Daily Archives: 29 Jan 2024

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29 Jan 2024

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Planning applications validated by EDDC for week beginning 15 January

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29 Jan 2024

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Angela Rayner: Tories’ council fund is cynical pre-election sticking plaster

Angela Rayner has accused the Conservatives of cynically applying a “sticking plaster” to council finances to get through the next election, as local authority leaders warn that more will go bust next year.

Rowena Mason www.theguardian.com

The shadow communities secretary said Labour was “under no illusions” about the financial mess it would inherit in local councils if it gained power, after the Tories “took a sledgehammer” to budgets for more than a decade.

The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, was forced to bail out councils in England last week with a £600m funding pot to prevent a rebellion of Tory MPs who fear losing their seats. But figures shared by the Institute for Government show it would take more than £7bn in extra cash to get local government funding up to the same levels as 2010.

Analysis by the Guardian of 13 years of council spending data lays bare the scale of cuts to services. Between 2010-11 and 2022-23, real terms spending per head on cultural services was cut by 43%, on roads and transport by 40%, on housing by 35% and on planning and development by a third, with more cuts pencilled in for this year.

Council leaders from across the political divide told the Guardian the extra money announced this week was welcome but would not be enough to prevent further cuts in the coming years.

It is understood the government is exploring options for a fresh austerity drive in councils for after the next general election, after Michael Gove said his Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities would force councils to develop “productivity plans”.

The warnings from the levelling up secretary will add to Labour’s fears that the Conservatives are pursuing a scorched earth policy of underfunding public services in order to spend its spare cash on tax cuts to boost Sunak’s electoral prospects.

“It’s hard to see where productivity is coming from without it being a mask for further privatisation or reductions in services,” said James Lewis, the Labour leader of Leeds city council. “It feels like austerity is going further yet again.”

In an interview, Rayner said libraries, sports centres and youth provision were “not a garnish” and rejected calls from some Conservatives to reduce the types of services that councils had to offer.

“What’s very clear to me is that we are going to inherit a very difficult situation because the Tories have brought [councils] to the brink, offering them a very small amount of money now which cynically to me is about them trying to just get them over the line for a general election,” she said.

“But it’s not going to do anything about the long-term problems that we would inherit and we’re under no illusions about the scale of those problems.”

She said Labour would have to look at the overall state of public finances if it were to take power in the next year, but it would want to move to multi-year funding settlements to help councils plan better and make sure money was directed to the areas that needed it the most.

Asked about the risk of more council bankruptcies in the next few years, Rayner said: “Yes I’m absolutely worried about that. And I think councils up and down the country are worried about that. They’ve seen these added costs … temporary accommodation, children’s services and the pressures of the cost of living crisis that’s been created by the Tories – this real perfect storm for local authorities.”

Four local authorities fell into effective bankruptcy in 2023 – Birmingham, Nottingham, Woking in Surrey and Thurrock in Essex.

Roger Gough, the Conservative leader of Kent county council, said he had warned Sunak 15 months ago the government was “sleepwalking into financial disaster” amid dramatically escalating pressure on local authorities.

He said: “The fundamental situation is unchanged. The extra funding is welcome, and it’s important for us to not be too dog in the manger about this. But the fundamental pressures are still there. We are experiencing these as are other authorities across the country.

“We all know the cavalry is not going to be coming over the hill in terms of government funding, and that will be true frankly if there is a change of government. We all have to work within the world we’re living in.”

Stephen Houghton, the Labour leader of Barnsley council, who also chairs a group of 48 urban councils in the north of England, Midlands and south, said there was likely to be a “surge ofsection 114s next year” if more money was not provided – referring to the mechanism councils use to declare effective bankruptcy.

He said it “would be churlish” not to welcome the extra £600m but it would not be enough to match inflation and demand-led pressures on local authorities. “It won’t solve the problem. It will get us through to next year but what happens the year after that? Unless something substantial happens, we’re looking at a lot more councils struggling.”

In Birmingham, where the council has been placed in special measures by the government after its effective bankruptcy in September, officials plan to shrink the authority by 15% over the next two years. Others planning deep cuts include Bradford, Kent, Hampshire, Stoke-on-Trent and Somerset.

Tim Oliver, the Conservative leader of Surrey county council and chair of the County Councils Network, said he thanked the government for last week’s “highly unusual, if not unique” bailout package. “But I might say post general election we’ll be back.”

“The sector has been reasonably clear. With increased demand, there’s a funding gap of £2-3bn over the coming years.”

The former Conservative communities secretary Eric Pickles said local council funding should be overhauled altogether, including a review of business rates, revaluation of council tax at the point of property sales and an end to the government “topslicing” the central pool for council budgets.

“Whoever is the next government, if you did it the first year, you would begin to see some benefits from it by the fifth year,” he said. Pickles also backed three-year funding settlements for councils as “something I always wanted to do”.

Many Conservative MPs say privately that the £600m bailout is only a temporary solution. One senior Conservative MP said it was “a step in the right direction but the budget will need more to prevent council cuts due to the cost of energy and cost of living”.

Ben Bradley, the Conservative MP and leader of Nottinghamshire county council, said the cash increase was a “victory”, but that there were structural pressures authorities were facing. “There’s no political benefit of going into an election saying we’re shutting down your library and your youth centre. It’s not going to work. We do need to support and protect local services.”

A government spokesperson said: “We have recently announced an additional £600m support package for councils across England, increasing their overall proposed funding for next year to £64.7bn – a 7.5% increase in cash terms.”

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£30m spending cut target for Devon social care

More on the impact of austerity with more to come as the PM considers tax cuts. – Owl

More money is needed to help Devon develop innovative ways of reshaping its adult social care services as the department targets £30 million of spending cuts.

Bradley Gerrard, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

Devon’s adult social care lead, Councillor James McInnes (Conservative, Hatherleigh & Chagford) said he had told a Westminster cabinet member this week that “things need to change” if councils are to be given the time and resources to develop adult social care services to respond to increased and changing demand.

The budget, health and adult care scrutiny committee heard this week that Devon relies too much on expensive and resource-intensive bed-based and residential care, and that it is trying to help people achieve greater autonomy through in-home care and technology.

Council officers acknowledged they had been behind in terms of reviewing the services that individuals receive, noting that care packages are often set up at a time of crisis, but that assistance could be reduced if patient recovery is monitored more regularly.

Some speakers suggested the council might be offering too many services to too many people, and that better case-by-case reviews could help it distribute its resources better.

Cllr McInnes was speaking as the proposed budget for the 2024/25 financial year, which begins in April, showed the authority expects to spend more than £360 million on integrated adult social care.

Increased demand and rises in the national living wage have pushed the department’s costs up by £50 million.

About £30 million in potential savings, cuts and additional income have been identified to mitigate that. However, this still means that adult social care is costing the county £20 million more than it did this financial year.

Cllr McInnes urged central government to reconsider its approach to social care funding to help nurture innovation.

“I don’t think there’s enough money,” he said.

“Money isn’t the only answer, and it needs to be a dual approach as we need to innovate and change how we deliver services, but one thing I would plea for – and which I discussed with a national cabinet minister last week – is that for things to change and be innovated. We need the space, and the financial space, to do that.”

He said councils are battling year in, year out to balance budgets, and extra funding would provide allow councils to improve how they offer adult social care.

Council officers said an aging population, a rising number of people seeking help, also commonly with more complex requirements, and a rise in working age adults with mental health problems, were the key factors putting pressure on the service.

Devon’s rural geography adds a further challenge, they said.

Councillor Caroline Leaver (Liberal Democrat, Barnstaple South) felt the word ‘savings’ actually means real-terms cuts.

“I think it means there will be fewer services for the most vulnerable people, and I’m struck by the number of different savings specified,” she said.

“The question for me is what the savings or cuts mean in practice, and who the affected people will be and how many?”

Councillor Carol Whitton (Labour, St David’s & Haven Banks) didn’t have a problem with the department looking at ways to do things differently if it achieves better value for money and meets residents’ demands.

She told councillors: “Last year at this scrutiny meeting, we missed some of the lines that were in the budget about how individual users and groups were being impacted, and I think as a committee we should be given that information.”

She added there had been a “great deal of public concern” about changes in adult social care provision, and that this could have been mitigated before steps were taken.

Councillor Richard Scott (Conservative, Exmouth) said it is important to remember where the money comes from that pays for services.

“We never consider the person paying for it, we don’t look at council tax and how regressive it is as it generally impacts on people that have less,” he said.

“We are providing too much and not reviewing it quickly enough, and we need to understand why.”

Devon’s finance lead Angie Sinclair said spending on adult and children’s services represents almost 80 per cent of the council’s budget, but that moves had been made to curb the rise in spending in these departments.

“The increase 12 months ago in adult social care was nine per cent, and 18 per cent for children’s services, but we are working hard to pull that back and this year the rises are six per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, which is a significant improvement on last year,” she said.

“We are doing the best as a team to get the best value in terms of affordability and better outcomes as doing the right thing should cost us less.”

Devon’s chief executive Donna Manson added that better collaborative working with the NHS, as well as district councils, is playing a positive role in ensuring money is better spent.
 

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More than 100,000 trees to be planted in Devon to boost Celtic rainforest

More than 100,000 trees are being planted in north Devon as part of efforts to boost temperate or Celtic rainforests, some of the UK’s most magical but endangered environments.

Steven Morris www.theguardian.com 

The trees are being planted close to surviving pockets of rainforest at two spots close to the coast and one inland.

Among the trees that will be planted is the almost-extinct Devon whitebeam, which is only found in the English West Country and in Ireland. It can reproduce without fertilisation, creating seeds that are genetic copies of itself. Its edible fruit used to be sold at Devon markets as “sorb apples” – celebrated in the DH Lawrence poem Medlars and Sorb-Apples (“I love you, rotten,/Delicious rottenness.”)

Helped by volunteers, schoolchildren and community groups, the National Trust is hoping to establish 50 hectares (123 acres) of new rainforest across three sites. About 38,000 trees will be planted near the sea on Exmoor, 20,000 at Woolacombe and Hartland, and 50,000 inland at Arlington Court, near Barnstaple.

Temperate rainforests, also known as Atlantic rainforests, are characterised by their damp conditions, making them the perfect home for a unique variety of rare ferns, mosses, liverworts, lichens and wildlife including pine martens, pied flycatchers and stoats.

Over the centuries, the temperate rainforest, which used to run the length of the western seaboard of the UK, has deteriorated largely due to air pollution, invasive species, diseases such as ash dieback and general lack of care.

John Deakin, the head of trees and woodlands at the National Trust, said: “All that’s left are fragments, covering only 1% of Britain and limited to small patches in Devon, Cornwall, north and west Wales, Cumbria, the west of Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland.

“As a result, the rare specialist plants that depend on this habitat desperately cling to the remaining fragments for survival, with some of the woodlands we care for in north Devon containing nearly the entire global population of some of these species, such as the Devon whitebeam. Without urgent action, these unique plants could soon be facing extinction.

“We are working on expansion, rather than just preservation. This is important because the conditions many of these rare plants thrive in are not necessarily conducive to disturbance, which makes regeneration tricky. But, by planting on the edges of these existing woodlands, we can ease the pressure caused to the existing delicate vegetation and instead help the woodlands evolve outward.”

Bryony Wilde, project manager at Arlington Court, said: “Through this tree planting, we’re helping to create a living landscape where both nature and people can thrive. These trees will not only provide a habitat for wildlife but also fix carbon into the soil, purify air and water, and provide a place for people to enjoy.”

Devon is a good place to experience a temperate rainforest, with places like Wistman’s Wood on Dartmoor, an upland oakwood, cherished for its flora and enchanting feel.

Last year, Devon Wildlife Trust announced t it was planting a temperate rainforest in the south of the county, on the slopes above the River Dart.

The plight of the temperate rainforest has been highlighted by the writer and environmentalist Guy Shrubsole, who has been leading a project to map the surviving fragments.

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Hair today, gone tomorrow – will Simon Jupp follow advice and snip his beard off?

According to the Sun and Daily Mail, Tory MPs are shaving their beards off because they have have been told it is a turn off to voters.

Sources have provided an image of what a Simon shorn might look like – and, no, it’s not deep fake AI!

Dear Reader, judge for yourself; but it doesn’t work for Owl.

With or without a beard he still looks like a well-fed Tory.

Will he do it?

Watch this face!