Street shopping centre to be demolished for retirement flats
Churchill Living said the development was "in a sustainable location" and would deliver "tangible benefits" to the local community.Planning permission was granted subject to a number of conditions, namely, that construction should begin no later than three years after the decision and the home should be for over-55s only.
Churchill developed the Riverain Lodge retirement apartments in Taunton town centre. It secured planning permission in 2024 to deliver a similar development on a former police station site in Wells.A spokesman for Churchill Living said it was "frustrating" the application had to be decided at appeal despite "overwhelming community support" for the development.They added it was "good news" for people living in and around Street as people moving into retirement housing will "unlock second-hand, family-sized homes" for others. "Retirement housing in town centre settings are shown to bring about increased footfall and expenditure in local shops and businesses," they added.
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The Independent
9 minutes ago
- The Independent
Starmer must take a strong line with Trump to relieve the suffering in Gaza
The phrase 'walking a diplomatic tightrope' is overused by the media, but it is an accurate description of Sir Keir Starmer's task when he meets Donald Trump on Monday for talks at the US president's Turnberry golf course in Scotland. According to Downing Street sources, the prime minister will discuss what more can be done to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, to 'bring an end to the unspeakable suffering and starvation in Gaza', and to hasten the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. Sir Keir is under growing pressure from Labour backbenchers, and several members of his cabinet, to go further by joining France's Emmanuel Macron in formally recognising Palestinian statehood. But if the prime minister did so, it would weaken his hand with Mr Trump, the only foreign leader with meaningful influence over Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. So Gaza poses a big test for Sir Keir's quietly effective strategy of not challenging or criticising the US president in public. We have to take it on trust that he will argue strongly behind closed doors for the US to restart the peace talks it led in Qatar before it pulled out, blaming Hamas for the lack of progress. Indeed, President Trump should revive plans for a 60-day ceasefire, the release of some hostages, and – crucially – an increase in aid supplies, which are desperately needed to prevent more deaths from starvation. Such an approach by Sir Keir will not be enough for the 221 MPs, including a third of Labour backbenchers, who have signed a letter calling for the immediate recognition of Palestine. Or, indeed, for much of the British public. It is not surprising, given the harrowing pictures of emaciated children in TV news bulletins, that opinion in the UK is turning against Israel, which rightly enjoyed the goodwill of many after the horrific 7 October attacks. According to More in Common, 29 per cent of people now sympathise more with the Palestinians – up by 11 percentage points since November 2023 – while 27 per cent sympathise with neither side, 16 per cent with both sides equally, and 15 per cent with Israel. Some 48 per cent believe Israel's response to the conflict has been disproportionate, and only 28 per cent think it proportionate. Amid mounting outrage, Israel has announced a limited 'tactical pause' in its military operation in three areas of Gaza to allow in more humanitarian relief. The easing of restrictions is welcome, if long overdue, but it must be more than a cynical temporary move. It is no substitute for a ceasefire leading to negotiations on a long-term peace settlement. Nor will the airdrops planned by the UK and Jordan be more than a sticking plaster; they are ineffective compared with relief delivered by lorries, and sometimes even dangerous. Sir Keir's reluctance to recognise Palestine may prove to have been a holding line. If countries such as Germany, Canada and Australia change their minds and back France, he may shift. The SNP plans to force a vote on the issue when the Commons returns from its summer recess in September, which would expose Labour divisions. That month, the Labour conference will be problematic for its leader if he doesn't change tack, while the UN general assembly will discuss France's move. Yet for now, The Independent believes the prime minister is right to maximise his influence with President Trump, and to keep the recognition of Palestine as a card to play in talks on a permanent peace that must include a two-state solution to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Recognising Palestine now would not in itself change the terrible conditions on the ground in Gaza, as Bob Geldof, the Live Aid organiser, told Sky News on Sunday. He said it should have been done 'ages ago', but that the demands of Labour MPs amount to a distraction that 'is not going to make any material difference'. Sir Keir's quiet diplomacy is a better response to the crisis in Gaza than the tone-deafness of Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader. Interviewed on Sky, she backed calls for a ceasefire but said: 'What I see when I see Israel is a country that's trying to defend itself.' She declared that the pictures of starving children had not affected her support for Israel, insisting that it is allowing in relief supplies – a view that is hotly disputed by the United Nations and aid agencies. So far, Sir Keir has confounded critics who warned that he would not be able to have it both ways and maintain good relations with the US and the EU. He has secured trade deals with both. The emergency in Gaza now poses a big test for the prime minister's strong record on foreign affairs in the past year, which regrettably has not been matched on the domestic front. Sir Keir's understandable desire to hug Mr Trump close should not lead him to pull his punches over the gruesome tragedy unfolding in Gaza.
The Guardian
9 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Starmer faces task of persuading Trump to take different path on Gaza crisis
Moments after Air Force One touched down at Prestwick on Friday, for a trip in which politics will take as big a billing as golf, Donald Trump was asked about his relationship with Keir Starmer. 'I like your prime minister. He's slightly more liberal than I am, as you've probably heard. But he's a good man,' the US president told reporters. At a time when the UK wants Trump's ear on numerous weighty issues, his response to questions about the 'special relationship' will have given Downing Street some reassurance. But it has been hard won. Starmer has been clear since before Trump's re-election that he would work with him if it was in Britain's national interest. There have been uncomfortable moments, but so far his decision to align himself with the US president has broadly paid off. Most notable was the economic deal agreed by the two leaders which slashes some of Trump's tariffs on cars, aluminium and steel, and which – even though it is not yet fully implemented – the UK government hopes will be a first step towards a closer trading relationship. Starmer, along with other western allies, has also helped encourage Trump to shift his position on Ukraine. After initially siding with Vladimir Putin and appearing to blame Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the invasion, the US president now declares himself 'very unhappy' with his Russian counterpart. The prime minister now faces his toughest diplomatic task of all: trying to persuade Trump to take a different path on the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East. Even getting the issue on the agenda will not have been straightforward, with the White House not regarding Gaza as a priority. Trump is the only international leader whom the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, listens to – and even then, not all of the time – so getting the US president's ear at this precise moment is an opportunity not to be squandered. With international fury over the situation on the ground in Gaza growing, Starmer has also been under pressure domestically – from his cabinet, Labour MPs and increasingly the public – to take further action against Israel. Government advisers are defensive – citing what the UK has already done to hold Israel to account since Labour came to power – and promising further action will follow, even if it is not clear what that might constitute. They point to the UK restoring funding to the UN agency Unrwa, sanctioning far-right Israeli ministers and those who committed settler violence, breaking off trade negotiations with Israel, backing the legitimacy of the international criminal court and restricting arms licences to Israel (though not preventing them entirely). Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion The initial urgency is around humanitarian aid, with mass starvation spreading across Gaza, and Starmer will be hoping to persuade Trump that the situation on the ground will only worsen unless the Israelis fully lift their blockade of almost all aid into the territory. The longer-term prize, however, would be a ceasefire. Starmer will press Trump to revive ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, after the US and Israel withdrew their negotiation teams from Qatar last week. Getting them back round the table to agree a 60-day break from fighting is a prerequisite to a more permanent cessation of violence. The window of opportunity is narrow: the Israeli parliament is not sitting until October, which gives Netanyahu the cover he would need to agree a deal. But Starmer knows Trump is the only international figure who can put pressure on him to do so. Only at that point does Starmer feel the UK could follow France and formally recognise a Palestine state. No 10 insiders insist it is a 'matter of when, not if' and David Lammy, the foreign secretary, will be at a UN conference this week to establish a pathway to formal recognition. To the deep frustration of many in his party, the prime minister last week rejected a call to follow France in recognising Palestine amid concerns the move would be largely symbolic without a ceasefire in place, and that issue could overshadow the talks with Trump. But that means that even more rides on Monday's meeting with the US president. It will be a test of whether the energy put into maintaining a good relationship with Trump has been worth it. And it will also show how far Starmer really is prepared to push to help bring an end to the catastrophe in Gaza.
Times
37 minutes ago
- Times
Meet Charles Emond, the Canadian backing Sizewell C with £1.7bn
'There's always risk in a transaction,' says Charles Emond. The chief executive of La Caisse is keen to stress that he and the other equity investors named last week in the financing of the Sizewell C nuclear power station project are not getting a completely free ride from British taxpayers and electricity billpayers. Billpayers will have £1 a month added to their electricity bills from this autumn to help finance the gigantic project. UK taxpayers will stand ready to foot the bill if the construction costs rise above a certain point. But the equity investors putting in £8.5 billion aren't entirely free of exposure if things go wrong, he says. Even so, analysts believe that La Caisse and other investors, which include the British Gas owner Centrica and the French energy group EDF, have got a bit of a steal as a result of the way the deal has been structured. Even Emond admits the terms have been 'de-risked to an acceptable level'. La Caisse may be a new name to British readers, but it is a gigantic institution, one of the biggest pension fund groups in Canada with $473 billion to invest. It has just changed its name from Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, an institution responsible for paying pensions to six million Canadians. When Rachel Reeves visited North America last autumn to bang the drum for the UK, Emond was one of the people she went to see. La Caisse for years was a shareholder in Heathrow, while it has also bought into the London Array, the forest of 175 wind turbines in the outer Thames Estuary. La Caisse, which has not invested in nuclear power before, has committed £1.7 billion to Sizewell C in return for a 20 per cent stake. It will be the biggest single equity investor in the project, which when built will produce enough reliable electricity to power the equivalent of six million homes. Emond, a former banker with Scotiabank, likes the way the financing of the Suffolk-based project has been structured, which means investors are more protected than they were in the case of its sister station, Hinkley Point C, which has already gone hugely over budget. Sizewell, he says, is 'trailblazing' because 'it institutionalises nuclear from an investor perspective'. That will make it much easier for other future nuclear projects to raise private-sector cash. • Why a Canadian pension fund has put wind in my sails The structuring of the deal has 'shed a different light on nuclear' as well as chiming with La Caisse's push towards net zero. It puts nuclear into 'the zipcode of reasons it is attractive to capital providers like me'. Big, long-running infrastructure projects such as Sizewell C are perfect for pension funds which have to invest to produce income to meet defined benefit pension promises stretching decades into the future. If all goes well, Sizewell will produce inflation-protected returns for 60 years. It also fits in well with La Caisse's plan to make the UK 'our biggest overseas investment destination outside North America,' says Emond. He's a big fan of the UK, saying 'it checks all the boxes,' especially in an era of high geopolitical risk. La Caisse already has £17.8 billion of UK assets. Emond aims to lift that by £8 billion over five years, which means that after Sizewell C, he has another £6.3 billion of net investments to make. He gives a long list of Britain's attributes, naming rule of law, a business-friendly government and a big local financial centre as some of the factors important for foreign investors. 'There are all these things that, even before you look at a transaction, you say we like that sandbox.' • Welcome to Britain's biggest building site. There's a 'fish disco' Wasn't he put off at all by Britain's sluggish economy, low productivity growth and shaky public finances? No. 'It's not the growth in the economy that's the only criterion [for investing],' he says. The government's emphasis on infrastructure has made Britain especially attractive. La Caisse is by one measure the second biggest infrastructure investor in the world with $64 billion allocated to the asset class. La Caisse opened an office in London in 2016, from which it manages all its European operations. Emond recently hired Dame Sharon White, the former chairwoman of John Lewis Partnership, as head of Europe, to spearhead the investment drive. 'She's been great, providing exceptional leadership,' he says, adding that her experience of running a regulator, Ofcom, was helpful because of the many regulated industries La Caisse tends to invest in. Which sectors in the UK is La Caisse now looking at? He mentions information technology, telecoms, renewable energy, transportation, insurance, private credit and real estate. 'For us there's a pretty good set of opportunities. Our London office has teams for all asset classes.' Insurance and real estate have been rich seams already. La Caisse has been a long-time backer of Howden Group, the privately owned insurance broker recently valued at well over £10 billion, and is a backer of Inigo Insurance. Property ventures include PLP and Greystar, and, on the debt side, a £525 million credit line to Blackstone-owned St Modwen. • Centrica really can't lose at Sizewell It is also a big investor in renewable energy through last year, buying a 25 per cent stake in First Hydro, the group that operates two pumped storage projects in Snowdonia, as well as the 25 per cent holding in the London Array. Other investments include a 19.3 per cent stake in Eurostar, the cross-channel train operator. Another is FNZ, a private company that provides software to wealth managers and was valued in a past fundraising at $20 billion. It hasn't been plain sailing for Emond in his first five years. In Montreal, the company has come under heavy criticism for delays and overruns on a mass transit project Réseau express métropolitain or REM. 'We took a lot of flak,' Emond admits, but says it was funding the project at much lower cost per kilometre of track than other projects. 'Every time they [Quebecers] take the train, it helps fill their pension,' he adds. Another potential blow is the charging by the US Justice Department of executives from La Caisse and other companies with conspiring to pay $265 million in bribes to Indian state government officials to secure solar power contracts. The Securities and Exchange Commission is also pressing civil charges in connection with the same alleged scheme. La Caisse has said it is co-operating with the US authorities. As one of the so-called Maple Eight big Canadian pension funds, La Caisse is a role model for policymakers in the UK trying to encourage consolidation of UK funds to build scale and in-house investment expertise that is then confident about putting money into private equity and infrastructure. Reeves is introducing measures to encourage smaller schemes to merge. Emond says that is the right direction of travel, but cautions that it took decades for La Caisse to build scale and expert teams. 'It doesn't get done over a long weekend,' he says.
