Elon Musk’s SpaceX accused of ‘hijacking’ £5.5bn British satellite deal

Matthew Field
Sat, 2 September 2023 

Viasat has hit back at Elon Musk's 'years-old, unfounded’ claims - (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been accused of trying to “hijack” the £5.5bn takeover of a British satellite company after demanding US authorities re-run an investigation into the deal.

The Tesla billionaire’s space company has written to a US regulator demanding it “expeditiously review and rescind” a decision to green light a merger between American company Viasat and Britain’s Inmarsat.

SpaceX, which has launched a vast satellite network called Starlink, has claimed Viasat is causing interference with its satellites and breaching its licensing conditions in a long-running row between the two companies.

Viasat has hit back by accusing Mr Musk of creating the risk of orbital collisions by launching thousands of small satellites.

SpaceX previously tried to block the multibillion pound Inmarsat takeover, but it was cleared by regulators.

Though the deal has closed, Mr Musk’s company has now demanded a further review over the transfer of control of Inmarsat’s satellites, which are used for maritime communications and defence.

In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), SpaceX said the acquisition was “contrary to the public interest” because of Viasat’s “blatant disregard” for regulations. It said the regulator had “improperly” failed to consider its claims the first time.

Viasat hit back by saying the complaint “dredges up a years-old, unfounded” accusation. It said the FCC had already found it “qualified to obtain licences” and that its rival’s latest assault was an attempt to “hijack” the takeover.

A Viasat spokesman said: “These are old arguments that have been tried and failed before - the FCC expressly rejected them in clearing the acquisition. And they will certainly fail again.

“Our focus is on integrating Inmarsat’s assets and capabilities into the Viasat family to offer the innovative new services our customers want.”

Mr Musk has previously lashed out at Viasat. In 2020, after Viasast warned about Starlink’s potential impact on space debris, Mr Musk tweeted that Starlink “poses a hazard to Viasat’s profits, more like it”.

The Inmarsat takeover was cleared by regulators in the UK and the US and completed in May, bringing together two major satellite providers as the industry attempts to counteract Starlink’s rapid expansion.

Headquartered in California, Viasat provides satellite broadband, in-flight Wi-Fi and military communications from craft orbiting high above the earth. Hundreds of thousands of people use its satellites for broadband in remote areas.

However, it has suffered a series of setbacks this year after two of its satellites malfunctioned shortly after launch.

Analysts and industry reports have estimated the cost of the two craft to be in excess of $1bn, although if they are a total loss some of this will be covered by insurance.

UK Government ‘in talks with Tata Steel to provide £500m funding package’

Nina Lloyd, PA
Sat, 2 September 2023



The Government is reportedly in advanced talks with Tata Steel to provide a £500 million funding package aimed at safeguarding the long-term future of a key part of Britain’s steel industry.

The deal would secure £1 billion for the group’s Port Talbot steelworks but could lead to as many as 3,000 job losses, according to Sky News.

Under draft plans, the Government would commit approximately £500 million of public funding, while Tata Steel’s Indian parent company would agree £700 million of capital expenditure over a multi-year period, the report said.

The company would reportedly commit to building electric arc furnaces, which offer greener, less labour-intensive ways of producing steel than traditional blast furnaces.

Industry sources close to the negotiations told Sky that as many as 3,000 of the company’s staff based in the UK could lose their jobs.

Port Talbot is thought to employ about 4,000 workers.

A Tata Steel spokesman said in a statement issued to Sky News: “Tata Steel is continuing to discuss with the UK Government a framework for continuity and decarbonisation of steelmaking in the UK amidst very challenging underlying business conditions, given that several of its heavy-end assets are approaching the end of life.

“Given the financially constrained position of our UK business, such significant change is only possible with Government investment and support, as also seen in other steelmaking countries in Europe where governments are actively supporting companies in decarbonisation initiatives.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham criticised the reported plans and said the union would be “mounting a significant campaign” to protect jobs.

“This Government could make us the green steel capital of Europe – instead they are choosing to follow a job cuts agenda,” she said.

“Unite will leave no stone unturned in the fight for jobs. We will now be mounting a significant campaign on this issue and we fully expect the Labour Party to make a serious commitment to a better future for UK Steel.”

Tata Steel, the Treasury and the Department for Business and Trade have been contacted for comment.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried fighting court battle in Antigua over assets

Mark Hollingsworth
Sat, 2 September 2023 

Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested after the sudden collapse of the FTX exchange in November 2022 - REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo

The founder of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX has been accused of failing to cooperate with the liquidation of a separate company he owned in the Caribbean, The Telegraph can reveal.

Sam Bankman-Fried has been accused of failing to hand over key documents to court-appointed liquidators for now-bankrupt holding company Emergent Fidelity Technologies (EFT). He has also filed 16 applications to block the process, despite claims of relative poverty.

The legal battle has been taking place in Antigua where EFT is registered. Until recently, the holding company owned 56 million shares in stock trading service Robinhood. This stake, worth $606m, was frozen by the US Department of Justice as part of a massive fraud investigation.

Robinhood repurchased the shares on Friday. The funds from the sale are to be held in the US Department of Justice’s seized asset deposit fund under the terms stipulated by US Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing Mr Bankman-Fried’s criminal fraud case.

FTX creditors are still pursuing the cash from this stake and the investigation into EFT continues.

They are furious because they claim Mr Bankman-Fried has been obstructing the liquidation.

In an affidavit seen by The Telegraph, the liquidators said: “Mr Bankman Fried has not cooperated with the liquidators or provided the EFT’s corporate documents.”

FTX was once the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange and valued at $32bn.

After its sudden collapse last November and the arrest of Mr Bankman-Fried, the Antiguan High Court appointed Cayman-based liquidators Angela Barkhouse and Toni Shukla, of Quantuma, as liquidators of all EFT assets.

They have been investigating the intricate web of EFT’s complex assets on behalf of FTX creditors, according to court documents.

Creditors believe they have claim to EFT’s assets. One, Ben Shimon, stated he “invested funds with FTX Trading which were improperly diverted to Emergent, of which Bankman-Fried was a founder, director and majority owner”.

Lawyers for the creditors believe Mr Bankman-Friedman’s legal battle in Antigua may have breached his bail conditions, which limit his spending to $1,000 per day.

Publicly, Mr Bankman-Friedman is complaining about restrictive bail conditions and says he is down to his last $100,000 in cash.

Creditors have filed a claim in the court for Mr Bankman-Fried to disclose his funds, to no avail.

His lawyer David Dorsett was twice asked by The Telegraph how his client was paying his legal fees but declined to comment.

Mr Dorsett said: “Mr Bankman-Fried applied for the Antiguan High Court proceeding (the liquidators) to be struck out and service of the claim form on him set aside.

“Should we succeed in our application, the positions and actions of the liquidators will come into serious question.

In response to Mr Bankman-Fried’s attempts to remove liquidators, Judge Ramdhani in said: “It is the urgent task of the liquidators to secure the complete financial records of the assets of EFT.

“To date, Mr Bankman-Fried has not assisted with respect to the financial records.”

His lawyer Mr Dorsett said: “Mr Bankman-Fried has complied with all orders with respect to him cooperating with the liquidators in the Antiguan matter”.

In some cases, Mr Bankman-Fried has been ordered to pay legal costs and security for costs in the Antiguan Court. He has failed to pay most of these fees.

Mr Bankman-Fried is currently in jail after a judge in New York revoked his bail, accusing him of trying to influence witnesses ahead of a criminal trial in October.

He stands accused of defrauding investors in connection with FTX’s implosion. The trial could be one of the biggest fraud cases in history. The former billionaire denies all the charges.

Alarm over British taxpayers’ £500m exposure to Taiwan

Simon Foy

THE TELEGRAPH
Sat, 2 September 2023

Taiwan faces the threat of China invading its self-governed state

 - AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying

The British taxpayer’s exposure to investments in Taiwan is being investigated amid concerns about the growing political tensions between the island state and China.

UK Export Finance (UKEF) has hired private consultants from Deloitte to examine the risks of supporting future offshore wind projects in Taiwan after giving £500m of taxpayer backing to the sector since 2019.

The state-backed body provides guarantees to help UK exporters win contracts abroad and picks up the tab if the customer fails to pay up.

The review will examine the legal, economic and commercial risks associated with backing future projects in Taiwan and determine UKEF’s risk appetite for further credit exposure to the country.

It comes amid rapidly escalating tensions in the region, with fears that China could invade the self-governing state.

Chinese President Xi Jinping previously vowed to “reunify” Taiwan with China, prompting US President Joe Biden to pledge that the US would defend the territory from any invasion.

The tensions have forced investors to rethink their exposure to the country, with Warren Buffett selling his entire stake in the world’s largest chipmaker earlier this year owing to it being headquartered in Taiwan.

Asked to explain his decision, the billionaire, dubbed the “Oracle of Omaha”, said: “I don’t like its location, and I’ve reevaluated that.

“I feel better about the capital that we’ve got deployed in Japan than in Taiwan. I wish it weren’t so, but I think that’s the reality, and I’ve reevaluated that in the light of certain things that were going on.”

UKEF, which is tied to the Department for International Trade, has provided credit guarantees worth £500m to help finance three offshore wind projects in Taiwan since 2019. The most recent guarantee came in 2021 when Liz Truss was international development secretary.

Ms Truss, the former prime minister, has been a vocal proponent of the West supporting Taiwan amid aggression from Beijing.

In a visit to the state in May to show “solidarity”, Ms Truss said that Taiwan is “on the front line of the global battle for freedom” and called for an “economic Nato” to challenge China.

The Government, which has strong informal ties but no official diplomatic relations with Taipei, distanced itself from the visit.

A spokesman for UKEF said: “UKEF has a market appetite of over £4bn to support new business in Taiwan. We’ve supported several offshore wind projects in Taiwan, which is a growing market for renewable energy investments.

“UKEF actively monitors all its exposures and carries out regular market risk assessments.”

UKEF is led by Tim Reid, a former senior banker at HSBC.

UK

HMV owner finalising deal to save majority of Wilko stores

Anna Wise, PA Business Reporter
Fri, 1 September 2023 

Thousands of jobs could be saved at collapsed retailer Wilko as the owner of HMV finalises a deal to buy hundreds of stores.

A bid to buy the entirety of the business fell through on Thursday, leading to the first wave of redundancies affecting support centre and warehouse staff.

But administrator PwC said that discussions have continued with parties interesting in buying parts of the business.

It is understood that Doug Putman, a 39-year-old Canadian businessman who owns music retailer HMV in the UK and Toys R Us in Canada, has emerged as the front-runner for a last-minute rescue deal.

Doug Putman’s retail group Sunrise Records acquired 100 HMV

 stores in 2019, preserving nearly 1,500 jobs (Paul Faith/PA)

He is understood to be considering acquiring around 300 of Wilko’s 400 stores, which would mean that 8,000 to 9,000 of the current 12,500 staff could have their jobs protected if the deal goes through.

Mr Putman’s retail group Sunrise Records swooped in to buy HMV in 2019, safeguarding nearly 1,500 staff after acquiring 100 stores across the UK.

However, many jobs are still at risk as the future of Wilko hangs in the balance.

PwC confirmed that 269 support centre workers in Worksop and Newport will have their last day with the business on Monday.

And there will be further redundancies across the company’s two warehouses from early next week.

Exact numbers have yet to be confirmed but it is thought that around 1,600 people work across the warehouses and support centres.

The GMB union, which has about 3,000 members who work for Wilko, said that a bidder, reported to be M2 Capital, had not submitted the evidence needed by a Wednesday evening deadline to show it could viably buy the business.

It meant there were no remaining suitable offers to buy the group in its entirety.

The trade union said it was “leaving no stone unturned” when it comes to saving jobs, but that it “simply could not reverse the years of mismanagement under the recent regime”.

Wilko collapsed into administration earlier in August after managers failed to revive the business through cost savings and a turnaround plan over the past year.

Stores have remained open while the retailer searches for a buyer.

Mr Putman could not be reached for comment, and PwC declined to comment.

UK LIKE U$A

Millions of ‘missing voters’ cost Labour seats due to electoral boundaries bias


Toby Helm Political Editor

THE GUARDIAN
Sat, 2 September 2023

Photograph: Maureen McLean/Shutterstock

British democracy is being “warped” by an unfair system for drawing constituency boundaries that ignores millions of “missing voters” and hugely benefits the Tories, according to a new study of official data.

Analysis by the political commentator and pollster Peter Kellner shows that if constituencies were determined according to the size of their populations rather than the number of registered voters – as happens in most other advanced democracies – then the number of extra Labour seats created would cut the Tories’ Commons majority by 22.

Using the latest population figures and demographic data released last month by the House of Commons and the latest data for registered voters, Kellner concludes that Labour suffers in a way that clearly damages its chances of election success.

“A 22-seat variation in a close election could well be decisive. Indeed, the bias in the present system helped the Tories over the line in three of the last four general elections.” Explaining his findings to the Observer, he said: “We have known for years that millions of eligible adults are omitted from the electoral register.

“The new data show how this distorts election results. The missing voters are concentrated in the most ethnically diverse areas with large numbers of young voters and those who rent their homes. These are the areas that overwhelmingly elect Labour MPs. This means that Labour MPs represent on average 114,000 residents, while Conservative MPs represent just 97,000.

“If the new boundaries were designed to ensure equal populations, rather than equal electorates, this bias would be removed. Almost all parliaments in mature democracies have population-based systems. Had our boundaries been drawn according to best international practice, the Conservatives might well have failed to form a government after the 2010 and 2017 elections, and fallen short of outright victory in 2015.”

Robert Ford, professor of political science at Manchester University, backed Kellner’s analysis and said the current system resulted in “large, growing and unjustifiable inequality in political representation” because people not on the electoral register did not count in terms of representation.

“Equal representation is a fundamental principle of democracy, yet under our current system millions of people who live, work and pay taxes in Britain but are absent from the electoral register are ignored when constituencies are drawn up and MPs allocated,” Ford said.

“As a result, groups underrepresented on the electoral register – private renters, ethnic minorities and young people – get less political representation than they deserve, while groups with high registration rates punch above their weight. Geography compounds this: underrepresented groups tend to cluster together, and the places where they congregate – such as the big cities of England – get fewer seats in the Commons than they deserve.

“This has both political and practical consequences. Politically, as all these groups tend to lean to Labour, it means Labour have fewer MPs and the Conservatives more MPs than if seats were allocated according to population.

“Practically, it means the MPs representing young and diverse inner-city seats have to serve much larger populations of constituents than MPs representing older, rural seats with high registration rates.”

Kellner says in his analysis that the number of MPs in London should be far higher because so many people are among the missing voters. “Londoners are younger, more diverse and far more likely to rent privately than people in any other region. As a result, the population of the average London constituency, more than 117,000, is way above that of any other region, and 14,000 above the national average.

“It will elect 75 MPs at the next election. In population terms, it should elect 85. This is where we would find the lion’s share of the extra Labour MPs that would be elected under this system.”

The 2023 boundary review says constituencies must now have populations within 5% of the “electoral quota” of 73,393 registered voters, except for five protected island seats, such as Ynys Môn in north-west Wales. About 585 seats will have at least some change, with the remaining 65 having no change.

Afghan refugees were ordered out of UK hotels this week. So what happens to them now?

The UK opened its arms to thousands of refugees two years ago but many now risk homelessness


Hannah Fearn
Updated Sat, 2 September 2023 

London Mayor Sadiq Khan's welcome message to Afghan refugees in September 2021. (Getty)

Afghan refugees airlifted to safety after the Taliban took over their country in 2021 have been told to leave hotel accommodation provided by the government.

Some have found stable homes, but many risk homelessness as councils already facing a domestic housing crisis have struggled to find suitable, stable housing they can settle in.

What will happen to them next? Hannah Fearn finds out

Why have so many Afghan refugees been staying in hotels? When Taliban forces took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, Britain committed to supporting about 21,000 refugees to resettle in the UK. Many had supported the British military as it propped up the former Afghan government. When they arrived in the UK they were offered temporary homes in hotels while their claims for asylum were processed.

What is happening to them this week? The government imposed a deadline for all Afghan refugees to be moved out of hotels by the end of Thursday after two years of delays finding suitable long-term accommodation for them.

Wait, why has this taken two years? The UK housing crisis means local authorities have struggled to find appropriate homes for them, either in social or private rented housing – particularly for large family groups who want to stay together. Councils have spent a lot of time and money trying to encourage more private landlords to support refugees, but with limited success.

So the government has abandoned its promises to refugees? That’s exactly what those working with Afghan arrivals say, although they admit it’s been tough to meet its promises because of the UK’s current economic circumstances and the unpredicted arrival of 174,000 refugees from war-torn Ukraine. Sara Nathan, co-founder of Refugees at Home, told Yahoo News: “Of course the government hasn't met its promised obligations to the Afghans.The combination of a housing shortage, cost of living increases and the hostile environment mean it hasn't fulfilled its responsibilities in this area.”

What happened when the refugees were told to move? According to experts it has caused distress among families, many of whom presented to their local authorities as homeless. Yvonne Kachikoti, head of resettlement at the charity Refugee Action, told Yahoo News that the decision to remove hotel accommodation had “a terrible effect on many people’s wellbeing”. “We saw family breakups and suicidal ideation increase,” she added.

But everyone has now been found somewhere stable to live now, right? Not yet. According to veterans minister Johnny Mercer, only a “tiny number” of refugees remain in hotels and he guaranteed that “nobody would be sleeping rough”. However, Refugee Action says that about a third of the 300 refugees they are working with in the North West are still looking for somewhere to live and may declare themselves homeless this week.

So would the refugees rather stay in hotels? No, conditions in the hotels have been bad with large families sharing single rooms. There is no access to kitchen facilities to cook their own food despite meals now only being provided twice a day. Mental health has reportedly declined among hotel residents.

What other services have been withdrawn? Security has been stepped down too, meaning hotels with refugee residents have become more vulnerable to attacks from right-wing, anti-immigration protesters.

What do Afghan community groups say? Dr Nooralhaq Nasimi, founder and director of the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association – himself a refugee who came to the UK two decades ago – says the deadline has actually been beneficial for some hotel residents who had been turning down housing offers based on location or size. “Most [refugees] accepted any offer that was made after the announcement,” he told Yahoo News. “This plan has helped people to rethink about their future, instead of continuing to reject the offers because their families are too big.”

So what can the government do next? Charities want the government to maintain support for people in hotels if they haven’t been found suitable housing and work more closely with councils to fix the problem. One approach could be providing a rental guarantee for private landlords.

What about the future for refugees in the UK? Experts including the Refugee Council say a bigger investment in the UK’s refugee resettlement scheme, which is now accepting 300,000 people a year, is needed. They say this should include a new standardised scheme setting out every council’s responsibilities and allocated funding, granting local authorities time to secure housing and build up a proper team to help support refugees to integrate into British society.

Kremlin’s propaganda film about Ukraine war plays to empty cinemas

Many Russians prefer Barbie. 

Pjotr Sauer
Sat, 2 September 2023 

Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Alexei wasn’t sure if he had entered the right cinema auditorium as he put down the popcorn and plunged into his chair. The room was dark and quiet, with only three other audience members scattered across the large Moscow theatre that could fit more than 100 people.

It was a Friday evening and Alexei had come to see The Witness, Russia’s first feature-length film about its invasion of Ukraine that premiered across the country on 17 August.

The Witness centres on a fictional character called Daniel Cohen, an esteemed Belgian violinist who arrives in Kyiv to perform in February 2022, days before Russian troops entered Ukraine.

As Russia launches its war, Cohen gets caught up in the fighting, witnessing a series of “inhuman crimes and bloody provocations by Ukrainian nationalists”, according to the movie’s premise.

At one point, a Ukrainian commander is seen walking around with a copy of Mein Kampf, while other Ukrainian soldiers pledge their allegiance to Adolf Hitler. As a witness to these unspeakable horrors, Cohen sets out to tell the world the “truth” about the conflict.

In two hours of screen time, the film covers a wide spectrum of falsehoods that the Kremlin has used to justify its invasion of Ukraine. On the eve of the invasion, Vladimir Putin said Moscow had to “denazify” its neighbour, the lie that Ukraine was infiltrated by dangerous “Nazis”.

The release of The Witness comes on the back of plans announced by the Russian authorities to boost the production of movies glorifying Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

But The Witness is a box-office flop. Set to a budget of 200 million roubles (£1.5m), it has grossed less than 14 million roubles (£110,000) in its first two weeks, with viewers across the country reporting empty cinema halls.

“I had seen all the other movies already and had a free evening, so decided just to check it out,” Alexei said, requesting that his surname be withheld for security reasons. “When I got to the theatre room, I thought the viewing [had] ended because it was so empty.”

As the Russian authorities ramp up their war rhetoric at home, movies like The Witness raise questions about just how effective Russian propaganda films actually are.

“Russians get force-fed propaganda everywhere they go – on state television, on the street, in schools and universities,” said Ivan Philippov, creative executive at AR Content, the production company of the renowned film producer Alexander Rodnyansky.

“It is no surprise people don’t want to spend their own money to see more of the same,” he added.

Opinion polls have consistently shown that many in Russia have preferred to turn a blind eye to the war in Ukraine. According to a poll published last month by the Levada Center, Russia’s only independent pollster, a record 40% of Russians said they do not actively follow the events in Ukraine, while only 23% of respondents said they “closely followed” the fighting.

A ticket machine with a poster of The Witness in Moscow.

Many Russians prefer Barbie. 

Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

“Many want to see movies that allow them to forget for a moment what really is going on, forget about the gloom and doom of the news from Ukraine,” said Philippov.

“The last thing they want is to be reminded of the war.”

A closed Kremlin study cited last week by the Brief telegram channel similarly said that sociologists concluded that Russian society largely wished to ignore the war in Ukraine.

Russia has a long history under Putin of pushing propaganda-style films. Shortly after Moscow illegally annexed Crimea, the county’s culture ministry financed the movie Crimea which justified the seizure of the peninsula. Its creators said the idea for the film came directly from Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister.

Not much later, a state-sponsored romantic comedy The Crimean Bridge – about the Kerch Bridge, Putin’s prestige project – was written by Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the government-funded RT network. Just like The Witness, both films were box-office disasters and received scathing reviews from independent critics.

“Z culture simply lacks talented people,” said the veteran culture critic Mikhail Kozyrev, using a popular term to refer to creatives who have rallied around the Russian pro-war Z symbol.

Ever since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, hundreds of prominent film-makers, writers and singers have left the country, an exodus that has drawn parallels with the 1922 Soviet philosophers’ ships – boats that carried some of Russia’s leading intellectuals into exile.

“The level and professionalism of the artists that decided to stay in Russia and work with the state is low,” Kozyrev said. “And the viewers can feel when a movie is made on orders by the state. It just isn’t authentic.”

For some in the country, the pink alternate universe of Barbie has provided a welcome escape. While Warner Bros, the producer of the hit US film Barbie, pulled out of the country shortly after the war started, Russians have found creative ways to work around American copyrights laws, finding bootleg copies of the film that are then screened at pop-up cinemas. Some cinemas sell visitors tickets to little-known Russian short films and then show the pirated Barbie movie during the previews.

In an attempt to discourage the Barbie craze, Russia’s culture ministry on Thursday said that it won’t issue special permission to pirate copyrights to the movie, as the film was “not in line with the goals set by our president to strengthen the spiritual & traditional values of our citizens”.

UK 

Farmers left ‘hugely out of pocket’ after housing green scheme axed

Emma Gatten
Sat, 2 September 2023 

Housebuilders and the Government say the rules were blocking more than 100,000 new homes being built in particularly sensitive areas - Alamy Stock Photo /Brian Lawrence

Farmers could be left out of pocket after investing in green schemes now in doubt after the Government scrapped requirements for housebuilders to pay for their river pollution.

Michael Gove this week announced that housebuilders would no longer be required to offset the impact on rivers of extra nutrients from new homes.

Under the scheme, housebuilders had been expected to buy credits from landowners who were undertaking projects to reduce the amount of phosphate and other nutrients in rivers.

These pollutants enter the water largely as the result of agricultural runoff and sewage, and can harm fish and other wildlife.

They are a major contributor to just 14 per cent England’s rivers being in a good ecological state.

Housebuilders and the Government say the rules were blocking more than 100,000 new homes being built in particularly sensitive areas.

But analysis by environmental groups involved in setting up these schemes found that there are enough projects in the pipeline to allow more than 70,000 homes to be built.

They now fear that many of these will not go ahead, which could leave some farmers out of pocket on their investments so far.

The Government has promised an extra £140 million funding to Natural England as an alternative, but there are still questions over where the money will come from and whether it will be sufficient.

Gabriel Connor-Streich, the chief executive of Greenshank Environmental, which develops river improvement projects for housebuilders to invest in, said some farmers would be “hugely out of pocket” if the schemes were killed off.

These include some whose land was now tied up in 125-year legal agreements based on business models that could now be redundant.
‘I have lost all faith in the Government’

Paul Coles, an arable farmer in Somerset, said he would lose a significant amount of money if he was forced to abandon plans for a scheme on his land to divert water before it reaches the river.

The scheme was planned to be completed by next spring and would have effectively offset enough pollution for around 1,300 homes in the area.

Paying farmers and landowners to improve the natural world was one of the cornerstones of the Government’s post-Brexit approach to reforming agricultural subsidies, which green groups say has now been undermined.

“I’ve lost all faith in the Government to be honest,” said Mr Coles. “It just seems to me that they don’t want English food and they don’t want farmers.”

Steve Godfrey, the managing director of Green Agri Land, which has been helping landowners to reduce their pollution, said the change would damage a burgeoning industry.

“We are now at a point where large-scale solutions are coming forward to unlock housing while protecting our rivers and wildlife sites,” he said. “The recent Government announcement has put these schemes at risk.

“If the amendments are made then there will no longer be the demand for credits and therefore they will be unviable to deliver.”
‘More pollution will pour into our rivers’

Green groups have mounted fierce opposition to the Government’s plans, arguing that it undermined one of the few working schemes to tackle river pollution.

They also argue it undermines the Government’s principle of making polluters pay, and of building a private market for investment in nature and low-carbon industries.

“The upshot will be that more pollution will pour into rivers, but the stream of corporate cash to mitigate the impacts will dry up,” Dr Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link said. “The clear lesson of previous environmental planning policies that have relied on guidance – from biodiversity net gain to sustainable drainage – is that they rarely work.

“The Government has been forced to regulate to drive change and to avoid a chaotic patchwork across the country.

“In this case, the Government’s deregulatory agenda is going in the opposite direction and is bound to be worse for nature.”

A government spokesman said: “While mitigation schemes are operating in some areas, there is no guarantee that demand can be met imminently to unlock the homes that local communities need.

“The Government’s intention in providing significant extra funding to Natural England – and securing contributions from developers – is that such schemes continue without holding up the building of much-needed housing.”

Revealed: How Britt Ekland was tricked over nude dancing scene

Dalya Alberge
Sat, 2 September 2023 

Britt Ekland starred in The Wicker Man (1973) with Edward Woodward - Alamy Stock Photo

When Britt Ekland agreed to star in what was to become a revered classic horror film, it was with the strict understanding that there would be no nude scenes. So, the Swedish starlet felt shocked and betrayed when a body double was brought in to play her character dancing naked in The Wicker Man.

Now, 50 years since the film’s release, the subterfuge producers used to deceive Ms. Ekland has been revealed. Directed by Robin Hardy from a script by Anthony Shaffer, based on David Pinner’s 1967 novel Ritual, The Wicker Man, also starring Christopher Lee, is the story of a puritan police sergeant who arrives on a remote Scottish island in search of a missing girl, only to encounter sinister pagan locals who deny that she ever existed.

Christopher Lee in the iconic film - Rex Features

Ms. Ekland was cast as Willow MacGregor, an innkeeper’s sexually-liberated daughter, who seduces the God-fearing policeman, played by Edward Woodward. In a new book about the making of the film, she has relived the horror of discovering that, without her consent, the film-makers brought in a stripper as her body double for the nude scene - despite an agreement that she would only be shown from the waist up. She said, “During the shoot, I had two days off, and that’s when they shot some of my scenes with a Glaswegian stripper.”

Mr. Walsh discovered that she had been the victim of “subterfuge” in the way that that scene was filmed. First assistant director Jake Wright recalls: “We filmed the dance sequence with Britt Ekland stripped to the waist singing and dancing. When it was finished, we said, ‘thank you very much, that’s enough for tonight.’

“She went downstairs and got into her limousine - and there was another limousine drawn up behind hers… The body double was lying flat on the floor so Britt Ekland couldn’t see her. As Britt had gone, up came the body double and we went on doing the other bits of the full nude scene.”

Ms. Ekland was distraught: “They just stuck a blonde wig on the body double. I couldn’t believe it because Robin promised that he wouldn’t do that. And the model’s body looked nothing like mine… I was just devastated.”

Britt Ekland was shocked by the producers' subterfuge - Mary Evans/Alamy

It has been reported that her then-boyfriend, rock star Rod Stewart, tried to buy the film to stop the world from seeing his then-girlfriend dancing nude in a provocative pagan scene. But Ms. Ekland says, “It’s so preposterous to even put such a thought out. Why on earth would [he] want to do that? I read about that all the time, and it just makes me laugh because it’s so far from the truth. I doubt that he even ever saw the film. There are so many rumors about this film… This, I can definitely confirm. It never ever, ever happened.”

The shoot took place in Dumfries and Galloway, which she described as “one of the bleakest places I’ve been to in my life”. While she had turned up in a sable coat and Gucci luggage, the epitome of the glamorous film star, it was so cold that, between shots, long-johns had to be worn. She added, “It wasn’t that usual a role for me. But I was cast as a beautiful girl, as I was in those days.”

Her recollections will feature in a forthcoming definitive book by John Walsh, titled The Wicker Man: The Official Story of the Film, to be published by Titan Books on October 24.

The 1973 chiller is being released by StudioCanal in a new 4K restoration on September 25. Mr. Walsh, an award-winning filmmaker, said that The Wicker Man was a failure on release but is today considered “The Citizen Kane of horror films”.

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