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Category: North West

  • Residents call for funding after ‘falling through cracks’ over cladding relief

    Residents of buildings that have “fallen through the cracks” in relation to funding for the removal of dangerous cladding have called on the Government to pay for all of their costs.

    A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said:

    We are bringing forward the most far-reaching legal protections ever for leaseholders on building safety.

    We have created new powers in the Building Safety Act that can force developers and building owners to compensate leaseholders for money already paid out for fire safety measures such as fire alarms.

    The Act also overrides agreements that seek to get round the measures we have put in place to protect qualifying leaseholders from future cladding costs.

    However, some people have already lost out.

    Removal of cladding

    Ritu Saha, a 47-year-old university administrator, purchased the leasehold of a one-and-a-half bedroom flat in the Northpoint development in Bromley at the end of 2015.

    In November 2017 the residents of her building were told that Northpoint was covered in the same aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding as Grenfell Tower.

    They were residents of one of the first buildings in the country to receive the news that they would need to remove the cladding.

    She said:

    And as a result of that, we basically became the people that fell through the cracks.

    Due to the cladding, they were told by the London Fire Brigade (LFB) that they would need to put in a waking watch, hiring external fire wardens to patrol their building.

    She said:

    The 57 people in our building have spent at least £650,000-£700,000 on fire wardens alone, which we will never get back.

    That is money that we have paid two external fire wardens.

    However, paying for the watch quickly burnt through the building’s savings and, facing mounting costs in the hundreds of thousands, Ms Saha and other residents took it upon themselves to patrol the building 24/7.

    She said:

    We did patrols ourselves to keep the costs down. So for example, I worked full-time so I would come home at 6.30pm in the evening and from seven o’clock in the evening till midnight.

    I would have to crawl the building myself. And I did this for months.

    The LFB also told them to put in a new £120,000 fire alarm system, she said, which they finally had installed in June 2019 after fundraising for it.

    However, because they installed the alarm before fire alarms funding was announced they have so far been unable to claim the cost back from the Waking Watch Relief Fund.

    She said that as well as the money, they had also paid a toll in their mental and physical health:

    The years of our lives that the two or three people in our building who volunteered as fire wardens have lost doing this, and the strain on our mental and physical health as a result, is not something that can be measured in money terms – but that is also something that we will never get back.

    In total, Ms Saha calculates that she has lost out on “a minimum of £15,000” in unremunerated costs as a result of the cladding scandal.

    She called on the Government to use the money it will receive from developers involved in the cladding scandal to refund all of the costs incurred by the residents of buildings impacted by it.

    Thousands lost

    Nathan Prescott, a 45-year-old aviation industry worker from Liverpool, has also faced thousands in unrecovered costs due to the cladding on his building.

    He lives in the Skyline Central 1 building in Manchester, which was covered in high pressure laminate (HPL) cladding, a type unrelated to the cladding used in Grenfell but which is also covered by the Building Safety Fund.

    Nathan Prescott in front of the Skyline Central 1 building (Nathan Prescott)

    The 18-storey building has 121 apartments in total.

    However, because the residents agreed to begin the removal of the cladding before the fund was announced, they have been denied access to it.

    They also paid for a waking watch for three years, at a cost of approximately £2,000 per year per apartment.

    Prescott said their costs were further increased when they fell at the first hurdle of bringing a judicial review case against the Government over its decision to disallow the residents from applying to the fund.

    He calculates his unrecovered costs at about £30,000, with others in his building out of pocket by up to £40,000.

    Prescott added that the Government could pay for it with a windfall tax on the profits made by companies involved in the removal of cladding or that have benefited from the cladding scandal.

    He said:

    I’d like to see the Government maybe put a windfall tax on those people, so that the money can be diverted towards the lease holders, such as myself and all the other people who’ve been stung with these horrible, horrible amounts of debt.

    By The Canary

  • ‘More deaths, longer lockdowns and lower wages’ in north of England’s pandemic

    Northerners were more likely to die from coronavirus (Covid-19), spent almost six weeks longer in lockdowns, and were made poorer than the rest of England during the first year of the pandemic, official figures have revealed.

    English disparity

    Academics have analysed government statistics to show just how much worse it affected the North East, North West, and Yorkshire and the Humber compared to the rest of England. Public health experts said much of the blame for the increased mortality could be explained by the higher deprivation levels and worse pre-pandemic health in the North.

    Coronavirus – Tue Jan 12, 2021
    People in Newcastle queued to get vaccinated in January (Owen Humphreys/PA)

    The report, commissioned by the Northern Health Science Alliance, found:

    • People living in the North had a 17% higher mortality rate due to coronavirus than in the rest of England, and a 14% higher overall mortality due to all causes.
    • The North’s care home coronavirus mortality was 26% higher than the rest of England.
    • In the North 10% more hospital beds were occupied by coronavirus patients than in the rest of England.
    • On average people living in the North had 41 more days of the harshest lockdown restrictions than people in the rest of the country.
    • The North experienced a larger drop in mental well-being, more loneliness, and higher rates of antidepressant prescriptions.
    • Wages in the North, which were lower than the rest of England before the pandemic, fell further, whereas wages increased in the rest of the country.
    • The unemployment rate in the North was 19% higher than the rest of England.
    “Hardest hit”

    Dr Luke Munford, a lecturer in health economics at Manchester University, said:

    The pandemic has hit us all hard in different ways, but our report shows that people living in the North were much more likely to be hardest hit, both in terms of health and wealth. The fact that over half of the increased Covid-19 mortality and two-thirds of all-cause mortality was potentially preventable should be a real wake-up call.

    We need to invest in the health of people living in the North to ensure they are able to recover from the devastating impacts of the pandemic.

    Coronavirus – Mon Dec 7, 2020
    Professor Clare Bambra says England has gone through an “unequal pandemic”

    Clare Bambra, professor of public health at Newcastle University, said:

    Our report shows how regional health inequalities before coronavirus have resulted in an unequal pandemic, with higher rates of ill health, death and despair in the North. The economic impact of the lockdown is also looking likely to exacerbate the regional economic divide.

    The Government’s levelling up agenda needs to seriously address health inequalities in the North, for all generations.

    The report authors called for the government to boost funding to Northern hospitals to allow them to catch up, including on non-coronavirus care.

    Bambra said:

    The levelling up agenda needs to be centred on health, it cannot just be about trains and bridges.

    She added that the report, which looked at March 2020 to March 2021, showed a higher percentage of people had been vaccinated in the North than elsewhere.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Spending on disabled care in the North £2,700 less than national average

    Social care spending on disabled people in northern England is almost £3,000 less per person than the national average, a new report has said.

    Levelling down

    In the North, councils spend £21,254 per person on social care for disabled, working-age people, according to a report from think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research North (IPPR North). This figure is £2,736 less than the average for the whole of England. That gap reaches £9,256 per person when comparing the North East, where spending is lowest, with the East of England, where it’s highest.

    The report, which examines the effect of coronavirus (Covid-19) on regional inequalities, noted that regional differences in wages may be partially responsible for the gap between North and South, but added it’s “unlikely to be the only rationale for the significantly lower spend in the North”.

    The report said there were “numerous other variables at play”, including:

    the role of increasingly cash-strapped local authorities in making decisions about budgets and services, as well as the lack of national oversight to ensure consistent commissioning of services.

    These differences amounted to a “postcode lottery”, the report added, which may have been exacerbated by differing responses to the pandemic.

    Failure to protect

    Erica Roscoe, one of the report’s authors, said:

    National policy in the UK has failed to protect people who need it most.

    For decades, disabled people across the country have found themselves disproportionately affected by multiple inequalities, including our undervalued and under-resourced social care system, and our alarming regional divides.

    Now, during the pandemic, those injustices are deepening. This is bad news for everyone, whether disabled people or not.

    She added:

    It is incumbent upon every single decision-maker, from local councillors to the prime minister, to recognise the unique experiences of disabled people living in regions like the North.

    It is time to ensure that disabled people have the opportunity to live a good life.

    As well as the impact on social care spending, the IPPR North report said the pandemic had exacerbated inequalities in disabled people’s access to healthcare, employment, and education.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Adrian Chiles sorry for not challenging QC’s ‘evil nonsense’ Hillsborough claims

    Radio presenter Adrian Chiles has told listeners he is “absolutely mortified” that he failed to challenge a lawyer over “evil nonsense” claims he made on his show about Liverpool fans causing a “riot” ahead of the Hillsborough Disaster.

    “Absolute nonsense”

    Jonathan Goldberg QC spoke to Chiles on BBC Radio 5 Live on 26 May after his client Peter Metcalf, who was solicitor for South Yorkshire Police in 1989, was cleared of perverting the course of justice following the disaster.

    On 27 May, Chiles made a lengthy apology, saying he had been a “fool” not to pick the QC up on his comments.

    Jonathan Goldberg QC
    Jonathan Goldberg QC made the comments (Lauren Hurley/PA)

    He said he reported the end of the inquests into the tragedy in 2016 and that he knew:

    as much as anyone that it was absolute nonsense, and proved to be nonsense several times in the past, that Liverpool fans themselves were in any way culpable for what happened.

    Chiles said that “calamitously and incompetently” he was momentarily distracted during the interview and did not hear Goldberg make the comments, which caused uproar among the families of those who died in 1989.

    He said:

    I’m absolutely mortified with myself.

    And he added:

    I absolutely know it was just evil nonsense and I apologise for not picking him up there and then. But, honestly, I was fool not a knave on this one. Have a go at me for incompetence, please, and I deserve it. I just didn’t hear it.

    Chiles said: “If I had heard it, I don’t think I would have believed my ears.”

    “No evidence”

    Goldberg said on the show:

    My client was accused of covering up criticism of the police. What he in fact did was cut out criticism of the Liverpool fans, whose behaviour was perfectly appalling on the day, causing a riot that led to the gate having to be opened, that unfortunately let the people in and crushed to death the innocents as they were – complete innocents – who were at the front of the pens, who had arrived early and were not drunk and were behaving perfectly well.

    Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who has campaigned with the Hillsborough families, said:

    There is no evidence of any riot outside that ground and the fact somebody who is a Queen’s Counsel should go on the media and make those statements, they are inaccurate statements.

    They are intended to smear the supporters of this football club all over again, they are intended to smear the people of this city all over again.

    Hillsborough campaigner, Margaret Aspinall, with Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham
    Hillsborough campaigner, Margaret Aspinall, with Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham (Peter Byrne/PA)

    Dragged through the mud again

    Campaigner Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James died in the disaster, said:

    They tried to bring our fans into it again at this trial when we have already cleared their names and to me that is so sad.

    Fans were exonerated of causing any part in the disaster following the publication of the Hillsborough Independent Panel report in 2012.

    Then prime minister David Cameron told the House of Commons:

    A narrative about hooliganism on that day was created that led many in the country to accept that somehow it was a grey area.

    Today’s report is black and white: the Liverpool fans ‘were not the cause of the disaster’.

    However, less than two years later, at a preliminary hearing for the new inquests in 2014, lawyers representing police officers said they would make the suggestion that drunken fans contributed to the disaster. In 2016, the inquests jury concluded the behaviour of supporters did not cause or contribute to the dangerous situation which built up outside the ground on April 15 1989.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Adrian Chiles sorry for not challenging QC’s ‘evil nonsense’ Hillsborough claims

    Radio presenter Adrian Chiles has told listeners he is “absolutely mortified” that he failed to challenge a lawyer over “evil nonsense” claims he made on his show about Liverpool fans causing a “riot” ahead of the Hillsborough Disaster.

    “Absolute nonsense”

    Jonathan Goldberg QC spoke to Chiles on BBC Radio 5 Live on 26 May after his client Peter Metcalf, who was solicitor for South Yorkshire Police in 1989, was cleared of perverting the course of justice following the disaster.

    On 27 May, Chiles made a lengthy apology, saying he had been a “fool” not to pick the QC up on his comments.

    Jonathan Goldberg QC
    Jonathan Goldberg QC made the comments (Lauren Hurley/PA)

    He said he reported the end of the inquests into the tragedy in 2016 and that he knew:

    as much as anyone that it was absolute nonsense, and proved to be nonsense several times in the past, that Liverpool fans themselves were in any way culpable for what happened.

    Chiles said that “calamitously and incompetently” he was momentarily distracted during the interview and did not hear Goldberg make the comments, which caused uproar among the families of those who died in 1989.

    He said:

    I’m absolutely mortified with myself.

    And he added:

    I absolutely know it was just evil nonsense and I apologise for not picking him up there and then. But, honestly, I was fool not a knave on this one. Have a go at me for incompetence, please, and I deserve it. I just didn’t hear it.

    Chiles said: “If I had heard it, I don’t think I would have believed my ears.”

    “No evidence”

    Goldberg said on the show:

    My client was accused of covering up criticism of the police. What he in fact did was cut out criticism of the Liverpool fans, whose behaviour was perfectly appalling on the day, causing a riot that led to the gate having to be opened, that unfortunately let the people in and crushed to death the innocents as they were – complete innocents – who were at the front of the pens, who had arrived early and were not drunk and were behaving perfectly well.

    Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who has campaigned with the Hillsborough families, said:

    There is no evidence of any riot outside that ground and the fact somebody who is a Queen’s Counsel should go on the media and make those statements, they are inaccurate statements.

    They are intended to smear the supporters of this football club all over again, they are intended to smear the people of this city all over again.

    Hillsborough campaigner, Margaret Aspinall, with Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham
    Hillsborough campaigner, Margaret Aspinall, with Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham (Peter Byrne/PA)

    Dragged through the mud again

    Campaigner Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James died in the disaster, said:

    They tried to bring our fans into it again at this trial when we have already cleared their names and to me that is so sad.

    Fans were exonerated of causing any part in the disaster following the publication of the Hillsborough Independent Panel report in 2012.

    Then prime minister David Cameron told the House of Commons:

    A narrative about hooliganism on that day was created that led many in the country to accept that somehow it was a grey area.

    Today’s report is black and white: the Liverpool fans ‘were not the cause of the disaster’.

    However, less than two years later, at a preliminary hearing for the new inquests in 2014, lawyers representing police officers said they would make the suggestion that drunken fans contributed to the disaster. In 2016, the inquests jury concluded the behaviour of supporters did not cause or contribute to the dangerous situation which built up outside the ground on April 15 1989.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on The Canary.