Latest news with #JohnOConnell
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
What a surprise! Seven in ten civil servants say working from home has a ‘positive impact' on Whitehall
Most civil servants think working from home has had a positive impact, new polling has revealed. Officials claim remote working has even improved public sector productivity as well as their own job satisfaction. And many believe they should be allowed to WFH as much as they like, with not one of those questioned by YouGov thinking they should be forced back to their desks full-time. Their insistence on the benefits of working from home comes despite both Tory and Labour ministers demanding that all civil servants come back to the office at least three days a week for the sake of team-building and mentoring new recruits. John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'It will come as no surprise how much civil servants love the work from home culture that has spread across Whitehall. 'But these attitudes are completely at odds with the views of British taxpayers, who are absolutely fed up with the shockingly poor productivity levels of the UK's bureaucracy. 'Senior mandarins should care more about the users and consumers of public services - taxpayers - than the comfort of pen-pushers. That means getting them back to the office.' YouGov questioned 101 civil servants in middle-management or senior roles and found that three-quarters (75 per cent) believe remote working has been good for their own departments, and almost as many (70 per cent) say the same about Whitehall in general. Almost four in five (78 per cent) think wfh has boosted productivity while even more (85 per cent) say it had improved employee satisfaction. At least half say the culture that took hold during the pandemic has had a positive impact on public service delivery (58 per cent), policy development (50) and communication (50). However only one in four (28 per cent) think wfh has been good for performance management with almost as many (25) saying the opposite. Half (50 per cent) of those quizzed said that 'mandating one or two days in the office a week made the most sense' with only one in five backing the existing policy of requiring staff to be present three or more days a week. In addition, 'none supported demanding everyone turn up every day' while three in ten 'feel the most appropriate policy is to allow all civil servants to work from home as much as they want', YouGov said. Overall six in ten (59 per cent) civil servants questioned feel the Whitehall machine is performing well, with only one in three (33 per cent) say it is working badly. By comparison, when pollsters asked MPs the same question only four in ten (40 per cent) had a positive view of the civil service. It comes after Sir Keir Starmer .
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
NHS England spends £15k a week on train tickets for staff
Britain's biggest quango is spending almost £850k a year on taxpayer-funded train tickets for staff, figures show. Office workers for NHS England forked out more than £15,000 a week ferrying staff between its two offices in London and Leeds. In total, the train fares cost taxpayers £846,686 in the year to April 2024, NHS figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request revealed. This represents a 70pc rise compared to 2022-23 when the bill was £500,256. It showed that NHS England staff were regularly travelling by train for two hours and 30 minutes between the two cities for meetings and conferences, despite a rise in remote working and video conferencing. In one case, managers approved a return ticket worth £432.50, which was paid for by the taxpayer. John O'Connell, of the lobby group the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'It's staggering that an NHS quango is blowing more than £15,000 a week on train tickets while ordinary Britons are being told to tighten their belts. 'With remote working and video calls now the norm, there's no excuse for this level of face-to-face travel, especially at such eye-watering prices. 'Ministers must ensure these bloated expenses are brought firmly under control.' NHS England bought 5,337 single and return tickets between Leeds and London for staff last year, according to the data. This means there were more than 100 journeys every week, with the average ticket costing over £150. Earlier this year, the Government revealed it was abolishing NHS England to cut bureaucracy and divert money to frontline services. Announcing the decision, Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, said the budget for NHS England staff and admin alone had soared to £2bn, and that taxpayers were 'paying more, but getting less'. The process is expected to take over two years, and it is suspected that many of the staff will end up still being employed within the NHS. In total, the quango's train ticket expenses bill rose almost 70pc in the past year from £4.7m to £7.9m. Its travel bill, covering all forms of transport, increased to almost £10m, with £1.5m reimbursing staff for motoring expenses. An NHS England spokesman said: 'Given that our staff run a national health service, travel between sites is necessary to ensure effective co-ordination, but this should only be undertaken in line with our strict internal processes and government guidance. 'The number of flights taken by staff has almost halved in 2024-25 compared to 2023-24 following the introduction of the Flight Approval Panel, so that we continue to ensure every penny of taxpayers' money is spent wisely.'
The Sun
02-07-2025
- Automotive
- The Sun
Fury as hundreds of people with alcohol issues allowed to swap benefits payments for new cars
A SCHEME allowing benefit claimants to swap payments for new cars has been used by hundreds with drink issues. Figures show 770 people with alcohol-related problems lease cars from the Motability charity. Another 220 have drug misuse issues. Claimants must receive an enhanced rate for significant mobility difficulties in their disability benefit to qualify for the state-funded scheme. Motability came under fire recently as it emerged people online boasted of gaming the system to get new cars 'basically free'. John O'Connell, at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Taxpayers will rightly question how alcohol misuse qualifies someone for a brand new car on the Motability scheme. 'With nearly 6,000 people receiving enhanced PIP for alcohol dependency, it's clear the system is in urgent need of reform. 'The government must take a hard look at the criteria and amend it before this situation gets worse.' Motability said: 'Anyone with an unspent drink-driving conviction cannot drive our vehicles.' Motability has grown rapidly since Covid and now buys every one in five new cars sold in the UK. 10 PIP freebies worth up to £40k 1
Irish Times
30-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
How rural Ireland is turning to vacant property grants for development
Cloverhill House outside Ballinamore in Co Leitrim has been in the O'Connell family for almost 100 years. John O'Connell's grandfather James purchased the property on July 4th, 1925 at auction. It was one of the finest houses in the area, with six bedrooms, an inside toilet and hot and cold water, relative rarities at the time. The house passed to John's mother Dolores, who died in 2012 leaving the house empty. Ownership passed to him and he was left with a dilemma – the house was too good to leave empty, but too expensive to do up to a standard that a family – in this case his own – could live in. The introduction of the vacant property refurbishment grant in July 2022 was the catalyst for him and his wife Amanda to do what they aspired to do. The grant allows for payments of up to €50,000 for the refurbishment of homes that have been vacant for at least two years and an extra €20,000 for structural work on homes that are derelict. READ MORE They used the €50,000 to properly insulate the house, install underfloor heating and carry out rewiring and replumbing. 'It's been dragged into the 21st century,' he says. From being a house that was so cold that his mother chilled jelly in the hallway, it now has an A3 rating. Working with Leitrim County Council was 'an absolute dream', he says. They filled out the appropriate paperwork, submitted it and within a few days they came back to carry out the initial inspection. 'Within two or three days, we had approval to start our work on the house. A month later we started the work.' 'I don't know if we would have taken on this project, if we didn't have this grant,' says Amanda. 'The cost of materials had trebled if not quadrupled and the cost of labour had gone up. The most important thing for us was getting the fabric of the house right, the decorative stuff could come later.' The O'Connells and their three children are moving into the house and vacating the home they built for themselves after they got married in the early 2000s. Their family home will be put on the market to rent. The housing crisis has had a catastrophic impact on the availability of rental properties in many counties. There is not a single property to rent in Ballinamore, Leitrim's second biggest town on either or There are two properties to rent in the whole of Co Leitrim on and four on Daft. Leitrim is one of nine of the 26 counties in 2024 where the number of grants applied for through the vacant properties scheme was higher than the number of homes built (65 per cent), according to figures complied by Hardware Association Ireland, which represents builders merchants and the DIY industry. The others are Roscommon (also 65 per cent), Donegal (62 per cent), Sligo (64 per cent), Cavan (61 per cent), Mayo (54 per cent), Kerry (53 per cent), Tipperary (53 per cent) and Monaghan (51 per cent). This is a tribute to the popularity of the grant, but also a reflection of how little private development is going on in rural Ireland. In Leitrim just one private housing estate has been built since the crash; in Longford none has been built. In Leitrim there were just 120 homes built in 2024, when there were 223 applications for the vacant grant. More than 70 per cent of the applications to Leitrim County Council for the grant have been approved. This is similar to the national rate of approval. Of the 12,404 applications made by the end of March, 8,652 were approved at a cost of €112.5 million. Hardware Association Ireland recently met Minister for Housing James Browne . They suggested to him that he extend the scheme beyond single dwellings to allow the grant be used to convert vacant retail properties into housing. This would apply, for instance, if an owner had a multistorey property above a shop so that they could apply for separate grants for multiple apartments. HAI estimates there are 20,000 homes that could be brought back into use from multiple over-the-shop conversions into apartments. 'We are fairly sure of the numbers. This a winning formula and there are not many success stories in housing. We believe that it can be easily done in a realistic manner,' says HAI chief executive Martin Markey. He would appear to be pushing at an open door with the Minister, who said last week that the vacant property grant was a 'massive part' of the Government's response to the housing crisis. He cited the conversion of a derelict row in Carlow town into 12 social housing units as an example of what could be done. 'It was amazing to see a derelict street brought back into a row of houses that people want to live in. I want to see more of this,' said Browne. 'Over-the-shop is a crucial part of that. We will be making an announcement on that in the very near future.' Evidence of the popularity of the grant came when 300 people turned up to the Landmark Hotel in Carrick-on-Shannon on June 19th, along with 30 exhibitors, for a seminar organised by Leitrim County Council. They heard presentations from Anne Marie O'Connor from the Department of Housing 's vacant homes unit, from Leitrim County Council's vacant homes officer Shane Mulvey and from Mel Galvin, a research and development co-ordinator at the Atlantic Technological University in Sligo, who spoke about grants offered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) . The main speaker was celebrity architect Hugh Wallace, who is evangelical about the grant, having availed of it to do up his home in Clanbrassil Street in inner-city Dublin. Hugh Wallace has used the vacant property refurbishment grant. Photograph: Gerry Faughnan Mr Wallace said the scheme is easy to understand and those applying for it are working with local authorities who want to help rather than put obstacles in the way. 'It is very unrestricted as grants go. It's about a house being vacant for two years and/or with structural defeats and or up to €50,000 towards renovations of the interior. That's as simple as the grant is," he said. 'The great thing about the grant is that the councils want to give it out. All the councils around the country want to be helpful because a derelict building does no use for them. The original bill of sale from Cloverhill House, which has been in the O'Connell family for almost 100 years 'From my experience, it is actually a very simple grant to get. The councils come out they do an initial inspection. It is very important that you have done minimal or no work before the inspection and you monitor what you are doing, keep all your bills and at the end of the process all your invoices, and the council will pay out those monies.' Through the SEAI, householders can avail of grants of up to €25,000 on top of the €70,000 from the vacant homes grants. The caveat is you cannot apply for two grants for the same item – insulated doors, for instance – through the vacant property grant and the SEAI. Wallace praised local authorities for their willingness to issue the grants and to cut through the red tape that is holding up so many housing projects. The scheme is working well but the €20,000 available to fix structural problems in derelict homes is not enough, he suggested, and there should be a more even split in grant money if somebody spends €70,000, as €20,000 is insufficient for remedying structural defects.
Irish Times
09-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- Irish Times
Detached Regency-style five-bed on four acres in the Curragh for €1.25m
Address : Winterberry Lodge, Eyrefield, Athgarvan, The Curragh, Co Kildare Price : €1,250,000 Agent : Jordan Town and Country Estate Agents View this property on Just beside Athgarvan village in Co Kildare , Winterberry is a modern home on 1.6 hectares (four acres) that looks like it's been there since the Regency period. It also resembles in layout many of the Curragh lodges built in British Empire days for army officers who had a penchant for horse racing. While Winterberry is not a stud, it does have a two-acre paddock with post-and-rail fencing, and lies opposite Eyrefield Stud, so its setting is tranquil. This is a luxurious home, beautifully decorated, and it is clear that meticulous attention to detail was employed throughout the build. The 354sq m (3810sq ft) five-bedroom house was built in 2005, designed by architect John O'Connell. Everything about the property , from the lush gardens to the fine architectural features, gave the owners exactly what they wanted. Doubling down on the detail and selecting the best of interior finishes with the help of Tracey Elliot initially and latterly Helen Turkington , who recently revamped the bedroom wing, has created a home of restrained elegance and a subtle design flair. Front exterior Entrance hall Drawingroom Sittingroom Book-lined hallway Built in a C shape, the drive curves around to the rear of the house and the formal entrance, bordered by bay trees and box hedging. The hall door opens on to an elegant hallway with a sumptuous floral wallpaper. An interconnected drawingroom and diningroom lie directly ahead, with panelled walls and vaulted ceilings. There are built-in bookcases either side of the marble fireplace and the floor is oak. READ MORE The diningroom is a mirror of the drawingroom. These rooms blend seamlessly together with matching fireplaces and large, bespoke gilt-framed mirrors over the mantles. But what makes these rooms most beguiling is the French doors that open on to a terrace that leads a formal lawn; it's a home made for entertaining. A sittingroom lies in the corner of the house and this, the owner says, along with the kitchen, is where they spend the most of their time. It's a gorgeous room, with windows facing south over the lawn and west to catch the evening light. The floor here is also oak, but has been sanded and lightened. There is underfloor heating throughout the house and the Ber is C3. The rest of this wing is taken up by a book-lined hallway, a guest WC, a lovely utility room, a back hall with capacious storage (papered in a beautiful pattern) and the kitchen at the heart of the home. A large combination Aga dominates one end of the kitchen, designed by John Bosco Furniture. At the end of the kitchen is a large dining area with a long pine table that holds memories of decades of family meals and evenings of homework. French doors open on to a terrace and a formal walled garden that should gladden the heart of any keen gardener. Back entrance hall Kitchen Dining area in kitchen Principal bedroom Rear exterior Walled garden Back on the other side of the house is the bedroom wing, with four bedrooms, three of which are en suite, and a bathroom. The main bedroom is lovely, with dual-aspect views over the gardens, a full-sized en suite bathroom and a dressingroom. Outside, there's a fine lawn to the front, bordered by tall hedging and mature sycamore trees, a pretty walled garden, a vegetable garden, two acres of paddocks and a large garage that could easily be converted to extra accommodation or a home office. Close to a primary school, Winterberry is a short drive from motorway routes and the towns of Newbridge and Kilcullen. The Royal Curragh Golf Club is on the doorstep, as are the beautiful open spaces of the Curragh plains. Selling in order to downsize, the owners have placed the sale in the hands of Jordan Auctioneers , seeking €1.25 million.
