14 January 2022 The Guardian Weekly9
HOUSINGCost of fi xing high-rise
safety placed on developers
New legislation will protect
leaseholders from the costs of
all post-Grenfell building safety
defects, not just combustible
cladding, the government has said.
Michael Gove, the minister
responsi ble for housing, told
parliament the government
would give leaseholders statutory
protection that extends to all works
required to make buildings safe.
Gove insisted he had the backing
of the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to
threaten developers with tax rises
if they don’t pay £4bn ($5.5bn) to
fi x the defective buildings that
are blighting tens of thousands
of households in the wake of the
Grenfell Tower disaster.LAW
Statue protesters cleared
but case may be referred
Anti-racism campaigners hailed a
jury’s decision to clear protesters
responsible for toppling a statue
of the slave trader Edward Colston
as a huge step in getting the UK to
face up to its colonial past.
Jake Skuse 33, Rhian Graham,
30, Milo Ponsford, 26, and Sage
Willoughby, 22 , did not dispute
the roles they had played in
pulling down the statue and
throwing it in the River Avon in
Bristol during a 2020 Black Lives
Matter protest but all denied
criminal damage. The defence had
urged jurors to “be on the right
side of history”, saying the statue,
which stood for 125 years, was so
indecent and potentially abusive
that it constituted a crime.
However, the attorney general,
Suella Braverman , said she was
considering referring the case to
the court of appeal to clarify the
law as the verdict was “causing
confusion”. The acquittals cannot
be overturned and there cannot be
a retrial without fresh evidence.
Comment Page 48
MONARCHYCompetition for Platinum
Pudding to mark jubilee
The start of offi cial festivities
to mark the Queen’s platinum
jubilee began with the launch of a
competition by Fortnum & Mason
to fi nd a dish celebrating her
70 years on the throne.
Much like Poulet Reine
Elizabeth, more commonly
known as coronation chicken,
invented by Le Cordon Bleu
London for the Queen’s coronation
banquet in 1953, it is hoped
the Platinum Pudding winner
will serve as a long-lasting reminder
of the 95-year-old monarch’s reign.
Recipes will be judged by an expert
panel including the queen of
British baking , Dame Mary Berry.
Other parts of the programme
unveiled by Buckingham Palace
include the Queen opening her
private estates to the public and a
concert outside the palace. It is not
clear which events she will attend.
The bulk of the jubilee duties are
expected to be given to the rest
of the royal family, including
the Prince of Wales and Duchess
of Cornwall.UK Spotlight p2220
The number of
ducks said to
have been living
inside the Devon
home of Alan
Gosling, 79, the
fi rst person in
the UK to test
positive for the
H5N1 bird fl u
strainEyewitness
Holy water
After one of the mildest new
year periods on record, in
which temperatures reached
as high as 16C in parts of the
UK, winter returned last week.
Northern parts of England
and Scotland experienced
widespread ice and even
“thundersnow”. St Thomas
Becket church in Fairfi eld,
Kent, got away lightly with
a frost last Thursday. The
church, on Romney Marsh,
was once part of a village, long
since gone.
GARETH FULLER/PA