Persimmon (PSN) has been accused of shoddily building homes that left its customers exposed to an “intolerable risk” in the event of fire. An independent review of the company published on Tuesday found Persimmon had a “systemic nationwide failure” to install fire-stopping cavity barriers. Persimmon has been at the centre of political and public anger over the poor quality of its homes and the vast bonus paid to its former boss Jeff Fairburn The review, which the company commissioned following a deluge of customer complaints, said the failure to meet minimum building standards was “a manifestation of poor culture” at the firm. Jeff Fairburn’s £75m bonus at Persimmon is infamous, and here’s the ugly twist. Some of the homes the company was building in the bonus-accumulation period were shoddy. That damning finding comes via an independent review that reads as genuinely independent, which isn’t always the case with board-commissioned reports. Stephanie Barwise, a QC at Atkin Chambers, and representative of some of the Grenfell Tower victims, set the tone with this arresting line: “Persimmon has traditionally been more of a land assembler and house-seller rather than a housebuilder.”
British American Tobacco (BATS) and three other e-cigarette firms have been banned by the UK advertising watchdog from promoting their vaping products on public Instagram pages in a ruling described as “a huge step forward” by health campaigners. The landmark ruling against puts the spotlight on tactics used to market increasingly controversial vaping and e-cigarette products to young people. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) rules ban the advertising of unlicensed, nicotine-containing e-cigarettes, however companies are allowed to put factual information about their products on their own websites. BAT, one of four companies to receive bans from the ASA for using Facebook-owned Instagram to promote vaping, had argued its Vype Instagram account was equivalent to a company-owned site.
