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Daily Archives: 16 Jan 2017
“Government’s double whammy for rural communities”
“RURAL communities face a double whammy of higher council tax bills and fewer public services, the Rural Services Network has warned.
The warning is contained in the network’s response to the government’s 2017-2018 provisional funding settlement for local authorities.
The proposed settlement risks “crippling public services in rural areas” and forcing local authorities to raise council tax to a significantly higher level than urban areas, said the network.
It added: “The government’s plans are likely to make life for people across rural England extremely difficult, hitting hardest those most in need of public services.”
Grant cuts had been difficult for all local councils over the last five years, said the network. But until now, the axe had fallen reasonably equitably across both rural and urban areas.
Under the recent four year final local government settlement, however, rural areas would lose over 31% of their central government funding, while urban areas would lose about 22%.
The network said: “The provisional settlement just announced seeks to implement the second year of the four year settlement and, in addition, makes it even worse.”
The situation followed the chronic underfunding of rural areas by successive governments, said the network.
Rural areas were getting a raw deal – despite acknowledgement of the higher cost of providing services to remote communities and the lower than average incomes of rural people.
The network also criticised the government’s core spending power figures.
It said the figures took for granted that rural residents would have to pay even more in council tax than their urban counterparts.
“That is a cynical miscalculation which, has undoubtedly contributed to the present disaffection between rural residents and Westminster,” it said.
The network said it “fundamentally disagreed” with changes to the methodology for calculating the government’s revenue support grant, which was introduced in the 2016/17 settlement.
The inclusion of council tax in the calculation of RSG reductions had resulted in significantly higher reductions for rural areas than for urban areas.
It appeared that the government was content for rural people to pay more council tax from lower incomes and to receive fewer services than their urban counterparts.
“This is manifestly unreasonable and grossly unfair,” it warned. “The Rural Services Network cannot accept this position.”
The network’s full response can be downloaded here:
Click to access Response2017-18ProvisionalSettlement.pdf
Source: http://www.rsnonline.org.uk/services/double-whammy-for-rural-communities
Petition – take back local control of housing development
Petition to Government
Give communities back the right to decide where houses are built.
This petition calls for a parliamentary debate on government Housing and Planning policy over building on greenfield land and seeks community right of appeal on planning decisions and the removal of the presumption in favour of sustainable development.
Too many communities are now forced to accept large housing developments seeing the irreversible loss of valuable greenfields without the right of appeal. The failure of government planning policy has resulted in the loss of valued countryside and agricultural land and leaves communities forced to grow too fast without appropriate infrastructure. Major changes to planning legislation are required to protect established communities across the UK and deliver the right housing in the right places.”
Greenbelt at risk – again
“… The Government has vowed to build one million homes by 2020 which equates to 200,000 a year.
“Don’t kid yourself that this will make properties more affordable,” said Henry Pryor, independent buyer. “The undersupply that we have been racking up means that if we had the million homes by the end of this parliament it still would not be enough.” He recommended the reclassification of the greenbelt.
“We need supply to keep up with demand but it must be where people need it, while trying to avoid the situations where house price growth becomes unsustainably high and out of kilter with wage growth,” JLL’s Whitten concluded.”
EDDC to see drop in income which may affect relocation funding
EDDC has been relying on the New Homes Bonus ( which can be spent on anything) to partly fund their relocation expenditure:
“Planned changes to the New Homes Bonus will have an adverse effect on communities, shrinking funding and reducing the incentive for new housebuilding, the District Councils Network has warned.
Responding to the provisional local government finance settlement for 2017-18, the DCN said its members will see a 5.2% cut to core spending power. This is compared with average cuts of 1.1% across local government, it stated.
Introduced by the coalition government, the New Homes Bonus aims to encourage local authorities to grant planning permissions for new housing in return for additional revenue.
In the settlement, the government outlined plans to divert funding from the NHB scheme to upper-tier councils to fund a growing crisis in adult social care.
DCN chair Neil Clarke said the plan essentially “robbing Peter to pay Paul”. It will strip out £75m from district council revenues and “risk destroying the link between economic growth and the funding of local public services”, he said.
Clarke added: “It is clear that district councils are taking the largest hit in spending power reductions between 2016/17 and 2017/18.”
Government plans will see a 0.4% baseline for housing growth introduced, under which councils will not receive any NHB. Clarke called this “unfair” because the idea had not been included in the original consultation on the bonus and “could not have been predicted”.
Referall centres can delay GP referrals to hospitals
“Doctors are warning that NHS patients face “dangerous” treatment delays due to a 10-fold increase in referral management centres.
The centres act as a filter between GPs and hospitals.
About a third of health commissioning groups in England use the centres, but the number of patients being rejected has increased steadily in the last two years, often for administrative reasons such as information missing in a referral letter.
The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, described it as a barrier that takes decisions about patients away from GPs. The NHS said such centres helped ensure people got the right advice, care or treatment.”
Source: BBC Devon Live website
East Devon Watch 