help for homeowners: house—builders could be banned from selling new homes as leasehold in england. could be banned from selling the leases often result in extra charges and can make it hard for people to sell. it's completely and morally,ethically wrong. i'm pretty sure they're aware of this. also this lunchtime. the number of vacancies in the nhs in england rises by 8,000 in the first quarter of the year, with the highest proportion among nurses and midwives. a warning that uk animal welfare standards could be jeopardised by cheaper imports after brexit. happier passengers — more rail travellers say they're satisfied with their train services than last year. great britain's adam peaty‘s obliterated the others... and adam peaty breaks his own world

record in the heats of the 50m breaststroke and hints there's more to come. good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. housebuilders may be banned from selling new houses in england as leasehold, under new government proposals. a public consultation has begun on the issue, after it emerged some housing developers have been selling leaseholds onto investment firms, leading to extra costs or rising charges for homeowners. newly built houses in the uk used to be almost totally freehold — you buy the property and the land it's built on — but increasingly house—builders have been selling them leasehold, meaning you don't own the land and have to pay them annual fees. it's a way for builders to make more money. often the annual fees rise regularly and buying the freehold can be very expensive. katie kendrick owns a leasehold house in ellesmere port

near liverpool and wants to buy the freehold but the company which owns it has increased the price from £4000 to £13,000 in less than a year. i've asked the company for a breakdown of how the freehold is calculated, their methodology to the valuation, which they failed to provide me with. they have said i could either go with it or if i challenge it, i will have to take on their legalfees. owners have also found that the ground fees are increasing rapidly, which often makes their property unsaleable. baz jaafar owns a one—bedroom flat in north london. i would go on the record to say that it's completely morally and ethically wrong. i'm pretty sure they are aware of this and i think they have an obligation to their customers, whether that's the people who bought houses or flats, in order to make right this situation. legal experts believe that as a result leasehold sales have no place in the housing market. it's just the tip of the iceberg, really. there's all these people who are stuck in this leasehold trap

and unfortunately the developers are just using this as another way to profiteer and make money. but house—builders say in some cases leasehold is best. i think a blanket ban could be problematic. if you're a council wanting to build homes, perhaps wanting to retain the value of the land, if you are a national trust with heritage products or maybe you're a landowner looking to give discounts to local community land trusts or groups trying to purchase that land, actually the leasehold model works quite well. now the government is set to act. it wants to ban leasehold contracts for newly built houses. what we're talking about here is houses that are being sold on leasehold, thousands of them, for no good reason and then once they are sold, the people who purchased them are exposed to ever—increasing ground rents. it's not acceptable, it's wrong, enough is enough

and we're taking action. but that leaves thousands of people who bought new leasehold properties stuck with contracts that means they face increasing annual bills and unsellable homes. several building firms have set up compensation schemes to cover claims of mis—selling and bad legal advice but a ban on future sales of leasehold houses will do nothing to help homeowners already caught out by buying leasehold. jonty bloom, bbc news. more than 86,000 nhs posts were vacant in the first three months of this year, according to the latest figures. statistics from nhs digital, which collates data, shows the number of vacancies climbed by almost 8,000, compared to the same period the year before. with me is our health correspondent smitha mundasad. talk us through the figures and what they mean? this is the third time we have had access to two years worth of this data and it counts vacancies and add veries on the nhsjob

website. that isn't perfect but it does suggest a system under strain. let's ta ke does suggest a system under strain. let's take a closer look at the firs themselves. it suggests there were 86,000 vacant positions in england between january 2017 and march 2017. that went up 8,000 compared to the year before. now, these vacancies include doctors, dentists, clerical staff, admin staff, scientific staff, admin staff, scientific staff, for example. 0ne staff, admin staff, scientific staff, for example. one of the most interesting figures is the 11,000 nursing staff, for example, and midwifery staff that they were short of in march 2017 alone. now, the royal college of nurses say these 11,000 nursing and midwifery staff that are short, there could be many more, they say that people are leaving the profession because of the pay cap that's been put on by the pay cap that's been put on by the government. the department of health in turn says, look, staff shortages are a huge priority and they say actually, since 2010, the number of nurses and doctors have gone up in their thousands and they

say they'll continue to work on it. thank you very much. a parliamentary committee is warning that animal welfare standards in the uk could be threatened if farmers have to compete against cheaper, less—regulated rivals from outside the eu, once britain has left. a house of lords committee is urging the government to insist on similar standards in any free trade agreements to avoid what it calls a race to the bottom on welfare. 0ur correspondent duncan kennedy is in brockenhurst in the new forest. good afternoon, jane, from the new forest show where they are expecting something like 100,000 people over the next three days, many coming to see beautiful livestock like this. but today's report makes clear, farmers worried about what is going to happen with brexit. some say animal standards might fall, as consumers seek out cheaper imports. it's day one of the new forest show

and just time for a last—minute bovine competition. meanwhile, some may need a hair cut more than others. world class quality of the livestock to be seen here is undisputed. farmers like mike say after brexit, that quality might fall if britain is opened up to food imports from around the world. the downward spiral to get food cheaper is there. something has to give toe make animal welfare cheaper? hopefully not in this country. today's report by the lord's says after brexit, the british public may have to choose between the quality and the price of their food. what is your priority, higher welfare for animals or cheaper food? combination of both. welfare of animals. combination of both. why can't they

do both? that is a tricky one. not at all. why not? animal welfare, definitely. the government today dismissed the farmers' fears, saying: but animal welfare groups point to other issues like this, poultry being washed in chlorine in the united states. they say british consumers might have to accept this if we do a trade deal with america. britain has to insist on the inclusion of a clause that allows it to require imports to meet our animal welfare and food safety standards because if you haven't got that, there's going to be a race to the bottom. welfare versus price, it's a debate that's underpinned britain's food industry since the second world war. brexit will redefine it once again. the

international trade secretary liam fox is already in the us working on a trade deal this week. 0ther countries will follow in a post—brexit world and the question for all of us, jane, is what price the quality of food like this will put price over animal welfare or animal welfare or price? the parents of charlie gard will return to court today. it comes after the couple ended their legal battle to try to take him to the united states for experimental treatment. satisfaction appears to have improved among rail passengers across the uk. the latest national rail passenger survey shows that a period of more stable performance has led to improvements in passengers' experiences, even though there's

been a lot of industrial action on some lines. 0ur transport correspondent richard westcott is at cambridge railway station. does it vary depending on where you live in the country, richard?m does a bit, yes. it comes down to punctuality in effect so if you strip out the biggest franchise of all, the one that includes southern, where they've been plagued by aier of strikes and great northern which goes from cambridge and thameslink where they have had engineering works and terrible punctuality across those companies, then actually, satisfaction is going up because punctuality is getting that little bit better. so it's a mixed view when you look across the country. these passengers in birmingham weren't sure what they thought. in my view, more trains at peak hours. the capacityjust about copes, the capacity is poor on the way home at night, but that's to be expected with rail. i don't use the train very much but i've never had

any problems with them at all, no. no. there's perhaps we could do with another carriage on a lot of trains, especially when people are coming with loads of cases. the service i've had has been certainly very good over the last year. i travel a lot by train and i can't remember being delayed meaningfully in the la st being delayed meaningfully in the last 12 months. it's improving definitely. i know that they're kind of moving the time down to being able to get cheaper tickets so it starts about half nine now you can get the cheaper rate. it's getting better. interestingly across scotla nd better. interestingly across scotland as well, as one franchise covers the whole country, satisfaction's gone to record levels. i spoke to the boss and he basically told me again, it's because punctuality is getting better. but there is a warning here — the warning is that this is fragile, it doesn't necessarily mean that things are getter better all

the time because there are lots of major engineering projects coming down the line and there's still the spectre of industrial action. that's still not sorted out on several different services across the country because there's a big row about what the second person, the conductor does on board the train so. conductor does on board the train so. the rail industry's had some good news today but it's not necessarily going to last. israel has removed metal detectors from the entrance to the al—aqsa mosque injerusalem's old city, saying it will replace them with less obtrusive technology. the new security measures were put in place after two israeli policemen were killed, but their installation raised fears among palestinians that israel was extending its control at the holy site, and days of deadly violence followed. this report from our middle east correspondent, yolande knell. relative calm restored at the gates to the third holiest site in islam. palestinian worshippers now hope to enter after a week of protests over new israeli security controls.

so israel's removed the metal detectors that were just there. instead, it says it's going to do what it calls smart checking, using more surveillance around the old city. it follows over a week of violence and tensions that even crossed borders. the removal of all these cameras and the removal of all these gates prove that there were not needed for security. it was a political measure by israel to impose fact on the ground and we forced them to reverse that. this is how the crisis began. guns were taken inside the al—aqsa mosque grounds and used to kill two israeli policemen at the gates. when the mosque was re—opened with new metal detectors, palestinians continued praying outside, accusing israel of using security as an excuse to extend its control over the site israel denied that.

in clashes with israeli security forces, five palestinians were killed. and in this west bank settlement, a palestinian stabbed to death three israelis in their home. then an israeli embassy guard killed two jordanians, apparently after one attacked him. jordan is the custodian ofjerusalem's mosques. 0vernight, amid fears of a wider escalation, the metal detectors were quietly taken away. israel is making sure there is a real freedom of israel is making sure there is a realfreedom ofjerusalem. israel is making sure there is a real freedom of jerusalem. that israel is making sure there is a realfreedom ofjerusalem. that is what we'll continue to do, enable everybody to come to pray on the temple mount. 50 years after israel ca ptu red temple mount. 50 years after israel captured the old city ofjerusalem, recent pictures have shown once again how it remains at the heart of this conflict. yolande knell, bbc

news, jerusalem. the time is quarter past one. our top story this lunchtime: house—builders could be banned from selling new homes as leasehold in england. and coming up — why are the vatican's famous fountains in st peter's square no longer flowing? coming up in sport, olympic champion adam peaty shows his class once again. after 100m breaststroke gold last night, he set a new world record in the 50m breast stroke heats this morning. raging fires across the south of france and corsica are being fanned by high temperatures and strong winds. thousands of firefighters are battling the blazes. 0ne forest fire has swept through 1,600 acres of the luberon national park in provence, and people have been moved to safety from the town of biguglia in north eastern corsica. sophie long reports. firefighters battling a fierce blaze

on the holiday island of corsica. it ripped through 900 hectares of forest. people left their houses and could do little more than watch as the fire came threateningly close to their homes. translation: we were woken up by the smoke. it was stifling so we stayed in the house and then they evacuated the children and my sister—in—law, who is pregnant. a combination of heat and high winds are making the fire difficult to contain. a bbcjournalist on the island says people are becoming increasingly concerned about their homes and businesses. it's still burning, pockets keep lighting up as this wind continues. there is a real sense of worry that perhaps they won't be able to get this under control and livelihoods and lives could be threatened. in karos in the hills above nice, planes sprayed water from the air. below, the forests continue to burn.

and crews the ground damped down amid the damage. translation: we were up to 70 hectares of fire. the particularity of this far is that we had hundreds and hundreds of houses that were threatening the forest areas. elsewhere in france, fires also raged near lubron and here in the var region. another battle to stop fires spreading just ten kilometres from the seaside resort of st tropez. this mobile phone footage gives a sense of the high winds feeding the fires intensity, winds that are not expected to abate until thursday. the number of fatal shootings by police, and deaths following police pursuits, rose significantly in england and wales last year. a report by the independent police complaints commission says that in 2016—17, there were six fatal police

shootings, including that of the westminster attacker, khalid masood. our home affairs correspondent danny shaw is with me. what is the significance of these figures? on the police shooting figures? on the police shooting figures it is difficult to see whether this is a pattern or a blip. six shootings is the highest number the ipcc has recorded since it was founded in 2004 but they are spread across six police force areas and when we looked into them investigators have found no evidence of misconduct on the part of the armed police involved in at least four of the cases. you also have to look at it in the context of armed operations police are carrying out each year, last year it was 14,700 so each year, last year it was 14,700 so six deaths need to be seen in that context. as far as the pursuit

figures, there were 28 deaths of people involved in incidents in which police were following them in a police car, following a suspect vehicle. in the majority of those cases, the drivers of the vehicle we re cases, the drivers of the vehicle were not those who died, it was pedestrians or passengers and that will be a concern. this is the highest figure for 11 years, there's been a concerted effort to strengthen police driver training and rules around police pursuits but the ipcc has said today it will look again at that with the national police chiefs council. one of the pope's most senior advisors is due to appear in an australian court tomorrow to face charges of sexual assault. cardinal george pell has returned from rome saying that he is innocent, and will clear his name. as our sydney correspondent hywel griffith explains, the case is the latest controversy to hit the catholic church in australia. in george pell‘s hometown, people have become used to confronting the past, and dealing with the spectre of abuse. ribbons mark the places

in ballarat where members of the christian brothers 0rder sexually assaulted children in the 19705. dozens ended their lives prematurely. phil nagle was abused as an eight—year—old. it took more than 20 years for his abuser to be brought tojustice. decades on, he still feels the catholic church has not acknowledged the suffering of victims. they defend the brand at all cost. they don't make any admissions, they make it as hard for you as they can. you know, when you go to court, they're putting solicitors behind their... they're backing their criminal men. they're backing the guys, the perpetrators, they don't back the victims at all. cardinal pell was brought up in ballarat and became its most famous son. as an archbishop, it became his responsibility to deal with the allegations of abuse against ballarat‘s bretheren. now, he is the one accused of sexual assault, allegations he has strongly refuted. as they wait for the legal process

to unfold, there is a feeling here in ballarat that people need answers. the details of the charges against cardinal pell won't be made public until his first court hearing. a moment which is likely to put the spotlight back on this town. those who work with abuse survivors say every headline has an impact. coverage over the last few years has already caused more people to seek help. it was really difficult, because it was exhausting. it became relentless. you couldn't get away from it. it would be in the local papers, it would be on the local news and the wider news. across australia, nearly 2,000 figures from the catholic church have been accused of abuse. a four—year royal commission enquiry has helped to break the silence. it has also made the head of ballarat‘s catholic college speak out, giving a formal apology to the victims and striking the names of convicted abusers from its walls. there's no question that,

as a church, we've got an enormous amount of work to do to build trust with victims and survivors in the wider community, but also within the catholic community, i think, as well. and the only way to do that is to come to the table to say that we acknowledge this openly, we are so very sorry. that can only happen when people here feel they have found the truth. they hope that is what the courts can deliver. hywel griffith, bbc news, ballarat. the decision not to renew contracts for england rugby's world championship winning15—a—side women's team has been strongly criticised by former internationals. the rugby football union says its focus will switch to the sevens game, after this year's world cup in ireland, which starts next month. 0ur sports correspondent richard conway is at the team's training ground in aldershot. that's right. the team preparing in

aldershot, that world cup in ireland gets under way in two weeks, but this news about the contracts is potentially threatening to overs ha d ow potentially threatening to overshadow the preparation for the opening game against spain that england have. they have been training here this morning and the situation with the contracts is such that late last year 48 contracts we re that late last year 48 contracts were handed out, 16 concentrating on the 15 aside version of the game, and 16 handed out on a short—term basis to be brought in for specific competitions such as the six nations. the contracts focused on the 15 aside game will end and no matter what at the end of the world cup next month. the rugby football union saying the focus will be on the seven aside game and the team we re the seven aside game and the team were told about this some time ago backin were told about this some time ago back in april. nevertheless it has attracted criticism from former

players, one saying it's a kick in the teeth for women's sport. but one former player points to the fact that there is investment going into the women's game. as a former player it's disappointing but i also have to to the fact that the rfu are investing a large amount of money into the women's game, especially at the community level. but i think now, looking at the success of the england women's cricket team, it's important to ensure that there's further investment poured into the england women's side because that's what we want. we want further success. so the focus of attention here in aldershot is very much on that world cup. speaking to some players before we came on air, they didn't want to be distracted about the stories about the contracts, nevertheless there will be questions coming up, members of the rfu will be talking to us this afternoon about that but the focus is very much that this is a cyclical nature, the focus will be

on the seven aside world cup next year then the focus will switch back to the 15 aside game. given the success of women's sport we have seen success of women's sport we have seen this summer, many think the rfu should make a greater commitment towards this team. thank you. richard conway. adam peaty has broken his own world record in the 50 metres breaststroke, winning a heat at the world swimming championships in budapest in 26.1 seconds. afterwards, the british swimmer said he hadn't set out to break a record and there could be more to come later in the competition. 0ur correspondent nick hope sent this report. another morning in the pool, another world record for adam peaty, his first at these world championships but the sixth world record of his incredible career. commentator: world record for peaty! world record in the heats. 2016, he has smashed the world record, he has taken 0.32 off it. all the more impressive, given it came just over 12 hours since claiming the 100—metre breaststroke title. this morning i came in nice

and relaxed, literally, wasn't even up for it that much, it's crazy but in breaststroke you have to be relaxed and it paid off. how much did you want that world record? i wanted it, but i don't know if i wanted it in the heats! but you can't pick and choose, but i'm so grateful to be in front of that crowd and hopefully again tonight we will push it on further. peaty became a household name by winning team gb's first real olympic gold medal last year but he wasn't content with his record time that day. since then, peaty says he has been pushing the boundaries of the human body every day in a bid to swim faster than ever. atjust 22, there's still so much adam peaty can achieve in the next two years but his repeated success on the world stage here has not only cemented his status as one of swimming's superstars but also in british sport as a whole. he has become a world superstar in the swimming world. the other thing about adam which everybody loves,

especially the media, is that he is such a nice guy and he has an aura which literally is infectious, particularly amongst the men's team at the moment, and he endears himself to everybody. he was talking about winning three medals so he has one for nan, one for himself and one for the public, for his fans, and he does genuinely want to see young people being involved in swimming. peaty is at home on the podium, and with the 50—metre semifinal tonight and final tomorrow expected to be formalities, this is set to become something of a familiar sight. for the first time in living memory, the fountains in st peter's square and the vatican are being turned off. a vatican spokesman said the move is an act of solidarity with the people of the city, who face severe water shortages because of a prolonged drought. james reynolds sent this report. you can look up to the sky as much as you want,

but right now rain isn't coming to rome. during this dry summer, the vatican is taking emergency steps. it's no good looking for water flowing here in the vatican. the pope has switched off his fountains, hoping to set a good example for the rest of the city. this is the vatican's way of living solidarity with rome, trying to help rome get through this crisis. essentially the water that comes into the vatican comes from the same place as where the water comes that goes to rome, and this is our way of trying to help out. but right next to the vatican, someone's forgotten to switch off the drinking fountain, to the clear relief of thirsty priests and tourists. the water shortage has affected large parts of italy. this is the beds of the river po. farmers think the lack of rain has already cost the country around 2 billion euros. lake bracciano outside rome is one of the city's major water sources.

the lack of rain has stopped it from refilling. the capital now measures its worries by the inch. james reynolds, bbc news, rome. time for a look at the weather. here's sarah keith—lucas. not quite the same dilemmas as in italy, sarah? yes, mixed fortunes across europe. it's really drive —— dry there but there are storms in germany at the moment. today will be the best day of the week if you like the best day of the week if you like the warm and sunny weather. it was the warm and sunny weather. it was the view taken by one of our weather watchers in wiltshire. warming up quite nicely, particularly across many western parts of the country. through the afternoon most of us staying dry and there will be spells

of sunshine, even towards the east where we have more cloud. the cloud is then today so allowing more sunshine and temperatures a few degrees warmer than yesterday. across the country this afternoon we could see the odd shower cropping up across parts of south wales towards devon and dorset, looking drive over the south—east of