'Bedroom Tax' To Hit Thousands Of Families

By Emma Birchley, East Of England Correspondent

Thousands of families living in social housing are facing a cut in their benefits from April because they are seen to have too big a home.

The under-occupation penalty, dubbed "the bedroom tax", aims to encourage households to downsize if they have spare rooms, freeing up their properties for larger families.

But council house tenant Eddie Bird says the policy fails to take into consideration individual cases. His wife Shirley has terminal cancer, and weighing just five-and-a-half stone, needs her own room.

"Any form of movement on the bed and it affects my wife. She's in constant back pain," said Mr Bird. "There's no room for separate beds so I sleep in the box room."

They have been told they will lose nearly £14 a week in benefits.

"It's going to affect my wife's quality of life. We have a Motability car but if we can't afford to put petrol in it, we can't go on any day trips."

The Government hopes the policy will make better use of almost a million rooms that are not used and help reduce the £23bn housing benefit bill.

Eddie Bird says he will lose out despite his wife having terminal cancer

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: "We've put a fairly sizeable sum aside to be able to ensure that those kind of cases can be paid for.

"But the general idea that there has to be a limit on the amount of benefit that people receive I think is a correct one.

"And these are exactly the same kind of rules that have existed in the last few years in private rented (accommodation), so we are applying to public housing.

"If it was good enough for private renting, it's got to be good enough for public housing."

But critics question how you can penalise tenants for not moving somewhere smaller when there simply are not enough suitable sized properties available.

It is something the Coast and Country Housing Association has seen in South Teesside. They have 10,000 properties but only two one-bedroom apartments available.

Chief executive Iain Sim said: "We had the pasty tax last year - this is the nasty tax. This is hitting people directly who through no fault of their own are under-occupying the property that they live in.

"The cut in their benefit will range from 14% for one room up to 25% for two rooms. That's a loss in income of between £10 and £22 a week. That's a lot of money to take from people with very limited incomes."

The change is expected to affect 660,000 claimants.

Some households will be exempt if, for example, a non-resident carer for a disabled person helps at the home overnight.

But as Eddie and Shirley Bird are married they will not be eligible for this exemption. Their only hope is that they will qualify for financial assistance from a fund called the Discretionary Housing Payment scheme, but it is not guaranteed.

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Food Bills May Rise Amid Growing Meat Tests

By Tom Parmenter, Sky News Correspondent

Consumers are being warned that food bills may rise if high demand for meat testing continues.

Since the start of the horsemeat scandal, laboratories all over the UK have been inundated with requests to test different meat products.

At Worcestershire Scientific Services laboratory staff have been working early mornings, late nights and weekends to keep up with demand.

Even some of the equipment has been unable to keep up with almost continual testing.

Laboratory manager Paul Hancock told Sky News that funding is tight, explaining: "The FSA do support the laboratory to a degree but things are very very difficult.

"If the consumer wants quality food they have to be prepared to pay for a degree of policing that."

Checking a meat sample for DNA from other species takes three days and costs between £75 to £100 per sample.

The number of labs capable of carrying out proper testing though has fallen over recent years due to funding cuts. In April, Somerset County Council will close its lab.

Those that remain open operate as competitive businesses rather than sharing information, equipment and practices with each other.

Mr Hancock added: "Ten or 15 years ago the labs used to work closely together that relationship has broken down because of commercial activity and that makes life a whole lot more difficult as well."

Meanwhile, France's agriculture ministry has confirmed that horse carcasses from the UK containing the drug Phenylbutazone - known as bute - have probably ended up in the human food chain.

A spokesman for the French agriculture ministry said it was alerted by British authorities that six carcasses had been exported to France in January but that the meat had already been processed.

Some of the meat was recalled but the equivalent of three carcasses have "probably" been eaten, according to officials - although they insist the health risk is "minor".

Bute is an anti-inflammatory treatment for horses which is potentially harmful to humans and is banned from the food chain.

The latest Food Standards Agency results showed six positive results for horse DNA out of 1,133 tested beef products, but so far no UK sample has been found to contain bute.

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AAA Credit Rating Lost: Osborne Defiant

George Osborne is coming under pressure over what Labour calls his "catastrophic economic policy failure" after the UK lost its top-grade AAA credit rating.

International agency Moody's downgraded it by one notch to AA1, citing slow growth and a rising debt burden.

The Chancellor said it was a "stark reminder" of the country's debt problems, but said the coalition was determined to stick by its plan for economic recovery.

In the last election, Ms Osborne made safeguarding Britain's credit rating one of his key pledges.

And he has used maintaining the rating for government bonds as one of the main arguments for the Government's austerity programme.

The downgrade is a major blow for Mr Osborne, who has been coming under increasing pressure to take action to stimulate the economy.

He said: "We have a stark reminder of the debt problems facing our country - and the clearest possible warning to anyone who thinks we can run away from dealing with those problems.

"We are not going to run away from our problems, we are going to overcome them."

Labour's shadow chancellor Ed Balls told Sky News: "They (the Government) are paying the price for an absolute catastrophic failure of economic policy and everybody can see that now pretty much other than the chancellor and the prime minister.

"Until they face up to reality, we're just going to have more of the same."

Moody's said it did not expect Britain's slow recovery to change

Moody's said Britain's recovery was proving to be significantly slower than previous rebounds from recession and it did not expect the situation to change.

"[There's] increasing clarity that, despite considerable structural economic strengths, the UK's economic growth will remain sluggish over the next few years," it said.

Moody's is the first of the major credit rating agencies to knock the UK off of its top rating.

The ratings agency also cut the Bank of England's AAA rating by one notch, also to AA1. The US' top credit rating was downgraded by one notch in 2011.

Sky Economics Editor Ed Conway said: "The fact that Britain has lost its AAA crown for the first time since credit ratings were given to the UK back in the 1970s, it's a really big blow to Britain's reputation.

"It's something of an economic blow, but in a way it's more of a political problem for George Osborne. He made a key part of the Conservative election pledge to safeguard Britain's credit rating."

Moody's said that the British economy is constrained both by the troubled global economy and the drag from businesses and the Government slashing its debt burdens.

"Moreover, while the Government's recent Funding for Lending Scheme has the potential to support a surge in growth, Moody's believes the risks to the growth outlook remain skewed to the downside," it said.

Labour has insisted that withdrawing demand from the economy has put it more at risk by stunting growth.

Mr Balls said: "This credit rating downgrade is a humiliating blow to a prime minister and chancellor who said keeping our AAA rating was the test of their economic and political credibility.

"In the Budget the government must urgently take action to kick-start our flatlining economy and realise that we need growth to get the deficit down. If David Cameron and George Osborne fail to do so and put political pride above the national economic interest we face more long-term damage and pain for businesses and families."

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Italy: Briton Held Over Tour Guide Murder

By Nick Pisa, Sky News Reporter

A Briton has been arrested in Italy for the murder of a tour guide and the attempted killing of another man.

Jason Peter Marshall, 24, was held by police early on Saturday after they traced him through his mobile phone signal to a late night bus.

He was arrested after a 55-year-old man was found severely beaten in the bedroom of his apartment in central Rome, following calls to police when neighbours heard screams and calls for help.

When officers arrived on the scene, the victim identified Marshall as his attacker and described how he had been threatened with a gun, badly beaten with a telescopic cosh and smothered with a pillow.

Marshall is said to have fled the apartment with €400 (£348), credit cards and the victim's iPad as he allegedly tried to erase all traces of contact between him and the victim.

Marshall, who is originally from Greenwich, southeast London, is said to have arrived in Italy last month and police in Rome have confirmed he is also the prime suspect in the murder of tour guide Vincenzo Iale.

The 68-year-old was found strangled and stabbed to death in his flat at Torvajanica, on the outskirts of Rome, four weeks ago with his bank card missing.

Police said Marshall was being held in Rome's Regina Coeli jail on suspicion of murder, attempted murder, kidnap and possessing offensive weapons.

Sources said the victims had been targeted through gay internet chat rooms.

A Rome police source said: "This could easily have been a double murder investigation and the second victim - although badly hurt - can think himself lucky he is not dead."

No one from the British Embassy in Rome was immediately available for comment and Marshall is expected to be questioned further by prosecutors ahead of appearing before an investigating judge.

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Fuel Prices 'Head For Highest Level Ever'

Motorists have been warned that petrol prices may soon reach their highest level ever.

The AA said sterling's slide and market speculation could push prices to record levels by Easter.

The warning comes as tanker drivers at the Grangemouth refinery, which supplies Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England, begin a three-day strike in a row over pay and pensions.

On Friday striking drivers manned a picket line outside the big facility, with police officers monitoring events.

After surging 5p a litre over a month, the price of petrol at the pumps has gone up a further 1p in the last five days, the AA said.

It revealed that the average cost of petrol in the UK is now 138.32p per litre, with diesel having risen 4.78p from its mid-January price to stand at an average of 145.10p.

The picket line outside Grangemouth oil refinery on Friday

The latest figures show that petrol has risen 6.24p since early January, adding £3.12 to the cost of refilling a typical 50-litre tank.

The AA said filling up the 70-litre tank of a Ford Mondeo now costs £4.37 more than it did six weeks ago.

A two-car family's monthly petrol cost has risen £13.25 with the current price surge.

It added that drivers have been caught between the pound weakening against the dollar and soaring wholesale prices, both due to stock market speculation.

Regionally, Yorkshire and Humberside and the north of England are the cheapest for petrol at the moment at 137.6p a litre, with prices in London and Scotland at an average of 137.8p. Northern Ireland is the most expensive at 138.7p.

Yorkshire and Humberside remains the cheapest region for diesel, averaging 144.2p, while East Anglia, Northern Ireland and southeast England are the most expensive at 145.2p.

AA president Edmund King said: "This latest surge in fuel prices and its impact on spending indicates that UK drivers and families can't take any more.

Petrol price breakdown over the past decade

"We're no longer talking of the motorist as a cash cow for tax and speculator greed, but a horse slowly but surely being flogged to death.

"This is the third 10p-a-litre wholesale price surge in 11 months, given extra vigour by currency speculators betting against the pound."

Government revenue from fuel duty has also been hit hard as Britons reduce spending by cutting back on non-essential journeys.

HM Revenue and Customs figures showed that January's UK petrol sales fell to the lowest tracked by the Government in 23 years.

Drivers consumed 1.465 billion litres of petrol last month, down 14 million litres on the previous all-time low set in March last year and nearly 100 million litres below December's consumption of 1.564bn litres.

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Jemima Prees: Tribute To Ski Tragedy Schoolgirl

The family of a British schoolgirl who died in a skiing accident in the Austrian Alps has spoken of how she "lived every day as if it might be her last".

Mourners will gather today for the funeral of 10-year-old Jemima Prees, who was killed when she hit a tree at high speed on February 10 while on a half-term holiday with her family.

The schoolgirl, who was wearing a helmet, appeared to lose control and skied into a wooded off-piste area at the Mayrhofen resort near Tyrol, an Austrian police spokesman said.

The 10-year-old was on a half-term skiing holiday with her family

Her brother and father rushed to her side to give first aid before she was airlifted to hospital in Innsbruck, but she died the following day.

Her funeral will be held at the Church of St John The Baptist, in Colerne, near Chippenham, Wiltshire.

Speaking on the eve of the service, Jemima's parents, Tim and Karen, told of the mature attitude to life which belied the girl's tender years.

Mrs Prees said: "She was lovely, she was gorgeous, she was very active. She loved life. She lived every day as if it might be her last.

"Sometimes she used to say, 'Today might be the last day, we must all tell each other that we love each other because we may not come back this evening'.

"She was very wise, wise beyond her years. She had things sewn up that some people never seem to grasp."

Jemima's father described her as "a real ray of sunshine".

Jemima 'touched so many people', her parents say

"She just had the knack of making everybody feel as if they were really important to her," he said.

"And she had a smile for everybody. And I think she genuinely cared about other people, it wasn't just a surface smile."

Police in Mayrhofen - an hour away from Innsbruck and popular with British skiers - said the Prees family were on the last run of the day when Jemima careered into woodland and was knocked unconscious.

Her brother Barnaby spent 40 minutes trying to revive his sister.

Jemima's brother Barnaby attempted to resuscitate her at the scene

Jemima, who went to Calder House School, near Colerne, also has two sisters, Annabel and Olivia, who were not on the family holiday.

The schoolgirl's family have set up a charity in Jemima's memory, named Jemima's Gift, intended to help children make the most of opportunities in the arts, sport and education.

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Hacking: Ex-NOTW Executive Avoids Prosecution

After spending nearly two years on police bail, Mr Wallis has been told he is not being prosecuted because there is insufficient evidence.

He said on Twitter: "After 21 months of hell for my family, CPS have just told my solicitors that there will be no prosecution of me re my phone-hacking arrest."

Prosecutors have said there is insufficient evidence to bring charges against a journalist arrested under Operation Weeting.

Mr Wallis was arrested in July 2011 on suspicion of conspiracy to intercept communications.

In a statement Alison Levitt QC, principal legal adviser to the director of public prosecutions, said prosecutors had been considering whether to bring charges against two journalists over alleged phone hacking.

She said: "The file in relation to one of those two journalists was resubmitted on January 11 2013. Having carefully considered the matter, the Crown Prosecution Service has concluded that there is insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction in relation to that journalist.

"The other journalist remains under investigation."

So far, 26 people have been arrested as part of Operation Weeting, Scotland Yard's investigation into illegal access to voicemails, and another six as part of a separate line of inquiry that came out of the probe.

Of those, eight are facing charges over alleged phone hacking - ex-News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, former spin doctor Andy Coulson, private detective Glenn Mulcaire and five other former NotW staff.

They are ex-managing editor Stuart Kuttner, former news editor Greg Miskiw, former head of news Ian Edmondson, ex-chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck and former reporter James Weatherup.

Brooks is also accused along with six other people of perverting the course of justice in relation to Operation Weeting.

This is over an alleged conspiracy to withhold material from police.

Brooks, 44, her husband Charlie, 49, her former personal assistant Cheryl Carter, head of security at News International Mark Hanna, Brooks's chauffeur Paul Edwards and security staff Daryl Jorsling and Lee Sandell are all accused of perverting the course of justice.

They are all due to face trial later in the year.

More follows...

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Birds Eye Ready Meal Recall Over Horse Fears

The owner of Birds Eye is recalling 15 ready meals across western Europe after horsemeat was found in a Belgium-made product.

In the UK and Ireland the products being withdrawn are the brand's traditional spaghetti bolognese 340g, shepherd's pie 400g and beef lasagne 400g.

They are made by supplier Frigilunch NV, which also produces a branded chilli con carne sold in Belgium that has tested positive for traces of horsemeat.

Birds Eye said: "We want to reassure you from the testing we have completed that all Birds Eye beef burgers, beef pies and beef platters do not contain horse DNA.

"Whilst this is not a food safety issue, it is clearly unacceptable. In accordance with our high standards, we are immediately withdrawing this product from sale in Belgium."

Iglo Foods Group, the parent company of Birds Eye, said it was pulling a total of 15 Frigilunch products as a precaution.

In addition to the three product recalls in Britain and the same meals in Ireland, it was withdrawing eight products in Belgium and one in the Netherlands.

A number of UK supermarkets have also recalled products from shelves

The Continental food recall also affects ox tongue, mince, meat balls and hamburgers.

In recent weeks it has emerged European meat supply chains had been contaminated with horsemeat, which forced a number of British supermarkets to recall products.

The France-based Findus food company has also been hit by the scandal.

The Birds Eye revelation comes after it initiated a Europe-wide testing programme for horse DNA of its suppliers and on its finished beef products.

In addition to owning the Birds Eye brand, Iglo also owns the rights to Findus in Italy.

Iglo produces and markets frozen food products in 11 countries and it also distributes food across additional countries in central and eastern Europe.

It said the company has introduced an ongoing DNA test programme to prevent further contamination scandals.

Iglo said: "This will help us ensure that we continue to reach the standards that all our consumers expect from our products.

"We want to apologise to consumers and reassure them that we will keep them fully informed and that we are taking action to deal with this issue."

:: Birds Eye placed a product recall statement on its website for UK and Ireland residents and provided customer care contact telephone numbers for concerned consumers.

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'Prisons Are Run Better By Private Firms'

Private firms are better at running prisons than the public sector and all jails should be subject to open competition, according to a think tank.

The Government would be wrong to limit the role of private companies within prisons to small contracts, such as maintenance and catering, right-wing group Reform said.

Ten out of 12 privately-managed prisons have lower re-offending rates among offenders serving 12 months or more than comparable public sector prisons, a report by the group found.

Researcher Will Tanner, who wrote the report, said: "Twenty years of private prisons have created an effective market which is ready to grow.

"Evidence shows that a greater role for the private sector will advance the 'rehabilitation revolution' which ministers want to deliver."

Private firms have been managing prisons since 1992, but in November last year Justice Secretary Chris Grayling signalled a move away from wholesale privatisation as he decided four prisons, including G4S-run HMP Wolds, should be run by the public sector.

Two contracts to run five prisons - Acklington and Castington, which have since formed Northumberland prison, and three in South Yorkshire - will proceed to the next stage of the competition with an announcement expected next spring.

Mr Grayling said private firms will be brought in to all public prisons to run maintenance, resettlement and catering to save up to £450 million over six years.

Policy groups, including Reform, said the decision amounted to the end of competition for prison management between the public and private sector, although Mr Grayling insisted it did not rule out further prison-by-prison competitions in the future.

The report found 12 out of 12 private jails performed better than the public sector at "resource management and operational effectiveness", while seven out of 12 were better at "reducing reoffending".

However, seven out of 12 public prisons performed better than private jails at "public protection".

Justice Minister Jeremy Wright said: "Reoffending rates across the entire prison estate are too high and we are pressing ahead with major reforms to tackle this unacceptable problem.

"And let's be clear, there has been no U-turn on the use of prison competition.

"The cost of running our prisons is too high and must be reduced.

"The recent competition process identified a new approach for reducing costs and improving services aimed at reducing reoffending at a faster rate involving the private sector."

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Abuse Inquiry Uses Posters To Find Victims

By David Blevins, Ireland Correspondent

A state inquiry into historical institutional abuse in Northern Ireland has taken the unprecedented step of posting billboards on bus stops to encourage survivors to come forward and give evidence.

To date, 175 people have volunteered to recount their experiences but the team examining alleged mistreatment in residential facilities over a 73-year period believes there are more potential victims.

Northern Ireland's devolved government announced the state inquiry after a series of reports in the Irish Republic revealed a shocking level of abuse in facilities operated by the Catholic Church.

Earlier this week, there were emotional scenes in the Irish parliament when Prime Minister Enda Kenny apologised to women who had been forced to work in the church's Magdalene Laundries.

The Northern Ireland inquiry will cover similar workhouses (if residents were younger than 18) along with children's homes, orphanages, industrial schools, borstals, hospital units and schools for children with disabilities.

It will focus on institutions operated by state, church and voluntary bodies (1922-1995) but its remit does not extend to mainstream schools or to clerical abuse committed outside residential facilities.

The availability and willingness of witnesses will dictate whether or not high profile cases, such as the Kincora Boys' Home abuse scandal of the 1970s, are included in the investigation.

A spokesman for Sir Anthony Hart, the retired judge chairing the inquiry, said: "Sir Anthony wishes to ensure that as many victims and survivors as possible are made aware of the existence of the inquiry, and of the steps which the inquiry is taking to try to address the fears of those who may be worried about lifting the telephone...

"The inquiry appreciates that, for many victims and survivors, recounting their experiences can be very painful and traumatic. We hope our promotional campaign will encourage potential witnesses to come forward."

Potential witnesses will first be invited to recount their experiences in a so-called acknowledgement forum, which is designed to provide a relaxed and private environment for people to unburden themselves.

Application forms can by downloaded from the website www.hiainquiry.org or requested on Freephone 0800 068 4935. 

The inquiry, estimated to cost between £15m and £19m, must report by January 2016.

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