Babak Belurs

Rabu, 10 Februari 2021

COVID-19: Boris Johnson says 'it's too early' for decision over summer holiday plans - Sky News

It is "too early" to say if people will be allowed to take summer holidays abroad or in the UK, Boris Johnson has said.

The prime minister stopped going as far as his transport secretary, who said this morning "people shouldn't be booking holidays right now - not domestically or internationally".

Grant Shapps' comments had prompted fury from Charles Walker, a senior Tory MP who told Sky News it was a "stupid thing to say".

Mr Johnson tried to skirt round the subject at a No 10 coronavirus briefing on Wednesday, saying: " I'm afraid it is just too early for people to be certain about what we'll be able to do this summer."

More details will be announced in the week beginning 22 February as part of the promised roadmap out of lockdown, Mr Johnson vowed.

He added: "I understand why people want to make plans now, but we're just going to have to be a bit more patient."

Mr Johnson also did not deny the government was working on developing an app for people to show when travelling internationally, containing details about their COVID-19 status.

We're looking at all sorts of things that we may wish to do in the months ahead, he said.

The idea of immunity passports has been floated for several months, with Sky News confirming last Friday that ministers are looking into the creation of a digital vaccine document.

Research groups are said to have been set up on the subject as attention turns to what will happen once jabs are more widely rolled out across the world.

Tory MP Simon Clarke said the "bottom line" is that "travel abroad this year is unlikely".

"Holidays within the UK are likely by the summer, but the government can't make a hard and fast statement to this effect at this stage," he tweeted.

"If you book (as I have), you do so at your own risk."

It comes as the number of people to get a first COVID-19 jab passed 13 million - proof, Mr Johnson said, that the government is on track to offer a jab to everyone in the top four priority groups by 15 February.

He cautioned that while cases, deaths and hospitalisations are down, with his "layman's eye" he could not yet see results "directly attributable to the vaccine".

Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK government's chief scientific adviser, said that was "not surprising" because it takes time for immunity to build up - so there should start to be a noticeable difference "within the next couple of weeks".

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2021-02-10 18:33:45Z
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Downing Street defends publicly-funded photos of PM's dog Dilyn - BBC News

Picture of the PM's dog Dilyn in the Downing Street garden

No 10 has defended spending taxpayers' money on photographers after snaps of Boris Johnson's dog playing in the snow were uploaded onto Flickr.

The shots of Dilyn in the No 10 garden are among the most recent images on the photo-sharing site, alongside one of another famous resident Larry the cat.

The gallery also features pictures of the PM hosting meetings and ministers such as Matt Hancock and Priti Patel.

No 10 said the photos "documented the work" of government and its ministers.

But Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner criticised the expenditure at a time when thousands of people were losing their jobs and facing hardship due to the pandemic.

"Millions of hard-pressed families face a £1,000 Universal Credit cut and the government is refusing to extend free school meals during half term next week, but there is apparently no limit on the budget for a coterie of vanity photographers for Boris Johnson," she tweeted.

A No 10 spokesman confirmed there were three photographers on the government payroll, who are being paid for by the taxpayer. Two of these are civil servants and the other a special adviser.

Rescue puppy Dilyn arrives at Downing Street

He said the snappers were "a government resource" and the most recent recruit was working across a range of departments, taking photos of cabinet ministers undertaking official government business.

Matt Hancock in the Department of Health

"They document the work not just of the prime minister but of the whole cabinet," he said, adding that their pictures were made available to the media free of charge.

No 10's flickr album includes recent images of the PM working in the Cabinet Room in No 10, Home Secretary Priti Patel visiting a vaccination centre and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab meeting an Israeli minister.

More colourfully, there are four images of Dilyn frolicking in a snowy No 10 garden whilst chewing a stick and an image of Larry the Downing Street cat sitting under a portrait of The Queen.

Dilyn arrived in Downing Street shortly after Mr Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds took up residence in July 2019. The Jack Russell-cross, now nearly two years old, was rescued after being abandoned by puppy farmers.

He became a regular feature on the 2019 election campaign trail when Ms Symonds took him canvassing.

No 10's Flickr album contains more than 10,000 images dating back to May 2010, when David Cameron became prime minister and hosted the famous "Rose Garden" press conference with then deputy Nick Clegg.

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2021-02-10 16:52:00Z
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Covid: WHO backs Oxford vaccine 'even if variants present' - BBC News

Someone getting a vaccine against Covid-19 in South Africa

The World Health Organization recommends using the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca even in countries tackling new variants of coronavirus.

Some new forms of the virus appear to make vaccines less effective.

The WHO also says the vaccine can be used in people aged over 65, which some countries have advised against.

Spacing out the two doses, as is happening in the UK, makes the vaccine more effective, it advises.

The Oxford vaccine is seen as the "vaccine for the world" as it is cheap, can be mass produced and is stored in a standard fridge.

However, it has attracted controversy about its effectiveness against new variants, whether it should be used in the elderly and how far apart the doses should be given, due to a lack of data.

The WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization, known as Sage, has been scrutinising evidence from vaccine trials.

Its interim recommendations say the vaccine is 63% effective overall.

However, early data from trials in South Africa showed the vaccine was offering "minimal protection" against mild and moderate disease in young people.

The WHO's director of immunisation, Dr Katherine O'Brien, said the South African study was "inconclusive" and it was "plausible" the vaccine would still prevent severe disease.

A variant in the country has acquired mutations that seem to help it evade immunity from vaccines and from previous infections.

However Oxford scientists still expect their vaccine to prevent people from becoming seriously ill with Covid-19 and needing hospital treatment.

"There is no reason not to recommend its use even in countries that have circulation of the variant," said Dr Alejandro Cravioto, the chairman of WHO's Sage.

There has been criticism about a lack of data on the effectiveness of the vaccine in the elderly with some countries, including France and Germany, advising against using it in the over 65s.

The WHO said even though there was a small number of over 65s in the trials, other studies showed older people had a nearly identical immune response to younger adults so the vaccine should be used.

The scientific advisers also said giving two doses eight-12 weeks apart increased the vaccine's effectiveness and provided greater protection.

Initially, the WHO had recommended a gap of up to six weeks between doses, only in exceptional circumstances.

Prof Sarah Gilbert, the chief investigator on the Oxford vaccine trial, said: "It is excellent news that the WHO has recommended use of the Sars CoV-2 vaccine first produced in Oxford.

"This decision paves the way to more widespread use of the vaccine to protect people against Covid-19 and gain control of the pandemic."

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2021-02-10 16:37:00Z
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Cladding: Extra £3.5bn promised to tackle unsafe buildings - BBC News

An extra £3.5bn has been promised by ministers to remove unsafe cladding from high-rise buildings over 18m high in England "at no cost to residents".

Many thousands of flat-owners face huge bills for fire-safety improvements, brought in after 2017's Grenfell Tower fire when flames spread via combustible cladding, killing 72 people.

The government said it was its "largest ever investment" in building safety.

But campaigners say it falls short and still leaves many in unsafe buildings.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick also announced:

Owners of flats in lower-rise blocks would have access to loans to replace unsafe cladding - and would never have to pay more than £50 a month for them
A new levy on developers of future high rises to cover the cost of grants
A separate new tax on residential property development in the UK from 2022

The £3.5bn comes on top of £1.6bn in funding that was announced for the removal of unsafe cladding last year.

Ministers have come under growing pressure to increase the pot as leaseholders have been hit by building improvement costs and soaring insurance costs.

Some say they have effectively become trapped in their own homes - unable to sell until the work is carried out, yet in danger of bankrupting themselves to meet the costs.

Stephen Squires, who lives in a 22-storey block in Manchester, said he and others were "still stuck in limbo", even after the announcement.

The government had consistently failed to acknowledge the issues were far wider reaching than cladding, he said, and they still did not know whether fire safety defects would be covered by the funding.

The Grenfell United campaign group said it was "too little, too late", and it needed the mess dealt with "once and for all".

"Residents living in unsafe homes will go to bed tonight worrying if their building will qualify or be left out once again. And bereaved and survivors of Grenfell will lay awake fearful that what happened to us could still happen again," the group said.

Mr Jenrick told the Commons leaseholders in high-rise buildings above 18m, or with six storeys or more, would face no costs for cladding works.

He said the risk was "significantly lower" for lower-rise blocks of flats.

However, for anyone living with dangerous cladding in such flats, a loan scheme would be set up to protect leaseholders so none of them would pay more than £50 a month for the removal of unsafe cladding.

He also said a new levy would be placed on future developments.

It "cannot be right the costs fall solely on tax payers", he said, adding that the government would develop a levy targeted at developers seeking to build certain high-rise buildings in England.

He also said a new tax for the UK residential property sector would be introduced from next year, to raise £2bn over a decade and help pay for the removal of cladding.

Mr Jenrick described the action as an "unprecedented intervention" without which building owners would simply pass on the costs of remediation work to leaseholders.

"That would risk punishing those who have worked hard, who have bought their own home, but through no fault of their own have found themselves caught in an absolutely invidious situation," he said.

The Home Builders Federation, a trade association for private sector homebuilders, said it supported "sensible" solutions for recouping costs and was looking forward to working with the government on an "equitable" tax that did not "threaten housing supply".

'If our block were one brick lower, it would have been us'

Matt Browne and Lizzie Bennett are among thousands of flat-owners who discovered in the last year they lived in a dangerous block;

Their Birmingham city centre building measures 18.2 metres - so just qualifies for the funding promised today.

Matt, a 26-year-old video producer, says although he is relieved, he feels "incredibly sorry" for those whose homes don't meet that threshold.

"[That] could have been ours if our building was one brick lower. That's literally the difference we're talking about," he says.

He says leaseholders feel "betrayed" because the government has said "multiple times" they should not pay.

"Then all of a sudden today it's like, 'right, leaseholders are going to pay £50 a month,'" he says.

The couple say they have been hit with a £50,000 bill after their block failed an external wall fire review.

That covers not only the removal of unsafe cladding, but also works relating to other things found in the review like missing fire cavity barriers.

Matt's now concerned the government fund only covers the cladding removal. "There are still costs in there which are going to cost thousands and thousands of pounds, which is money we don't have," he says.

Conservative MP Stephen McPartland, a critic of the government's handling of the cladding crisis, said Mr Jenrick's announcement did not go far enough and the issue was much bigger than the matter of cladding.

"The support he has offered does not help most people because people who've got excessive insurance premiums, fire safety defects - that's where the real costs are," he told BBC Radio 4's World at One.

"Leaseholders are the innocent parties in this. Many people were in primary school when these buildings were constructed and they're now being hit with bills that will be bankrupting them."

Labour's shadow housing secretary, Thangam Debbonaire, called the proposals "an injustice" that would "pile financial misery" on homeowners.

She said there were many questions left unanswered, including on "skyrocketing" insurance costs, homes potentially remaining "unsellable", and the amount leaseholders would be expected to pay.

The "arbitrary 18m-height limit" could "mean the difference between a safe home and financial ruin", she said.

Labour wants an independent taskforce to be established to take the matter out of politicians' hands and ensure funds are distributed fairly.

Rebecca Fairclough, from Manchester Cladiators, which represents 70 tower blocks with fire safety issues in the Greater Manchester area, said funding was needed to cover all building safety issues, not just cladding.

She said she was disappointed loans were the only solution on offer to those in buildings under 18m high.

"Millions of residents continue to live in dangerous buildings, facing impossible bills and with their mental health deteriorating daily," she said.

"They hoped today's announcement would give them some hope - but it doesn't," she said.

Natasha Letchford, a campaigner for the End Our Cladding Scandal group, said the funding was far short of the estimated £15bn bill to fix all the issues.

She said as long as there were outstanding bills on properties, they would be worthless and people simply would not want to buy them.

Do you live in a building with unsafe cladding? Are you a leaseholder who will be affected by the 18m rule? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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2021-02-10 16:19:00Z
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Cladding: Extra £3.5bn promised to tackle unsafe buildings - BBC News

An extra £3.5bn has been promised by ministers to remove unsafe cladding from high-rise buildings over 18m high in England "at no cost to residents".

Many thousands of flat-owners face huge bills for fire-safety improvements, brought in after 2017's Grenfell Tower fire when flames spread via combustible cladding, killing 72 people.

The government said it was its "largest ever investment" in building safety.

But campaigners say it falls short and still leaves many in unsafe buildings.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick also announced:

Owners of flats in lower-rise blocks would have access to loans to replace unsafe cladding - and would never have to pay more than £50 a month for them
A new levy on developers of future high rises to cover the cost of grants
A separate new tax on residential property development in the UK from 2022