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You and Yours: Care Homes Fire; Green Energy Fraud; Packed Lunches; Botton; Hospital Appointments

Care Homes Fire; Green Energy Fraud; Packed Lunches; Botton; Hospital Appointments

08/10/2014

BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, Care Homes Fire; Green Energy Fraud; Packed Lunches; Botton; Hospital Appointments

Consumer news, including reports on care home fires, and fraud linked to the Green Deal.

Consumer news, including reports on care home fires, the possible mis-selling and fraud linked to the Green Deal, the decline in packed lunches, and missed hospital appointments.

An elderly woman with dementia died in a fire in her care home caused by a burning cigarette while staff were supposed to be supervising her smoking. The fire service says it is seeing too many cases like this because care workers aren't reacting to the warning signs.

The Green Deal is a government scheme where people can get a loan to pay for energy efficiency work on their home. The loan is attached the house and paid back through the savings made on energy bills. In the early days of the scheme, Trading Standards and Citizens Advice warned that the scheme was vulnerable to scammers. Over 4,000 Green Deal plans have now been processed, so were these fears justified?

Packed lunches are taking a kicking at the moment. The nation's 4 to 7 year olds are currently enjoying free school meals thanks to Nick Clegg's dim view of what they used to get in their lunchboxes. And now it seems adults too are ditching the Tupperware. There's been a more than ten percent decline in packed lunch consumption this year - that's 76 million fewer tuna sandwiches and pasta salads year on year.

A pioneering community for learning disabled residents in North Yorkshire is facing the threat of a breakaway by some able-bodied co-workers over plans to change the way it's run. Botton, near Whitby, is the largest and oldest Camphill village. About a hundred people with learning disabilities share work and accommodation with volunteers, who aren't paid but receive living costs and expenses. Reporter Andrew Fletcher went to find out more on a tour of the workshops and farms that make up of the estate.

A report by the disability campaign group Transport for All claims that poor transport systems for patients and missed hospital appointments could be costing the NHS £357million a year - that works out at £126 per patient. In some areas awareness of the scheme is very low with some patients not realising they have access to transport for their appointments

In May 2013, permitted development rights policy was introduced to allow offices to be turned into houses without planning permission, changes the Government wants to make permanent. The policy was designed to bring empty and underused buildings back into use but in some areas businesses have been served eviction notices so landlords can cash in on higher residential rents and sales prices. Samantha Fenwick reports.

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