Shelter should follow Crisis and directly house homeless people | Letters

I was most interested to read your report about the decision made by Crisis to start directly providing accommodation for homeless people (Crisis charity to become a landlord in attempt to rectify ‘catastrophic’ housing in UK, 10 November). Faced with the growing impossibility of securing accommodation via housing associations or local authorities, Crisis sees this as the most direct way of helping. Isn’t it time that Shelter, with its history of supporting other homelessness organisations, arrived at a similar conclusion?Many people are under the impression that Shelter houses homeless people. Despite having financially supported many frontline housing organisations and related projects during the 1960s and 70s, it pulled back from this role in the 80s. It now works with its 900-plus staff and its £80m income to provide housing advice and to undertake research and campaigning

A good deal struck for the NHS | Brief letters

You report (7 November) that Barts Health trust’s takeover of a fully equipped, state-of-the-art private hospital is “thought to be the first time the NHS has inherited ready-to-use health facilities in this way”. However, in 2002, for £37.5m, the Scottish executive bought a large private hospital in Clydebank, built in 1994 at a cost of £180m by a US healthcare firm, for the NHS. Now the Golden Jubilee University National hospital, it delivers 57,500 procedures a year. Not a bad bargain, I’d say

Peter Archer obituary

My friend Peter Archer, who has died aged 80, bettered the lives of many people by improving housing conditions and regenerating neighbourhoods from inner city Bristol to New Delhi. He combined a strategic vision with a belief that communities should have a voice in decisions that affect their lives.One of Peter’s greatest achievements was his establishment in 1986 of Care and Repair England, a project designed to help older and disabled people to continue to live independently by improving their existing housing conditions. He chaired the charity for 20 years and would later (in 2010) rewrite UK government guidance on home adaptations for disabled people.Born and raised in Bromley, Kent, Peter came from a family with a strong Methodist background

Marianne Rigge obituary

My wife, Marianne Rigge, who has died aged 77, was a passionate public advocate for the interests of NHS patients, and a pioneer in creating ways of giving people easier access to medical and health information.The daughter of a GP, she founded a national charity, the College of Health, with the renowned social entrepreneur Michael Young, in response to their experiences as patients and in the consumer movement. Young was the inspiration behind organisations including the Open University and the Consumers’ Association, which he launched in 1957.Marianne joined the Consumers’ Association in the 1970s, and she and Young set up the College of Health in 1983, with the aim of influencing NHS doctors to put the needs of patients at the centre of treatment and care decisions. She ran the charity as director, from Bethnal Green, east London, for 20 years and it helped thousands of people

Abuse by UK’s ‘most prolific sex offender’ was ignored at Medomsley detention centre, report finds

A man who worked as a prison officer and caterer in a youth detention centre was able to rape and torture boys for three decades while the abuse was “ignored and dismissed”, according to a report labelling him as possibly Britain’s worst ever sex offender.Neville Husband carried out at least 388 sexual offences against young men and boys between 1969 and 1985 while working at Medomsley detention centre in County Durham, but is believed have committed hundreds more crimes, which would take the total past the 450 committed by Jimmy Savile.Adrian Usher, the prisons and probation ombudsman (PPO) for England and Wales, has compiled a 202-page report on the conduct of staff at Medomsley from 1961 to 1987, in which he describes Husband as “possibly the most prolific sex offender in British history”.Husband, a former church minister and scout troop leader who died in 2010, is thought to have groomed and attacked hundreds of trainees in Medomsley’s kitchens, where he worked.Men and boys aged 17 to 21 who had been convicted of relatively minor crimes were sent to Medomsley where the ethos of the “short, sharp shock” was in place to deter them from reoffending

Experts concerned over health effects of high-dose nicotine pouches as sales soar in UK

Walk into any corner shop and you’ll see them: colourful tins stacked beside the chewing gum, boasting flavours from frosty berry and lime storm to something called Tomorrowland. Welcome to nicotine pouches – the tobacco industry’s latest diversification strategy.Marketed as “tobacco-free” but packed with nicotine, these small sachets promise a discreet buzz. Sales are rapidly climbing, and UK ministers are considering tighter rules. But are they helping smokers to quit – or hooking a new generation on nicotine? And what else are they doing to people’s health?Nicotine pouches are different from snus – a moist tobacco paste – and vapes, which deliver nicotine via inhalation