Category Archives: Austerity cuts

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11 Jul 2018

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Democracy, Inequality, Local Government Finance

So many problems, so little attention being paid to them

Underfunding to blame for child protection ”crisis”, says report
The Local Government Association has a newsletter of articles from the press that might interest councillors amd council officers. This is today’s. Owl couldn’t reduce the list so here are ALL the topics. SO, SO worrying – all of them.

Underfunding to blame for child protection ”crisis”, says report

Pressure on councils’ safeguarding services in some areas is so severe that often the only way to guarantee safety for children is to take them into care, MPs have said. The report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children, said children and young people in serious need got varying levels of help, or no help at all, depending on where they lived, with budgets influencing interventions. Cllr Roy Perry, Vice Chairman of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said: “This report is yet further evidence that children’s services are being pushed to the brink.”
Guardian p16, Times p16

Government needs to learn from academy failures that damaged children’s education, MPs say

The Government needs to learn the lessons from high-profile academy failures that have been damaging to children’s education and costly to the taxpayer, MPs have said. The Department for Education did not pay enough attention to scrutiny checks in a rush to convert large numbers of schools into academies, according to a Public Accounts Committee report, which also expressed concern about the levels of support available to struggling schools. Recent LGA analysis revealed that councils are better at turning around failing schools than academy chains. Cllr Roy Perry, Vice Chairman of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said: “It is only by working with councils and giving them the necessary powers, rather than shutting them out, that we can meet the challenges currently facing the education system.”
Independent Online, Telegraph p2

The end of the road for vital bus services?

An article on bus services highlights the case of a cancer patient’s struggle to get to hospital for treatment and the challenge of councils battling over-stretched budgets to maintain bus routes. A recent LGA report warned that nearly half of all bus routes in England are fully or partially subsidised by councils and were therefore under threat due to austerity measures. Cllr Martin Tett, the LGA’s Transport spokesman, previously said: “Councils know how important buses are for their residents and local economies and are desperate to protect them.”
Guardian p34

Opinion: Matt Hancock’s new role as Health and Social Care Secretary

An editorial in the Times argues that new Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock’s priorities should include “an urgent need to resolve the question of how to fund and organise social care in Britain” and addressing “an enormous amount still to be done in the areas of preventative medicine and lifestyle improvements”.
Times p27

Bosses who revive high street properties are punished with soaring business rate hikes

Thousands of business owners and entrepreneurs are being hit with higher business rates once they renovate dilapidated or rundown stores. Business rates are calculated on the rental value of a property so renovating a run-down site inevitably comes with a rates increase. The Daily Mail is running a campaign ‘save our high streets’ and is calling for a reform of business rates, cuts to parking charges and a fair tax for big internet shopping businesses.
Mail p19

Poor air quality linked to spikes in GP visits

Air pollution leads to spikes in health problems and drives up hospital admissions and visits to the GP, according to a study. The Dundee University report proves an “absolutely clear” link between poor air quality and health problems and researchers said it should serve as a warning to politicians about the serious effects of toxic air pollution on public health.
Guardian p8

New test woe for under 11s

Official figures show that a third of primary school children aren’t achieving higher standards in reading, writing and maths tests, however performance in the SATs exams have improved, with two-thirds reaching the more rigorous requirements, up from just over a half a year ago. Some teachers believe the key stage two tests put too much pressure on young children and does not accurately reflect performance.
Sun p2, Telegraph p2, Guardian Online, i p13, Mail p29

Energy drinks consumption

Public Health Minister, Steve Brine, has warned that children in the UK consume a worryingly high level of energy drinks and is way above the European average. According to Government figures, nearly 70 per cent of ten to 17 year olds consume energy drinks. The Government plans to consult on a ban on children buying the drinks as part of its childhood obesity plan.
Sun p18, Times p4, Telegraph p10, ITV Online, i p21, Express p21

Emerging sex disease MG ‘could become next superbug’

Health experts are warning that a little known sexually transmitted infection could become the next superbug unless people become more vigilant. The British Association of Sexual Health and HIV is launching new advice about MG, which has no symptoms but can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, which can leave some women infertile.
BBC Online, Times p4

C of E to create 100 new churches as number of Anglicans hits new low

The Church of England will create more than 100 new churches to “revive the Christian faith in coastal areas, market towns and outer urban housing estates” in the face of a record low number of people identifying as Anglicans. Up to 50 new churches will be established in the diocese of Leicester and 16 in the diocese of Manchester.
Guardian p9, Telegraph p8″

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11 Jul 2018

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Austerity cuts, Education (local), Inequality, Sleaze

Education – what is it for? The perils of a target/tick box culture – children as “collateral damage”

“An independent inquiry into a top grammar school, which was revealed by a Guardian investigation to be forcing out pupils who were unlikely to get top grades at A-level, has delivered a damning report accusing the school of illegally treating its students as “collateral damage” in the pursuit of its own interests.

The 150-page report into events last summer at St Olave’s, a selective boys school in Orpington, south-east London, called for a root and branch makeover at the school after a council investigation exposed multiple cases of maladministration and scenes of distressed pupils contemplating suicide after being pushed out of the school midway through the sixth form.

One member of staff told the inquiry that a student was so fearful of telling his parents that he could not continue at St Olave’s “that he might as well kill himself” while another on the phone to his parents said “they just want to be rid of me, they just want me gone”.

Other pupils in extremely vulnerable situations were told no exceptions could be made to the strict academic requirement of three Bs to progress into the final year of sixth form.

In one case a student who scored all As and A*s at GCSEs and was heading for medical school was refused any leniency despite being diagnosed with depression triggered by a family suicide.

The report, commissioned by Bromley council, challenged the pursuit of academic excellence at all costs. “A school has the responsibility to do its best by all of the pupils,” the report said, adding that by excluding students, the school had put the institution above the pupils.

“Parents of the pupils affected were right to say their children were being treated as collateral damage. It should not have happened.” …..

The investigation also criticised the school’s leadership for the claims of financial “doom and gloom” to justify cutting staff, cancelling courses and putting off urgent repairs. In fact, the school recorded annual surpluses and built up £2m in unrestricted funds in its bank accounts.

Parents were urged to donate £50 a month to the school by direct debit. The school also raised £35,000 a year in selling mock entrance tests to the families of applicants to the grammar school, and retained hardship funds for disadvantaged pupils, worth more than £50,000 that went unspent.”

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jul/10/london-grammar-school-st-olavest-eated-students-like-collateral-damage

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10 Jul 2018

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Democracy, Local Government Finance

“The national calamity we don’t hear about – the death of local democracy”

“‘We cannot survive as we are beyond this next financial year. There is no money. I am not crying wolf. I never cry wolf.” So says the Conservative leader of Torbay council, in Devon: a local authority that delivers the full range of services but can no longer function at even the most basic level.

After years of bone-crunching austerity, by 2020 it will be faced with another £12m of cuts – so the most obvious option is to downgrade itself to a district council, hand over its most essential work to the bigger Devon county council, and hope for the best. Whether this will improve anything is an interesting question: since 2010, in real terms, Devon’s funding from government has been cut by 76%.

Northamptonshire’s council has already effectively gone bankrupt. Somerset, Norfolk and Lancashire are reportedly faced with comparable problems. And in our big cities, similar stories have been unfolding for years, as the great cuts machine set in motion by George Osborne in 2010 continues to grind away, while both costs and demand for basic services increase.

Bristol faces a £108m funding gap by 2023, and is cutting services accordingly. Having already hacked well over £200m from its budgets, Leeds is in the midst of making £38m of savings in a single year. In Newcastle, by 2020, insiders reckon that over half the city council’s spending will in effect have been slashed within a decade. Many authorities are putting up council tax, but that doesn’t come close to easing the economies they have to make. And the results are obvious: less comprehensive child protection, less dependable care for older people, fewer children’s centres, more rubbish in the streets – and yet more dire damage to a social fabric that has been pulled apart for nearly a decade.

Why is this national calamity so under-reported?

Some of the answer is about the continuing tragedy of Brexit. Political journalists who work themselves into a lather about this or that item of Westminster gossip hear the dread phrase “local government” and glaze over. It is some token of Whitehall neglect that confusion still surrounds the Tory plan to abolish the core grant given from central government to local authorities and make them completely dependent on business rates and council tax. All told, senior politicians routinely treat non-Westminster people as a mere annoyance: last week, for instance, it was revealed that though the government has commissioned an updated official assessment of the likely effects of Brexit on Greater Manchester, it will not let the people who run that part of the country see it.

There have been times when the UK’s deep tendency to centralise has been momentarily held back, as evidenced by the devolution to Scotland, Wales and London, and Osborne’s encouragement of the rebirth of city regions and the arrival of elected “metro mayors”. But even in those cases – let alone when it comes to the counties, boroughs and districts where devolution remains off-limits – Whitehall’s habit of clinging to power and the effects of austerity have got in the way. Moreover, as evidenced by the calamities that have befallen health and education, particularly in England, politics has tended to revolve around grand schemes authored by politicians who have Bonapartist ideas of controlling everything from the centre – which, in the midst of a society growing more complex and unpredictable by the day, are usually bound to fail.

Yet here is a remarkable thing. For all their travails, some people in charge of councils are among the most inventive, energetic politicians I have ever met. Figures such as Manchester’s Richard Leese, Newcastle’s Nick Forbes, Leeds’s Judith Blake and Plymouth’s recently re-elected Tudor Evans – all Labour people – are located where their policies play out, deeply familiar with local nuances and complexities, and able to move fast. (Weirdly, they are now under attack from their own side: the people at the top of Labour have plans to end the system whereby council leaders are elected by other councillors, and impose one in which their selection would be in the hands of the party’s newly expanded membership – a brazenly factional move that may well be illegal, misunderstands how councils are deeply collective bodies, and threatens constant tension and disruption, just when the people concerned are in the midst of their most difficult era in living memory.)

Meanwhile, at the other end of the local government hierarchy, an experiment in participatory, non-party “flatpack democracy” in my adopted hometown of Frome, Somerset, highlights the revived belief in the power of truly local government, as does the related rebirth of town and parish councils in other parts of the country.

How would such examples of energy and creativity become the norm? Everything ought to start with an acknowledgment that the system is now an incomprehensible mess. It amounts to a random archipelago of town, parish, district, county, city and borough councils, new city regions, police forces and elected commissioners often based on completely different geographies, local enterprise partnerships and an array of other bodies – not to mention an increasingly centralised education system, and a health service now so complicated that very few people understand it. All this feeds into the sense of popular bafflement that defines a country that is simultaneously the UK’s most populous component but also its most powerless: this, it seems to me, is the essence of the modern English condition.

Any political project with radical intentions ought to consider the contrastingly clear, comparatively simple models in most of western Europe: the Spanish structure of municipalities, provinces and regional “autonomous communities” isn’t a bad place to begin. Learning from such examples should lead on to genuine financial independence for councils, based on a decent share of income tax and the ability to raise funds for big projects through bond issues, and a drastic redrawing of the responsibilities of national and local government – not least in the area of basic public services.

Council cuts are putting the vulnerable at risk, Tory peer says
If the NHS is to survive, it is going to have to decisively shift from treatment towards prevention, something that can only be organised at the social grassroots. It is high time we broke up the dysfunctional Department for Work and Pensions, and handed the administration of most benefits and the jobcentre system to local actors who know what actually works. Education urgently needs to be re-localised. If our troubled high streets are to find a new role, it will be people living next to them who will have to be given the power to find it. To even begin to solve the national housing crisis, we will also have to allow local, city and regional politicians to take the initiative. So, we should pay them properly, and allow them the parental leave, holidays, pensions and sick pay that most of them currently do without.

Across the board, we need to leave behind the lingering fantasy that our fate is wholly in the hands of national politicians who can somehow blow the dust off the failed institutional machinery of the 20th century and save us. That world is gone, and its passing ought to be marked with a collective recognition that at the point when councils ought to be in the midst of revival and reinvention, they are actually being killed. God knows, Britain is now well used to the politics of self-harm, but how amazingly stupid is that?”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/10/death-local-democracy-cuts-closures-westminster

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9 Jul 2018

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Accountability, Accountable Care Organisation, Austerity cuts, Health and Social Care (local), Integrated Care Systems, NHS (local)

NHS bed blocking costs £550 per MINUTE says charity

“Bed blocking because of a lack of social care availability is costing the NHS an “eye-watering” £550 per minute, according to research by a charity released today. This equates to £290m a year, Age UK has estimated.

Analysis by the charity also showed that in just two years, the number of older people in England living with an unmet care need has risen by 19%, which translates to 1.4 million over 65s living with unmet care needs

More than 300,000 need help with three or more essential daily tasks like getting out of bed, going to the toilet or getting dressed, the charity found, and of this 165,000 receive no help whatsoever from paid carers, family members or friends.

Caroline Abrahams, Age UK’s charity director, said: “The numbers of delayed discharges to a lack of social care are actually going down, but a lack of social care still costs the NHS an eye-watering £500 every minute – not to mention undermining the chances of older people making a full recovery if they are unnecessarily stuck in hospital for weeks or longer.”

Izzi Seccombe, chair of the Local Government Association’s community wellbeing board, said: “People’s unmet care needs will continue to increase and deepen the crisis in adult social care unless the sector receives a long-term funding settlement, like the NHS, and further funding is made available for council’s public health and prevention services.

“To prevent crises in the NHS, government needs to plug the £3.5bn funding gap facing adult social care by 2025 and reverse the £600m in reductions to councils’ public health grants between 2015-16 and 2019-20.”

Age UK noted that between 2009-10 and 2016-17 spending on adult social care in England fell by 8% in real terms. As a result, in the same period, the average spend per adult on social care fell by 13%, from £430 to £379.

Alex Khaldi, head of social care insights at Grant Thornton, said: “Funding is not the only answer, councils need to focus on monitoring the level of unmet need in their areas more effectively. “If we are to exercise place-based leadership in social care, better data insight that allows councils to identify where and why people have fallen between the cracks is urgently needed.”

The LGA has announced that it would be publishing its own adult social care green paper, after Jeremy Hunt announced the government green paper would be delayed until autumn.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We expect the NHS to work closely with local authorities to ensure people are treated in the most suitable setting and when they are discharged from hospital they have a care plan in place.”

https://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2018/07/bed-blocking-costing-nhs-ps550-minute

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8 Jul 2018

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Austerity cuts, Health and Social Care (local), Inequality, NHS (local)

“Fears of future strain on NHS as councils slash health programmes”

“Hospitals will bear the brunt of “incredibly shortsighted” cuts to public health initiatives that will lead to more people having a heart attack or getting cancer, experts are warning.

New research reveals that, by next year, spending per head in England on programmes to tackle smoking, poor diet and alcohol abuse will have fallen by 23.5% over five years.

Key services, including those to help people quit smoking, manage their sexual health or stay off drugs, are among those being subjected to the deepest cuts, according to analysis by the Health Foundation thinktank.

The public health grant that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) gives to local councils in England, which is not covered by the cash injection, is due to fall from £2.44bn this year to £2.27bn in 2019-20. It will be the fifth year in a row it has been cut since its peak of £2.86bn in 2014-15.

By next year, councils will be spending £95m on smoking and tobacco-control services, 45% less than they were in 2014-15. The next biggest cuts over that period will have occurred in drug and alcohol services for under-18s, down by 41% to £40m, and the equivalent services for adults, which will have fallen by 26% over those five years. Sexual health services will also be getting 25% less.

“There’s a massive gap between the government’s rhetoric on public health and prevention and the reality,” said Tim Elwell-Sutton of the Health Foundation. “NHS England’s Five Year Forward View talked about ‘a radical upgrade in prevention’ while in her recent speech about the NHS the prime minister said ministers would support public health. But we are seeing significant cuts to public health budgets. It is incredibly shortsighted not to invest in keeping people well. We are storing up problems for our health and also for the NHS, which is already under huge pressure. It could become increasingly unsustainable as more and more people with preventable illnesses will need long-term healthcare.

“We’re crazy if we’re not taking seriously the underlying cause of one of the most harmful illnesses – cancer – which is also one of the most expensive to treat,” said Elwell-Sutton. Although smoking rates are falling, the habit leads to almost 500,000 hospitalisations a year and is a major cause of strokes, heart problems and life-threatening respiratory conditions.

Shirley Cramer, chief executive of the Royal Society for Public Health, accused ministers of “confused thinking” over health. “These figures demonstrate a frustrating contradiction from the government, whereby welcome extra money is given to the NHS with one hand, while the other generates more strain on NHS services by draining public health and prevention.”

Conservative-controlled Warwickshire county council is the local authority where the public health grant has been cut the most – by 39%, or £40 a head – since 2014-15. Other councils which have seen their budgets shrink by substantial amounts include Knowsley in Merseyside (38%) and Wokingham in Berkshire (38%). Five councils have seen their budget rise, including Shropshire (up 17.4%) and Warrington (up 11%).

Cramer voiced concern that two of the councils which have seen their public health grant cut the most, Knowsley and Tameside in Manchester, are also among the 10 areas with the highest rate of people being admitted to hospital because of poisoning by drugs, and three others are in the top 40.

The Department of Health and Social Care said: “We have a strong track record on public health – smoking levels are at an all-time low, rates of drug misuse are lower than 10 years ago, and drug addiction treatment services remain free for all with minimal waiting times. Local authorities are best placed to make choices for their community, which is why we are investing more than £16bn in local government public health services over the current spending period.””

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/08/fears-of-future-strain-on-nhs-as-councils-slash-health-programmes

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7 Jul 2018

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Business Rates, Conflict of interest, Small and Medium businesses

“Companies got just £21million relief from business rates this year as councils are urged to do more to help ailing high streets”

Owl says: You want to see a conflict of interest in action? Here’s one. Should a council agree to business rate reductions to save their high streets and see their own revenue fall – or should they let the shops die to preserve their income? (Empty shops usually get 3 months free of business rates then have to recommence them even if the shop remains empty).

“Councils are failing to use their powers to cut business rates and help struggling local shops survive.

Local authorities can reduce rates if it is felt necessary to rejuvenate town centres, using rules under the 2011 Localism Act.

But analysis by the Altus Group consultancy reveals that this almost never happens. There were only £21million of reductions in this financial year – or 0.08 per cent of the predicted total £24.8billlion rates bill in England.

Although business rates are set by an independent government body, half the tax raised goes to councils.

Critics warned that their short-term focus on raking in money could end up destroying town centres weighed down by huge tax burdens.

The 50 per cent of rates that councils keep is meant to come with a more responsible attitude to businesses, with authorities cutting taxes where necessary to help firms.

But instead of going down, rates are constantly ratcheted up. Department stores have been hit with an average increase of nearly £151,000, or 27 per cent, in the past two years, while small shops have seen average rates climb 9 per cent to £9,623.

Sam Dumitriu, of the Adam Smith Institute, a think-tank, said: ‘Councils would rather prioritise their chief executives’ salaries over lessening the burden on businesses. There needs to be quite radical reform of rates to support businesses.’

Mike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: ‘Local authorities must get to grips with the dire situation currently sweeping the high street and start backing hard-working retailers being hit hard by crippling rates bills.’

Robert Hayton, head of business rates at Altus, said: ‘Despite the ongoing crisis engulfing our high streets, this year councils in England are planning just £21million in additional help.

‘Given the stream of collapses across the retail and hospitality sectors since the turn of the year – and with many others teetering on the brink – councils could take decisive action now.’

The Daily Mail’s Save Our High Streets campaign is calling for business rates to be reformed, car parking charges to be slashed and huge foreign technology companies such as Amazon to be fairly taxed.

Around 50,000 retail staff have lost their jobs this year and almost 61,000 stores closed between 2012 and 2017 as internet retailers ruthlessly out-compete traditional bricks and mortar companies.

The Local Government Association, which represents councils, said: ‘Councils do what they can to help small businesses and local economies.

‘This is increasingly difficult, with local government in England facing an overall funding gap that will reach almost £8billion by 2025 and growing demand for services.’ “

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5927309/Companies-got-just-21million-relief-business-rates-year.html

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6 Jul 2018

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Education (local), Inequality, Privatisation

“Councils better at turning around failing schools than academy chains, report says”

” … the report, which looks at 429 council-run schools rated as inadequate in 2013, found that 115 (75 per cent) of 152 schools that stayed with the council became good or outstanding by 2017. …

Meanwhile, only 92 (59 per cent) of the 155 schools that had been inspected since becoming sponsored academies saw their Ofsted ratings improve to good or outstanding during that period. …”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/councils-academy-chains-failing-schools-inadequate-ofsted-lga-a8432626.html

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6 Jul 2018

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Accountability, Affordable and Social Housing, Austerity cuts, Developers/ Development

“MPs call for housebuilders’ ombudsman”

The Financial Times does not allow sharing of its articles but you can imagine the content.

Owl has one observation: isn’t this what Building Regulations are for?

Build to code and there is no problem!

Oh, except pretty much all of the Building Control officers have been let go in austerity cuts.

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5 Jul 2018

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Accountability, Accountable Care Organisation, Austerity cuts, Integrated Care Systems, NHS (local)

The NHS at 70

“Only one hospital trust met all its main targets over the past year, with dozens failing on emergency treatment, cancer care and routine surgery waiting times, an investigation by The Times has found.

As the NHS prepared to mark its 70th anniversary today with services at Westminster Abbey and York Minster, doctors said the findings showed a system that was teetering “like a giant game of Jenga”.

The Times interactive project to uncover the best and worst of NHS hospitals found that in 2017-18, 25 out of 139 trusts failed to see 95 per cent of A&E patients within four hours, treat 85 per cent of cancer patients within 62 days and offer 92 per cent of non-emergency patients treatment within 18 weeks. Only the Chelsea and Westminster in London hit all three key targets. Inspectors have praised the trust’s leadership and desire to learn from problems.

Over the winter 49 hospital trusts said their beds were full at some point. Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of the hospitals’ group NHS Providers, acknowledged that this risked damaging “public faith in the NHS, if it is unable to meet the standards people rightly expect”. The analysis, which looked at data on three key targets plus cancelled urgent operations, Care Quality Commission ratings, ambulance delays, bed blocking and norovirus outbreaks, suggests that Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust is performing worst. The hospital, where two patients died on trolleys in A&E in one week in January last year, is rated inadequate and has the third worst casualty performance.

Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust think tank, said: “It’s perfectly possible to have a view that the NHS needs more money but being oversentimental about it doesn’t help . . . There is definitely scope for improvement.”

He warned that there was no end in sight to the need for budget rises. Britain spends twice as much of national income on the NHS as in 1948, despite a vastly larger economy.

Theresa May has promised a £20 billion boost over the next five years, which experts have estimated is not enough to allow it to start meeting targets while improving GP, mental health and cancer care.

Taj Hassan, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said the system had been starved of resources and was “like a giant game of Jenga”.

A national “brand” like the NHS does not exist anywhere else and it profoundly affects how we look at our health service (Chris Smyth writes).

It is common to hear “the NHS saved my life” but in no other country do people say “our universal taxpayer-funded healthcare financing system saved my life”.

The NHS brand encapsulates the promise of comprehensive treatment, free at the point of use for the richest and poorest.

Yet responsibility lies in Whitehall, which feels remote from the front line. The political control of the NHS is unique and damaging. In Europe regions take responsibility and often find it easier to get things done. It is striking that recent key NHS successes — bringing down death rates by publishing data, centralising stroke care and eliminating surgical inefficiencies — have been led by staff rather than top-down initiatives.”

Source: Times (paywall)

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4 Jul 2018

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, DCC, Education (local), Inequality

Devon schools lose more than 700 teachers and teaching assistants in one year

“In just one year, Devon’s schools have lost more than 700 teachers and teaching assistants.

The worrying figures, revealed in an annual school workforce census published by the government this week?, have been blamed on government cuts by unions.

The data has shown in the Devon County Council authority area there were 11,599 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in the county’s schools at the end of last year – compared to 12,229 just a year before, meaning schools lost 630 teachers.

The biggest cut was in teaching assistants, with FTE numbers falling by more than 300 from 3,623 to 3,322.

The number of FTE classroom teachers was down by 170, while the number of all teachers – including those in leadership roles – was down by 204. Support and auxiliary staff accounted for most of the rest of the fall. …

The census shows that as a result of the loss of staff – and ever-growing pupil numbers – the pupil: teacher ratio in Devon grew from 17.3 pupils for each teacher in 2016 to 18.2 pupils for each teacher by the end of 2017. …”

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/shocking-number-teachers-devon-lost-1746459

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4 Jul 2018

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Accountability, Affordable and Social Housing, Austerity cuts, EDDC, Housing (local)

“Spike in homelessness in East Devon prompt council chiefs to take urgent action”

Just what did EDDC expect when it didn’t challenge developers’ affordable housing viability figures? And good luck with getting either of our MPs to do anything other than mouth well-rehearsed platitudes.

“… Last year, a dramatic rise in the cost of temporary accommodation meant the authority spent £296,000 on short-term accommodation against a budget of £20,000. …

The council has agreed to a number of proposed measures, including the creation of a new ‘homeless accommodation officer’, a move to increase the amount of temporary accommodation and to hold an urgent meeting with local MPs, ahead of the Government’s green paper on housing. …”

http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/spike-in-homelessness-in-east-devon-prompt-council-chiefs-to-take-urgent-action-1-5582319

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4 Jul 2018

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Local Government Finance, Scrutiny

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Government has “shaky grasp” of local government finance

“The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has only a “shaky grasp” of the issues facing local authority finances, the Public Accounts Committee has claimed.

A report published by the committee today noted a significant reduction in councils’ spending power had been imposed at the same time as increases in demand pressure.

Local authority spending power, comprising government funding and council tax, has fallen by 28.6% since 2010-11, while key services have come under increased pressure, the PAC said.

In the same timeframe there has been a 14.3% growth in the estimated population aged 65 and over in need of social care, while authorities have endured a 10.9% increase in the number of children being looked after.

PAC chair Meg Hillier said: “It is no secret that councils are under the cosh.

“The mystery is how central government expects their finances to improve when it has such an apparently shaky grasp of the issues.”

The committee criticised MHCLG’s lack of an agreed measure of sustainability for local government finance or a clear definition of ‘unsustainable’.

The PAC suggested that MHCLG is holding out for a favourable spending review, but noted that the review is now under greater pressure given the announcement of long-term NHS funding.

The committee report also pointed to the first year of the 2015 spending review (2016-17) in which councils with social care responsibilities overspent their service budget by over £1bn and used £858m in reserves.

Hillier said: “Central government’s view is, in effect, that it expects everything to work out in the end. We beg to differ.” …”

https://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2018/07/pac-highlights-whitehalls-shaky-grasp-council-finances

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3 Jul 2018

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Austerity cuts, Inequality, Lobbying, Sleaze

Another summer, another sleazy Tory fundraising ball for toffs

“Millionaire Tory donors blew tens of thousands of pounds to secure luxury dinners with ministers, ­private hunting trips and a ride in Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Bentley during a ­lavish fundraiser.

Guests paid up to £1,500 a head for the annual Summer Party, held on Monday at London’s exclusive Hurlingham Club and hosted by PM Theresa May.

As her Cabinet teetered on the edge of implosion over Brexit, desperate ministers had to rattle the Tory donation tin.

Boris Johnson, David Davis, Michael Gove, Liz Truss and Gavin Williamson were seen “working the room”, getting rich supporters to part with their cash. …

And items up for auction included:

A ride in Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Bentley
Dinner cooked by Michael Gove, in his kitchen
University Challenge with David Lidington
Wine tasting with Brandon Lewis and Matthew Jukes
Own a David Cameron lectern
Dinner with Stephen Hammond
A museum tour with Boris Johnson
Regency weekend for 4 in Cheltenham
Night in Central Mayfair
Villa for 10 in Phuket
Week in Provence for 12
Namibia cheetah experience
Pheasant shooting in Leicester and quail hunting in Texas

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tories-auction-ride-jacob-rees-12848491

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3 Jul 2018

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Business Rates, Infrastructure, Planning System, Small and Medium businesses, Transport (local)

“PARK AND THRIVE Councils urged to slash parking fees to £1 in a bid to rescue failing town centres”

“GREEDY councils were last night urged to slash high street parking rates to a token £1 to stop town centres turning into “ghost towns”.

A retail veteran said town halls should introduce the nominal charge for the first two hours of parking in a radical 25-point plan to revive the retail sector.

The charging regime could be backed by Government legislation.

Bill Grimsey – ex boss of Wickes and Iceland – also demanded the “broken” business rate regime be scrapped altogether as he blamed the eye-watering tax for the biggest wave of shop job losses since the credit crisis.

He called for business rates to be replaced by a 2 per cent sales tax that would cover “bricks and mortar” chains such as Tesco as well as online giants such as Amazon.

And he called for Theresa May to create a new Town Centre Commission to develop a 20-year strategy.

He said: “The first six months of 2018 have seen the highest rate of retail closures, administrations for more than a decade and there is no sign of a slowdown.

“Our cities, towns and communities are facing their greatest challenge in history, which is how to remain relevant, and economically and socially viable in the 21st century.”

Speaking at the Local Government Association today, the retail veteran will say the days of shops ‘anchoring’ high streets were now gone as shopping habits change.

And he called on Government to change planning laws to bring in more housing and offices.

Libraries and public spaces should be at the heart of each community, Mr Grimsey said. He added that the vacancy rate – or proportion of empty shops – in towns such as Morecambe was now 30 per cent.

Councils trousered a whopping £820 million-worth of profit from parking and fines in 2016-2017.

The Local Government Association claims the so-called parking charge surplus is spent on “essential transport projects”. But a report in April ranked Britain’s roads 27th worst in the world – below Chile, Cyprus and Oman.

Under Mr Grimsey’s plans, councils would charge a nominal £1 for the first two hours of parking in town centres – while introducing 30 minutes free parking in high streets.”

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6689229/council-bid-slash-parking-fees-town-centres/

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3 Jul 2018

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Accountability, Asset sweating, Austerity cuts, Council tax, Health and Social Care (local)

“Council cuts are putting the vulnerable at risk, Tory peer says”

“LGA chief says austerity could damage local authorities ‘beyond recognition’

Local authorities have reached the point where relentless financial cutbacks are putting the wellbeing of vulnerable adults and children at risk, the Conservative leader of the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned.

The Tory peer Lord Porter said that after eight years of austerity during which £16bn has been stripped from municipal budgets in England, councils risked being “damaged beyond recognition” and communities depleted of vital services.

An £8bn black hole in council budgets would open up by 2023 unless ministers stepped in to close the gap between spiralling demand for adult and children’s social care services and shrinking town hall incomes, he said.

“We’ve reached a point where councils will no longer be able to support our residents as they expect, including our most vulnerable,” Porter added.

As well as problems coping with demand for services for elderly and disabled adults, the LGA says councils are struggling with an explosion in the number of children in care, and a rising bill for 80,000 homeless families placed in temporary housing.

An LGA briefing on the prospects for local government states: “The failure to properly fund these services puts the wellbeing of some of the most vulnerable residents at risk, and this cannot go on.”

Porter’s intervention, ahead of the LGA annual conference, which opens in Birmingham on Tuesday, reflects councils’ increasing concern about the precariousness of local authority finances, and frustration that ministers are ignoring the escalating crisis in social care.

While the NHS last month received a five-year £20bn cash injection, the government’s plans to overhaul the funding of adult social care services, originally due in a green paper before the summer, were delayed until the autumn. Council bosses have warned that in many areas these services are on the verge of collapse.

The fragility of many individual councils’ finances has increased speculation that more local authorities could follow Northamptonshire county council into bankruptcy. In May, Tory-controlled Somerset called for an overhaul of council funding after it was warned by auditors it could go bust.

Council leaders are also worried about the political consequences of having to sacrifice popular local services such as libraries, Sure Start centres, parks and leisure centres to divert funds into core services such as social care.

Bus services in ‘crisis’ as councils cut funding, campaigners warn
Porter said: “Councils now spend less on early intervention, support for the voluntary sector has been reduced, rural bus services have been scaled back, libraries have been closed and other services have also taken a hit. More and more councils are struggling to balance their books and others are considering whether they have the funding to even deliver their statutory requirements.

“If the government allows the funding gap facing councils and local services to reach almost £8bn by the middle of the next decade, then our councils and local services will be damaged beyond recognition.”

The LGA is calling for councils’ funding problems to be addressed through a government spending review expected in spring 2019, which is likely to set out public services funding plans over the four years to 2023.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “We recognise the pressures councils are facing, so we are working with local government to develop a funding system for the future. Over the next two years, we are providing councils with £90.7bn to help them meet the needs of their residents. On top of this, we are giving them the power to retain more of the income they get from business rates so they can use it to drive further growth in their area.”

Labour’s Andrew Gwynne, the shadow communities and local government secretary, said: “This new analysis is a damning verdict on eight years of Tory austerity. Our public services are straining at the seams, whilst the government continues to cut funding.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/03/council-cuts-are-putting-the-vulnerable-at-risk-tory-peer-says

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2 Jul 2018

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Austerity cuts, Inequality, Rural communities, Transport (local)

“Bus Services In ‘Crisis’ As More Than 3,000 Routes Altered, Reduced Or Withdrawn”

“More than 3,000 bus routes have been altered, reduced or withdrawn during the last eight years as council funding has almost halved, a report has found.

Campaign for Better Transport on Monday detailed how council funding had been cut by £182m – 45% – since 2010, as it urged the Government to “wake up to the crisis hitting local buses before it’s too late”.

The latest cuts, £20.5m last year, have meant 199 routes were altered or completely withdrawn, the campaign’s Buses In Crisis report said, leaving many parts of the country without public transport.

Since 2010, 3,347 routes have been altered, reduced or withdrawn, Campaign for Better Transport said.

Steve Chambers, the group’s public transport campaigner, said: “Our latest report confirms that the slow death of the supported bus continues, with local authority bus budgets suffering yet another cut this year. The resulting cuts to services mean many people no longer have access to public transport, with rural areas hit especially hard.”

Chambers said the loss of a bus service has “huge implications”.

He said the cuts would have an adverse effect on the local economy, with people prevented from getting to shops and businesses, affecting people’s mental and physical health too.

Chambers said the Government “must wake up to the crisis hitting local buses before it’s too late”. …”

http://flip.it/RxOktN

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2 Jul 2018

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Austerity cuts, East Devon economy, Rural communities, Transport (local)

“Bus services in ‘crisis’ as councils cut funding, campaigners warn”

Owl says: put up parking charges and encourage people to use buses … then get rid of the buses!!! This way lies madness.

“Campaigners have called for the government to act to help dwindling bus services, as a report showed council funding had almost halved since 2010.

Budgets to subsidise routes were reduced by another £20m last year and 188 services were cut, according to the Campaign for Better Transport.

Its Buses in Crisis report found that squeezed local authorities across England and Wales had taken £182m away from supported bus services over the decade, affecting more than 3,000 bus routes.

Council funding has preserved funding for services, particularly in rural areas, that private firms have deemed unviable, and where no alternative public transport exists, accounting for more than one in five journeys. But most either cut funding – or spent nothing – last year.

Spokesman Steve Chambers said the research showed “the slow death of the supported bus”, with huge implications for people accessing jobs and education, as well as local economies, health, congestion and air pollution. He added: “The government must wake up to the crisis hitting local buses before it’s too late. We want to see a proper national strategy for buses backed up by funding, like those that already exist for all other modes of transport.”

The Local Government Association said it recognised the importance of buses but that councils had been put in an impossible position by the funding squeeze and the £200m annual obligation to fund bus passes for pensioners.

LGA transport spokesman Martin Tett said: “Councils know how important buses are for their residents and local economies and are desperate to protect them. It’s nearly impossible for councils to keep subsidising free travel while having to find billions of pounds worth of savings and protect other vital services.” …

… According to research published today by another campaign group, Greener Journeys, every £1 invested in local bus infrastructure brings more than £8 in wider economic benefits, as well as combating car pollution and congestion. DfT figures due to be published this week are likely to show worsening congestion in the UK’s largest cities, where traffic speeds have fallen and traffic is 14% greater than five years ago.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/02/bus-services-in-crisis-as-councils-cut-funding-campaigners-warn

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1 Jul 2018

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Health and Social Care (local), Inequality, NHS (local)

“NHS chief reveals 18,000 people have been stuck in hospitals for more than three WEEKS because there are no care services in their community”

… “Challenged on whether this meant the Government would separately have to fund social care, Mr Stevens said that was the ‘obvious implication’.

Chancellor Philip Hammond has warned the NHS package means there is no money left for other priorities. …”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5906233/NHS-chief-reveals-18-000-people-stuck-hospitals-three-WEEKS.html

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29 Jun 2018

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, DCC, Scrutiny

Two-thirds of (mainly Tory) county councils expect to be bankrupt by 2020

“… New research this week by the County Councils Network (CCN) shows that England’s largest, mainly Conservative-led, councils face a combined funding pressure of £3.2bn over the next two years; due to projected demand for services, inflation, and government cuts.

Even more worryingly, our research reveals that faced with these funding pressures, council leaders’ confidence in delivering balanced budgets – a legal requirement of councils – is dramatically falling.

Without a cash injection over the next two years, just one-third of respondents are confident of balancing their books in 2020.

Clearly, any scenario that sees a council unable to balance its budget in 2020 may seem a long way off, but it does not paint a reassuring picture for local councils nor bode well for the future of local services

In the short term, what does this all mean for local residents?

Essentially, the worst is yet to come in reductions to local services if county authorities are to balance their books over the next two years with no additional help from government.

The £3.2bn funding black hole will be filled, but substantial cutbacks will have to be made to residents’ local services.

With county authorities seeing their core government support grant reduced by 92 per cent by 2020, the room for manoeuvre is becoming increasingly small for our councils.

Having made savings in back-office, less visible, or non-essential services, our member councils tell us that they will have little choice but to now cut frontline services substantially.

Last month, our research pointed out that due to unavoidable reductions in home to school travel, some 20,000 less pupils receive free travel to local schools.

This week’s budget survey shows more of this is on the way, with at least £466m in savings being made to frontline areas – think adult social care, children’s social services, pothole filling, and bus services.

At the same time, they will have to introduce new charges for services, or significantly raise council tax to make up the shortfall.

While Liz Truss may not want ministers to make the case for extra cash now, a strong but considered voice round the cabinet table for local government – in the form of James Brokenshire – is desperately needed.

Counties want to work with government in a proactive, and constructive way; supporting the new communities secretary in his case to the Treasury for more resources for councils. Otherwise, we might see drastic changes to our local services over the next few years.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/local-councils-england-county-finances-chaos-uk-government-2020-a8421591.html

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29 Jun 2018

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Democracy, Inequality

The shame: UN to investigate Tory record on poverty and human rights

The sound of Charles Dickens as he turns in his grave.

“The United Nations has launched an investigation into poverty and human rights in the UK which will examine the impact of the austerity policies of Theresa May and David Cameron over the past eight years.

The inquiry will be led by Prof Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, who angered the Donald Trump administration this month when he concluded after a similar visit to the US that the White House’s contempt for the poor was driving “cruel policies”.

The fact-finding trip is scheduled for this autumn and will be the first visit to a western European country by a representative of the UN’s rapporteur’s office since a trip to Ireland in 2011. Alston’s most recent inquiries into extreme poverty have taken him to the US, China, Saudi Arabia and Ghana.

“The UK has gone through a period of pretty deep budget cuts first under the coalition and then the Conservatives and I am interested to see what the outcome of that has been,” Alston told the Guardian. “I am also interested to look at what seems to be a renewed debate on all sides about the need to increase spending at least for some of the key programmes.”

He said the challenges facing the UK were different to the US, where he has concluded Trump’s policies were “tailor-made to maximise inequality and to plunge millions of working Americans, and those unable to work, into penury”.

Alston said: “In the UK, things are at a different place where there is no great budget surplus to be mobilised. Welfare cuts have taken place but there is now an interesting debate on whether they have gone too far and what measures need to be taken to shore up the NHS and other programmes.”

Alston has not yet determined exactly what he will focus on and will shortly invite submissions from groups who want to suggest matters for him to consider. They could include housing squalour, insecurity at work, in-work poverty, mental health and political disenfranchisement. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/28/united-nations-tory-record-poverty-human-rights