“The biggest mistake of my life was buying this flat. It’s basically ruined my life.”
Leaseholders plead for tougher legislation as MPs debate bill to reform ‘rotten’ system - By me for
@SkyNews
NEW: HMRC accused of ‘sinister’ new tactics in tax crackdown linked to 10 suicides. People facing unaffordable bills despite falling out of scope of Loan Charge after Morse Review.
‘In the worse case scenario I will lose my home.’
NEW: Calls for inquiry into Loan Charge scandal after treasury cttee wrote to HMRC requesting more info on tax crackdown. Campaigners say letter was a "tick box exercise" & "failure of parliamentary scrutiny". HMRC accused of "airbrushing the whole mess"👇
"We're being treated like human cash machines."
Despite launch of major cladding remediation scheme this week, leaseholders tell Sky News they still face huge repair bills to make their homes safe:
@EOCS_Official
@NonQualifyingLH
The government has insisted developers must pay to fix unsafe buildings. But six years after
#Grenfell
, many flat owners still face crippling costs.
‘We’ve been stitched up for so long and now it’s ruined me’
Derek has paid off the mortgage in the home he has owned for 50 yrs. But because he doesn't own the land it is on, he faces a £17k bill for ground rent. The Leasehold reform bill has made wash up - but will final version include promised cap on GRs?
As banks say they will finally start lending on flats with
#cladding
nearly six years after Grenfell, I am looking to speak to leaseholders caught up in the
#buildingsafetyscandal
about whether this will help you. DM if you want to chat for story for Sky News.
@EOCS_Official
It comes after leaseholder Malcolm Cameron-Lee told us the post-Grenfell cladding crisis had left him "penniless and about to go bankrupt" after years of bills and remediation delays.
Labour's shadow housing minister calls for the pace of
#cladding
remediation to speed up and for the government to "reconsider" excluding non-qualifying leaseholders from other cost protections. Full story:
Labour welcomes the opening of the rebranded Cladding Safety Scheme but as the experience of the Building Safety Fund has made clear, the mere existence of a funding pot is no guarantee that the pace of remediation across the country will accelerate.
@dino868
Hi
@dino868
I am so sorry to hear this. I work for Sky News and have been writing about leasehold. Could you follow me back so I can DM you about this? Tx, Faye
Katie Kendrick of the
@NLC_2019
told Sky News: "It remains to be seen how far this bill will go but there will still be some way to go to achieve our goal of abolishing Leasehold and a move to Commonhold. Abolishing the medieval leasehold system must be in all manifestos."
"We could be here for a recount... the political equivalent of VAR I guess. It's a real nail-biter so don't go to bed!"
Top analysis from
@joncraig
on why you should absolutely stay up all night to watch the
#MidBedfordshire
results come in 👇
Polls have closed in two by-elections as the Conservatives attempt to hold on to their seats of Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire
Chief Political Correspondent
@joncraig
has the latest from the count in Shefford
Follow live:
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602
@Scott74208805
Hi
@Scott74208805
thanks for highlighting. Would you be able to drop me a DM or email with a bit more info about this business? Keen to look into the companies promoting and running these schemes for next story.
NEW: The Electoral Commission has
slapped down the government after it quietly pushed through plans to almost double the spending cap on election campaigning - in a move seen as benefiting parties ‘with the deepest pockets’:
Great line from
@tamcohen
- Labour considers ban on energy drinks for under-16s.
Hears from one teen whose weight dropped to under 6 stone & was hospitalised with gastritis.
"It was an addiction. These are addictive substances."
"It is absurd that the government has taken 5 years to deliver these basic reforms - that's longer than Brexit took."
@a_darling_tom
Campaigners criticise delay to ban on no-fault evictions - as one renter tells
@SkyNews
about his 'revenge eviction'. 👇
Fresh calls for rules to stop MPs lying after a series of bizarre claims made by ministers at the Conservative conf.
@CarolineLucas
says a "dishonesty epidemic is infecting the Tory party". Full story below 👇
🚨NEW: Suspended Labour MP Geraint Davies 'boasted' about taking sex workers to parliament bar, claim colleagues.
"He would openly boast about bringing escorts and prostitutes onto the terrace and show them off."
More from my colleague
@NifS
👇
Starmer to Sunak: "It is ironic that he's suddenly taken such a keen interest in Greek culture. But he's clearly become the man with the reverse Midas touch. Everything he touches turns to... maybe the Home Secretary can help me out with this?"
#PMQs
Another headache for the gov as
#strikes
continue. A record number of trials are being abandoned on the day due to prosecutor shortage blamed on low pay.
@TheCriminalBar
call for parity of fees with defence to stop system collapsing
Great piece by my colleague
@NifS
on what can be done to help people facing huge rent rises.
@genrentuk
warn of increasing phenomena of "economic evictions", where landlords raise rents so astronomically, people are forced to move home.
After
@ONS
stats show average rents have risen AGAIN - by 9% a month this time - I talk to campaigners about what immediate action could be taken to help renters, including
@genrentuk
@Shelter
@jrf_uk
@NRLAssociation
Nowak calls on the trade union movement to go united into the next election and vote Labour to “get rid of this rotten govt”. But other union leaders have reservations about direction of the party under Starmer… (see below from the brill
@joncraig
)👇
Mick Lynch said that the union had initially been told in spring 2022 that workers would only get a 2% or 3% pay rise.
“However, since then strike action and the inspiring solidarity and determination of members has secured new money and a new offer.”
🚨 Here's what rail workers have won, following their industrial action:
• Salaries UP 14.4% for the lowest paid and 9.2% for the highest paid.
• DISCOUNTED rail travel benefits.
• RENEWED 'No compulsory redundancy' agreement.
NEW: Jeremy Hunt has donated an extra £32,000 of his own money to his local party this year (taking total to £166k since 2014). He’s at risk of being his party’s biggest casualty on election night. Biggest single donation was in Feb 👀
Wowee.. this polling projection from
@YouGov
puts Labour on course for a 194 seat majority. That would be the biggest majority for 100 years ! By
@SamCoatesSky
@joelysantacruz
@georgie_grier
We’ve ALL done it. Soon, you’ll dine out on this anecdote. More than once I had to buy my audience a drink, as a thank you for being the only ones there. Best thing though, it’s all stage time, and the show will get better every single time, ready for the big crowds later!
The govt has blamed inflation but the Commission said it ‘hasn’t seen evidence to support the changes’ &
the proposals ‘risk damaging the transparency of political donations & gives significantly more scope for higher spending parties to campaign’.
🚨Civil servants threaten to stop work over arms sales to Israel.
@johnmcdonnellMP
says govt should "come clean" on its legal advice. Says under Rome Statute "following a superior's instructions is not a defence when it comes to charges of war crimes".
🚨Brianna Ghey's father tells Sky News: "As the prime minister for our country to come out with degrading comments like he did...they are absolutely dehumanising."
He says he is "personally shocked" and PM "should apologise for his remarks".
NEW:
@RMTunion
rejects latest offer to end strikes.
Mick Lynch: "Our members cannot accept the ripping up of their terms and conditions or to have safety standards on the railway put into jeopardy under the guise of so-called modernisation." More here:
🪄🔮Well that was incredible…
Watch
@scottsilven
read
@WilfredFrost
mind live on air 🤯
@LeahBoleto
absolutely terrified of what was about to happen 😳
(✍🏻 I can confirm, he genuinely did just write the word down out of nowhere!)
Low pay is driving people away from the care sector when demand is at an all time high.
Care workers say a £15 hourly rate is the "bare minimum" needed to attract staff to fill some 150k vacancies.
"In 33 years I have had a £6 pay rise."
🚨HS2 debacle chapter 1648393. As my colleague
@NifS
reports, £232m has been paid in compensation for the northern line that will not be built. And that could rise by £13m when outstanding claims are settled…
Simon Clarke is urged go to his local food bank to see "how nurses are being pushed over the poverty line into food banks”.
"Nurses are choosing between heating and eating whilst battling the worst conditions ever known to the NHS.”
@NurseSayNO
An awful thing for anyone to experience.
@K_Fletcher_MP
, the Tory candidate for South Ribble. says excrement was put through her office letterbox.
But she says she'll keep campaigning: "To the bully that did this: not the right person."
At the Beis committee today, Labour MP Ian Lavery points out to Simon Thompson, the CEO of Royal Mail, that he earns 23 times the average postal worker’s salary & was awarded a bonus of £140,000.
“Are you really worth that amount of money Mr Thompson?”
On Merriman's claims that the Radio 4 News Quiz is "completely bias", a BBC spokesperson said: "We’re confident our audiences know the difference between a longstanding and popular satirical comedy show and our news reporting.”
Quite the rebuttal!
ICYMI: Slipped out yday during the King's Speech, the govt has published plans to retain a series of EU equality laws before they expire at end of year. Says without them there would be "clear gap in protections" -as rights not currently in UK law
Harrowing report in The Guardian on schools on the frontline of the housing crisis. One boy did not come to school for two weeks after being woken up to rats on his chest. By
@SammyGecsoyler
NEW: Corbyn hits back at Labour attacks on his manifestoes. Tells Sky News: "These were fully costed proposals that would have redistributed wealth and power." Read More 👇
Gove being one of the people who apparently backed the early general election gamble and told the PM at an emergency cabinet meeting: ‘Who dares wins. You dared and you will win.’ 😬
After nearly twenty years serving the wonderful people of Surrey Heath and over a decade in Cabinet across five government departments, I have today taken the decision to step down as a Member of Parliament. Read my letter here 👇
Very interesting in light of the news this week.
@FullFact
sets out 12 ways politicians + media can restore public trust - including a law to end 'deceptive' campaign practices before the next
#GeneralElection
Feels like Starmer needs to come back from the break and really refute this claim. So far he's called it "nonsense" but explanation unclear and cut off
Weaver Vale's
@MikeAmesburyMP
doesn't beat around the bush asking about rail services in the north at the
@TransportCttee
. "After 13 years of successive Tory governments, why are rail services in the north so utterly useless?"
@CareWorkersFund
Andrew Dilnot, the architect of the government's delayed reforms to social care, has told Sky News politicians need to "grow up" and tackle the crisis in the sector. "Four out of five people are going to need social care before they die, we should grow up and face it."
TUC’s
@nowak_paul
launches stinging attack on immigration policy in speech at
#TUC23
. “The real enemies of the working class don’t arrive in a small boat. They fly in a private jet.”
@CareWorkersFund
It comes amid wider problems in the sector, with people facing sky high costs for care and having to sell their homes to pay for it, as
@robpowellnews
reports here:
More than 192,000 children in England & Wales have parents in jail. It's the first time such figures have been revealed - pretty shocking considering scale of prison crisis & fact those impacted more likely to end up in prison. More by my colleague
@NifS
:
#HS2
update, chapter 128745. Rishi Sunak says it *WILL* go to Euston and this shouldn't be ambiguous.
On Sunday Michael Gove was unable to confirm that the tracks linking Old Oak Common and Euston would ever be built and refused to guarantee that HS2 will terminate at Euston.
New:
@RMTunion
writes to business leaders accusing gov of using them as “collateral damage” after Huw Merriman admits
#railstrikes
are costing more than a settlement.
Says prolonging dispute “a deliberately strategy” to keep down public sector pay.
Karoline Gerlich of
@CareWorkersFund
says the job is fundamentally undervalued. "It's mainly done by middle aged women, the invisible part of the society... so there's a sexist attitude that this is women's work and they should do it for free."
Quite the moment when
@rodstewart
rings in to Sky News offering to pay for 20 scans.
"I personally have been a Tory for a long time but I think this government should stand down now and give the Labour Party a go at it.”
Sir
@rodstewart
tells
@skysarahjane
that he has "Sky News on in the background as he works on his model railway" before singing his song Maggie May to her live on TV.
Latest:
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube
@cladtrap
@EOCS_Official
@Lee4NED
Hi
@cladtrap
I work for Sky News and looking for cases of insurance / SC still high despite remediation. Can you follow me back so I can DM you about this? Tx Faye
They say there is an "established precedent under multiple administrations that Ministers are provided with legal support and representation where matters relate to their conduct and responsibilities as a Minister, as was the case here".