The countryside needs to evolve

HOW do we ensure that our countryside does not become the preserve of only the very wealthy? A question posed today by the National Housing Federation, it is fundamental to the future fabric of many of those Yorkshire market towns, villages and hamlets that will welcome the world this weekend for the Tour de France’s opening stages.

Despite their charm, basic demographics are working against these rural idylls. A double whammy of spiralling house prices and stagnant wages are forcing younger generations to seek new pastures in Britain’s large towns and cities because they would require a salary increase of 150 per cent just to become eligible for a mortgage. The numbers simply do not stack up.

The consequence is a disproportionate number of elderly people living in rural locations – and not enough progress being made on the construction of affordable housing so countryside locations become more sustainable for young people and their families.

This is not new. Wage increases in remoter areas are traditionally below the national average, but today’s report is a powerful reminder of the need to take decisive action to prevent the English countryside from becoming extinct. It also neuters the argument advocated by those campaigners who oppose planning applications because they will spoil the aesthetic appeal of cherished areas.

Unless the countryside evolves, and is willing to embrace affordable housing and employment opportunities, more and more vital facilities will close because they are no longer sustainable and villages will become little more than museum pieces.

The challenge is achieving such progress, and helping the rural economy to fulfil its untapped potential, without detracting from those features that inspired William Blake’s “green and pleasant land”, the rousing finale to Jerusalem.

Hospital diagnosis

Accountability must match care

IN the wake of the worst-ever NHS hospital scandal, which saw patients in Mid Staffordshire routinely neglected by staff to the point where an estimated 1,200 people needlessly lost their lives, there was widespread – and quite justifiable – incomprehension that such glaring care failures were overlooked for so long.

Though the Care Quality Commission’s subsequent move to beef up its inspections smacks of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, it is still an important step toward restoring public trust in the ability of the authorities to identify and tackle areas where standards of care fall short.

One of the first trusts to be subjected to this increased scrutiny, which will be initially targeted at under-performing hospitals, is Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust – and the results make for sobering reading.

Concluding that both Leeds General Infirmary and St James’s Hospital require improvements, concerns centre on a shortage of out of hours doctors, the quality of staff handovers, a lack of facilities for young people and the practice of patients waiting on trolleys in corridors for beds to become available.

These issues are not unique to Leeds and other hospitals can learn from such criticism. The test now will be how the Commission monitors the Trust’s efforts to tackle them and what repercussions, if any, there are for senior management if they fail to transpire.

If public confidence is to be fully restored, then officials must be held accountable – something which conspicuously failed to happen following the scandal at Mid Staffordshire.

Another betrayal

Revulsion at Harris sex crimes

THE SADNESS and revulsion which greeted the conviction of Rolf Harris for a dozen sexual offences could not have been more profound – or acute. This was another high-profile children’s entertainer, after Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall, whose colourful public persona masked deep shame in his private life.

These were some of the biggest names in family entertainment in the 1970s and 1980s, and who have now betrayed the trust and respect of their many fans. Not only did Harris receive an MBE, OBE and CBE, as well as a fellowship from Bafta, but he enjoyed a starring role in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert and painted an acclaimed portrait of Her Majesty.

A total vindication of the more enlightened approach being applied to the prosecution of historic sex crimes, and justice – albeit belatedly – for those tormented by Harris, they can be consoled by the fact that celebrity entertainers, and others, can no longer use their status to mask their sordid crimes.