Firefighters tackle Bury St Edmunds blaze at former prep school
The fire has been extinguished, but firefighters, including crews from Norfolk, remained at the scene on Saturday afternoon.
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Telegraph
34 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Age UK ‘betraying elderly' by selling retirement home for millions
Age UK has been accused of betraying elderly residents by planning to sell off retirement flats in one of Britain's most expensive seaside towns. Residents living in the converted Georgian house in Salcombe, Devon, fear they will be forced to find new homes when it is sold off. The house, named Woodcot, overlooks Salcombe Harbour and its estuary, and was understood to have been gifted to Age UK to be used in perpetuity as a retirement home for the elderly. The property was left to the Plymouth Guild of Social Services by Elizabeth Jennings, a local philanthropist and owner of the house, in 1976 before being passed on to Help the Aged, which went on to become Age UK. Friends and relatives of those now living in the apartments at Woodcot have described Age UK's decision to sell the house to developers as 'a betrayal' of the charity's purpose to care for the elderly. Age UK's decision to sell the property has now been reported to the Charity Commission by a local activist who is in contact with a number of the home's residents. She told The Telegraph: 'Should charities be disposing of extremely valuable assets to raise income whilst at the same time evicting the people who they are supposed to be helping? Not to mention the impact that the loss of the property will have on the local community. It's a betrayal and it's quite shameful of Age UK. 'Many people, my own mother included, have lived out their final years there in contented peace and quiet. It is a truly fabulous place. It is very much part of the local community. How does selling the property for development benefit the people they are supposed to be helping, or the wider community – many of whom want to live there?' An elderly resident who moved to Woodcot 20 years ago said she was told at that point by Age UK that she would 'never have to move', only to be informed a few weeks ago that the property was to be sold. She told The Telegraph: 'I feel, along with the other residents, that we should be allowed to stay here for the rest of our lives. 'Instead we face the prospect of being evicted so the house can be sold off at huge profit to developers for luxury apartments. It's just not right.' A community hub Woodcot has long been divided into self-contained flats for elderly residents, with its gardens open to the public every month in the summer. The gardens are also used to stage Shakespeare plays, host church fetes and hold community events to raise money for local projects. It was built in 1797 by James Yates, a London merchant, and its three-storey stucco-fronted building with sash windows and a wide gable has stood as a local landmark on the walk from Salcombe to North Sands. Age UK has justified its decision to sell Woodcot, telling residents it has a legal responsibility to ensure they are making the best use of all the funds and resources available to them to deliver their charitable objectives. The charity said none of the residents have yet been evicted or given notice to leave. The building is estimated to be worth several millions of pounds in an area where sea-view properties are at a premium and the average price of a house is more than £970,000. Salcombe has come to be nicknamed Chelsea-on-Sea for its popularity with second-homeowners from London, with new homes also at a premium. Speculation is rife in Salcombe that Woodcot is already in the process of being sold to two private developers, but Age UK maintains that no sale has yet been agreed. A spokesman for the charity said: 'We can confirm that sadly we've made the hard decision to explore selling Woodcot. We're looking into a number of things before a final decision about a sale is made and therefore do not expect anything to happen until 2026 at the earliest. None of the tenants have been evicted and no notice to terminate any tenancies has been given. 'We decided to speak to the tenants and let other key people in Salcombe know at this very early stage because we thought it important to be transparent about our thinking. However, doing this early does mean that unfortunately we don't have a lot more information or answers to questions at this stage. 'We're committed to communicating with and supporting tenants through this difficult time.' The spokesman added: 'We understand that the property is much loved locally and that different views and beliefs have developed over time about the nature of the transfer of Woodcot to us and the role of the property in the community. However, many of these aren't founded. 'The transfer of the property to Help the Aged did not include any restrictions that would stop it being sold or required Help the Aged as a charity to run it as a residential home for older people.'
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
Nine out of 10 homeless women missing from official government figures, charities warn
Nine out of 10 homeless women are missing from official government figures, charities have said. Solace Women's Aid and Single Homeless Project have said their research shows that the current rough sleeping snapshot, carried out by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, is inadequate. The charities blame gender-biased collection methods and say 54% of homeless women are missed out of the official government counts because they spend the night in places not classed as rough sleeping - such A&E departments, bank foyers, or on public transport. According to the charities, women are less likely to visibly "bed down" on the street for the night due to the threat of gender-based violence. Instead, they choose to shelter in places such as buses and trains or 24-hour cafes, meaning they are overwhelmingly missed off traditional homelessness counts. Lucy Campbell, head of multiple disadvantage at Single Homeless Project has called it a "systemic failure", calling for the government to change how it carries its count of homeless women. The new figures have been outlined in a census report for England, which has assessed the gap between government counts and data gathered by 88 Local Authorities. The charities say that the government counted 680 women across 296 local authorities who were rough sleeping in 2024, but that Census Local Insights meetings identified 1,777 women across 37 local authorities that year. Sky News followed outreach workers at Single Homeless Project for the day as they searched for women with nowhere to sleep. Finding evidence of rough sleeping in the corner of a London park, Elise Godsal, specialist women's navigator at Single Homeless Project, said: "This is typically where you would find women, maybe more in the day, maybe in the night as well. It's somewhere quite secluded, still tucked away in the corner. But also, you're still in public. So if something happened and you felt like your safety was at risk, you could still make some noise." Visiting a busy train station, Eabha O'Farrell, also a specialist women's navigator at Single Homeless Project, said train stations are attractive places to rest because food and toilets are easily accessible and the women feel safe being "around a lot of other people". Sky News also spoke to Nadia, who grew up in care and became homeless at 21. She recounted how she went to sleep outside a Santander bank, but woke up being "kicked in the head". She told Sky News: "I've got kicked, I've got pissed on. I'd sleep in car parks, in blocks of flats, in bin sheds. Yeah, I can make home a cardboard box if I need to". A third of women (37%) reported they had been in some form of homelessness accommodation before sleeping rough, according to the 2024 Women's Rough Sleeping Census report. It concludes that current services are not meeting women's needs and aren't enough to prevent them from sleeping rough. A woman who completed the survey said: "I feel vulnerable. You have to rely on people who you can't trust and don't feel safe with. I don't have the money to go into restaurants for shelter and have to put myself at risk and do things I don't want to so I can get shelter for the night." Another said: "To keep safe for a woman is more difficult. I have been raped by people while sleeping rough in a bank doorway. I now ensure I am with a male rough sleeper at all times. I believe this is the safest option, but it doesn't mean I am safe." A Ministry of Housing spokesperson said: "We inherited devastating levels of homelessness and rough sleeping and know women can be particularly affected, including those hiding from harm.
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
Parents told to pick up book in ‘kickstart to children's reading revolution'
Parents should put down their phones and pick up a book to tackle a big fall in children's reading rates, the education secretary has said as she launches a national campaign. The National Year of Reading will be announced today by the National Literacy Trust (NLT) and the Department for Education (DfE) and will bring together schools, libraries, charities and businesses to kickstart 'a reading revolution'. Starting in January, its aim will be to increase reading particularly among children under five, teenage boys and also parents, who will be encouraged to act as role models by reading more often for pleasure. Only a third of children aged eight to 18 years old now read in their free time, according to the NLT, as books struggle to compete with smartphones and streaming. The collapse in reading is particularly stark among eight to 18-year-old boys, halving in a decade from 52 per cent to 26 per cent.
