Sarah Ludford ๐ฌ๐ง ๐ฎ๐ช๐ช๐บ ๐บ๐ฆโs Tweets
โ, professor of urban and regional planning in the Bartlett School of Planning says there are now also โclear problems with the accountability and transparency of the mayoral model on Teesside.
To some extent history is repeating itselfโ.โ
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โ, public law specialist w partic expertise in state aid, reg issues & comp, says โfull investigation by NAO now needed to check whether assets transferred โat an undervalueโ. There are a number of consequences if that is so, including subsidy control issuesโ.โ
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โSteve Bundred , former CEO of the Audit Commissionโฆ.says the evidence โcalls for a full & thorough investigation by the National Audit Office and as the situation now appears far remote from the business case originally agreed with governmentโ.โ
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โa 90% stake in company operating vacant steel site was transferred to two local developers without any public tender processโฆwhile companies controlled by [them] have earned ยฃ45m in dividends from the project in past 3 yrs, thereโs no evidence theyโve invested in it to date.โ
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Ok so, here goes. My (long-researched) attempt to explain why so many allegations are flying about in relation to Ben Houchen, the former steelworks in Redcar and, by extension, the Teesside freeport
enterprise-sharing.ft.com/redeem/d1051c0
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Forget the #REULBill (if onlyโฆ); the big question of the day is whether the slugs & snails are going to gobble up all my basil seedlings. ๐ฉ
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Itโs perfectly reasonable to ask grown up questions about how itโs being carried out. We live in a democracy, thatโs how it works. For the record I donโt think is a liar or a Labour stooge and neither am I.
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This is the biggest freeport in the country, the biggest levelling up project in the country, and one with a vast emotional, political and economic significance to Teesside - and on the latter two points nationally - thatโs impossible to underestimate.
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I have spoken to a lot of people for this article over a long period, many of whom canโt be quoted even anonymously for source protection reasons, but their concerns, particularly around governance, overlap.
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That wasnโt the case. The NAO told me, last summer, that the combined authority seemed to be issuing โcompletely misleading statementsโ to the media and said it would be in touch with it. It was in touch, in August 2022, to ask for the record to be corrected.
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The mayor then claimed โa clean bill of healthโ for the freeport, claiming the NAO had looked at โevery single document, contract, advice, email and every other piece of paper relating to Teesworksโ.
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Re the NAO: they did carry out an โinformalโ and limited review last summer re how govt grants were being spent and found they had been spent as billed. But it wasnโt a full inquiry; they told me thatโs not within their remit
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There are various arguments made in favour of the asset transfer that puzzle people. One such argument is that there was somehow a binary choice between a) the taxpayer spending ยฃ20m keeping a completely dormant steel site safe and b) handing 90% of it over to developers
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Meanwhile neither the developers or the development corporation answered my q as to how much the developers have invested so far, or how much they intend to invest this year. ยฃ90m in scrap dividends have been released so far, half of which has been paid to the developers
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Behind criticisms of that deal sit other concerns about the project. They broadly include allegations of secrecy, cronyism and poor governance in general
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Legal advice *was* secured by the combined authority on the deal, including state aid implications, although it hasnโt been released.
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Neither HMT or some of those in BEIS, the department leading the project in Whitehall, appear to have been aware of the second deal (the 90/10 deal). BEIS locally did know, though, and had received โverbalโ assurance that the deal was value for ยฃ.
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The latter only came to light when it appeared on Companies House a few months later.
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The asset, including freehold options and a share of proceeds from ยฃ120m+ in scrap metal, was transferred in two stages. Half the equity was handed over in early 2020; a further 40% was handed over the following year. Both decisions were made privately.
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I wonโt go through the whole thing here as thatโs what the article is for, but the allegations - at their core - are about whether most of Europeโs biggest brownfield site has been handed away, below value and wrongly without tender. And, if so, how and why that came about.
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This has taken many many months and I want to be the first to recognise the huge and forensic body of work Private Eye have done on it. Private Eye is not a comic - itโs actually the reason I first wanted to be a journalist.
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Ok so, here goes. My (long-researched) attempt to explain why so many allegations are flying about in relation to Ben Houchen, the former steelworks in Redcar and, by extension, the Teesside freeport
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"That would be a question for the Crown."
After it emerged that the search warrant of Nicola Sturgeon's home took two weeks to be granted, First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousaf says he doesn't think there's any 'particular reason out of the ordinary' as to why.
#R4Today
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17 May 1907 | A Czech Jew, Otto Teller, was born in Kamberk.
He was deported to #Auschwitz from the ghetto in #Theresienstadt on 6 September 1943. He did not survive.
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Yes, โ #BigBrother -style facial recognition technology infringes the right to go about our lives without being surveilled and monitored by the police.โ It is also riddled with errors and discriminatory biases. And who is placed on these โwatchlistsโ?
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17 May 1905 | A Polish Jewish woman, Zysla Pulwermacher, was born in ลรณdลบ. She lived in France.
She was deported to #Auschwitz from Pithiviers on 17 July 1942 with her husband Emmanuel. They did not survive.
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I canโt decide whether to be amused or alarmed at the rubbish at this conferenceโฆis it the last gasp of a right wing movement harking back to a mythical past and deservedly dying; or the harbinger of how much worse is still to come? Remember, noone took Trump seriously at first.
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There was nothing wrong with nationalism in Britain. It's just that there was something wrong with nationalism in Germany.
I don't see why no one should be allowed to love their country because the Germans mucked up twice in a century.
@DouglasKMurray at the #NatConUK gala
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Take a look at the ingredients of a cough syrup manufactured in Baltimore back in 1888
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That the Germans mucked up their perfectly acceptable nationalist persecutions and dehumanising by trying to exterminate their victims?
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Today, we on agreed to launch an inquiry on the performance of investment zones and freeports in England.
Given the reported issues at Teesside Freeport, I have asked the to undertake a thorough investigation to assist us in our work. ๐
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Replying to
Hello,
Thank you for your enquiry.
I have sent this over to our street environment services team and will come back to you once I have had a response.
Kind Regards
Access Islington
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This is untrue - not all the 4000 EU laws are secondary EU legislation - obviously the working time Directive and TUPE are not; the list of laws for the chop this year includes Council Regs, posted workers Directives, part of asylum procedures Directive
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Not a misrepresentation; he literally said that UK had no vote. And also his example is *still* wrong - Commission implementing measures are adopted *after a vote by Member States in a committee* - see preamble point 7 of the reg: eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/
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And this response is โtiresomeโ: (a) the alleged โpointโ is just not what his (still uncorrected) tweet said and (b) I expressly accepted that the Commission could make some technical regs without a UK government vote (so Iโm not โout pedantedโ).
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On Commission Implementing Regulations - as Steve points out. (I really didnโt want to get into โcomitologyโ - and simplified in Stevenโs favour.) twitter.com/stevepeers/staโฆ
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It's hilarious. But in a two party FPTP system it's a serious threat. The Tories are now in full Momentum/Militant Tendency mode, feverish with ideological extremism and far-right entryism.
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Suella Braverman:
โOne way that we Conservatives must distinguish ourselves from the left is by not devouring ourselves through fratricide.โ
Hilarious. This lot have zero self-awareness. theguardian.com/politics/2023/
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๐Itโs liberalism for me!
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Replying to @SarahLudford
13 years of Tory rule is enough to turn anyone into a Marxist.
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. says NatCon is โdesigned to..develop the kind of chaotic populism associated with figures such as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson into something much more moralistic, and highly organised and codified.โ
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They call it โnational conservatismโ but itโs a divisive, far-right movement. Why are Tories embracing it? | John Harris theguardian.com/commentisfree/
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He doesnโt get much credit for the peace process but what he did and said in the early 1990s was important. RIP.
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Former NI Secretary Peter Brooke dies
He played a key role in laying the groundwork for the 1994 IRA ceasefire
In 1990 he said Britain had no "selfish strategic or economic interest" in NI and would accept unification, if the people wished itโ bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northe
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Two great wins in the Lords on amendments to the Retained EU law Bill - #REULBill - to insert Parliamentary grip over any change in โretainedโ EU law.
Hopefully weโll win another soon on โnon-regressionโ from high standards in environmental protection & food standards
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