“Among some Tory delegates the atmosphere was a little tense. In an email to conference delegates last week, the Conservative party chairman, Lord Feldman, said it was “particularly important” this year for activists to take the Tory-branded identification badges off when around town due to safety concerns.”
That “Northern Powerhouse” centred on Manchester not quite taken off, it seems!
“Unable to buy, people – especially the young – are turning to rent as the only option. Private rents are exploding: the UK average monthly private rent is now £900, up 10% on last year. This is a dog-eat-dog world of large deposits, six weeks’ rent paid in advance and stunning agents’ fees. So for just a moderate flat the renter has to find more than £2,000 even to cross the threshold.
Hence, social housing has never been more important – yet last year only 1,230 new council houses were built to offset an estimated 10,000-15,000 that are sold each year. More than 1.5m council homes have been sold since 1980.”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/20/right-to-buy-disastrous-for-housing-market
Can anyone explain why East Devon has to sell off more than twice as many council houses as the whole of Cornwall, four times as many as Bournemouth, Wiltshire, Cheltenham and Stroud and Exeter and seven times as many as Mid Devon, not to mention thirteen or fourteen times as many as Swindon, Gloucester and Sedgemoor? It can’t be explained by relative general house prices surely? And why in order for housing association tenants to get up to £100,000 to buy THEIR homes?
To put it into another context – you would have to add up all the council housing to be sold in Sedgemoor, Gloucester, Swindon, Mid-Devon, Stroud, Cheltenham, Taunton Deane AND Exeter (286) to overtake just East Devon (262)!
TOTAL (South West) 1440 1.4%
Bristol, City of 374 1.3%
East Devon 262 6.1%
Poole 259 5.7%
Cornwall 111 1.1%
Bournemouth 71 1.4%
Wiltshire 71 1.3%
Exeter 70 1.4%
Taunton Deane 62 1.1%
Cheltenham 59 1.3%
Stroud 57 1.1%
Mid Devon 31 1.0%
Swindon 6 0.1%
Gloucester 5 0.1%
Sedgemoor 2 0.0%
“The evidence available indicates that no more than half of Bank of England notes in circulation are likely to be held for use within the domestic economy for legitimate purposes,” it said.
So a chunk is used in the “shadow economy” – either legitimate activities concealed from the authorities, or illegal activities and transactions. Some is also kept by criminals and tax evaders.”
Yet more examples of how our district is out-of-tune with both evidence and the electorate:
POLICING
Rural communities lose confidence in police
A new report from the National Rural Crime Network (NRCN) estimates that rural crimes are costing communities £800m while a quarter of crimes go unreported due to a lack of confidence in policing and low satisfaction with local forces. The NRCN found 27% of the more than 17,000 people in the countryside it consulted had not reported the las crime of which they had been the victim. This compares with a national rate of 20%. Of these, 44% said calling the police would have been a waste of time, while 43% said that the police could not have done anything. The report is published amid concerns over the impact that reductions in police numbers and budgets will have in more remote areas, as forces face further cuts of between 20 and 40%.
The Times, Page: 4
HEALTH
King’s Fund calls for further NHS funding
The King’s Fund has warned that an extra £8bn of funding promised to the NHS by 2020, a figure put forward by Simon Stevens, will not be enough. The think-tank claims additional emergency funding of about £1bn will be needed if standards of care and access to services are to be maintained.
Financial Times, Page: 4
TAX
Retailers call for rates cut
The Mirror reports that Tesco is among a group of 12 retailers which have signed a letter from the British Retail Consortium calling on George Osborne to cut business rates. The paper says the move reflects growing concern over the Government’s review of business rates, announced in the March Budget.
Daily Mirror, Page: 45
In which case, why do we employ people with usually no business experience (officers) and elect people often with no business experience (councillors) to run them?
It seems that what Dave really wants is every aspect of local government to be privatised with profit being the only motive. Heaven help you (even now) if you are sick, disadvantaged or elderly: if someone can’t make money out of you, you are for the (privatised) scrapheap.
Cameron: Public services should be run like businesses
In a speech in Yorkshire, David Cameron will promise today to run Britain’s public services like a business, saying £20bn of cuts can be achieved by adopting commercial techniques and boosting efficiency to protect frontline services. Back office functions will be streamlined, with legislation enabling police, fire and ambulance services to share IT, procurement and other systems. Decision-making will be passed down from Whitehall to local people, with 37 areas bidding to take on more devolved powers, some of them delivered by new “city region” mayors. Mr Cameron wants reforms to include “breaking state monopolies, bringing in new providers”, although he would use “non-profit trusts” rather than private providers to take over failing local authority children’s services.
Financial Times, Page: 4
So, we get policing on the cheap – the new order.
…”Ipsa said the overall bill for MPs’ expenses and costs rose to almost £106m in 2014-15. This was an increase of £1.7m on the previous financial year. It includes money claimed for staffing and office costs, travel and accommodation – but not MPs’ salaries.
…”Of the total amount spent by MPs during 2014-15, £82.7m went on staffing – which was up £2.2m compared with the previous year. Travel and subsistence costs rose slightly, too – from almost £4.8m to £4.9m.
Office costs stood at £10.7m, which was lower than the £11.2m spent in 2013-14. Meanwhile, spending on accommodation fell from almost £7m to £6.7m.”
Interesting that either (a) office staff are getting big salary increases and/or (b) MPs are employing more staff.
Our own, inimitable, Hugo Swire MP, of course keeps it in the family by employing his wife.
No austerity cuts for our MPs then.
“Ministers have failed to impose proper controls on the government’s £222bn collection of financial-sector assets, which will add to public-sector debt, official auditors have found.
Despite £62.6bn worth of sell-offs, including shares in Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, the National Audit Office (NAO) has expressed concern over an expected shortfall of financial assets worth £200m.
Student loan debt is expected to hit £1tn by 2047, which has become a major factor in the government’s failure to control the sector’s finances, the report indicated.
It means that while the total received from selling assets plus loan repayments will be £94.6bn over the next five years, this will be exceeded by the £94.8bn cost of issuing new loans and other initiatives, leaving a shortfall of £200m.
The findings are contained in a report issued on Thursday by the NAO into 54 financial institutions controlled by the government. These include four large banks and the help-to-buy scheme designed to support mortgage lending, as well as the British Business Bank and Green Investment Bank.” …
“Peers are entitled to claim £300 a day for attending Parliament – even if they do not speak or vote in any debate. Between 2010 to 2015, 30 peers claimed more than £750,000 without ever speaking.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3225160/Peers-NEVER-spoke-House-Lords-claimed-1-3-million-expenses-year.html
“Military chiefs were attacked today after it emerged taxpayers’ money has been used setting up more than 100 official Twitter accounts as part of a £230million PR blitz.
Overall, the Ministry of Defence is spending £210,000 a day boosting its public image – despite facing cuts of up to £1billion to its budget.
The money has been used to hire 500 spin doctors and some 123 special Twitter accounts.”
“Paul Flynn, the MP and member of the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, said the plans are a “cheap, mean ploy” for the government to disguise under-staffing in permanent jobs.
“It’s an odd, surreal document offering zero-hours contracts plus an exploitative one-sided deal to individual pensioners devoid of trade union protection.” he said. ”
… “The team conclude that the mixture of decentralised and privatised management of services like rail is “not geared towards” addressing the impact of climate change. They add this will only be made worse if the Conservative Government continues to pay too little attention to the threat posed by climate change.
“Given the fact that the current UK government policy is not oriented towards prioritising climate change adaption and providing local authorities with more resources, this lack of action is not likely to change in the future,” continues Dr den Uyl.
“And given that this decentralised, privatised setting around infrastructure and coastal management applies to other areas in the UK, these areas may face similar challenges.”
Whither now EDDC’s “high growth strategy”?
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/01/uk-manufacturing-jobs-data-chinese-slowdown
… “On closer investigation it is also apparent that the larger than average reductions in unemployment in the places hit hardest by welfare reform also happened in previous economic upturns. This makes it impossible to attribute recent trends to welfare reform.”
While the jobless total is lower than it was in 2012, the report pointed out “in the UK economic growth accelerated from mid-2012 onwards after a period of stagnation in the wake of the 2008/9 recession, at much the same time as several of the welfare reforms took effect”, adding that it was “wrong to assume” that the rise in employment and the fall in unemployment could be “attributed in whole or in part to welfare reform”.
Fees increase as cuts bite
The Economist examines how central government departments and local councils have raised the amount they charge for services in the face of continuing cuts.
Recent innovations include increased fees for social-care users over the four years from 2009-10.
Income from cemetery, cremation and mortuary services went up by 11.4% in the same period, according to the IFS.
The paper also notes that fees for services such as green waste collection are creeping in; hours of free parking are shortening; and leisure centres are getting more expensive.
The Economist, Page: 21, 22
£10 billion extra cost pressures on local services by 2020, councils warn ahead of spending review
LGA media release 1 September 2015
Councils will face almost £10 billion of cost pressures by 2020, comprehensive new Local Government Association analysis ahead of the Spending Review reveals today.
As part of its detailed submission to the Treasury ahead of the November Spending Review, the LGA has calculated government policies to be implemented over the next five years will cost councils £6.3 billion by 2020.
It projects this is on top of the extra £3.6 billion of “business as usual” pressures to maintain services at their current level based on demand-led and inflation pressures on local government services.
The LGA, which speaks for more than 370 councils in England and Wales, is warning the Chancellor that failing to fully consider these unfunded cost burdens in the Spending Review could result in important local services being scaled back or lost altogether.
Cost pressures include:
Exempting house builders from Section 106 & Community Infrastructure Levy payments – used to fund infrastructure to support new developments – for 200,000 new starter homes for first-time buyers. An average S106 payment of £15,000 per home would see £3 billion lost over the course of the parliament.
Reducing rents paid by social housing tenants by 1 per cent a year will cost councils £2.6 billion – this is planned revenue to improve and maintain social housing stock and is the equivalent cost of building an average of 19,000 new homes.
Setting aside £1.75 billion to cover the high volume of business rate appeals expected when the 2017 revaluation is introduced.
Rolling out Universal Credit for previous housing benefit claimants will make it difficult for councils to collect overpayment debts worth up to £1 billion.
Introducing the National Living Wage for council staff and care workers over the age of 25 will cost councils £834 million a year by 2019/20.
Increased National Insurance contributions of £797 million a year following the end of state pension contracted out arrangements in 2016.
Meeting the growing gap between what care self-funders and England’s 37 County Councils’ Network member councils pay care home providers is estimated to cost £630 million. On a population basis, the LGA projects the cost impact on England would be roughly double that.
The additional £172 million annual cost of carrying out higher numbers of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards assessments following a Supreme Court judgement last year.
Treating growing cases of tree disease and pests, such as Chalara ash dieback and oak processionary moths, to cost upwards of £100 million.
The LGA’s submission also identifies further areas where additional costs will be incurred but are difficult to quantify. These include changes to support for failed asylum seekers and unaccompanied child asylum seekers, freezing Local Housing Allowance, the benefit cap, increased demand for children’s services, increasing waste recycling targets and the 75 per cent of leisure centres across the country in need of refurbishment.
The Spending Review must be about “spending smarter, not only about spending less” in order to balance the nation’s books while improving public services and local economies, the LGA said.
LGA Chairman Cllr Gary Porter said:
“November’s Spending Review will be critical for the future of our public services over the next decade. Our new analysis shows the significant spending pressures facing councils over the next few years even before the possibility of further funding reductions.
“Leaving councils to pick up the bill for new national policies while being handed further spending reductions cannot be an option.
“Enormous pressure will be heaped on already stretched local services if the Government fails to fully assess the impact of these unfunded cost burdens when making its spending decisions for the next five years. Vital services, such as caring for the elderly, protecting children, collecting bins, filling potholes and maintaining our parks and green spaces, will simply struggle to continue at current levels.
“We need the decisions in the Spending Review to be guided by the fundamental principle that local people will know best how to spend money on services in their area.
“If our public services are to survive the next five years, councils need fairer funding and the freedom to pay for them. Only radical reform of the way public money is spent and widespread devolution of transport, housing, skills and health and social care across England in the Spending Review can protect the services which bind our communities together and protect our most vulnerable.”
No wonder they think that the NHS is doing just fine!
An Asda spokesman said: “Asda security tags a number of items. We have no national policy to tag meat but our stores can decide to do this at a local level.”
The Trussell Trust – who operate a food bank network – say this is a sign of how much some people are struggling.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/asda-sticks-security-tags-mince-6353619
What are we coming to? Or already at?
IPPR proposes more generous spending review
A study by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) claims George Osborne can be more generous in November’s spending review and still achieve a budget surplus by 2020. The research shows that reducing the planned budget surplus from £10bn to £7bn and introducing a range of tax increases mean the Chancellor could limit cuts to vital public services to 26%, rather than the 25%-40% range he’s asked non-protected departments to model for.
Financial Times, Page: 2
Chances of this happening? ….
East Devon Watch 