Nottinghamshire Council to stay at historic base, Reform confirms
The new building - called Oak House - was originally built to house services such as the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub, which had been based in rented offices.The Conservatives later decided to also use it as the council's headquarters after a review found County Hall required "significant ongoing maintenance".The council said in 2023 that the building would need more than £30m in essential repairs over 12 years and a further £28m of investment to bring it up to modern environmental standards.Conservative group leader and former council leader Sam Smith said Reform would now have to explain where it would find the money to renovate County Hall."What libraries are they closing, what roads and pavements aren't they repairing, what recycling centres are they closing, what youth centres are being shut, what schools aren't going to be built?" he said.Earlier this month, Labour called for the council to move back to County Hall and suggested Oak House be sold.
According to the council's online calendar, all meetings currently scheduled for June are due to be held at County Hall, along with all but two meetings in July.A full council meeting on 10 July and a cabinet meeting on 17 July are both due to be held at Oak House.Asked why those two meetings would not be held at County Hall, Barton said: "We can utilise both buildings."We've got lots of buildings throughout Nottinghamshire, so we could have it somewhere else if we wanted to."It has previously been suggested the two buildings could be used as the headquarters of separate newly-established authorities.
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The Guardian
11 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘An unjust transition'? Teesside locals divided over net zero after deindustrialisation
'We're basically going through a deindustrialisation of the country at the moment and I think we're losing a lot of jobs,' says John Mac, over a pot of tea in a bustling Caffè Nero in the centre of Stockton-on-Tees. The local candidate for Reform UK worked for years at the Billingham plant of Imperial Chemical Industries's (ICI), before taking voluntary redundancy in the 1990s. Having witnessed decades of industrial decline on Teesside first-hand, including the dismantling of the once-mighty industrial behemoth, Nigel Farage's pivot to court the working class is speaking Mac's language. The Reform leader is targeting voters in post-industrial communities across Britain, outlined in a Guardian series showing how Farage views the 'next Brexit' as reversing net zero to create a manufacturing renaissance. This, the third in the series, looks at the future of another of Britain's industrial heartlands. If the latest opinion polls are anything to go by, four of the Tees Valley's constituencies would go to Reform if an election was held tomorrow – including for Mac in Stockton North. Labour – which now controls six of the seats – is at pains not to allow a repeat of 2019, when its so-called red wall heartlands fell to the Tories, with many places – including on Teesside – turning blue for the first time. Wednesday is market day in the town on the north bank of the Tees and Mac would usually be handing out leaflets to passersby. Many people are frustrated with the cost of living, lack of opportunities for young people, and immigration, he says. 'They just think Labour don't represent the working class any more,' Mac says. His uncle, Maurice Foley, was a trade unionist and Labour MP in the 1960s who left parliament in 1973 to become the deputy director general for development at the European Commission. Ironically, Mac says it was Brexit that turned him to Reform. Stockton and the wider Teesside area has higher than national average rates of unemployment, poverty and low educational attainment – trailing the rest of Britain in no small part as the legacy of a de-industrial revolution. Once described by William Gladstone as an 'infant Hercules', a hotbed of steel making, shipbuilding and chemicals, Teesside has suffered waves of job losses in the past half century amid Britain's broader industrial decline. 'It was central to British industrial capitalism, as a relatively prosperous booming place. The fall from grace has been huge,' says Luke Telford, an academic at York university and author on Brexit and industrial decline. 'Deindustrialisation acts as the economic backdrop to a lot of the problems, combined with the lack of an alternative. It has been an unjust transition, without really a plan in place. 'It gives rise to this sense that nobody listens to us, nobody really cares, we're just left to languish. And politicians aren't doing anything about it. Clearly Farage and his political strategists are learning the lessons from where that form of populism has gathered pace.' In the 1970s, Teesside was the third biggest contributor to the British economy behind London and Aberdeen. ICI employed more than 30,000 workers at its peak across two sites on either side of the Tees, at Billingham and Wilton; there were thousands more welders, electricians and other trades in the local supply chain, pumping money around the local economy. However, the oil crises, galloping inflation and soaring interest rates of the 1970s, followed by Margaret Thatcher's drive to reshape the UK to focus on services, while crushing the trade unions, hit the local area hard. Unemployment on Teesside exploded to more than a quarter, with a peak of up to 40% in central Middlesbrough. Almost 40 years ago, Thatcher took a now famous 'walk in the wilderness' through the barren landscape of the former Head Wrightson steelworks to highlight how her government would regenerate British industry. Jobs were created, but the Teesside Development Corporation she established to regenerate the area was wound up amid controversy in the late 1990s with vast unpayable debts. The latest wave of deindustrialisation – amid pressure from global competition and all too-familiar lack of government support – came in 2015 with the closure of Redcar's steelworks a little further down the river, ending 170 years of steelmaking on Teesside. Telford grew up on Teesside and still lives locally. His uncle was among the 2,000 steelworkers who lost their jobs. He drives through Middlesbrough on Friday nights to play football with his brother, and says passing the demolished works and empty buildings has parallels with the US rust belt. 'One of them is a call centre which is shut. The tallest building in Middlesbrough, standing empty. It symbolises the area's decline. Call centres were regarded as this new globalised service industry that was going to replace the relatively well-paid industrial jobs. But obviously that's not how it turned out.' But the story of Teesside's economic troubles is not uniform. 'We need to talk about the upside,' says Tania Cooper, the managing director of Steel Benders, a metal-bashing firm operating on the banks of the Tees in the shadow of Middlesbrough football club's Riverside stadium. The business owner sees burgeoning opportunities for economic growth, if regional leaders and central government get things right. While Teesside has some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country, there are also dozens of affluent villages and market towns also dotted about the picturesque spot underneath the Cleveland hills. 'It's not all doom and gloom. It's not grim up north, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else,' Cooper says. Although the Conservatives were booted out of parliamentary seats here in 2019, having been seen to have reneged on their promises of levelling up, many locals are still supportive of the Tees Valley's Tory mayor, Ben Houchen. The mayor's assessment of his own party's failings is frank. 'What's happening with Reform at the minute is like Brexit 2.0. 'People feel like the system isn't working for them. The Conservatives let them down, despite them putting their faith in them. Labour have been a huge disappointment, and so people are looking at voting for Reform in the same way that lots of people around here voted leave: because they feel disenfranchised.' Houchen says his continuing presence as the only Conservative mayor in Britain, among a sea of Labour regional leaders, is down to his activism, including securing a freeport from the last government, funding local regeneration projects and taking stakes in assets such as Teesside International Airport. However, his leadership has not been without controversy. Deals done at the Teesworks regeneration site and freeport have involved local business people who donated to the mayor. While an independent review found no evidence to support allegations of corruption or illegality, it warned the project was excessively secretive and could not ensure public money was being well spent. Still, many local business leaders point to the project as a galvanising force for attracting investment; alongside central government prioritising the development of green jobs in the area. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion 'People definitely connect with that past narrative about the area. They feel it, they're proud of it, and they want it to continue. If that means net zero Teesworks and green energy: so be it, great,' says Kiran Fothergill, a former Tory candidate in Middlesbrough, and the sixth-generation director of Pickerings Lifts, one of Teesside's oldest manufacturers, based in Stockton. There are hopes that offshore wind will be big business, including the construction of a £900m monopile manufacturing facility by South Korea's SeAH Wind that will be the world's largest. The government is investing heavily in a £4bn carbon capture and storage project alongside BP and Equinor, aiming to create 2,000 jobs. That many of the opportunities rely on a net zero transition ought to make campaigning tough for Reform, given Farage's pledge to cancel the central plank of government policy. 'I know people are saying they're being replaced by jobs in the green industry, solar and the windfarms, but for every job there, we're losing more, probably in the typical industrial sectors,' Mac says. His opponent, Chris McDonald, the Labour MP for Stockton North, like Mac, is a former engineer. Labour is making good progress on bringing investment to Teesside, he says, while Reform's anti-net zero agenda would stop things dead. 'They'll take all that investment away, people know that. Reform saying they will scrap all these things is such a disaster. It will put investors off,' he says. Despite Farage's attempts to position himself as a tribune of the working class, McDonald says Reform's priorities are anywhere but – highlighted by the party's opposition to Labour's workers' rights bill, which will strengthen access to maternity pay, sick pay, and banning exploitative zero-hours contracts. 'People in my area – a working-class area, with working people – they know how important those protections are and they know Reform are against them,' he says. Several of Teesside's heaviest carbon emitters and industrial businesses are in danger of closing down operations before the new green jobs arrive, amid sky-high energy and carbon costs. Britain has among the highest industrial electricity costs in the world, while gas prices have more than doubled since 2021. There are fears hundreds of jobs could be lost at the Saudi chemical firm Sabic's Olefins 6 plant – known as 'the cracker' – at Wilton, after the company paused a multimillion-pound upgrade project, amid spiralling costs and concerns about high energy prices. CF Industries, a US company that took on ICI's Billingham fertiliser plant, closed its ammonia plant at the site two years ago with the loss of almost 40 jobs, blaming high energy costs. Paul Peacock, a former production technician and Unite union rep at Sabic, says losing the jobs would be 'another nail in the chemical coffin' for Teesside. 'The area would go into further decline, you then get the sort of politics of Reform coming in promising everything – and it's easy to see why people would listen, when they have lost good, well-paid jobs.' Fazia Hussain-Brown, Unite's regional officer who represents workers at CF Fertilisers and Sabic, says that while locals 'want something different' and have been let down by some of Labour's policies, Reform is not the answer. 'Farage is a slogan man, he sends out slogans with no substance behind, because he's never had to justify it.' On the site of Wilton International, the miles of twisted metal pipes, chimneys and cooling towers on the south bank of the river show first-hand Britain's chequered industrial past, present and future all in one spot. As many as 25,000 people worked here half a century ago, on an 809-hectare (2,000-acre) site first opened by ICI in 1949 as the showpiece of industrial Britain, producing nylon, plastics and other human-made materials. The research hub and office block of the old ICI plant is now home to the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), a government-backed social enterprise that supports scientists and companies with testing facilities to take their lab-based ideas into full-scale industrial production. Equipped with high-voltage power, bomb blast bays, steam pipes, and load-bearing beams and floors – first put in place by ICI in the 1970s before the decline and demise of the industrial giant – Wilton has plenty of infrastructure and land to help more industrial businesses grow. Graeme Cruickshank, CPI's chief technology officer, hopes the government's recently announced industrial strategy will provide more long-term strategic investment to support growing manufacturers in the low-carbon economy. Creating the jobs Teesside needs could depend on it. 'We always made stuff that was dirty, hard and heavy. It's not unrealistic for us to do it again.'
Telegraph
13 minutes ago
- Telegraph
BBC admits it is still letting biological men use women's lavatories
The BBC has admitted it is still letting biological men use women's lavatories. In response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, the corporation said it would only change its policies once guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is approved by the Government. In the meantime, the BBC said that 'sanitary facilities vary' across its estate, which includes studios and offices across the country. Signs will not be changed until the guidance is approved this autumn. The Supreme Court ruled in April that the word 'sex' in the Equality Act refers to biological sex and not to a person's gender identity. It means that facilities such as lavatories, changing rooms and showers should be segregated by sex and gender. The EHRC followed this up with interim guidance which confirmed that transwomen – biological males – should not be allowed in such women's spaces. And last month, Sir Keir Starmer said public bodies must implement the ruling 'as soon as possible'. However, the BBC said it would wait until the final guidance is published and signed off by the Government before taking any action. Catherine Leng, advocacy lead at the gender-critical group Seen in Journalism, said: 'We know that before the ruling, the BBC did not signpost facilities for women only by biological sex – in fact, it refused requests to do so – and they've done nothing since the Supreme Court judgment to change that. 'The BBC itself said the judgment gives clarity, so why is it dragging its feet on single-sex spaces? 'How can female journalists and other staff feel confident their employer will support them in being impartial when it won't respect the law itself? The law is the law now, it doesn't depend on EHRC guidance and the EHRC chair has made that clear. 'It needs to stop asking its diversity teams what to do and start asking lawyers.' 'Deeply shocking' In its FoI request, Seen in Journalism asked: 'Do all or any BBC buildings and workplaces in the UK have single-sex toilets, changing rooms and/or showers which are accessible only to members of one sex and not to trans-identified members of the opposite sex?' The response was: 'Sanitary facilities vary across the BBC property estate. We fully intend to comply with any new guidance once approved, while ensuring that we provide facilities that respect the needs and rights of all staff and visitors to our buildings.' A BBC spokesman said: 'We want to ensure dignity and respect for all colleagues. We currently have self-contained facilities and/or mixed-sex toilets everyone can use at most of our sites. 'We are now working through what steps we might need to take, noting the EHRC's interim update, to ensure we have sufficient provision of facilities everyone can use across all BBC sites. No signage has been changed at this time. 'An EHRC consultation on its Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations following the Supreme Court Ruling closed on 30 June. After this, a new Code of Practice will be sent for ministerial approval. 'Following this we will be reviewing our policies and practices to consider if they need to be updated, to meet any legal obligations across any applicable legislation.' Fiona McAnena, the director of campaigns at women's rights charity Sex Matters, said: 'It is deeply shocking that the UK's flagship broadcaster, which covered the Supreme Court judgment extensively, cannot give a straight answer to a very clear question on whether it provides single-sex facilities for its employees. 'In fact, the BBC's response suggests that the organisation could currently be operating outside the law, and gives the impression it is in no hurry to ensure it complies with the law. 'The ruling laid out clearly how the Equality Act should be interpreted, with single-sex toilets and changing rooms operating on the basis of biological sex. 'The Prime Minister himself has said that public bodies refusing to implement the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman must do it 'as soon as possible'. The BBC surely has the legal resources to interpret and implement a clear judgment. It is only putting itself at increased risk of legal action with each day it delays.'
The Independent
17 minutes ago
- The Independent
Tim Mayer to challenge Mohammed Ben Sulayem for FIA presidency
American Tim Mayer announced on Friday that he would stand against incumbent Mohammed Ben Sulayem in a December vote for president of the FIA, motorsport's world governing body. The 59-year-old, a former Formula One steward and son of former McLaren principal Teddy Mayer, left the FIA last November. He said then that he had been fired via text message by an assistant to Ben Sulayem. The FIA dispute that he was sacked by text. "What I see is a failure in leadership right now," he told a press conference at a hotel near the British Grand Prix circuit Silverstone, adding that he had been working on his campaign for six months. He described his bid as a Herculean task with the deck stacked in Ben Sulayem's favour, given recent statute changes, and only five months to campaign and win votes from member federations. Mayer did not say who would be on his presidential list, a requirement for standing, which he admitted still had some open positions. He said he had good support from Motorsport UK and had informed Stefano Domenicali, chief executive of Liberty Media-owned Formula One, of his plans. "The job now is to go out and explain to lots of small clubs around the world ... why we can do a better job," said Mayer. "Explaining how we can bring value and restructure the FIA to do a better job. "I do feel restructuring needs to happen." Ben Sulayem, an Emirati, has already announced he is seeking a second term and until Friday had no declared opponent, with Spain's double world rally champion Carlos Sainz Sr. recently deciding not to stand. Mayer said he would have stood even if Sainz had decided to run. He also dismissed any suggestion of a conflict of interest regarding the historic family connection with McLaren. The FIA is the governing body for F1, the World Rally Championship and Formula E among other series. Reuters
