this is bbc news, i'm shaun ley, the headlines at midday. communities secretary sajid javid says the government should think about borrowing more to invest in housing. we can sensibly borrow more to invest in the infrastructure. that leads to more housing and takes advantage of some of the record low interest rates that we have. the i think we should be considering that. ministers consider ways to make buying and selling houses faster, cheaper and less stressful. labour's brexit spokesperson says the party will back conservative rebels to force changes to the repeal bill. spain's foreign minister dismisses claims his government is carrying out a coup by stripping the catalan government of its powers. also in the next hour, lewis hamilton could win his fourth world title at today's united states grand prix. hamilton will clinch the title if he wins the race and rival sebastian vettel finishes lower than fifth. and at 12:30, click takes a seat in the world's toughest yacht race. good afternoon

and welcome to bbc news. a senior cabinet minister has said the government should consider borrowing money to invest in hundreds of thousands of new homes. the secretary of state for communities and local government, sajid javid, said ministers should take advantage of record low interest rates to deal with the housing crisis. speaking on the andrew marr show, mrjavid said he was sure the forthcoming budget would have announcements that would cover housing. what i want to do is make sure we're using everything we have available to deal with this housing crisis, and where that means, for example, that we can sensibly borrow more to invest in infrastructure leading to more housing, take advantage of record low interest rates that we have,

i think we should consider that. that's interesting, because it is a change in tone. not long ago, we were told we could not borrow more for anything, but you say housing is such a big infrastructure crisis in the country that we should borrow more to solve it. i would make a distinction between the deficit, which needs to keep coming down, and that is vitally important for economic credibility, and we have seen excellent progress and good news on that this week, but investing for the future, taking advantage of record low interest rates, can be the right thing if done sensibly, and that can help notjust with the housing, but infrastructure investment needed alongside housing. by sensibly, do you think things like housing bonds and other ways of raising money long—term would be a good idea? i will not get into what i think would be the method, but i think we have to be involved in this area, we set out a lot during the conference and there is more to do, but this is the biggest barrier to social progress in our country today. our political correspondent

jonathan blake said the government has changed its tactics on tackling the housing problem we have in the uk. we've seen a shift in policy from sajid javid this morning in terms of how the government will approach what it has continually referred to as the housing crisis. it freely admits that the housing market in england is broken and there is a need for far more new houses being built than there are at the moment. so we heard sajid javid there talking about the possibility of borrowing money to fund house—building programmes. now, that is perhaps something of a shift, because as we have heard from the government for a long time, getting the deficit down, the gap between taxes and spending, is the priority, and philip hammond had to loosen the reins because things got more difficult of the brexit, but sajid javid saying this

morning that the government may well be prepared to borrow money to fund the something like 300,000 new houses being built here, which is what they seem to be aspiring to. that is about double what is being built at the moment. very interesting, because in a sense, i suppose, it underlines the frustration that ministers have felt — they have set targets, and this government is not the only one to try this — but they have not been delivered, and it has proved difficult to deliver them, not least because all you can do is say, local authorities, housing developers, "these are targets, go ahead and do it," but you can't make them build houses. no, that's right, and it would take the government to take on a programme of its old or provide extra incentives to housing developers and free local authorities do borrow more money to build houses and flats themselves to do that. so we're talking about a big increase here, as i say, 160,000

new homes in england last year. well, around double that is what would be required to meet the aspirations of the government, and consistently the government has tried to act, but we saw theresa may, in her conference speech, talking about an extra £2 billion for affordable housing, which might sound like a lot of money, but it translated to about 25,000 homes overfive years, which is a very small fraction of the requirement which is needed. so big promises from the government, big aspirations, but building new homes is a tricky thing, and we will have to see if they meet those demands. 0ur political correspondent talking to us earlier. the government is also considering ways of making buying and selling houses faster, cheaper and less stressful. he's launching a consultation for england and wales which will look at whether it's possible to reduce moving costs and end practices like gazumping. our business correspondent joe lynam reports. moving home is often compared to getting divorced

in terms of stress and worry. picking your new home is the easy part of the process, before vendors, surveyors, solicitors, banks, agents and removal vans get involved. currently, it can take three months on average to move home. getting the mortgage offer from your bank alone takes around 50 days. and a quarter of all transactions fall through. and so the government will be consulting estate agents, solicitors, as well as buyers and sellers, to find out how best to speed up the process and cut costs for households. i think you can use technology to gather as much information about the proposed sale, about the proposed property, to be conveyed at an early opportunity. a purchaser or seller won't talk to his lawyer or conveyancer until after he's agreed the sale. that information can be gathered digitally. i know the land registry is working on this to improve it. so the more we can have ready, oven—ready sales, the quicker it can become. while some people involved in the house—buying process

welcomed the consultation, labour said it was a feeble effort and would not tackle the real issue of insufficient homes being built. joe lynam, bbc news. the home0wners alliance, an organisation that gives advice on property matters, said both buyers and sellers typically feel they can pull out of a deal without repercussions. what we're calling for is a reservation agreement, at point of agreed, when you agree a price, both sides put in a bit of money and say they will pay for each other‘s costs if they pull out. it gets rid of the whim of the people, so it's actually being more consistent, and especially for first—time buyers, when it's very hard to put up front £5,000 and then find out they are still not moving, they don't have that home. the shadow brexit secretary, sir keir starmer, has warned that unless the government makes changes to the eu withdrawal bill,

labour will side with conservative rebels to block it. hundreds of amendments have already been tabled to the legislation, which aims to transfer eu law onto the british statute books. speaking this morning, theresa villiers who campaigned to leave the eu in the brexit referendum, says its time now for all parties to work together. it is important for people to talk and work across parties, but at its heart we must make sure that we get this bill through to provide legal certainty, but also to ensure that the results of the referendum that millions of people took part in is properly implemented. are you confident a deal is going to be done with the eu, or are you more concerned about the risks of a no deal and having to leave the eu without any kind of formal arrangement? i believe there is a strong chance we will reach

an agreement, in terms of... there are two questions — the basic exit agreement, measures on air travel and security, and there is a separate question of a trade deal, delivering a trade deal in the time available certainly is more of a challenge, but i think eu leaders were very much signalling this week they had knowledge it will be in their interests as well as ours to reach a sensible trading arrangement. i remain optimistic that is what is going to be achievable. the shadow foreign secretary, emily thornberry, outlined why she was concerned about the prospect of a no deal. intransigence is on theresa may's side, because she doesn't have the strength to control her backbenchers, let alone her cabinet, and i think we are heading for no deal, and i think that there is a serious threat to britain, and it is not in britain's interests for that to happen.

we will stop it. shadow foreign secretary emily thornberry talking to andrew marr. demonstrations took place in barcelona last night, as the political crisis in spain deepens. the spanish government has said it plans to impose some aspects of direct rule in catalonia and sack the regional administration, following a disputed independence referendum. the catalan president compared the government in madrid to that of the fascist dictator general franco. speaking to the andrew marr show today, the spanish foreign minister dismissed the suggestion that a coup was taking place. if this is a coup d'etat, it is one that has been followed by mr puigdemont and his government. what we are doing is following strictly the provisions of our constitutions, which are in no way exceptional, they are a carbon copy of the german constitution, the kind of provision that you can see in many western constitutions.

that was the foreign minister of spain talking to me earlier. we can talk now to our correspondent bethany bell, who's in barcelona. afternoon to you, the mood was pretty defiant on the streets, big demonstrations in support of the separatist campaign. how are things looking now? well, i think this place is in a state of uncertainty at the moment. the separate —— separatist leaders are trying to consider their next steps after a day in which this crisis was significantly escalated. the catalan leader as denounced the moves by the spanish prime minister, but he has not announced his next steps yet. it

is believed that he may call a session of the regional parliament here in the next couple of days or so, and that that session there could be aon a unilateral declaration of independence. —— a vote. at the moment, a lot of negotiations, a lot of things behind closed doors are going on. neither side wants to reveal their next steps to the other. mr puigdemont, in his remarks yesterday, brought up the memory of general franco, which hasincensed the memory of general franco, which has incensed some of the unfinished business of modern spain coming he died in 1975, and then this constitution gave power to the regions. when you mention general franco and accused your opponents of acting like him, or in a manner he would have understood, quite a dangerous political game to play in spain. there is a very strong sense

of emotions being heightened on both sides, mentioning general franco, words like coup d'etat, which we had there from the spanish foreign minister, a sense really of both sides ratcheting up, and the difficulty is, when both sides have increased the tensions in this way, some people are saying, you know, how do they bring it back down ain? how do they bring it back down again? how do they manage to start talking and bring the situation down? i mean, some people have suggested that if there is a unilateral declaration of independence by the catalan leader, at that point, you could then be, spain's judiciary at that point, you could then be, spain'sjudiciary could at that point, you could then be, spain's judiciary could charge at that point, you could then be, spain'sjudiciary could charge him with rebellion, a charge which could see him serving 30 years in prison. so we are waiting to see very much quite how the next steps will be taken, but certainly there is really a sense here that this is an escalation, it is an charted waters, no—one quite knows what will happen next. —— uncharted waters.

parts of britain have been hit by storm brian with violent winds and rough seas. gusts of more than 120 km/h were recorded in some places. strong wind warnings and flood alerts remain in place across much of wales, the south of england and the midlands. briohny williams reports. storm brian unleashes its worst, as waves crash against the coast of wales. the ferocity of nature showing its hand. it's just taken the whole side of the rnli offices out. buildings damaged and roads flooded. the picture in the south west of england is similar. beaches empty — the advice from the environment agency has been to stay away from the coastline. but walkers in the north west of england couldn't resist

watching the awesome scenes storm brian has provided. power of nature, innit? i was hoping to go for a nice coastal walk this morning, but i think i'll put that on hold. the destruction hasn't been as widespread as predicted, and storm brian is expected to ease over the coming hours. only then will the true impact be revealed. brionhy williams, bbc news. the new head of the world health 0rganisation says he's rethinking his decision to appoint the president of zimbabwe, robert mugabe, as a goodwill ambassador. mr mugabe has led his country for 37 years, but he has been condemned over his human rights record. britain and the united states warned the decision could overshadow the work of the global agency. the headlines on bbc news.

communities secretary sajid javid said the government should think about borrowing more to invest in housing. ministers are considering ways to make buying and selling houses faster, cheaper and less stressful. labour's brexit spokesman, sir keir starmer, says the party will back conservative rebels to force changes to the repeal bill. sport now, and for a full round—up from the bbc sport centre, here's jessica creighton. former fa board member dame heather rabbatts has told the bbc she thinks that dan ashworth‘s position as technical director at the fa is untenable. the fa apologised on wednesday for racially discriminatory remarks made by former women's manager mark sampson to striker eni aluko. rabbatts says things need to change, starting with ashworth. i think it's untenable, i think his position is untenable. he has been there since 2012, these issues have been raised, the lack of diversity, the lack of black coaches,

clearly the issues of mark sampson, you know, these have all happened, and when you talk about leadership and organisations, when people talk about bringing about culture change, and i've heard people argue there has to be root—and—branch reform, well, who is going to lead that? it can't be the leadership who have been there. there are two big premier league games today. in the late kick—off, liverpool travel to wembley to face spurs in their temporary home. but before that, struggling everton host arsenal, with toffees boss ronald koeman under pressure. his side have not won in any competition for nearly a month, and if they lose by more than two goals today they will drop in the relegation zone. ronald koeman says he still believes in his side. the position on the table is not the position where everton, where we need to stay on the position in the table, and that is what we need to change. i still believe in the players, and i still believe in the signings

what we did in the summer. there is a lunchtime kick—off in the championship, ipswich hosting norwich at portman road in the east anglian derby. the home fans are in really good voice, just over quarter of an hour played, currently still 0—0. australia have won the opening one—day game of the women's ashes series by two wickets. the hosts were set a target of 228 in brisbane, which they achieved with with five balls remaining. the win gives austailia a 2—0 lead in the multi—format series ahead of the second one—day game on thursday. disappointing, we never want to lose, especially against australia, but we didn't play well enough, and they had a really good innings. you will be hard and knowing that you underperformed with the bat, probably 30 or 40 runs in the general consensus, probably 30 or 40 runs in the general consensus, but you took the game so close. we didn't bowl straight enough as well as we know

we can, so we straight enough as well as we know we can, so we need to put a full performance next game, so yeah, some positives, but like i say, disappointing to lose. is this the day lewis hamilton wraps up a fourth formula one world title? he's given himself a great chance, he'll be on pole position for this evening's us grand prix in texas. his main championship rival, sebastian vettel, will be right alongside him on the front row. hamilton must finish at least first or second to stand a chance of wrapping up the title with three races to spare. two—time olympic champion jade jones praised the loud london crowd as she won her first title of the year. competing for the first time in the capital since london 2012, jones produced a confident display to win her world grand prix final against world champion ah—reum lee. it avenges her defeat to the south korean in the world championships injune. what a win too for bianca walkden, really underlining her status as one of the best in the world, with a gold medal in the over 67kg class. she easily beat her polish opponent to claim her third grand prix win of the season.

that's all the sport for now. i'll have more in the next hour. jessica creighton, thank you very much. prison officers in fourjails are to trial the use of parva spray, which is similar to pepper spray, to defend themselves against aggressive inmates. the ministry ofjustice will also issue more than 5000 body—cameras to officers in england and wales, as well as handcuffs. violence in prisons rose significantly last year, with assaults on staff reaching record levels. the prisons minister, sam gyimah, has been explaining why the new measures are necessary. violence against prison officers is up 34% this year, we have a particularly violent cohort of prison officers and prison officers need the tools to do theirjob. now, we need to obviously pilot it to see how it works, but if a prison officer is attacked,

surprisingly, then as a last resort, having this could make a difference, then they should have it. a woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder, after a baby fell from a sixth—floor window in bradford. west yorkshire police say the 23—year—old woman is undergoing a medical assessment in custody. officers have described the death of the 18—month—old child as "extremely traumatic" and say specially trained officers are working to support his family. millions of people injapan are casting their votes in the snap general election called by the prime minister, shinzo abe. if mr abe wins, it would be his fourth term in office. 0ur correspondent rupert wingfield—hayes is following the election and spoke to us from tokyo. mr abe called this snap election over a year before he needed to go to the polls. in fact, it has not been a popular decision. about two thirds of japanese people said they disapproved of them calling an election now.

despite all at that, and despite the fact that mr abe is not usually personally popular, it looks like he is going to win. it looks like he has taken advantage of disarray in japan's opposition parties, which have been fighting amongst each other over the last few months. a slight bump in his own opinion support amongst the japanese public to go for this election, and it does look like it's going to pay off. it looks like he will get a majority in parliament today, and that will give them in the four years in power and an opportunity to push ahead with what he wants to do in his final term to change japan's constitution and get rid of the clause that makes japan a pacifist nation. it is an important election, because that would be a huge change for this country. regulators have told several hundred online gambling operators to remove casino games which may appeal to children. the move follows claims that operators are using cartoons

and characters such as peter pan to encourage children to take part in games. last year, the industry regulator found 450,000 children in england and wales were gambling every week. a eurosceptic billionaire businessman in the czech republic has won the general election. andrej babis, the country's second richest man, won 30 % of the vote. it's not enough to govern alone, but it puts him far ahead of his rivals. rob cameron has more from prague. this is what success looks like fora man who's already tasted so much of it. his business empire controls much of czech agriculture, chemicals and the media. but now he's set his sights much higher. after almost four years at the finance ministry, the slovak—born business tycoon is on the brink of becoming prime minister. translation: i've already

congratulated all the chairmen who got into parliament, and we hope they will be willing to deal with us. i think it would be good to have a stable government for our country, which will fight for our interests. it was a result few had predicted. andrej babis's prospects had dimmed in recent months after a string of scandals. two separate criminal investigations into claims he fraudulently obtained eu funds for a luxury resort. he said all of that was a campaign against him, a political witch hunt by an establishment terrified of his pledge to clean up corruption. "trust me," he said — and the voters believes him. populist, mildly eurosceptic, and hostile to immigration, despite his non—czech origins, he's left the established centre—left and centre—right parties in tatters. instead, a host of new protest parties, including the far right spd.

they want to ban islam in the czech republic and also hold a referendum on leaving the european union. they're unlikely to get one, but attitudes are hardening here to the eu and to migrants. and andrej babis has tapped into them. rob cameron, bbc news, prague. america's five living former presidents have gathered in texas for a benefit concert to help the victims of the hurricanes which have hit the united states this year. they didn't even all mated to donald trump's inauguration, so quite a sight. —— make it. barack 0bama, george w bush, his father, george hw bush, bill clinton and jimmy carter came together to support the one america appeal, following the hurricanes harvey, irma and maria. the appeal has so far raised

more than $30 million. bill clinton had this message for americans. there is still work to be done in texas and florida, and ourfriends in puerto rico and the us virgin islands have already begun to dig their way out of what can still be a calamitous disaster but can be a new beginning — if we just do what we ought to do and prove that the heart of america, without regard to race or religion or political party, is greater than our problems. bill clinton, quite an exclusive clu b to bill clinton, quite an exclusive club to belong to. one never made it, john f kennedy. president trump says he plans to release thousands of classified documents on the assassination of presidentjohn f kennedy. the papers would be made available unless government agencies

had compelling objections. the bbc‘s laura bicker has the latest from washington. they were locked away 25 years ago, trying to quell conspiracy theories around the assassination of president kennedy. it didn't work. a recent survey suggests around 30% of americans believe the man accused of the murder, lee harvey oswald, did not act alone. he, of course, was shot and killed before he had his day in court. now, the files historians really want to pore over surround his visit to mexico cityjust weeks before the assassination. there he met with cuban and soviet spies, and it is alleged he announced his intention to kill the president, although that has not been made a fact as yet. when it comes to these documents, they will be released on thursday, unless president trump says otherwise. and his tweets suggesting he will, unless strong national security arguments are made. so decades of secrecy may be about to come to an end. laura bicker there on the fate of

the kennedy papers. at the age of 21, alex tew had a brainwave. aiming to become a millionaire, he set up a website and sold the pixels it contained to advertisers for a dollar each. by 2005, he'd achieved his dream. but what came next for the young entrepreneur? 0ur correspondent robert hall has been to meet him. 0n the streets of san francisco, alex tew has travelled a long way from the day he made a million. 21—year—old alex tew set up the website in his bedroom after spending a restless night working out how he could become a millionaire before going to university... every computer image is made up of tiny dots or pixels. alex sold a million of them, in blocks at $1 each, just enough screen space for advertisers to show their own logo or a link to their website. alex, and this happens

while you're sleeping, effectively? yeah, that's the beauty of the internet. i am sitting here right now, and i have probably made a few more dollars since i woke up. that idea and that time of my life was really at turning point. the true value of the million dollar homepage was not the money it made me, but actually the relationships that formed as a result. 12 years on, with a string of successful projects behind him, alex has embarked on another, but this time the high flyer is trying to persuade the rest of us to slow down. i was actually working on something to do with meditation and the internet combined, even when i was about 16. it was always in the back of my mind to combine those two interests. well over eight million people are now using the website and app. we are on track to do about $20 million of revenue this year. mental— health issues are on the rise. what's more important is the value

it's creating in the world. a trip back home to gloucestershire offers a chance to draw breath and to reflect on the past. he had always been an ideas guy, even from seven or eight. all these experiences opened doors he never imagined. what he has also shown is he is really committed to continuing with ideas. alex may have found a new direction of travel, but what advice had he for today's would—be entrepreneurs? we live in a culture where everything is instant. people expect things to happen and go perfectly for them, and it's not the case. be doggedly persistent and go after your goals with relentless focus and drive, because it is a competitive world out there. he may be a little more thoughtful, but alex tew is not slowing down. there are so many more challenges down the track. robert hall, bbc news.