Daill Mail - 08.08.2019

Page  QQQ Daily Mail, Thursday, August 8, 2019

HOUSE prices have fallen for the sec-

ond month in a row after warnings

that the market is ‘flatlining’ during

uncertainty over Brexit.

The average price of a house in the UK

during July was £236,120 – a fall of 0.2 per

cent compared with June.

It follows a fall in prices in June – but

last month’s were still 4.1 per cent higher

than a year ago, according to the figures

from the Halifax bank.

The statistics came as the Royal Institu-

tion of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) pub-

lished a survey showing that sellers were

receiving offers below their asking price.

Some 69 per cent of surveyors said

homes worth £1million or more sold for

less than their asking prices in July com-

pared with 66 per cent in April.

And 59 per cent said homes costing

£500,000 or less were also harder to shift

compared with 62 per cent previously.

Surveyors reported ‘solid’ price rises in

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

But in London, the South East and East

Anglia, prices continued to fall.

Simon Rubinsohn, from Rics, said: ‘This

will provide little comfort for the market

with all the key indicators pretty much

flatlining.’ He warned that prices and

sales were ‘losing momentum’ due to

uncertainty around Brexit, which was

making buyers and sellers more nervous

about big financial decisions.

House prices

fall again

amid Brexit

uncertainty

‘It’s time they all left - bring

up the topic of falling

house prices’

By Matt Oliver

City Correspondent

ally be moved away from current routes,

the Financial Times reported.

By next year the plan is for a third to berth

at ports well away from the city, such as the

Fusina and Lombardia terminals three

miles away across the lagoon on the

Italian mainland.

Mr Toninelli said he had been looking for

a solution ‘to avoid witnessing more

invasions of the Giudecca by these floating

palaces, with the scandals and risks that

they bring’.

In future the liners will dock at a new loca-

tion, possibly outside the lagoon, to be

decided on by public consultation.

Cruise ships told to give Venice a wide berth

THEY have been blamed for damaging

the city’s delicate foundations and

blighting its famous skyline.

Now, after a decades-long battle, residents

in Venice have succeeded in getting cruise

ships banned from docking there.

The Italian government yesterday

announced it would begin re-routing the

liners away from the historic city centre.

The decision comes after a cruise ship col-

lided with a small tourist boat along one of

Venice’s canals in June.

MSC Opera crashed into the quayside of

the Giudecca Canal after injuring five pas-

sengers on the smaller vessel. The same

month another cruise liner narrowly missed

ploughing into a canal-side restaurant.

The incidents provoked resentful Vene-

tians to take to the water to protest in a

fleet of small boats.

The city’s population of 55,000 claims the

ships are threatening to overwhelm them,

dropping off an estimated 30,000 visitors

during the peak summer months. Of the

60,000 tourists who descend on Venice each

day, less than half stay the night.

Venice – once known as La Serenissima, or

the Serene One – has also suffered damage

to its ancient wooden foundations from the

bow waves of the enormous ships.

Italy’s minister of transport Danilo

Toninelli said the cruise ships would gradu-

By Amelia Clarke

Blight on the skyline: A cruise ship towers over buildings as it passes along a Venice canal

ROME has banned tourists from

sitting on its famous Spanish

Steps – with fines of up to £

if they are caught by police.

The city had previously barred

visitors from eating or drinking

on the marble staircase lead-

ing from the church of Trinita

dei Monti to Piazza di Spagna.

But Giuseppe Roscioli, presi-

dent of a local hoteliers’ asso-

ciation, said: ‘Tourists should be

allowed to rest a bit after walk-

ing around the city.’

The 17 steps underwent a

£1.million renovation in 2016

after the marble had become

discoloured by pollution and

wine and coffee spills.

When in Rome,

don’t sit down

Air pollution

‘causes third

of childhood

asthma cases’

The issue of air pollution and

childhood asthma has been

highlighted by the case of nine-

year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah, from

Lewisham in south-east Lon-

don. She died from an asthma

attack in 2013, but her death is

set to be re-examined at an

inquest to determine if it was

linked to air pollution.

Researchers behind the latest

study, from Barcelona Institute

for Global Health, yesterday

called for action and said gov-

ernments should do more to

tackle the issue.

Dr Haneen Khreis, who led the

study, published in the Euro-

pean Respiratory Journal, said

there was growing evidence that

By Victoria Allen

Science Correspondent

AIR pollution could cause a

third of new childhood asthma

cases in the UK, a major study

warns today.

And as many as 45,000 children

could be developing the condition

as a result every year.

Traffic fumes, particularly from die-

sel cars, can damage children’s air-

ways, causing inflammation which

leads to asthma, especially in those

who are genetically at risk.

Researchers examined asthma rates

among more than 63million children,

aged one to 14, living in 18 European

countries, including the UK.

They calculated that as many as a

third of child sufferers would be spared

the condition if countries cut levels of

PM2.5 pollution – tiny particles mainly

produced by traffic and industry.

In the UK it could prevent 29 per

cent of child asthma cases – or 44,

a year. Cutting the amount of nitrogen

dioxide in the air could also lead to a

similar reduction.

Around 1.1million children are

believed to suffer from asthma in the

UK and air pollution has become a

major issue. Research has suggested

that air pollution is now responsible

for hundreds of thousands of excess

deaths across Europe, and that it may

even be a bigger killer than smoking.

King’s College London recently

found that children could have their

lives shortened by seven months from

continually breathing polluted air,

while four in ten primary school chil-

dren are forced to breathe toxic air

that breaches World Health Organisa-

tion (WHO) guidelines.

‘Breathing in

toxic air’

of getting asthma or having a

life-threatening asthma attack

because of filthy air.’

Dr Penny Woods of the British

Lung Foundation said: ‘The fact

that the air in our towns and

cities could be giving children a

lifelong and potentially life-

threatening illness is disgusting

and simply unacceptable.’ The

charity is calling for Clean Air

Zones and wants the Govern-

ment to commit to WHO guide-

lines for PM2.5 pollution.

Professor Stephen Holgate, a

special adviser to the Royal

College of Physicians, said:

‘This groundbreaking study

confirms the massive impact air

pollution has on childhood

asthma, not only in making it

worse in those who already suf-

fer, but initiating new asthma in

those who otherwise would not

have the disease.’

Last year St Mary’s Catholic

Primary School in Chiswick,

west London, cancelled outdoor

playtimes to protect children

from traffic fumes. Thousands

more schools have brought in

rules to try to stop parents driv-

ing to school.

A government spokesman

said: ‘We are investing £3.5bil-

lion to clean up our air, while

our Clean Air Strategy has been

commended by the WHO.’

air pollution was ‘contributing

substantially to the burden of

paediatric asthma’.

He added: ‘These impacts are

preventable. We can and should

do something about it.’

That call was echoed by cam-

paigners last night. Dr Saman-

tha Walker of Asthma UK said:

‘It is outrageous that children

across the UK are breathing in

toxic air.

‘This research is yet another

reminder that the Government

needs to tackle air pollution as

an urgent priority and commit

to meeting air-quality standards

from the WHO.

‘No child should face the risk

GIRL, 9, DIED AFTER SEIZURES

THE death of nine-year-old

Ella Kissi-Debrah from

asthma was among the

first to be directly linked to

air pollution.

Ella, who lived 80ft from

London’s traffic-clogged

South Circular Road, died

in 2013 after suffering sei-

zures for three years. The

original inquest into her

death did not establish the

cause of her asthma.

But Ella’s family believed

the filthy air around their

home was a ‘silent killer’.

A new inquest will now be

held after Ella’s mother

Rosamund said there was

more evidence linking the

fatal asthma attack to air

pollution. Ella was first

taken to hospital in 2010

after suffering a coughing

fit and was admitted a fur-

ther 27 times.

Her Lewishman home was

just one mile from a gov-

ernment air pollution

monitoring station. When

the fresh inquest was

Tragedy: Ella Kissi-Debrah announced Mrs Kissi-Deb-

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