the go ahead. But campaigners from Save Hough End Fields say the controversial plans contradict Manchester council’s net zero carbon ambitions by tarmacking over grass and encouraging car use.
A councillor has been suspended by the Conservative Party after sharing tweets which claimed mosques were hiding ‘secret arsenals’ and branded UK immigration rates as ‘cultural suicide’. Councillor Alanna Vine, who represents Bramhall North, in Stockport , is currently under investigation and could face expulsion from the party, writes Local Democracy Reporter Nick Statham. The council’s Conservative group confirmed the party had begun disciplinary procedures against Cllr Vine – who chairs a council licensing sub-committee – following a recent complaint.
North East leaders are pleading with the Government to finally sign off on the long-awaited dualling of the A1 in Northumberland , after the project was hit with a double delay . A decision on whether an upgrade of the single-lane section of the major route between Morpeth and Ellingham had been due in January this year, before being pushed back to June and then again by a further six months. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced last month that a decision on widening the 13-mile stretch of the A1 was now due on or before December 5 this year, dashing hopes of work starting this summer.
The Court of Appeal has heard the latest legal challenge to Andy Burnham’s plans to bring buses in Greater Manchester under public control by next year. Diamond Bus owner Rotala has appealed the ruling by a judge earlier this year which gave the Greater Manchester mayor the green light for his reforms. Under the franchising scheme, which is set to start in Wigan and Bolton next year before serving the whole city-region by the end of 2024, bus operators would bid to run services, giving local leaders control of fares and ticketing. Read Joseph Timan's run-down here.
Strike action by Arriva bus workers in parts of Yorkshire is to be suspended from tomorrow as negotiations begin on "a new substantial" pay offer. The Unite union said they would halt the walkout as "an act of good faith". More than 300 buses were taken off the road on 6 June. Services resumed on 1 July but staff took action again on Wednesday after they rejected an offer. Meanwhile July 27 has been set as the date of the latest national strike by rail workers.
A new top officer has been lined up to lead Teesside ’s biggest borough. Mike Greene will be the new managing director of Stockton Council when he is sworn in at a meeting next week. The 38-year-old is the chief executive of Scarborough Council but also had experience on Teesside as an assistant director at Redcar and Cleveland Council. Mr Greene will take the reins from Julie Danks who is retiring after stepping into the new role in 2019. The new leading officer has worked in the North West and in West Yorkshire.
