This new attempt to address the refugee crisis in Calais is in reality an admission of failure – Abbott

Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, speaking in response to reports of a new deal on Calais refugees, said:

“This new attempt to address the refugee crisis in Calais is in reality an admission of failure.

“We have repeatedly been told that security measures would solve the problem, but it has just shifted it from Calais to Sangatte and back to Calais again.

“We need humane treatment of all these people, safe and legal routes for genuine refugees and the UK Government needs to honour our moral obligations by taking our fair share of refugees.”

Planning issues

I have been working closely with Wokingham Borough and some of the Parishes on the issue of development. Wokingham has an agreed local plan with ample provision for new housing, and does not wish to see additional planning permissions granted on appeal outside the approved areas of the plan.

The Council had granted 9500 permissions for new homes to be built by March 2017. The agreed requirement is for 850-900 new homes a year, so this represented more than a ten year supply. Under government rules a Council has to make available a five year supply of permissions to give developers and builders some flexibility. On this basis Wokingham should not lose on appeal unless the application was for homes within the agreed plan.

Some Inspectors in the past have ignored or looked through the high level of outstanding planning permissions, and have concentrated on the actual build rate. If this has been below the agreed rate they have sometimes granted extra permissions. This is damaging to the Plan led process, and makes it far more difficult to plan for schools, roads and other infrastructure, introducing more uncertainty into where extra homes might be built.

Together the Borough and I have urged the government to tighten the rules over what Inspectors can do when a Council has made available many more permissions than the number required. the Secretary of State has agreed to work with the Borough on trying to secure a better build rate on the many sites where permissions are already outstanding.

Wokingham is working hard to put in the extra schools, roadspace and other public facilities so much development needs. A better enforced local plan would help with this work, which requires Inspectors to support the Council.

ESMA consults on potential CFD and binary options measures to protect retail investors

ESMA published a statement on 15 December 2017 explaining that it was considering the possible use of its product intervention powers under Article 40 of MiFIR to address investor protection concerns posed by the marketing, distribution and sale of CFDs and binary options to retail investors.

It is now seeking evidence from stakeholders on the impact of the following proposed measures:

Contracts for Difference

The specific potential measures under consideration are:

i. Leverage limits on the opening of a position by a retail client. These would range from 30:1 to 5:1 to reflect the historical price behaviour of different classes of underlying assets;

ii. A margin close out rule on a position by position basis. This would standardise the percentage of margin at which providers are required to close out a retail client’s open CFD;

iii. Negative balance protection on a per account basis. This would provide an overall guaranteed limit on retail client losses;

iv. A restriction on the incentivisation of trading provided by a CFD provider; and

v. A standardised risk warning by CFD providers. This would include an indication of the range of losses on retail investor accounts.

ESMA is also considering whether CFDs in cryptocurrencies should be addressed in the measures.

Binary Options

The potential measure under consideration is a prohibition on the marketing, distribution or sale of binary options to retail investors.

Next Steps

The submission period for responses will close at 23.59 Paris time on 5 February.