Southsea Model Village seeks new owners as family plan step down
The statement added: "As a family, we have cherished owning and operating this special place for the past 10 years, but since the passing of our dear dad Ian, things just haven't felt the same."It was always our dream for the village to remain a family affair, and now we feel it is time to pass this incredible opportunity on to someone new."The attraction, which has a price tag of £82,000, is being offered with a 19-year lease and comes with a cafe and its current team of volunteers.The village was subject to vandalism in 2021 and 2023 when rail tracks were ripped up, trees torn out of the ground and windows smashed.After fundraising efforts, repairs were made and further CCTV put in.
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The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Manchester United's ‘Wembley of the North' stadium plan hits the buffers
Manchester United's plans to build a 100,000-seat stadium next to Old Trafford are facing delays due to a standoff over the price of land needed to begin work on the construction of the proposed ground Sir Jim Ratcliffe has called 'the Wembley of the North'. The club want land used as a rail freight terminal to complete the Old Trafford Regeneration Project, which they claim will bring £7.3bn a year to the UK economy. United have held talks with Freightliner, the haulage company that owns and operates the terminal, about buying the land, but negotiations are deadlocked due to a disagreement over the price. While Freightliner is understood to have expressed a willingness to relocate from Trafford Park to nearby St Helens, the company is seeking around £400m for the land, with United valuing it at between £40m and £50m. Ratcliffe has made it clear United are unwilling to accept the asking price set by Freightliner's parent company, Brookfield, and initial discussions are believed to have reached an impasse. A source said Freightliner 'have United over a barrel'. The company is willing to relocate to a proposed new site that would offer increased capacity for trains, but it is in no rush to move. The club's view is that Freightliner will only receive what would be a significant windfall if they are willing to drop the asking price. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion When unveiling designs for the Old Trafford master plan, produced by Foster + Partners, in March, Ratcliffe set an ambitious target of completing what he described as a five-year build by 2030. United had been hoping to begin preparatory building work by the end of this year, but failing to secure the Freightliner site will delay the start date. United's options at this stage would be to increase their offer, wait for Freightliner to lower its demands, or scale back the project so that the freight terminal land is not required. It is also possible the new Old Trafford Mayoral Development Corporation, chaired by Sebastian Coe, could issue a compulsory purchase order, although that would be subject to legal challenges and would lead to further delays. Completion by 2030 was always seen as an ambitious target outside the senior leadership team at Old Trafford, given United have yet to obtain planning permission, secure ownership of all the land required or formally appoint architects. While Foster + Partners produced the artist impressions and videos of the proposed new stadium, the club plan to run a formal tender process to appoint architects. At a Fans Forum event on 30 June, United conceded that securing the land required could prove an obstacle to beginning work this year. United were asked by supporters whether building would commence in 2025 or 2026 and responded: 'Planning work is continuing, including the consultations with fans discussed during today's meeting. 'Discussions are also ongoing with local authorities, land owners and potential funding partners with a view to securing the land and the finance we need to proceed with the project. It remains our ambition to proceed with the project as quickly as possible, but we can only do this once the necessary land and funding is in place.' United have estimated the cost of the project at £4.2bn, but claim it will bring huge social and economic benefits to the local community and wider region, including 92,000 jobs, more than 17,000 new homes as well as attracting an extra 1.8 million visitors annually. The cost for the stadium has been projected by United to be around £2bn, although given the tented roof alone is likely to cost £300m, industry sources say £3bn is a more realistic budget. Freightliner's demands for £400m could result in the redevelopment being significantly over budget from the start. United are not seeking any public money to build the stadium itself. The club declined to comment on a private commercial negotiation.
Telegraph
23 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Reeves making bigger mistakes than Truss, says Badenoch
Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are making 'even bigger mistakes' than Liz Truss and have not learnt the lessons of her mini-budget, Kemi Badenoch has warned. Writing in The Telegraph, the Tory leader accuses the Government of taking Britain's finances 'to the brink' over concerns that it is pushing the country into a 'debt spiral'. Comparing Labour to Ms Truss marks Mrs Badenoch 's first major public criticism of the former Conservative prime minister, whose tax-cutting 2022 mini-budget was followed by a market meltdown. Mrs Badenoch says: 'For all their mocking of Liz Truss, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have not learnt the lessons of the mini-budget and are making even bigger mistakes. 'They continue to borrow more and more, unable and unwilling to make the spending cuts needed to balance the books.' Her comments are a bid to blunt Labour's continued efforts to pin Britain's current economic woes on the Tory legacy of Ms Truss's premiership. Almost three years on, Ms Reeves and Sir Keir still regularly resort to blaming the mini-budget for unpopular decisions on tax and spending. But the remarks also risk reopening old wounds within the Tories, with some allies of Ms Truss arguing that she had the right vision for a low-tax economy. A source close to Liz Truss told The Telegraph: 'Kemi has not learned the lessons of the Mini Budget, which is that when Conservative MPs fail to back tax cuts, fracking and welfare restraint, they get booted out of office. 'The Bank of England has since admitted that two thirds of the market movement in 2022 was down to their failure properly to regulate pensions. 'Kemi needs to do the work and actually look at what happened in 2022 and hold the Bank of England to account.' The former Tory prime minister has said it was failures by the Bank of England, rather than her tax cuts, which led to the subsequent financial turmoil. Her supporters have also pointed out that borrowing costs on Government bonds have risen to a higher level now than in the aftermath of the mini-budget. In her now infamous mini-budget in September 2022, Ms Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, the chancellor at the time, announced a series of surprise tax cuts, including the abolition of the top 45p income tax rate. It was not accompanied by a forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility, nor did it contain any spending restraints to balance the books. The budget provoked a calamitous market reaction, with the pound hitting an all-time low against the US dollar, government borrowing costs surging and increased mortgage rates. Ms Truss was swiftly forced to abandon the 45p cut and sack Mr Kwarteng, replacing him with Jeremy Hunt, to try and calm the financial markets. She resigned two weeks later. Since coming to power last year, Labour has also been criticised for its financial decisions. Ms Reeves used June's spending review to set out a £300bn spree over the next five years, to be funded by higher taxes and more debt. She has handed a £190bn increase to public services, paid for by the tax raid on businesses which has been blamed for stalling economic growth. A further £113bn will be ploughed into infrastructure projects after the Chancellor tore up her fiscal rules to allow herself to borrow more for investment. Last month's borrowing figure came in at £20.7bn, the second-highest level on record behind June 2020, when the Treasury was funding furlough payments. As a result, Mrs Badenoch warns that Britain is entering a 'debt spiral'. She says the reversal on £5bn of cuts to sickness benefits has added 'more pressure to the public purse' and has fuelled fears of further growth killing tax rises. The UK now faces higher borrowing costs than once-bankrupt Greece and is spending more on debt interest repayments every year than the entire defence budget. Mrs Badenoch writes: 'Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have taken profligate spending to a different level. The UK economy is teetering on the brink. 'Bond markets are increasingly jittery about the levels of borrowing today with no balancing spending decreases. This is how countries enter a debt spiral. 'But it is not inevitable, it is a choice. A debt crisis would make everyone in the country a lot poorer and ruin people's lives. 'The Prime Minister must not let pride stop him doing what, I sincerely hope, he knows deep down is essential – cutting government spending.' Mrs Badenoch's comments also come against the backdrop of internal disagreement over whether the Tory party should continue to apologise for its time in office. She used her first speech as leader, delivered in December last year, to directly say sorry to voters for the Conservatives' failures on immigration. One of her closest allies, Baroness Maclean of Redditch, told a meeting in June that the party had 'done the apologies' and should now move on to setting out policies. But a few weeks later Alex Burghart, the shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, told activists that the Tories should keep acknowledging their mistakes. Sir Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, had led internal Tory criticism of the mini-budget, vowing last month that the party would 'never, ever' repeat it. Until now Mrs Badenoch had held her fire, though she did privately tell her shadow cabinet that it would be helpful if Ms Truss made fewer public interventions. Her warning comes after the International Monetary Fund and senior City figures sounded the alarm about Britain's spiralling debt. Ray Dalio, a billionaire US hedge fund investor, warned last week that the UK has entered a 'doom loop' of more borrowing, higher taxes and low growth. Ms Reeves has repeatedly refused to rule out returning with more tax rises in the autumn despite warnings that doing so would further damage the economy. The Chancellor is under growing pressure from Left-wing backbenchers to introduce a wealth tax, which would probably prompt a fresh exodus of entrepreneurs. Starmer and Reeves have not learnt the lessons of the mini-budget By Kemi Badenoch Picture the scene: a new Prime Minister and Chancellor spending billions without also making the necessary savings to offset their splurge and balance the books. The markets react adversely, interest rates spike and the cost of living gets worse with prices soaring. For all their mocking of Liz Truss, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have not learnt the lessons of the mini-budget and are making even bigger mistakes. They continue to borrow more and more, unable and unwilling to make the spending cuts needed to balance the books. They are egged on by a Left-wing Reform Party, chasing Labour votes with ever more outlandish promises of nationalisation and welfare giveaways. The Conservative Party is now under new leadership, and my abiding principle will be that the country must live within its means. Before you dismiss us as being part of the problem, (after all, the mini-budget happened on our watch), the difference is that in 2022 we recognised what had gone wrong and took action to fix it. Labour aren't doing this. In fact they're making a bad situation even worse. Since the pandemic, Britain has become more and more reliant on debt to pay for public services. We now spend almost twice as much on debt interest than we do on defence. And the deficit is over £70bn. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have taken profligate spending to a different level. Labour politicians are used to entering office with a surplus built up by cost-cutting Conservatives. Their instincts are simply to spend more, and they were wholly unprepared for the post-Covid economic situation. We saw it when both Starmer and Farage refused to back my call to keep the two-child benefit cap, a policy that saves £3 billion a year. And we saw it again when the Prime Minister watered down his own Welfare Bill. Instead of making savings, it now actually increases welfare spending – adding more pressure to the public purse. Before that debate, I made a straightforward offer: Conservative MPs would give him the numbers in Parliament to get the Bill through, if the Prime Minister committed to cutting welfare costs, getting people into work, and ruling out further tax rises this autumn. He refused. So instead, we watched as the Government stripped its own legislation of any serious reform. The markets were also watching. The UK's borrowing costs are reaching levels not seen for 30 years – higher than even those in Greece. Incredibly, borrowing costs are higher now than after the mini-budget. That means prices rising and the long-running cost of living crisis continuing. The UK economy is teetering on the brink. There are now warnings, in the City and in Westminster, that a fiscal crisis may even be on the horizon. Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, said this week that Britain had entered a 'doom loop' of rising debts, higher taxes and slower growth. Dalio's warnings came days after the International Monetary Fund said the government must take radical action to avoid a debt spiral. As we all saw in 2022, the Chancellor and the Prime Minister are reliant on the bond markets. Yet those bond markets are increasingly jittery about the levels of borrowing today with no balancing spending decreases. Rachel Reeves's unfunded series of U-turns have only added to the pressure. She is boxed in by her party on one side, and her fiscal rules on the other. Everyone now assumes tax rises are coming in the November Budget and the Government isn't denying it. The OBR is warning that higher tax is not good for growth. They are right. The Institute of Directors say that taxes and dire economic outlook is leading to the worst business confidence since the pandemic. Labour's mismanagement of our economy is having real consequences, and it's working people, savers and business owners who will pay more for declining public services. At the same time, rising welfare and poor incentives are pushing more people out of the workforce, making our problems even harder to fix. This is how countries enter a debt spiral. But it is not inevitable, it is a choice. A debt crisis would make everyone in the country a lot poorer and ruin people's lives. The Prime Minister must not let pride stop him doing what, I sincerely hope, he knows deep down is essential: cutting government spending. He should do so, for all our sakes.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Charity watchdog's five-year fight for the truth about Aspinall Foundation
Leaving Number 10 in disgrace after the Partygate scandal three years ago has not stopped Boris Johnson getting rich ever since. He has earned millions from books and lecture tours, enough to buy a £4m Oxfordshire manor house for him, wife Carrie and their children. It was a different story when the couple were in Downing Street in January 2021 before the Partygate antics surfaced. They were in desperate need of money after Mr Johnson's expensive divorce – and what became known as the 'wallpapergate' affair – left their finances in tatters. He was criticised after failing to disclose secret Tory funding for a lavish refurbishment of their Downing Street flat by interior designer Lulu Lytle. It was at this moment that the couple received a much-needed – and timely – cash injection. Carrie Johnson, or Carrie Symonds, Mr Johnson's fiancee as she then was, was hired by the Aspinall Foundation wildlife conservation charity as director of communications on an estimated 'high five-figure salary'. Just two months after Mr Aspinall signed Ms Johnson, hailing her as a 'huge asset', she had to defend it when it was hit by a potential scandal. It emerged that the Charity Commission had opened a 'regulatory compliance case' investigation into the Aspinall Foundation in 2020. The matters being investigated by the watchdog pre-dated Ms Johnson's arrival at the charity and there is no suggestion she was the subject of investigation. She played down the gravity of the situation, saying such action was 'commonplace during routine regulatory checks'. However, any notion that it was commonplace was blown out of the water weeks later. Then, in March 2022, the commission announced a statutory inquiry – its most serious form of investigation – into the Aspinall Foundation and its sister charity Howletts Wild Animal Trust. It was looking into 'serious concerns about the governance and financial management after reports of possible conflicts of interest and related-party transactions' of both – while adding that the announcement was not in itself a finding of wrongdoing. Extraordinarily, five years after first sounding the alarm bell, the commission still has the Aspinall Foundation in its crosshairs. Two months ago it took its most drastic action yet, sending in troubleshooters – interim managers – to the foundation after 'fresh issues of concern were identified requiring us to embark on a further phase of investigation'. The Charity Commission's code of practice spells out the seriousness of this step. It states that it can appoint interim managers to act as 'receivers and managers' after a statutory inquiry – and 'if it is satisfied there has been misconduct and/or mismanagement in the charity's administration or it is necessary to protect the charity's property'. Using language akin to policing, it explains the aim is to 'detect, prevent or disrupt misconduct or mismanagement.' Misconduct is defined as 'any act that the person committing it knew – or ought to have known – was criminal, unlawful or improper'. Moreover the interim managers can take over the charity completely, excluding trustees from decision making. One of the most striking aspects of the commission's five year investigation into the Aspinall Foundation is its relentlessness. It began informal enquiries in July 2020; in November 2020 it was sufficiently concerned to open a 'regulatory compliance case'; in March 2021 that became a 'statutory inquiry' – its most serious type of investigation – and now it has gone even further, sending in interim managers. The focus of the investigation has been the same throughout, flagging up concerns about 'governance; financial management; conflicts of interest; unauthorised trustee benefit; whether trustees have complied with their duties under the law.' Allegations against the Aspinall Foundation, mainly based on its accounts, include allowing trustees' chairman Mr Aspinall, 65, to rent its palatial HQ, Howletts House, for £2,500 a month; paying £150,000 to his wife, Victoria, for 'interior design'; making loans to Mr Aspinall - in 2019 he reportedly owed it £113,000, and paying £124,000 for accountancy to Alvarium, a company of which Charles Filmer, a former Aspinalls trustee was a director. Allegations against the Howletts Wild Animal Trust include paying a £30,000 a year pension to Mr Aspinall's step mother Lady Sarah Aspinall for 'gardening services'. The charity has defended itself in the past saying the payments to Victoria Aspinall were conducted 'at arms length', adding that the fees were 'subject to a rigorous benchmarking exercise to ensure the foundation received value for money'. It has said Mr Aspinall repaid all debts to the charity. The Howletts Wild Animal Trust has reportedly said previously that Lady Sarah was entitled to her £30,000 a year for 'prior service as head gardener for many years'. The Charity Commission has wide ranging powers to act against charities where wrongdoing is found. They range from removing trustees to taking over the running of the charity and winding it up completely. The leadership of the non profit-making and unconventional Aspinall Foundation has always resembled a high society charitable affair involving three generations of the casino owning Aspinalls, Brexit supporting tycoons, eccentric aristocrats, glamorous women and maverick Tories like Boris Johnson and his political and personal coterie. The foundation was created by Mr Aspinall's flamboyant father, gambling tycoon John Aspinall, in 1984. He was a close friend of fellow gambler Lord Lucan, who disappeared in 1974, and was also close to anti-EU campaigner Sir James Goldsmith, father of Zac and Ben. John Aspinall's Clermont Gambling club in London became the venue for celebrity nightclub Annabel's, opened by Mark Birley in the 1960s. Mark Birley's son, Robin, is a former trustee of the Aspinall Foundation, but his time there predates the Charity Commission's inquiries. Robin Birley, who owns the 5 Hertford St private club in Mayfair, renowned as a meeting place for wealthy Brexit supporters, gave £200,000 to Nigel Farage's UKIP party and £20,000 to Mr Johnson's successful Tory leadership campaign in 2019. Mr Birley is the half brother of Sir James Goldsmith's sons Zac and Ben who have both been trustees of the Aspinall Foundation, but also left before any inquiries were launched. Zac Goldsmith was given a peerage and ministerial post by fellow Old Etonian Mr Johnson as prime minister when he lost his Richmond, Surrey Commons seat in 2019. Shortly before becoming prime minister, Mr Johnson wrote a 1,000 word paean of praise to Mr Aspinall, commending his 'wonderful' conservation work in a Daily Telegraph article. Zac Goldsmith is also a mentor and close friend of Mrs Johnson. Her entree into the Tory Party, where she became its head of communications and met Mr Johnson, was as a young constituency campaigner for Zac Goldsmith. Ben Goldsmith was given a post on the board of the Department of the Environment – where his brother was a minister – in Mr Johnson's administration. Damian Aspinall, who like his father, once owned a casino, is reputedly worth £200 million. Mt Aspinall's daughter Tansy, whose mother Louise Sebag-Montefiire was Mr Aspinall's first wife, is a trustee of both the Aspinall Foundation and the Howletts Wild Animal Trust. It has also been suggested that the youngest of twice married Mr Aspinall's three daughters, Freya, a model and internet celebrity, could succeed him as chair of trustees at the Aspinall Foundation. Freya is the result of a separate relationship by Mr Aspinall with actress Donna Air. He also reportedly dated supermodels Elle Macpherson and Naomi Campbell. The Aspinall Foundation has also faced criticism for some of its conservation work. In 2014 it was claimed that some members of ten gorillas released to the wild in Africa by the charity were killed. Mr Aspinall blamed one of the gorillas for the killings.
