By Clare Jerrom, Reg McKay and Alex Dobson.
Immigrants ‘will double demand for new homes’
Two million extra homes will be needed in Britain if immigration continues at its current record levels, the government’s planning advisers have warned.
Immigrants will nearly double the number of houses needed, far exceeding the government’s published plans.
Mortgage lenders have also warned that immigration will continue to push house prices up, making them less affordable for first time buyers.
The government is taking desperate measures to force through a housebuilding programme. Gordon Brown will announce plans to reduce planning controls, and give extra taxpayers money to house builders to boost the number of new homes.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 3 July page 4
Cambridge to eject non-local homeless
People sleeping on the streets of Cambridge who have no ties with the area will be sent back to their home area.
The policy has been introduced in response to a severe housing shortage in the city, according to housing needs manager at Cambridge council, Naisha Polaine.
"Cambridge is full up," she said.
Around half of the 20 or so people who sleep rough in Cambridge have no local links.
Homelessness organisations have raised concerns that the move could breach human rights, and could exacerbate the situation by deterring homeless people with drink or drugs problems from seeking help.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 3 July page 4
Police rescue US child after Net paedophile raid
A six-year-old girl who was being sexually abused has been rescued by detectives investigating a worldwide internet paedophile network.
The officers investigating the network called 'Shadowz Brotherhood' found video film of the child being raped when they raided one of the network members in Bradford, west Yorkshire, last December.
Two officers from the national crime squad’s high tech unit flew to the United States and co-operated with sheriffs, who arrested the girl’s 31-year-old unemployed father.
The man is now awaiting trial, and details of the arrest were released yesterday as the unit co-ordinated a second international wave of arrests on the 'Brotherhood'.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 3 July page 5
School pays £200,000 to abused ex-pupils
Eight former pupils of a leading preparatory school have been paid £200,000 in compensation after the school admitted that it failed to prevent its former headmaster from sexually abusing them.
Dulwich College Preparatory School in Kent reached the out-of-court settlement at a meeting with the victims only weeks before the case was to be heard in the high court.
The former pupils said the school had failed in its basic duty of care when they were repeatedly indecently assaulted by Robin Peverett.
Some claimants received up to £75,000, and the total sum is thought to be around £200,000.
The action was brought after Peverett received a suspended 18-month sentence two years ago when he pleaded guilty to nine charges of indecent assault between 1969 and 1977 at Maidstone crown court.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 3 July page 7
Children of violent parents may be expelled
Parents are to be warned that they face prosecution if they are violent or abusive to staff, the government announced yesterday. Ministers are also considering the exclusion of pupils whose parents have been aggressive.
Tony Blair met head teachers at Downing Street to discuss the increase of indiscipline in schools.
The prime minister told the group he acknowledged the serious problems with the behaviour of pupils and parents, and admitted that violence in classrooms was forcing teachers out of the profession.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 3 July page 10
Councillors reject plans for local authority league tables
John Prescott was warned not to press ahead with government plans to introduce league tables for local authorities unless they were given greater freedoms, by councillors yesterday.
Delegates at the Local Government Association conference in Bournemouth voted overwhelmingly to express "strong reservations" about the government’s plans to divide councils according to their performance.
Delegates said that Labour had failed to give authorities the freedoms they had promised.
Today they will press the deputy prime minister to provide extra cash to implement the plans, which are designed to improve standards in local councils.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 3 July page 10
Teenager’s death ‘was personal’
A teenager with learning difficulties has been found with multiple stab wounds face down in a ditch, police said last night.
Three teenage boys and a girl have been arrested and were being questioned about the attack, which police believe was personally motivated.
Richard Parker’s body was found concealed in a ditch in Hurst near Reading on Sunday by a man walking his dog.
Police believe that his body was taken to the ditch, more than 20 miles from his home in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, some time on Friday night.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 3 July page 11
Appeal court to hear case of solicitor jailed for killing babies
New evidence may help to free a solicitor serving a life sentence for killing her babies.
Corporate lawyer Sally Clarke has had her case referred to the court of appeal by the criminal cases review commission, which reviews potential miscarriages of justice.
Clarke was jailed at Chester crown court in November 1999 foe the murder of her sons Christopher and Harry. An appeal was later dismissed.
Medical tests uncovered recently by her husband Steve, but never shown to the defence at the trial, form the basis of the submission to the CCRC.
Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 3 July page 1
Care home owners urged not to panic over new guidelines
New care home regulations should not panic care home owners into shutting them down, according to the head of the independent body in charge of implementing the regulations.
The plea follows the death of Alice Knight, 108, who went on hunger strike after the home where she had lived happily for six years shut down.
The home owner said she was forced to shut because she would not have been able to afford the work needed to meet the new standards, brought in under the Care Standards Act 2000.
Chief executive of the National Care Standards Commission Ron Kerr said: "Owners should not be panicked out of business by misinformation about the new national minimum standards."
He said his body would have been happy to have met with the owner of the home where Knight lived and insisted most owners had "nothing to fear".
Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 3 July page 6
Guardian Society
Visiting charges
Care home residents paying medical fees
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 3 July page 4
Doubly deprived
Women unable to work face greater financial hardship
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 3 July page 5
Doors slammed
Council house sales cause shortages
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 3 July page 5
Out on the street
Chris Holmes won many plaudits in his seven years as director of homelessness charity Shelter. So why his sudden departure?
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 3 July page 10
Marked change
Patients are to be involved in the assessment of mental health care in order to improve services
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 3 July page 120-119
Joint ambitions
Charities working with deprived families consider merger
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 3 July page 119
Bills of rights
Utility companies back scheme to trace ‘hidden’ carers
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 3 July page 119
Scottish newspapers
Prison chief condemned
Tony Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish prison service, came under pressure to resign last night as ministers faced a constitutional crisis over an influential cross-party committee’s condemnation of the executive’s plans to build private prisons.
The committee criticised executive plans to build three private prisons and close Peterhead Prison, moving its renowned sex offenders programme to institutions in the central belt.
MSPs cited a lack of spending estimates and inadequate research as shortfalls of the report and went on to condemn Cameron for his "extraordinary and unconvincing" evidence before the justice committee.
Source:- The Herald Wednesday 3 July page 1
‘Vegetable’ slur charity boss quits
An Aberdeen-based charity is due to fold following the resignation of its founder who caused a public outcry by claiming that two men with learning difficulties who had been indecently assaulted by a care worker had "probably asked for it".
Paul Miller, the head of Disabled, Elderly, Lonely and Those Associated (DELTA), had also branded people with learning difficulties as "vegetables".
His remarks, which followed the court appearance of Henry Spalding, one of the charity’s voluntary drivers, were condemned by other voluntary and statutory organisations.
Miller was former deputy convener of the social work committee of Grampian regional council, founded DELTA in 1977, which is now expected to close in October.
Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 3 July page 2
Welsh newspapers
Bully Boys In Jail Top Jobs
Staff at Parc Prison in Bridgend could be on the verge of a walk-out because of claims that they are being bullied at work.
In a document leaked to the 'Welsh Mirror' there are claims that harassment is rife within the Securicor-run private prison, and a recent questionnaire sent to staff reveals that a high proportion of staff complain of bullying by senior managers.
According to the survey 50 per cent of staff were considering leaving the prison that has been dogged by a succession of scandals since it opened in 1997.
A spokesperson for the prison said measures had been put in place to combat bullying following the survey in March.
Source:- Welsh Mirror Wednesday 3 July page 11
Crown decides against charging Owen's colleagues
The crown prosecution service has come under attack for failing to bring charges against five people questioned during the inquiry into the activities of alleged paedophile, John Owen.
The five were alleged to have been implicated in incidents of abuse that were said to have taken place while Owen was a drama teacher at a school in south Wales, but police confirmed yesterday that no further action would be taken.
The allegations had been made during evidence sessions to the inquiry led by children's commissioner for Wales, Peter Clarke, that was looking into all the circumstances surrounding alleged abuse at the school, Ysgol Gyfun in Pontypridd.
The mother of one of the alleged victims said she was disappointed and disgusted at the decision not to bring any further charges.
Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 3 July page 1
Charities welcome child protection moves
A new project to help protect children from abuse was launched yesterday to help avoid a repeat of the Victoria Climbie case.
Children's charities in Wales welcomed the launch by Gwent police of the all Wales child protection procedures that will ensure all agencies in the principality work closely together and share information on child protection matters.
Health and social services minister Jane Hutt described the new national guidance procedures as robust and effective.
Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 3 July page 8
