First 599 whole finallow res pdf

No.599 May 2016 www.local.gov.uk

the magazine for local government Broadband campaign

“ Superfast broadband is fundamental to our local economies” Cllr Mark Hawthorne, Chairman of the LGA’s People and Places Board

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Local elections preview Nearly 3,000 seats in 124 councils

Business rates retention Steering group launched

Governors and academies Don’t ditch parent governors

The Future of Cities A special report

MAY 2016

The UK’s push towards regional devolution is leading to the biggest transfer of power to local government for over a century.

What will your city or town look like in 50 years?

“Devolution is an exciting development but will increase the need for skills that we haven’t needed at such scale before in councils” LORD PORTER, CHAIRMAN OF THE LGA

Prospect has commissioned a series of experts to explore the future of the UK’s cities and regions, including:

The Future of Cities Welcome to “Newgate sland”

MARK WALPORT

The High Speed North

ANDREW ADONIS

Can cities handle the money?

SARAH WHITNEY

Lord Adonis Chair of the Infrastructure Commission Lord Porter Chairman of the LGA James Wharton MP Minister for Local Growth and the Northern Powerhouse

In association with

CitiesSupp_May_v3.indd

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Download your FREE copy today Visit www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/the-future-of-cities For more information on Prospect’s activity on regional devolution and the Future of Cities, please email david.tl@prospect-magazine.co.uk Follow

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Election fever

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ood luck to colleagues of all political persuasions currently campaigning for re-election on 5 May. When you have five minutes to put your feet up, you might find this month’s lead feature – a preview of the local elections from Professors Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, of Plymouth University’s Elections Centre – an informative read. We will look forward to seeing if their predictions are accurate in the next edition of first!

Meanwhile, a steering group has been launched to inform the work of government and the LGA on full retention of business rates by 2020. We are really keen to hear your views, and you can find out more on p13 and p22.

Business rates and economic growth are also key themes in our interview with Martin McTague, Policy Director at the Federation of Small Businesses.

Like us, the federation is concerned about slow broadband speeds, particularly in rural areas, and their impact on local businesses. So it’s timely that the LGA is launching a new campaign on this issue called ‘Up to Speed’ (see p10).

You can let us know what you think of these or any of the issues raised in this month’s magazine by emailing first@local.gov.uk Lord Porter is Chairman of the LGA

contents news

4 Academisation

5 Children’s teeth

Care services Tour de Yorkshire

Funding for potholes Illegal tattooists

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interview

16 Martin McTague,

Policy Director at the Federation of Small Businesses

“There has been some talk about involving business [in devolution] but I think it has been mainly a gesture”

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Editor Karen Thornton Design & print TU ink www.tuink.co.uk Advertising James Pembroke Publishing Write to first: Local Government House, Smith Square, London SW1P 3HZ Email first@local.gov.uk Tel editorial 020 7664 3294 Tel advertising 020 7079 9365 Photography Dreamstime and Ingimage unless otherwise stated Interview Chris Sharp Circulation 18,100 (April 2016) first is published online at www.local.gov.uk/first at least two days before the magazine. To unsubscribe email first@oscar-research.co.uk The inclusion of an advert or insert in first does not imply endorsement by the LGA of any product or service. Contributors’ views are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the LGA.

May 2016

14

features

comment

8 Local elections preview 10 Broadband campaign 12 Gambling research 13 Business rates 14 Alcohol strength 15 Flooding costs

21 Governors and academies

22 LGA chairman and

group leaders 24 ADASS and

drugs deaths 25 Welsh local

government finance 26 Libraries and adaptation 27 Two-tier to unitary

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regulars

6 Letters and sound bites 28 Parliament – housing 30 Councillor – neighbourhood planning 31 Local by-elections

first contents | 3

Living wage threat to care services

news

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Cross-party concerns about forced academisation Plans for all schools to become academies have caused “enormous concern among councillors across the political spectrum”, according to a joint letter signed by all four of the LGA’s political group leaders.

The letter, published in The Observer, attracted widespread coverage in the national media. It warned that the proposed wholesale removal of democratically elected councils from all aspects of local education, to be replaced by unelected and remote civil servants, had “rightly raised serious questions around local needs and accountability”.

It added that the removal of elected parent governors from academy boards would “further weaken vital local voices in our schools”.

The letter was in response to proposals in the Government’s White Paper, ‘Educational excellence everywhere’, published just after the Budget in March (see first 598). It proposes a fully academised schools system, in which a huge range of decision-making powers over education would rest with unelected multi-academy trusts and regional schools commissioners.

The White Paper highlights impressive

improvements in primary schools – 85 per cent of which are still maintained by councils, note LGA political group leaders Cllr David Hodge (Con), Cllr Nick Forbes (Lab), Cllr Marianne Overton (Ind) and Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson (Lib Dem) in their letter.

“There is no evidence that academies perform better than council maintained schools. Where a school is failing, there is no question that action must be taken – but converting every school, regardless of performance, to an academy will not tackle those issues,” they write.

“Forcing the change upon every school goes against, in many cases, what parents and teachers want, and there will be a large financial implication for local authorities at a time when communities are already suffering the impact of significant budget cuts.

“We need to concentrate on the quality of education and a school’s ability to deliver the best results for children, rather than on its legal status.”

The LGA is urging the Government to listen to the concerns of families, teachers, unions, politicians and experts and rethink the proposals in the White Paper (see p21).

he introduction of the National Living Wage (NLW) will push care services for the elderly and disabled towards breaking point unless new social care funding is provided, the LGA has warned.

Councils support the new NLW – which came into force on 1 April – but it risks destabilising the care provider market by adding a significant cost to the social care system. Councils have already had to close a £5 billion funding gap in social care since 2010 and face major ongoing pressures.

Previous LGA analysis has indicated that the new social care council tax precept of up to 2 per cent will bring in around £372 million in 2016/17. But it is warning that, for some councils, all of this extra money will be swallowed up by covering the cost of the NLW. For others, it will not be enough to cover increased care provider costs let alone other pressures, nor protect social care services from further cutbacks.

The LGA continues to call for the Government to bring the £700 million of new funding earmarked for social care through the Better Care Fund by the end of the decade forward to this year. It will also be organising urgent talks with care providers to tackle growing concerns that the funding crisis and the NLW will see care providers pulling out of the market or going bust.

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Spokeswoman, said: “Councils fully support proposals to introduce a NLW to help ensure care home staff receive a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. However, the cost of implementing it will significantly add to the growing pressure on services caring for the elderly and disabled which are already at breaking point.”

Tour de trophy

keep a 3line gap

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he Tour de Yorkshire international cycle race kicks off on 29 April, and its distinctive trophy has been on its own tour of the six start and finish towns. In Middlesbrough, young Zdeneil Heroil (pictured) got to pose with the trophy and Darren Thompson, of Welcome to Yorkshire, during a shopping trip to the town’s Cleveland Centre. Cllr Lewis Young, Executive Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport, said: “It was great to welcome the trophy to Middlesbrough, and it’s really brought home to people just what a fantastic event the town is playing host to. There’s a real sense of excitement as the big day approaches, and I know the tour can expect a true Middlesbrough welcome and a rousing send-off.”

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www.local.gov.uk

Hospitals spending £35m on children’s ‘rotting teeth’ The cost of removing rotting teeth in children and teenagers has gone up by 66 per cent in the last five years, leading to fears that youngsters’ sugar addiction is spiralling out of control.

Council public health teams are concerned that the rise in cases of tooth decay will mean children are forced to miss school to attend hospital for an operation.

Latest figures show that hospitals spent £35 million on multiple teeth extraction in under-18s in 2014/15, compared with £21 million in 2010/11. Over the last five years, this amounts to nearly £140 million.

It is thought that excessive consumption of fizzy drinks and foods high in added sugar are a major reason behind the surge in cases of treatment – 40,970 procedures in 2014/15 compared with 32,457 – an increase of more than a quarter.

The numbers mean that more than 100 operations to remove teeth in children and teens are taking place each day in hospitals rather than at dentists, due to the severity of the tooth decay.

The LGA has called for the Government to include tough measures to tackle young people’s sugar consumption in its forthcoming childhood obesity strategy.

These include a reduction of sugar content and the introduction of teaspoon labelling of sugar content in soft drinks, and greater

Scratchers nicked

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reston City Council has successfully prosecuted two illegal tattoists and seized and destroyed their equipment.

This included out-of-date inks and equipment that was not being properly sterilized. Chief Environmental Health Officer, Craig Sharp, said: “These illegal ‘scratchers’ pose a real danger to the public’s health, often using toxic inks and unsterilized equipment that can have a serious risk of spreading diseases such as hepatitis or HIV, as well as the potential to cause permanent ugly scarring. They are often willing to illegally tattoo children and can cause damage that lasts a lifetime, knowing that children will be unlikely to report them to us or the police.”

May 2016

availability of water in nurseries, schools and colleges as an alternative to soft drinks.

Dental decay is the top cause of childhood hospital admission for children aged between five and nine, with nearly 26,000 admitted in 2013/14 – accounting for 8.7 per cent of all admissions.

Youngsters in the UK are the biggest soft drinkers in Europe, with 40 per cent of 11 to 15-year-olds drinking sugary drinks at least once a day.

Under-10s get almost a fifth of their sugar intake from soft drinks and for 11 to 18-year-olds, that figure is nearly a third.

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Spokeswoman, said: “What makes these numbers doubly alarming is the fact so many teeth extractions are taking place in hospitals rather than dentists.

“This means the level of tooth decay is so severe that removal is the only option. It goes to show that a good oral hygiene routine is essential, as well as how regular dentist trips can ensure tooth decay is tackled at an early stage.

“Poor oral health can affect children and young people’s ability to sleep, eat, speak, play and socialise with others. Having good oral health can help children learn at school, and improve their ability to thrive and develop, not least because it will prevent school absence.”

news in brief Housing bill amendments

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ouncils will be able to decide how many discounted starter homes are included in housing developments, and starter home buyers will have to pay back more of the 20 per cent discount as a result of changes made to the Government’s Housing and Planning Bill in the Lords. LGA President Lord Kerslake, the organisation’s vice-presidents and parliamentary team have been tabling amendments intended to improve the legislation. The changes are subject to approval

by MPs. See p28 for more information and www.local.gov.uk for the latest updates.

Pothole funding

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ouncils need more than 230 times the £50 million which the Government recently allocated for pothole repairs, with the average authority facing a bill of £69 million to bring roads up to scratch, says the LGA. Cllr Martin Tett, LGA Transport Spokesman, said: “While £50 million is a step in the right direction, councils need £11.8 billion. Councils fixed a pothole every 15 seconds again last year despite significant budget reductions. They are proving remarkably efficient in how they use this diminishing funding pot but they remain trapped in a frustrating cycle that will only ever leave them able to patch up roads that are inadequate.”

Brussels bombings

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GA Chairman Lord Porter sent the condolences of local government in England and Wales to Marc Cools, President, Association de la Ville et des communes de la Région Bruxelles-Capitale, and Rudi Vervoort, Minister-President of the Brussels CapitalRegion, after the Brussels bombings. He wrote: “Our hearts go out to you and the people and families affected by this terrible event.

My council colleagues here in England and Wales will want you to know that we all stand in solidarity with our fellow local government colleagues in Brussels and all over Belgium.”

first news | 5

Rising to the housing challenge

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letters

Forced academisation I am worried about the future of our education services if the Government’s planned forced academisation goes ahead, but there is one question I’d really like answered by any supporters of this scheme.

Put aside for a minute the fact that local authority schools overall outperform academies and free schools according to Ofsted. Also, forget about the billions of pounds it would cost central and local government during these times of austerity. Don’t worry right now about the rights and wrongs of taking public land and gifting it to private companies at peppercorn rents on long leases. Let’s not worry about the complete lack of suitable academy sponsors, that this takes out all local democratic accountability in one of the most fundamental publicly funded services, or indeed, the removal of parents from the decision making in their child’s education.

No, don’t stress about these questions until we have an answer to the real question: if converting to academy status is a good thing, with school boards and leaders clambering for the ‘freedoms’ it gives, why would any school need to be ‘forced’? I think this sole question is the most telling as to why it should be clear that changing school structures is not the answer.

The LGA’s members are mostly of one mind in this, but will working together be enough to stop this ludicrous, politically and ideologically driven, illogical idea? I feel every councillor must work individually as well as collectively to muster everyone who cares about education to force another central government U-turn. Recent events show it is possible, will we all be up to the fight to make this happen?

Cllr Liz Green (Lib Dem), Opposition Leader, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

or everyone in local government these are challenging times, however we must all rise to the challenge and ensure we continue to lead the way in providing quality homes for the communities we serve.

Ashford Borough Council’s strength in delivering affordable housing has recently been recognised by central government. We have been declared ‘housing business ready’ under a tailored programme, which is funded by and delivered collaboratively between the Housing Finance Institute (HFI) and the South East Local Enterprise Partnership.

This is not the first time we have received national recognition for our work. The ElphickeHouse Report in 2015 (see first 596, p13) acknowledged the council’s proactive approach in delivering homes across all tenures, successfully bidding for Homes and Communities Agency funding to continue its affordable homes building programme, and using the opportunities of housing revenue account self-financing to deliver much needed affordable housing.

We have demonstrated, over a prolonged period, that we excel in the delivery of affordable homes. Our corporate plan states our strong political will to deliver quality housing and homes for all and we also insist on developers meeting our strict Ashford space and quality standards on private lead developments. From the inception of the local authority new build programme, we have been proactive in using sites within our ownership to build new affordable homes. Innovation is key to how Ashford Borough Council works and our creativity in finding new ways to deliver affordable housing speaks for itself.

Cllr Gerry Clarkson (Con), Leader, Ashford Borough Council

Rallying round

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ur free online service in Nottingham is helping people to stay in their homes for longer, improve health and wellbeing, and reduce isolation.

Rally Round allows a network to be created around a person with care needs. Anything that the person needs help with can be listed as a task and trusted friends, family members, neighbours or staff involved in their care can see this, discuss it, agree to take it on and let everyone know when it has been done.

Rally Round helps share the load – jobs can be anything from doing the shopping, helping someone get out and about, changing a lightbulb, keeping appointments or tidying the garden.

What do you think? Please submit letters for publication by emailing first@local.gov.uk.

Letters may be edited and published online

6 | first letters

www.local.gov.uk

It is a simple idea. An estimated 1.5 million older people with care needs in the UK rely on family and friends for help. Rally Round is designed to make it easier for them to provide this care, to help people to maintain independence and improve their health. It can really help to build social networks to prevent people becoming isolated or lonely, and can have a huge benefit to the lives of our older citizens and their friends, families and carers.

To find out more visit www.rallyroundme. com/nottingham Cllr Alex Norris (Lab), Portfolio Holder for Adults and Health, Nottingham City Council

Providing refuge

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new Somerset service offering support and safe places to stay for anyone needing help to escape domestic abuse is celebrating its first anniversary.

Since 2015 Knightstone Housing, working in partnership with Barnado’s, has run the Integrated Domestic Abuse (SIDAS) service, which is commissioned by Somerset County Council. The service provides a single point of contact for anyone experiencing domestic abuse, whether as a victim or as a perpetrator, and it is also the first contact for professionals making referrals and any members of the public who want advice about domestic abuse.

With 23 refuge units and five safe houses across Somerset, SIDAS has been able to provide a safe place to stay for people needing to escape domestic abuse.

The service offers motivational change programmes for perpetrators of violence and victims. The programme for perpetrators called ‘Lifeline’ has so far worked with 16 people and 68 clients have attended the ‘Overcoming Abuse’ programme.

In May 2015, a GP champions’ project was launched in Somerset to help to address the barriers that staff at GP surgeries face identifying victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse. Since the project began, 374 medical professionals have been trained

May 2016

and there has been a significant increase in the number of referrals to the service from GP surgeries.

Our council works as part of the Safer Somerset Partnership to help keep people safe in Somerset and to reduce the fear of violence, whatever forms that may take. SIDAS is helping us provide important support and safety to those who need it most.

Cllr Anna Groskop (Con), Cabinet Member for Public Health, Somerset County Council

Heathrow expansion

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fter three years of expert analysis and at a cost of £20 million to the taxpayer, the independent Airports Commission made a unanimous and unequivocal recommendation to the Government that Heathrow should be expanded. The Commission looked closely at local environmental impacts and concluded that these could be adequately mitigated.

Following several years of consultation and engagement with local people and local authorities, the plans that Heathrow are proposing are radically different to those rejected by the Prime Minister in 2010. The Prime Minister’s comments rejecting the original plans at that time are irrelevant to the current proposals.

We are the leaders of councils representing tens of thousands of residents who live next to Heathrow, many of whom, as in other surrounding boroughs, are reliant on the proximity to the airport for work. We will continue to encourage the airport to do more to reduce its impacts but we support the skills, employment and community benefits that Heathrow expansion would bring to our boroughs.

Councillor Ian Harvey (Con), Leader, Spelthorne Borough Council Councillor Rob Anderson (Lab), Leader, Slough Borough Council

sound bites Cllr Martin Tett (Con, Buckinghamshire) “Spent £25m on Buck’s roads last year. £0.5m extra will help but not cure problem.” www.twitter.com/MATatBucks Cllr Asghar Khan (Lab, Leeds) “Thanks @Clean_Leeds team #Burmantofts removed fly-tipping Well done! @HousingLeeds @_YourCommunity @LCCEnvServENE.” www.twitter.com/asgharlab Cllr Gerald Vernon Jackson (Lib Dem, Portsmouth) “Along with Tory, Labour & Indep groups @LGAcomms I’ve signed public letter as @libdemlocalgov Leader opposing sell off of social housing.” www.twitter.com/geraldvjuk Cllr Ian Campbell (Ind, Nottinghamshire) “Brilliant to see #juniordoctors teaching the public CPR today on the pickets #JuniorDoctorsStrike @TheBMA #NHS #JeremyHunt take notice!!” www.twitter.com/CouncillorIan Cllr Anne Western (Lab, Derbyshire) “Lively discussion at @DDLabour women’s forum. Informal, friendly and determined.” www.twitter.com/AnneWestern Cllr Beccy Hopfensperger (Con, Suffolk) “So I’m standing at a zebra crossing with bags of shopping & two young children & a police car just drives straight through #setanexample.” www.twitter.com/RHopfensperger Do you have a blog or a Twitter account we should be following?

Let us know. Email first@local.gov.uk

first letters | 7

features

months suggest that Labour’s national support hovers around 30 per cent, roughly level with the Conservatives. Four years ago the gap was six percentage points in Labour’s favour.

Far from making gains, therefore, Labour is in the unusual position for the Opposition party of potentially losing ground. Of course, events between now and polling day may intercede in Labour’s favour, but local voters currently appear impervious to the ebb and flow of the national political discourse.

If Labour does stumble, and losses rather than gains will be taken as a signal of that, the focus is certain to be on the party leader and his uneasy relationship with sections of the parliamentary party. But judging from the pattern of nominations, the mood among Labour’s grassroots, swelled during the leadership contest, is optimistic. The party is contesting 94 per cent of the available vacancies, fractionally more than the Conservatives.

If by-election voting reflects the broader electoral mood then the Conservatives, suffering more than 300 losses last time, may recoup some territory. Wresting control back in Plymouth, where the two main parties are deadlocked, would consolidate the party’s general election advance across the city. Rossendale also offers opportunities that may result in Labour losing its slender majority while in Basildon the Conservatives might regain control if UKIP’s appeal among voters diminishes.

In any event, it will take a direct swing from the Conservatives to Labour comparable to that of 2012 for LGA control to tip again after just one year of a narrow Conservative lead.

Can UKIP re-capture the momentum of 2013 and 2014 or has it passed its peak?

Local elections preview The scope for widespread changes in councils’ political control on 5 May is limited. But that won’t stop the local elections being used to judge the national performance of the political parties and their leaders

Professors Colin Rallings (right) and Michael Thrasher are Directors of Plymouth University’s Elections Centre

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he results of this year’s English local elections will mainly be assessed alongside the other contests in Scotland, Wales and London for the performance of national parties and their leaders.

With most local authority elections determining only a fraction of seats, the scope for widespread changes is limited.

It is worth rehearsing beforehand the range of possible outcomes.

Context is everything when setting the benchmarks. For local elections, this means noting the number of authorities and seats at stake. With fewer than 3,000 seats and election battles in just 124 councils, this is one of the quietest periods in the election calendar.

Talk of Labour needing to win hundreds of additional seats in order to cement Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership credentials appears designed to establish unreal expectations.

8 | first feature

Anticipating 5 May means examining the comparable elections of 2012. Then, the Labour party hit its peak under Ed Miliband, with a national equivalent vote of some 39 per cent producing its best performance in over a decade.

In the metropolitan boroughs, Labour won a greater proportion of the seats than at any time since 1996. The Labour councillors elected then, including those in the extra 500 seats the party added to its number, are now facing re-election.

Many of these are fully aware that the surge of electoral support that brought their success has dissipated.

Indeed, council by-elections over recent

Local elections 2016 by council Current control Seats being defended*

Con

Lab

LD

Green

UKIP

Other

No overall control

41

58

3

-

-

-

22

882

1,337

331

48

28

117

-

*accounting for boundary changes

www.local.gov.uk

Local elections 2016 •

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•

photography by Duncan Nicol Robertson

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etropolitan boroughs – a third of M seats (724) in 32 councils; all seats (192) in three councils; no elections in Doncaster Unitary authorities – a third of seats (271) in 16 councils; all seats (188) in three councils District councils – a third of seats (737) in 51 councils; half of seats (124) in seven councils; all seats (507) in 12 councils TOTAL – 2,743 seats in 124 councils

“Local voters currently appear impervious to the ebb and flow of the national political discourse”

With candidates present in only half the seats, the party looks to be struggling to find sufficient eligible volunteers.

National vote In UKIP’s favour is its very low 2012 base and the possibility that even a modest increase in vote share may produce some election victories. Having ceded its overall majority in Thanet (where no elections are scheduled), the party needs a headline. Thurrock, where all the wards feature three-way battles with Conservative and Labour candidates, may provide it if it can replicate its performance of last year.

But the party now seems to be falling behind the Liberal Democrats in the race for third place in the national vote. If that happens then expect unfavourable comparisons with past results in North East Lincolnshire, Great Yarmouth, Southend and Dudley as proof that UKIP has run its course, at least as far as local elections are concerned.

This May offers opportunities for a re-emergence of the vanquished Liberal Democrats, abandoned by parliamentary and local election voters alike after entering David Cameron’s first coalition government.

The party lost 200 seats in 2012 on top of four times that volume the previous year.

The party that pioneered pavement politics now has less than half the councillors it had just five years ago. Given this recent history, it is impressive that the party is fielding candidates in two-thirds of the wards.

Other elections 2016 •

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ayoral elections – London M (Con); Bristol (Ind); Liverpool (Lab); Salford (Lab) Police and crime commissioners (40) – 36 in England, four in Wales; currently 16 Conservative, 12 Labour, 12 Independent

Progress in votes, if there is any, will be sluggish. Any gains in seats may arise from an incumbent party stumbling rather than voters returning. Three Rivers, therefore, represents an important challenge: the Liberal Democrats could return to power by gaining Conservative-held seats but equally could watch their rivals seize control if the electoral pendulum swings in the opposite direction.

The Lib Dems may also face setbacks in two of the very few authorities still under the party’s control. New boundaries in Watford are certain to unsettle sitting councillors while the fact that half the seats in Cheltenham are being contested could jeopardise the party’s six-year dominance there, now more likely following its heavy defeat in the parliamentary seat.

Although the Greens never fully seized the initiative as voters began to seek new repositories for electoral protest, there are small signs of an upward trajectory. The

party is fielding more candidates than UKIP and its presence in the metropolitan boroughs is particularly noteworthy. This suggests that it is hoping to capitalise should Labour stumble.

In Norwich, the Greens are in sight of becoming the largest group on the council; in Bristol, the whole council election provides a platform for a rapid boost in seats that could be the foundation for the party to double its parliamentary representation at the 2020 general election. Bristol West was its nearest ‘miss’ in 2015.

Bristol also hosts one of the three mayoral contests outside London. Joe Anderson should be safely re-elected for Labour in Liverpool; in Salford, the party’s new candidate (Paul Dennett) starts a strong favourite. Bristol First incumbent George Ferguson faces a rather taller order.

Twelve opponents are lined up against him and he may struggle to emerge on top from the capricious supplementary vote electoral system. It does not help his cause that the election this time, unlike in 2012, coincides with closely fought party political ward contests.

One in ten of all local election candidates standing in 2016 will, like Ferguson, either be Independents or will represent a range of minor parties. Most electors will have a choice of four candidates. But despite the local campaigns, we wonder whether the focus upon the EU referendum vote less than two months later will impact negatively upon overall turnout.

See next month’s edition of first for Profs Rallings’ and Thrasher’s analysis of the 5 May elections. See p31 for the latest by-elections

May 2016

first feature | 9

The LGA’s Up to Speed campaign aims to ensure we keep residents and businesses still without adequate broadband speeds on the Government’s radar...

Up to speed Cllr Mark Hawthorne is Chairman of the LGA’s People and Places Board

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ccess to fast and reliable digital connectivity is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. It is a component of everyday life, something our residents expect in their homes and local areas as they do an electricity and water supply.

Despite this, there remains a digital divide between those residents with access to connection speeds in excess of 200 megabits per second (Mbps) and those, especially in rural areas, who struggle to get even two.

Since 2013, local and central government have worked in partnership as part of the Superfast Broadband Programme to step in where the commercial market has failed.

To date, the programme has invested £440 million to catalyse the market to connect more residents to faster speeds. As a sector, we not only match funded government but, in some cases, contributed more.

The programme has made good progress, with recent reports it will pass four million premises by May. But despite this,

10 | first feature

some of our residents may still not be reached as part of the current tranche of work. For those that cannot even access 2 Mbps, these connection figures offer little consolation.

If we are to support economic growth throughout the country, it is essential we don’t lose focus on these residents. Of the hard-to-reach premises in the UK, 80 per cent are in rural areas. In these communities, digital needs are already acute, where employment and business patterns, as well as the visitor economy, require good digital connectivity. The same applies to farmers, who are now required to complete forms online to receive funding.

It is also important to remember the 20 per cent of poorly connected residents in our towns and cities, many of whom live mere metres away from neighbours with high speeds but are told they cannot improve their broadband connectivity.

To tackle the problem, the Government recently announced its commitment to a new Universal Service Obligation promising 10 Mbps to all UK residents by 2020. To highlight the challenge it faces, currently 4 per cent of urban and 47 per cent of rural premises cannot achieve speeds greater than or equal to 10 Mbps.

Superfast broadband is also fundamental to our local economies. The Federation of

Berkshire unitary councils Berkshire’s six unitary councils and Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) joined together to work on a government-backed project, ‘Superfast Berkshire,’ with the aim of connecting the whole region to superfast broadband. The project initially aimed to provide basic broadband of at least 2 Mbps to all Berkshire premises and access to superfast broadband (24 Mbps or more) to 91 per cent of premises by the end of 2015.

To connect the last 9 per cent of hardest to reach homes and businesses, Berkshire’s councils are using a mix of private and public sector funded projects to drive superfast broadband coverage to the area.

Superfast Berkshire identified businesses struggling because of poor broadband access.

It engaged with high-speed internet provider WarwickNet who initially provided a range of broadband solutions to three sites across Berkshire, with plans to extend their network

www.local.gov.uk

Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN), Lancashire

Small Businesses reports that 94 per cent of small business owners consider a reliable internet connection critical to their success, yet only 15 per cent are very satisfied with their broadband provision. As many as 14 per cent believe their poor connectivity is inhibiting their growth (see p16-19).

If we in local government are to help support the growth agenda, we must be able to connect these businesses and allow them to flourish.

To support the work of the sector, the LGA is launching a national ‘Up to Speed’ campaign to ensure we keep residents and businesses still without adequate broadband speeds on the Government’s radar. The

to an additional 60 industrial estates and business parks across the county.

Superfast Berkshire remains actively engaged with a number of other broadband suppliers who are working to provide a planned expansion of their networks through their own commercial programmes – this activity requires no public funding. This, combined with a further injection of public funds, will drive the county towards its ultimate objective of total superfast coverage.

May 2016

“Superfast broadband is fundamental to our local economies” campaign is also providing councillors and council officers with a set of resources, including a speed test, case studies and a toolkit, to become more informed as to how they can help their residents improve their speeds.

We have worked with Thinkbroadband, an independent website which pioneered broadband speed testing, to develop a speed test app as part of the campaign’s site. Users will be able to take a test to measure their speed, and see local and national statistics against which to compare their results They will also be referred to alternative services available in their area and a range of innovative case studies where local government has worked hard to connect residents to superfast broadband.

I do hope you can take the test, share your results and encourage your residents to do the same.

Investing in and rolling out superfast broadband to areas with few and scattered homes and businesses can be seen as commercially unviable by broadband providers. This can leave some rural areas in broadband ‘black spots’ – areas with no access to broadband – and risks leaving residents and businesses behind the digital revolution.

Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) was launched in December 2011 by a local volunteer group when it became clear that many homes and businesses would lie outside the areas identified to receive superfast broadband by Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) until the end of the decade.

B4RN relies almost entirely on local investors in the community. By 2015 the community had raised £1.5 million in shares and £1 million in loan capital to get the project off the ground.

Community members can contribute by buying shares, subscribing to the service, volunteering time and skills, offering access to their land, attending meetings, and helping to spread the word with fliers, posters and stickers.

A total of 1,500 residents are now connected to superfast broadband through B4RN broadband in Lancashire, North Yorkshire and Cumbria. Before B4RN, average available broadband speeds were 5 Mbps for download and 0.4 Mbps for upload. They now reach speeds of 1,000 Mbps, meaning residents and businesses are now enjoying between 200 and 2,500 times faster speeds, and that Skype, BBC iPlayer and Facebook are available to residents.

In areas served by B4RN the take-up for broadband services is around 65 per cent of the local population, compared with the 20 per cent predicted by national providers. B4RN has received national and global recognition as the most successful example of a how local community mobilisation can be used to fund a broadband scheme.

See www.local.gov.uk/up-to-speed for more on the LGA’s campaign to raise awareness of those residents and businesses still without adequate broadband

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Gambling research will help councils manage risk of harm Cllr Simon Blackburn is Chair of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board

Ground-breaking research will help councils manage the potential harm from gambling operators who now have to prepare local risk assessments as part of licensing objectives

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n 2014, the LGA’s Betting Commission brought together councillors with members of the bookmaking industry to discuss council concerns about betting shops and fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs).

Although the Betting Commission did not reach agreement on these key issues, one area of consensus was that there is often a lack of hard evidence about the issues associated with local betting shops. The lack of clear understanding about what harm from gambling actually is and who might be affected by it were also acknowledged.

To address this, the LGA agreed to partfund Westminster City Council to undertake a joint research project with Manchester City Council, looking at the issue of local area vulnerability to harm from gambling.

The project ran in two stages, focusing firstly on developing a better understanding of who is at risk, and secondly, how this information might be used to help councils understand the risks in their areas.

Geofutures, which led the project, reviewed existing research and data on gambling related harm. This identified a number of groups for whom there was evidence to show that they were more vulnerable to experiencing harm from gambling than the general population.

These are: children, adolescents and young adults (including students); people with mental health issues, including those experiencing substance abuse issues; individuals from certain minority ethnic groups; the unemployed; homeless people; those with low intellectual functioning; problem gamblers seeking

treatment; those with financially constrained circumstances and those living in deprived areas.

The next stage of the project involved identifying datasets that could be used to map out these at-risk groups in terms of local areas. National data from the 2011 census was combined with local level data – such as health information and the location of relevant services (for example, for problem gamblers, the homeless or people dealing with substance abuse, or educational establishments) – to identify ‘hotspot’ areas where there may be greater numbers of people who are potentially more vulnerable to harm from gambling.

The resulting maps and tools will help the two councils support new guidelines for social responsibility introduced by the Gambling Commission. As of April, gambling operators are required to prepare local area risk assessments setting out how their premises will manage local risks to the licensing objectives. Councils are

“Councils now have clear grounds for assessing the risk of harm to vulnerable persons from individual gambling premises” 12 | first feature

therefore being encouraged to produce local area profiles providing more detail about their areas, including what the local risks may be and what they expect of operators in those places.

On the basis of the research, the councils now have clear grounds for assessing the risk of harm to vulnerable persons from individual gambling premises, which would allow them to identify any appropriate conditions and – if the data can be shown to justify it – potentially even introduce a higher threshold for the opening of a new premise in certain areas.

The LGA will continue to lobby for councils to have stronger powers to limit numbers of local gambling premises, and for a reduction in FOBT stakes. However, this ground-breaking research represents a significant step forward in our understanding of the local risks of harm from gambling and how councils can begin to manage these. Used appropriately, this will be a very valuable tool for councils in overseeing local gambling premises.

We are extremely keen that as many councils as possible make use of this work, and are exploring with Geofutures and Westminster the best way to achieve this.

In the meantime, the research, data and local maps can be viewed at: http://bit.ly/1ROj5h1 www.local.gov.uk

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Getting down to business A steering group has been launched to provide advice to government on how to implement full retention of business rates by 2020

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y the end of the decade, local government will keep 100 per cent of its business rates income.

The main local government grants will be phased out and additional responsibilities will be devolved to local authorities.

This move heralds a major change to the way local government is financed and achieving it will require a radical overhaul of the local government finance system. It is vital that the voice of local government is central to setting out all the issues and designing this new system. As such, the LGA, other representatives of local government, local councils and interested bodies are working alongside government to implement this change. A Business Rates Retention Steering Group has been set up for them to provide information and expert advice to the LGA and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on how the scheme can and should work.

The group, which will meet monthly and held its first meeting on 12 April, is made up of representatives from the LGA, DCLG, County Councils Network, District Councils Network, Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities, Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, Society of London Treasurers, May 2016

Society of Municipal Treasurers, Society of County Treasurers, Society of District Treasurers, Society of Unitary Treasurers, CIPFA, Valuation Office Agency, Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation, Greater London Authority, and London Councils.

The steering group will consider and provide information and advice on the mechanisms needed to set up and run the 100 per cent rates retention system, and the timing and implementation of the reforms.

It will also oversee the work of three technical working groups that will look specifically at key aspects of the reforms.

These will be: 1 The design of the retention system Which authorities should receive an assigned share of business rates and at what level? What is the best way to deal with volatility, including from appeals, and how should that be funded in the absence of a levy or revenue support grant (RSG)?

2 Needs and distribution What should the approach be for doing needs assessment for different services?

At what geographical level should we do a needs assessment? How should ‘resets’ of the needs assessment be done? How, and what, incentives should be built in to an assessment of councils’ need? These are some of the initial questions that government is keen to try and answer to help shape the rest of the work in this area.

3 New service responsibilities Several responsibilities and funding streams have already been put forward as candidates for transfer to local government, to be funded from retained business rates. These include the administration of housing benefit for pensioners and responsibility for funding public health. Key to the discussion about which services should be devolved will be what the quantum of resources available will be once other pre-existing commitments have been taken into account.

The steering group’s next meeting is on 13 May. Its papers are published on the LGA’s website (see www.local.gov.uk/finance). Please email businessrates@local.gov.uk to get in touch

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Lowering the strength of drinks Cllr Simon Blackburn is Chair of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board

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ore alcohol-free and lowerstrength drinks are needed to help tackle drink-related health problems, meet growing demand for them and help ease the pressure on the pub trade.

The drinks industry needs to produce more low-strength cider, wine, beer and spirits with fewer or zero units of alcohol. The Government can support this by extending current tax breaks on beer to these drinks so they can be sold more cheaply than their higher strength equivalents.

These measures would help to reduce harm caused by alcohol and tackle the annual £3.5 billion cost to the NHS of dealing with excessive alcohol consumption. It would also help cater for a 40 per cent rise in younger people choosing not to drink when they go out, as well as those seeking to moderate their alcohol intake.

More alcohol-free and weaker drinks, supported by further tax breaks, could help tackle drink-related health problems – and meet demand from a new, sober, generation Widening the availability of low-strength and alcohol-free drinks would revitalise pubs – which are closing at a rate of nearly 30 a week – and re-establish them as vibrant centres of communities and social occasions.

Charging duty rates based on the strength of a drink would help to reverse the current system which results in the strongest, most harmful drinks sold in supermarkets and off-licences being the cheapest available – which is contributing to the death knell of pubs as the heart of communities.

In 2011, when the Government halved tax on weaker beers of 2.8 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV) or less, sales of these beers

“Charging duty rates based on the strength of a drink would help to reverse the current system which results in the strongest, most harmful drinks sold in supermarkets and off-licences being the cheapest available”

rose by more than 40 per cent nationwide within a year. From 2013/14 there was a further 8.4 per cent growth in off-trade sales of zero and low alcohol beer in the UK. A survey by the Campaign for Real Ale also shows that 52 per cent of drinkers would consume a lower-strength beer if it was on sale in their local pub, while several ‘dry bars’ have opened up across the country, some of which help fund services for people with alcohol addictions (see below).

With a new generation of non-drinkers on the rise, there is a growing demand for greater choice in alcohol-free and weaker drinks. Extending tax breaks on beer to cider, wine and spirits would support and reward the development of low-strength, low-harm drinks that are making a significant contribution to improving long-term health impacts, such as liver disease, and save money for the public purse.

More lower strength and alcohol-free drinks would also allow responsible workers to enjoy a lunch-time pint and those on medication or who are ‘going dry’ for a period.

The drinks industry and several retailers have gone some way to make and sell lower strength drinks but we want them to go much further. Drinking habits are changing and brewers need to capitalise on this by producing a range of different options of drinks for people and to help to re-establish pubs as the vibrant, social heart of communities.

Going alcohol-free in the East Midlands Sobar in Nottingham is the first alcoholfree bar, restaurant and venue in the East Midlands and was highly commended in Alcohol Concern’s first annual Zero Alcohol Awards this year. Sobar has been developed by Double Impact, a Nottingham-based drug and alcohol recovery charity with the support of a Big Lottery Fund grant. The concept came

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from the users of Double Impact services who found that one of the main barriers to their recovery was social isolation and the lack of places to go that are alcohol-free, particularly in the evenings and weekends.

It is a community interest company so all profits go directly back into Double Impact to help fund services to support people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.

www.local.gov.uk

Flooding leaves huge bill for councils New LGA research has revealed the cost of damaged roads and bridges caused by winter flooding – and local government will need more funding to pay for repairs

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early £250 million in damage was caused to key infrastructure like roads, bridges, public rights of way, and drainage systems by last winter’s flooding.

The figure is based on a snapshot analysis by the LGA following the devastation wreaked by storms Desmond and Eva. But the final bill to councils could be much higher as local authorities are still assessing the full cost.

Worst hit have been Cumbria, which sustained about £175 million in damage, Calderdale with £33 million, Northumberland with £24 million and Lancashire £5 million.

This covers damage and destruction to bridges and roads, survey work, landslips and building temporary roads.

Government funding has been important in enabling local authorities and their communities to recover from the winter’s flooding havoc. However, councils will need more financial help from the Government as the full cost of the damage emerges, the LGA has said.

Staff have worked tirelessly with volunteers and local community groups to help areas recover from the devastating and unprecedented flooding, keeping residents up to date with regular postings on their websites and through social media and special flood-watch apps.

Councils have also visited flood-hit areas to collect household items such as carpets and furniture to dispose of them.

So far, an average 1.66 tonnes of

“Staff have worked tirelessly with volunteers and local community groups to help areas recover from the devastating and unprecedented flooding” household goods and freezer waste has had to be removed from each of the 16,500 homes and businesses that have been flooded, the LGA estimates.

The LGA is calling for all landfill tax, which is calculated at just over £82 per tonne, to be returned to local taxpayers and invested back in to projects that will support

Case study: Dorset app helps flood-hit north An online tool designed by Dorset County Council was used to help people affected by last winter’s flooding in the North of England. The county council’s geographical information systems (GIS) and flood risk management teams worked with the Environment Agency to develop the web-based app called SWIM to help recovery efforts in the aftermath of serious flooding. The tool lets public bodies, volunteer flood wardens and residents keep track of the numbers of flooded properties and people evacuated from their homes.

May 2016

local jobs and growth, rather than go to the Treasury.

Allowing councils to keep landfill tax is just one of the measures from government that could make a massive difference to areas recovering from the floods. Others include devolving new flood defence funding with councils working with communities and businesses to ensure money is directed towards projects that best reflect local needs.

Councils continue to give their all for flood-hit areas. The sense of community spirit across the country and huge efforts of council staff who have worked long hours and with little rest has been inspirational.

For more information about flood risk management please visit www.local.gov.uk/floodportal

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interview

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hings have been looking up since 16 March, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

That was the day the Chancellor used his Budget to raise the threshold for business rates relief so that any business occupying property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less will no longer pay any business rates.

In one swoop, 600,000 small businesses are now looking forward to no longer receiving a business rates bill from April 2017.

Martin McTague, Policy Director at the FSB, said small businesses are “in a much better place” since the announcement. He told first: “Business rates were a real block on economic development, especially at the smaller end.

“You had examples of people who wanted to slightly upscale or move out of their home and into their first office and employ their first employee, and that was all being held back by the business rates system.

“It is still a broken system but at least for most of our members we are out of it now.”

With 910,000 businesses challenging their bill since 2010, the LGA has long argued that reforming the business rates appeals system is vital.

Councils have been forced to divert at least £1.75 billion from stretched local services in the past three years to cover the risk of appeals and backdated refunds –

Engines of local growth Small businesses are celebrating their exemption from business rates but feel left out of the devolution revolution, warns Martin McTague, Policy Director of the Federation of Small Businesses 16 | first interview

www.local.gov.uk

“We broadly support the idea that if councils have got a clear motive to try to improve business rates income then they are going to work more closely to develop their economy, and that linkage is a good thing” He said: “At the moment, you have to wait until you get to the steps of the tribunal before they will reveal the basis on which they have come up with your valuation.

That is a ludicrous system. A lot of people go through the appeals process just so they get to hear how the valuation has been agreed.

“I think if they knew at the beginning they probably wouldn’t have appealed in the first place.”

Reform of business rates won’t start and end with appeals and valuations.

By the end of the decade, local government will no longer hand half of its business rates income to the Treasury. It will retain 100 per cent of the money collected from the 1.8 million businesses liable to pay rates in England. In 2015/16 that would represent £23.5 billion.

Income generation The existing top-up and tariff system will be redesigned to support areas less able to generate business rates income while councils will be able to keep any new business rates growth they generate in their local areas.

Mr McTague said the “devil will be in the detail” to ensure the fundamental change, which has been called for by councils for years, works for everyone.

He said: “We broadly support the idea that if councils have got a clear motive to try to improve business rates income then they are going to work more closely to develop their economy, and that linkage is a good thing.

“There might be an argument that if you have a very low business base at the moment it is virtually impossible to grow it enough to cover for some of the shortfall.

CHRIS SHARP

of which they have to cover half the cost at present. By 2020, local government will be liable for 100 per cent of refunds, making appeals reform even more urgent.

The Government has said councils will be compensated for the loss of income from the small business rates relief extension and Mr McTague thinks councils will actually be better off as a result, as the move will go a long way to solving the appeals problem.

He said: “What it does is take the incentive away for these sharks that go around peddling business rate reduction.

They were preying on small businesses who didn’t understand how the business rating system works and were exploiting them, charging them ridiculous fees and commissions.

“That will all go away because most of our members are now out of the system.

“We think this is an important step in the right direction. It would be nice if the system was more open and transparent about how you arrive at the valuations because people can then sensibly challenge it themselves.”

Following calls by the LGA, the Government is also consulting on plans to modernise the business rates system with more regular revaluations and a self-assessment model, giving firms the chance to have some input into how their bill is calculated.

Mr McTague can “see the arguments” for self-assessment but insists greater transparency is more important.

May 2016

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“When that happens councils go into their shell. They look at ways they can raise money elsewhere, through charges and so on, which is wholly negative and counter-productive from our point of view.

“It can mean they act in a desperate way to plug their budget gaps instead of trying to grow their economy.”

The Government has said that local government will need to use its extra business rates income to cover existing grant funding, for example currently given to councils to provide public health services, and a range of new responsibilities still to be decided.

The LGA insists businesses paying rates and councils collecting them want to see this extra money going on services that improve local economies, such as nationallycontrolled transport and skills funding.

“We want you to focus on the things that add to the economic wellbeing of your council’s area,” Mr McTague said. “We can see in Manchester and elsewhere where some of the features being devolved include skills, such as the Work Programme and its replacement, and apprenticeship schemes.

“They are good examples of big, bureaucratic, centrally-controlled services that our members generally think could be delivered better locally. We would want more of that.”

Devolution

CHRIS SHARP

A total of 34 areas in England – covering cities, towns and counties – have put in devolution proposals to the Government.

Many include calls for infrastructure and economic development powers to close widening economic gaps across the country.

Almost a dozen have now been agreed and the LGA predicts at least £80 billion in economic growth could be unlocked if widespread powers and funding were shifted to local areas to remove barriers holding back businesses.

For that reason, the FSB is supportive of the current devolution agenda but says businesses have been sidelined by ongoing

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www.local.gov.uk

“Especially in rural areas we get a lot of complaints from our members about the very poor coverage and slow rollout of decent broadband” negotiations between town halls and Whitehall.

Mr McTague said: “If I was being totally frank, the conversation has been between central government and local government up until now. There has been some talk about involving business but I think it has been mainly a gesture.

“It has been all about central government powers that are being passed to local government and an argument about who is going to pay, what goes back and what happens when it goes wrong. It is not until that has settled down that you can say ‘what is the detail now?’ Now that we have these powers how will we implement them?

“That is where we should play a much bigger role. If you are talking about two organisations negotiating over how they spend money and who controls the powers then I don’t think that is an easy thing to have an engagement process over.

I wouldn’t criticise either central or local government over that. It is what happens next which is important.

“At the moment we would lobby Westminster over those issues. But now we will be talking to a different bunch of stakeholders.”

Skills gaps and access to finance would top the concerns of small businesses in this country, the FSB says. The LGA has warned that by 2022 there will be 9.2 million lowskilled workers chasing 3.7 million low-skilled jobs. Alongside poor infrastructure and a lack of housing, this risks exacerbating the stagnant productivity that is holding back the national economy.

The LGA’s Housing Commission is also exploring how councils can provide the land and support to help grow the number and output of small and medium size May 2016

enterprise (SME) house builders.

“If you look at the big house builders, they don’t really have much of an incentive to try to change a situation,” Mr McTague says. “House prices are going up, they are making good margins. The problem is there are not enough SME builders building the small plots. At the moment we are underutilising the potential asset of SME builders.”

Reliable broadband Recent research from the FSB found 94 per cent of small business owners rate a reliable broadband connection as critical to the success of their business.

It is campaigning for a universal service obligation to be set at 10 megabits per second (Mbps) and for the industry watchdog Ofcom to introduce a new code of practice aimed at improving broadband quality for small business customers.

Mr McTague said: “Especially in rural areas we get a lot of complaints from our members about the very poor coverage and slow rollout of decent broadband. It is holding back their businesses and they are struggling to compete with those that have got those systems.

“It is not a luxury, it is a utility. It is something everyone needs to function as a business properly.”

Small businesses accounted for 99.3 per cent of all private sector businesses at the start of 2015 and 99.9 per cent were SMEs. Total employment in SMEs was 15.6 million which represents 60 per cent of all private

sector employment in the UK. Mr McTague believes small businesses “broadly” have a lot of confidence in local government but warns there is a fear that further funding pressures will signal a return to the days when, he says, councils were using businesses as a “cash-cow”.

“I think that is more of something in the background rather than the forefront of most people’s attitudes,” he said. “The work we have done suggests that the relationship between councils and businesses is actually very good.

“That relationship is getting more important because of devolution. I would have said that up until fairly recently, because the focus has been on health and social care issues, that the minority of councils’ interest has been on things affecting economic development.

“Our members don’t feel that there was enough emphasis put on that. It is changing. Clearly, the retention of business rates is changing the picture as is more devolved powers.”

Uncertainty about the broader economic climate and government policies – such as the National Living Wage and compulsory quarterly reporting – are knocking confidence among businesses. The FSB’s Voice of Small Businesses index showed small business confidence has fallen to its lowest level since 2013.

“There has been a bit of a dip but we are an optimistic bunch and we tend to bounce back quite quickly,” Mr McTague predicts.

The LGA launches its ‘Up To Speed’ campaign for better broadband in this issue on p10.

For more details, please visit www.local.gov.uk/up-to-speed

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Know your patch

Have you ever wondered what proportion of your residents are employed or how many local schoolchildren are obese?

How does that compare to other places?

LG Inform gives you and your council easy access to up-to-date published data about your local area and the performance of your council and fire and rescue service.

Whether you’re interested in scrutiny, a particular service area, or simply need an overview, it can help you review and compare performance with other authorities and assess whether your council is meeting your residents’ needs.

In addition, we now offer LG Inform Plus to complement LG Inform. This subscription service gives users the power to drill down from authority wide information to much smaller areas.

The service offers more detailed performance and contextual data helping you to make the right decisions about the services you provide to your residents.

It provides direct support, online tools and a data feed to use in your corporate systems and external apps. www.local.gov.uk/lginformplus

To view LG Inform and register visit: www.lginform.local.gov.uk

comment Schools’ governors should decide on academy status Emma Knights is Chief Executive of the National Governors’ Association

The National Governors’ Association (NGA) is an independent charity representing and supporting governors, trustees and clerks in maintained schools and academies in England. Our goal is to improve the well-being of children and young people by increasing the effectiveness of governing boards and promoting high standards.

We don’t tell our members what to think.

We simply try to give them the tools to be effective in their three-fold role: managing the school’s finances; recruiting and performance managing the head teacher; and clarifying the school’s vision, ethos, and strategic direction.

Delivering on this last expectation is tricky and has just got harder with the publication of the Department for Education’s White Paper, ‘Educational excellence everywhere’, announcing that all schools are to become academies – whether they like it or not.

It is a great mistake to take away governing bodies’ freedom to decide whether conversion to academy status is the right priority for their school. It undermines the planning and leadership of those who govern and who, as volunteers, are already balancing an awful lot, including shrinking budgets and a teacher recruitment crisis.

Forcing people down a particular line is not the way to bring them on side, nor convince them that your argument is a strong one. Moreover, many schools caught by this forced conversion are ‘good’ schools. It’s one thing to take over underperforming schools.

It’s quite another to overrule those who are leading good schools.

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We think that federating is a great way for local authority maintained schools to work together. For those who don’t know, a federation is a number of maintained schools which have come together under one governing body. The schools’ individual governing bodies are disbanded and a new, single, over-arching governing body is formed.

Despite being overshadowed by the Government’s preferred collaborative model – the multi-academy trust (MAT) – and, now, the White Paper, this year we wanted to set out the many advantages for council maintained schools of collaborating formally. Since schools now have four years to convert to academies,

we’re recommending the federation route as a sensible one for them to start to work together.

We know that some local authorities are considering how to support their schools to establish a MAT. They are in a good position to do so because they know the strengths and weaknesses of their schools. But there are a number of pitfalls to avoid, and we would be happy to advise councils about MAT models, including size, structure and governance arrangements.

Another White Paper proposal is for the removal of the requirement for elected parents to sit on academy governing boards. Ministers have said boards will continue to be free to appoint parents, but that they want to move from them being elected as ‘representatives’ to being chosen for their ‘expertise’.

Well, we disagree. Parents of pupils bring an important perspective to a school’s governance that others are unlikely to bring.

We completely concur with the view that skills are an important part of the genetic make-up of any board. But recruiting a small number of board members from certain stakeholder groups and having a skilled board are not mutually exclusive. Governing boards are strongest when they have a range of skills, experience, and views; elections provide a useful device for ensuring that those with different views are able to join boards.

Sadly, this White Paper appears to be a dismissal of the effort many governors make to improve the education of pupils. The Government would do well to remember that governance is strongest when it takes into account all the evidence and all views.

To find out more about the work of the NGA, please visit www.nga.org.uk

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group leaders’ comments Police and council partnerships benefit residents

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id you know that 83 per cent of calls to the police are not crime related? Analysis by the College of Policing found that public safety and welfare, such as missing persons, people with mental health issues and road accidents take up much of police resources.

Councils have a long record of partnership working with the police and other agencies on prevention, early intervention and crime reduction units. Many councils have funded police community support officers, have police officers seconded to their council or are working closely with the police to reduce anti-social behaviour, domestic violence, mental health

problems, drugs and alcohol abuse, and on crime reduction. These are all issues where the LGA has worked hard to influence and initiate useful legislation. It seems entirely logical that the police and crime commissioners (PCCs) that are elected on 5 May would want to continue this successful partnership and benefit from membership of the LGA. The joint working to serve our residents can only be of benefit to the communities we serve. Rather than the 25 to 40 per cent cuts anticipated in the Budget, Chancellor George Osborne announced no cuts for the police. This was based on his predictions of an upturn in the economy.

“Councils have a long record of partnership working with the police and other agencies on prevention, early intervention and crime reduction units”

Cllr Marianne Overton MBE is Leader of the LGA’s Independent Group

However, pressures of demand increase, especially in the areas of cybercrime, terrorism and child exploitation. Cost pressures such as the living wage, pension contributions and national insurance are challenges shared across our organisations and may have some shared solutions, with or without any devolution deals.

Mergers, joint procurement and creative use of IT may all yet be needed. Working together jointly on issues reduces demand on both the police and on councils. The elected PCCs could work on shared problems assisted by the considerable membership force of LGA to bring substantial benefits to our residents.

chairman’s comment

Shaping the future of local government

Lord Porter is Chairman of the LGA

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he move to 100 per cent business rate retention is one of the biggest changes to the way local government is financed and will help shape the future role of councils. It is essential that the voice of local government is loud and clear in setting out all the issues and designing the new system of finance.

A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes to assess the key issues and work out how best to approach this reform. We are eager to engage with councils to determine their thoughts and aspirations for this new system.

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The officer Business Rates Steering Group (see p13), drawn from councils, held its first meeting on 12 April, and the papers it considered have been published on the LGA website. To ensure that councils’ views are represented in the development of this system, we have invited members to submit their thoughts on the matters set out in the papers. We have also set up a members’ group drawn from across our boards to oversee this work and consider the feedback received from councils and other stakeholders.

Securing the move to 100 per cent retention was a great outcome for councils.

But with all things, when you get down to discussing the details a whole series of issues arise – such as how much money are we talking about? How do we incentivise

growth while redistributing resources to meet needs? How do we ensure that any new responsibilities transferred are properly funded now and into the future?

How do we deal with the need for a safety net, appeals, and reliefs?

The questions go on – and there are no pre-determined answers. What is important is that we are prepared to engage in both ensuring all the right questions and issues are on the table and in trying to find our way towards practical solutions. I urge all councils to make sure they have their say on this fundamental reform.

We have a golden opportunity to shape the future of local government – we must not let it slip through our fingers.

“The voice of local government must be heard and that’s why we are eager to engage with councils” www.local.gov.uk

group leaders’ comments

Cllr David Hodge is Leader of the LGA’s Conservative Group

Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson is Leader of the LGA’s Liberal Democrat Group

Cllr Sharon Taylor is Deputy Leader of the LGA’s Labour Group

From business rates to housing reforms

Start thinking bigger on devolution

Housing diktats ‘doomed to fail’

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“Devolution is about giving power to people to make their communities better”

“When will the Government wake up to the fact that not everyone is able to buy?”

here are three big issues currently affecting local government that LGA Conservative Group colleagues and I are focusing on.

First, working with the Department for Communities and Local Government, the LGA is inviting councils to submit their views on how the new system of business rate retention might work, alongside the new responsibilities that could be devolved from Whitehall. I want to hear Conservative members’ views on this important topic (see p13).

Second, the Government recently launched its White Paper, ‘Educational excellence everywhere’, which confirms its intention that every school should be an academy by 2022 at the latest. For all the talk about structures, I believe what matters most is the quality of education and opportunity that all children can achieve. I am keen to hear your views.

Finally, through the leadership of our Chairman, Lord Porter, the LGA is working hard to influence the Housing and Planning Bill as it progresses through Parliament. Our key aim has been to improve the legislation so that councils can play their role in increasing house building, enabling home ownership and reducing homelessness and housing benefit bills (see p28).

If you are a Conservative councillor who wishes to contact me about these or any other issues please do so via the LGA Conservative Group Office: lgaconservatives@local.gov.uk

“For all the talk about structures, what matters most is the quality of education”

he dream of devolution is in danger of fading away due to the Government’s preoccupation with minor meddling with council structures instead of gripping the really big issues facing the country.

If you believe in devolution you believe that the best decisions about local economies and public services are made by local communities. Devolution is about giving power to people to make their communities better.

But while the Government’s devolution deals have given powers to councils to support and improve local economies, they still cling to their Whitehall-controlled, unreformed public service delivery.

Compelling councils to sell council homes, forcing well-run schools to become academies and setting up trusts to run children’s services are the hallmarks of a controlling and centralising government, not one that believes in localism.

But what is presenting the greatest risk to devolution deals being rolled out across the country is the Government’s attempt to meddle with the democratic structures of local areas; imposing mayors on communities that don’t want them and attempting to use devolution as a way of reorganising local government and abolishing local councils.

So we in local government say to the Government, we will be your partners in delivering the dream of devolution but you’ve got to start thinking bigger.

s if David Cameron did not have enough on his plate between steel plant closures and financial disclosures, there is trouble brewing on the Housing and Planning Bill. Political parties across the spectrum have thrown their weight behind a series of amendments vital to solving our housing crisis (see p28).

When will the Government wake up to the fact that not everyone is in the financial position to buy? Affordable homes for social rent, as well as ownership, will be crucial to helping everyone in our communities access the home they need now, and to providing for future generations.

Proposals forcing councils to make payments to government based on selling council homes are ill-thought out, and will hamper councils’ abilities to invest in new housing. They are also likely to have the unintended consequence of increasing homelessness and pushing more families into the more expensive, private rented sector.

We oppose these payments. At a minimum, the Government should allow councils to retain enough receipts from every home sold to be able to replace it in the same area.

Top-down diktats from government to councils on what their local housing market should be are doomed to fail. New homes are badly needed and councils are desperate to build them, so let us get on with it and stop interfering.

For more information about the LGA’s political groups, see www.local.gov.uk

May 2016

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The adult social care people deserve The year after a challenging comprehensive spending review (CSR) is certainly an interesting time to take up the role of President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS). I’m looking forward to it, though not without some anxiety – being acutely aware of the responsibility of representing 152 adult social services directors at a time of unprecedented financial difficulty.

Thanks to the back-loading of additional funding, there’s a significant funding gap in the next two years, and even by 2019/20, the sector’s cost pressures won’t be met.

This therefore must remain a key priority for next year – the short term funding gap and the longer term shortfall. Additionally, as integration with the NHS gathers momentum, we must be clear about the local authority role, ensuring local democratic accountability is ‘hardwired’ into integration plans. We need to make sure that social work education and

Harold Bodmer is President of ADASS

training for adults is given sufficient priority; to look at market sustainability through an emphasis on the homecare workforce; and to contribute to the new carers’ strategy.

Sustainability of home care is what keeps me awake at night. We’ll never bring any meaning to integration while most home care is disconnected from mainstream

NHS provider services. However, the current approach to integration gives local areas the chance to shape the future of health and social care services, and it’s very positive that at least a handful of sustainability and transformation plans will be led by local authority chief executives.

Thanks to the work of outgoing ADASS President Ray James and colleagues across the care sector, including elected members, public awareness of social care is higher than ever before. We need to keep this up and build a campaign before the next CSR, so that we go into it with a full acknowledgement of the need for social care to be properly funded.

ADASS is a very strong organisation and I’m proud to be leading it for a year. I look forward to working with colleagues and councillors to continue to drive forward the adult social services agenda as we work to deliver the care that vulnerable members of our society need and deserve.

“Sustainability of home care is what keeps me awake at night”

Tackling rising drug-related deaths Cllr Sophie Linden (Lab) is Deputy Mayor at Hackney Council

The official statistics on drug-related deaths in England show the highest number of deaths since records began, specifically highlighting a rise in the number of older, more vulnerable drug users dying from heroin overdose.

There are stark differences in drug death rates around the country, with the North generally experiencing higher rates and bigger increases. There are, of course, many reasons for this and often the areas that suffer the most from drug harms are those that carry the burden of wider health inequalities.

Public Health England and the LGA convened a national inquiry into these recent rises, which I agreed to chair, recognising the importance of this issue for local authorities.

We are meeting again in May to make

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recommendations on how premature drug deaths might be prevented in future.

There are clearly a wide range of causes of deaths and it is important to note that the majority of individuals who suffered opiate misuse deaths in 2012 had not been in treatment since at least the start of 2007.

While fewer people are using heroin, deaths involving heroin are increasing and the median age at death increased from 32 to 41 between 1999 and 2012. This is due to an ageing population of heroin users who are likely to have complex physical and mental health problems.

These findings indicate some things local authorities and their commissioned services can already do to protect against deaths. They include making drug services easily accessible, with outreach programmes; ensuring there are effective pathways to address physical and

mental health problems; making naloxone – the ‘antidote’ to heroin overdose – more widely available; and having processes for learning from deaths and near misses, to prevent future incidents.

Many local areas are already well underway with this work. For example, in my own borough of Hackney, naloxone has been made widely available and pharmacy needle exchange data has been used to identify areas under-served by treatment. An assertive outreach service will start soon, with home visits to re-engage people who have dropped out of treatment and targeted work at streetuser hotspots.

There will be more to learn as the inquiry progresses but there is already a wealth of good practice and knowledge of what works – we do know how to prevent people dying, the issue is putting it into practice across the country.

“We do know how to prevent people dying, the issue is putting it into practice across the country” www.local.gov.uk

Financing future public services Local government in Wales has welcomed a report published by an independent commission led by Professor Tony Travers, which seeks to make sense of the thorny issue of how local public services should be funded.

‘Ambition for change: aiming higher’, published in March, explores the path of a rational and fair financing system capable of supporting innovation and improving service delivery. The report works in a spirit of pragmatism, seeking reform not revolution.

Nevertheless, it does present a significant challenge to the current way that local services are funded, and calls for a down-sizing of the Welsh Government architecture which has built up around council funding.

The reception to the report has been positive. The Independent Commission on Local Government Finance (ICLGF Wales) took evidence from across the Welsh public sector, and the upshot is a series of eminently deliverable reforms that chime well with current Welsh Government and local council thinking. Key findings and recommendations include: • the need for councils to raise a far larger share of their income from local taxes • reducing the number, scale and scope of specific grants and incorporating them into the central revenue support grant (RSG) • transferring business rates from national to local control, thereby increasing councils’ financial autonomy, flexibility and accountability • setting up an independent financial body, similar to the Office of Budget Responsibility, to provide financial advice, support and scrutiny • freezing the existing local government funding formula and developing a new distribution formula that can be applied to any new configuration of councils emerging from local government reorganisation • setting up an independent grants commission to review the use of grants • allowing councils to determine local service charges and fees to maximise income generation, with councils accountable to local communities for how this income is invested.

Steve Thomas CBE is Chief Executive of the Welsh LGA

tax payers in decisions on how their money is spent, allow for much greater investment into vitally important preventative services that reduce pressures in other areas (such as the NHS), and would place local councils at the very heart of local economic growth and community wellbeing.

Incentivisation In short, the report is based on a vision of incentivisation – a more locally-controlled finance system that will place councils in the driving seat not only for building their own local tax base and therefore their own local economies, but also for councils to make a major contribution to improving the economic health of Wales as a whole.

As Prof Travers notes: “The more a council develops its economy, the greater the opportunity to use the extra resources produced to spend on local services or investments. The Welsh Government could have a more strategic, but more effective, role. The prize would be a better, distinctively Welsh, system of council finance.”

So while few in Welsh local government would say that the current funding formula

is working to an optimum level, this timely and effective report offers a much needed basic blueprint that will help put our finances in order and build a system that is capable of supporting the local public services upon which our local communities rely.

If successfully transformed public services are those that are more responsive to residents’ needs and delivered by councils or their partners at a local level, then we desperately need a finance system that is flexible, sustainable and fit for the future. This is now quickly becoming the defining challenge for local services in Wales, and one the next Welsh Government will urgently need to address after the 5 May elections.

“We desperately need a finance system that is flexible, sustainable and fit for the future”

All these reforms could massively reduce the cost of national bureaucracy, fully involve local

See www.cipfa.org/partners/independent-commission-on-local-governmentfinance-wales for ‘Ambition for change: aiming higher’

May 2016

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Library consultation was a positive move Cllr Daniella Radice (Green) is Assistant Mayor for Neighbourhoods at Bristol City Council

“Please do not close Eastville Library.

Thanks to this unique local service, my daughter can access a number of books which are helping to develop her literacy skills. It means that we can read a wider range of books than we would ever have the means to access privately.”

I am sure many councillors will have received emails like this when facing the challenges of library re-organisations and I want to share Bristol’s story with you.

This was the first ever city-wide library consultation, asking people’s opinions including targeting those who have never

“We need to retain paid staff to run the library service, we feel that a volunteer-run model is not viable for the long term” used them. We have a diversity of buildings and more libraries per head of population than any other core city.

The consultation was a massive success, bringing in more than 4,000 responses, and included a scrutiny enquiry day and trips to libraries across the region. We discovered that libraries need to be able to respond to local needs, and that nice buildings with great resources really do attract people.

Inevitably the difficulties came when working out how to reduce the budget. The second phase of the consultation proposed to close seven of the 28 libraries which had an overwhelmingly negative response. As a result

we decided to keep all but one library open, with that one being moved into a community facility with reduced and altered opening hours, which were also consulted on.

Our focus now is on increasing library use and seeing how libraries can complement other services. For example, we are piloting swipe-card access and employing a volunteer co-ordinator and library development staff.

One of the principles we have held to in this process is that we need to retain paid staff to run the library service. We feel that a volunteer-run model is not viable for the long term, and that we will welcome volunteers to supplement but not replace staff.

The business case for sustainability Antoinette Jackson is Chief Executive of Cambridge City Council

Severe weather events such as flooding and heatwaves are becoming a more frequent occurrence, placing considerable pressure on already stretched local authority resources.

It simply makes good business sense to plan for these events and become better prepared.

Integrating resilience measures across council functions can deliver multiple benefits such as ensuring business continuity and the delivery of essential services.

Becoming more resilient to changes in our climate will also help safeguard vulnerable residents in times of severe weather.

At Cambridge City Council, the use of

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sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) is being promoted through the planning process as a key way to manage surface water flood risk.

A SuDS is designed to reduce the pressure on drainage systems caused by new housing and other developments, which reduce an area’s ability to absorb rain water. It tries to replicate natural, cost-effective systems to drain away surface water through collection, storage and cleaning – for example, by planting reed beds.

Cambridge’s adopted local plan requires the implementation of SuDS at all major growth sites. The council has also taken the decision to adopt SuDS that are located within public open spaces, where these are designed in accordance with the Cambridge Sustainable Drainage Design and Adoption Guide.

As a local authority, we recognise that we have a key role to play in tackling climate change at the local level. We know from the Surface Water Management Plan for the city that surface water flooding is a key challenge for us and that the impacts of our changing climate would only increase this risk.

The promotion of sustainable drainage systems was a natural response to this challenge, offering multiple benefits not just in terms of reducing flood risk but also reducing long-term maintenance costs, increasing biodiversity and enhancing the look and feel of new developments.

The council’s SuDS engineer works closely with developers to ensure that SuDS are integrated into schemes from the outset in order to maximise these benefits.

For more information, please visit www.local.gov.uk/climate-local and click on ‘Climate Local resources’ for ‘Climate ready councils: the business case for managing the impacts of severe weather and a changing climate’

www.local.gov.uk

“Providing they are of sufficient size, unitary councils save millions and reduce duplication of services”

Please scrap the council I love Chris Williams is the former Chief Executive of Buckinghamshire County Council

When I retired as Buckinghamshire County Council Chief Executive in March, I was very sad to leave because I loved my job so much.

But, if the truth be told, I should have gone in 2007, when other areas including Wiltshire, Cornwall and Shropshire abolished their county and district councils in favour of just one unitary council each.

At the time, I recommended similar plans for Buckinghamshire, scrapping the five existing county and district councils (which would have included my own job) and replacing them with one new council for the whole of the county. However, at the eleventh hour, councillors decided not to back the plans, and we missed out.

I am as convinced now as I was then that there should be a wholesale shake-up of local government in Buckinghamshire. What we have learnt is that, providing they are of sufficient size, unitary councils work brilliantly.

Not only do they save millions of pounds and reduce duplication of services, but they also end the understandable confusion among the public about who is responsible for what.

For example, where is the sense in district councils collecting rubbish from your front door and then the county council disposing of it?

The two-tier system of local government made sense in 1974 when it was introduced, and even back then it replaced the equivalent of 15 councils with the five we have today in Buckinghamshire.

But more than 40 years on, the two-tier system has become outdated, not fit for purpose and far too expensive to run.

Don’t just take my word for it – look at the money that has been saved by others as a result of going down this path. Wiltshire, for example, saved £50 million in the first four years and back office costs were reduced to 9 per cent of the total budget, from 19 per cent previously. Closer to home, the recent Buckinghamshire Business First group estimates taxpayers would benefit to the tune of £20 million a year if we went unitary in Buckinghamshire.

Even though I failed to get backing to submit a unitary bid in 2007, we became

“The two-tier system has become outdated and far too expensive to run” May 2016

a government-sanctioned ‘path finder’ to improve the two-tier working between the county and district councils. Sadly, three years’ work and £2.5 million of public money later, it collapsed in acrimony with absolutely nothing achieved.

To my mind, it was a serious error not to press for a unitary council. I personally would have been prepared to lose my job and reapply for another one in the brave new world of an entirely new local authority. Hopefully, I would have succeeded and been able to keep my new post until my retirement, but even if I hadn’t, it still would have been worth it for the benefits it would have brought to the county.

It’s to my considerable chagrin that the multitude of councils still exist in their archaic format, despite the fact that the loss of government grant means we have a huge task on our hands to balance our books while continuing to provide all of the services we do.

My idea is still to amalgamate the two levels of councils into one main authority, covering the whole of Buckinghamshire, complemented by much more powerful parish councils which are closer to the people. It’s a simple, but effective solution.

I am proud of what I achieved as chief executive, but not proud of the fact that I left with the prehistoric multi-tiered local government system still intact. The savings that could be made would go to protecting services for the most vulnerable and to fixing the roads – savings that are so easy to release, at a time when we need them most.

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parliament Housing improvements The Housing and Planning Bill returned to the Lords for its Report Stage in April, with the LGA’s vice-presidents and parliamentary team helping secure some significant changes to the legislation.

Peers agreed several amendments called for by the LGA, particularly around Government plans for 200,000 new discounted starter homes to be built. Meanwhile, ministers took steps to backtrack on key parts of their proposals to force councils to sell off their most valuable housing stock to fund the extension of the Right to Buy scheme to housing association tenants.

In a briefing for peers, the LGA warned that forcing councils to make payments to government based on selling council homes would severely hamper councils’ abilities to invest in new affordable council housing.

This loss of socially rented homes would have the unintended consequence of increasing homelessness and pushing more families into the more expensive private rented sector.

As a result, the Government agreed that every ‘higher value’ council home sold should

be replaced with a new affordable home. There is a lot of detail to work through, and the LGA has been seeking to ensure the Government’s amendment allows councils to retain the funding to deliver the tenure of homes that communities need, including council rented.

As first went to press, ministers were preparing to bring forward further proposals over how this will work in Third Reading on 27 April.

The Government also moved to “absolutely confirm” that its change in the definition of the value of homes to be sold by councils from ‘high’ to ‘higher’ would not be used to raise additional funds from local government, in response to specific calls for clarification from LGA Chairman Lord Porter. Ministers will also have to seek parliamentary approval if they want to make local authorities give money raised from the sale of high-value council houses to the Government.

While supporting the Bill’s intention to build more homes, the LGA highlighted local government concerns about some of the proposals for discounted starter homes – aimed at first-time buyers aged under 40,

Purdah guidance

T

he LGA has updated its guidance on council communications during the pre-election or ‘purdah’ period preceding the local, mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections on 5 May – see http://bit.ly/1EU93Ur. Local government sometimes views purdah as a time when communications shut down completely. But the ordinary functions of councils should continue, according to ‘Purdah; a short guide to publicity during the pre-election period’. However some restrictions do apply, by law, to all councillors and officers. The Government has published its own guidance, see www.gov.uk/government/publications/ election-guidance-for-civil-servants

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and offering a minimum discount of 20 per cent against market value. The concerns include that starter homes will reduce the number of new, affordable rented homes being built, and that the Secretary of State would have the power to demand they are built as part of new developments.

Out of reach The Government’s own impact analysis suggests that for every 100 starter homes built through section 106 agreements, between 56 and 71 affordable or social rented homes will not be built. Reducing the number of genuinely affordable rented homes that our local communities desperately need in this way would drive up homelessness and push more families into the private rented sector, the LGA argued.

Recent research for the LGA by Savills (see first 597) has also found that, despite 20 per cent discounts, starter homes would still be out of reach for the majority of people in need of an affordable home in most council areas.

Consequently, the LGA supported a range of amendments to ensure councils are able to determine the mix of starter homes alongside homes for affordable and social rent, and for the discount on starter homes to be recycled in perpetuity so more families can benefit.

LGA President Lord Kerslake successfully tabled an amendment to the Bill which would allow councils to decide how many starter homes should be included in housing developments based on a local authority’s “own assessment of local housing need and viability”.

And peers also agreed an amendment proposed by LGA Vice-President Lord Best which means buyers of starter homes will have to repay the discount they receive if they sell up, less 5 per cent for every year they own the www.local.gov.uk

property over a 20-year period. In an attempt to appease peers, the Government had indicated it was willing to introduce a repayment requirement period of up to eight years.

However, Lord Best’s amendment was agreed.

As first went to press, the Lords were set to resume their consideration of amendments

to the Bill, including those around secure tenancies, planning, and the ‘pay to stay’ policy (under which higher-earning council tenants will have to pay rents nearer to market levels).

Once it completes its Lords stages, the Bill will go back to the Commons – where MPs will have to agree the changes made by peers.

See www.local.gov.uk for the latest on the Lords’ amendments to the Housing and Planning Bill, and www.local.gov. uk/briefings-and-responses for the LGA’s briefings on this and other bills affecting local government

The LGA Independent Group

Appointment to LGA governance structures 2016/17 Each year the LGA Independent Group Executive considers applications from its members for appointments to the LGA governance structures.

All Independent Group members are able to apply for appointments. The deadline for submission of applications for appointments is Friday 20 May.

Annual General Meeting 2016 The LGA Independent Group will hold its 2016 AGM on Tuesday 5 July, between 10am and 11.30am, at Bournemouth International Centre, as part of the LGA Annual Conference and Exhibition. Attendance at the AGM is free of charge for councillors in Group membership.

Members submitting Notices of Motion to the AGM must attend the meeting in person to speak to the motion, or send a nominated Independent Group Member as a substitute to speak on their behalf.

Deadline for submission of motions is 15 June 2016.

Further information If you would like an application form for LGA appointments or to register your attendance at the Group AGM, please contact Carl Cheevers Head of the Independent Group Office carl.cheevers@local.gov.uk or 020 7664 3206 L16-96 LGA_INDEPENDENT AD_FIRST_V03.indd 1

May 2016

14/04/2016 12:29

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councillor Neighbourhood planning Neighbourhood plans are a relatively new tool to give communities more control over the type, location, size, pace and design of development in their area. They were introduced under the Localism Act 2011.

These plans, developed by a parish council or neighbourhood forum, become part of the development plan for the area once passed by an examiner and ratified by the community through a referendum.

Planning application decisions in those neighbourhoods will then be made taking into account the policies set out in these plans.

Having good, clear useful plans can help build community confidence that new development will suit their needs, encourage investment in community infrastructure and underpin the strategic policies of your council’s local plan.

If your ward, parish or town council is considering neighbourhood planning and applying for designation, you will need to be able to encourage and inform communities to do so.

A local authority must take decisions at all key stages in the neighbourhood planning process and provide advice or assistance to a parish council, neighbourhood forum or community organisation that is producing a neighbourhood plan or order.

Neighbourhood planning presents a unique opportunity to bring together people who don’t normally work together and who may even be suspicious of each other. Taking the group on guided tours of the proposed area can be extremely worthwhile for teasing out the really big issues or opportunities.

If your parish, town or neighbourhood forum is gathering evidence, writing the plan and conducting engagement, you will need to be able to help to promote the plan proposals and working groups within the wider

Please visit www.local.gov.uk/ councillor-workbooks, for a workbook on neighbourhood planning

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community and urge people to comment on draft plan proposals as they materialise.

This phase will mostly see the local authority perform its advice and assistance role. You will be able to help groups as they progress from setting out a high-level vision and objectives in the beginning through to evidence collection and then on to developing policies/proposals for the draft neighbourhood plan.

As a local councillor you can help to ensure the group thinks about the relationship between the emerging neighbourhood plan and any adopted or emerging local plan. If your ward, parish or town is preparing for publication,

submission, examination or referendum, you will need to be able to talk to landowners and developers as they come forward and help to resolve any disputes.

Once a draft neighbourhood plan or order is written, the group must publicise and consult on the plan or order for a minimum of six weeks and invite stakeholders and the community to make representations.

The plan and all supporting documentation is submitted to the local authority. The authority needs to arrange for the plan to be checked by an independent examiner, pay for and arrange the referendum if needed and publicise the plan and bring it into force if ratified.

White City community, west London

I

n 2011, residents of White City in west London initiated a neighbourhood forum that could act as a sounding board for local development proposals and planning frameworks. A workshop brought together the local authority, four national developers, local landowners, businesses, local politicians and forum members. They considered how the plan might fit with the Local area framework for strategic sites. A potentially difficult clash was avoided with all parties having a better idea of how they might work together.

www.local.gov.uk

elections Independents make in-roads

local by-elections Allerdale, Dalton IND GAIN FROM CON 3.6% over Lab

Turnout 29.8%

Allerdale, Moss Bay LAB HELD 35.1% over UKIP

Turnout 19.3%

Broadland, Aylsham LIB DEM GAIN FROM CON 10.1% over Con Turnout 28.6% Professors Colin Rallings (right) and Michael Thrasher are Directors of Plymouth University’s Elections Centre

It may be a coincidence or it may be a sign of things to come. But look carefully and it is apparent that Independent candidates won half of all seats contested over recent weeks – in five cases making a gain from a traditional party incumbent The Conservatives suffered four such losses, often registering a calamitous decline in their vote share. It was down by a half or more compared with General Election day 2015 in Allerdale, Craven, and North Kesteven. The Liberal Democrats were also a victim of the Independent insurgency in Richmondshire.

It could, of course, be said that all these turnovers took place in rural wards where personality often counts as much as politics.

And certainly the successful candidates in Craven and the East Riding of Yorkshire can be seen, in the old fashioned phrase, as ‘local notables’.

However, it is also true that the three parties which topped the poll in England last year are engaged in various degrees of internal strife – and voters do not like disunited parties. The Conservatives are locked in combat over the EU referendum; the Labour party at national level is in turmoil over both leadership and policies; and UKIP is split into overtly pro and anti-Farage factions (as anyone who saw former Deputy Leader Suzanne Evans’ appearance on ‘Have I Got News for You’ recently will be only too well aware).

Indeed, the one by-election which saw one non-party candidate replace another May 2016

took place in UKIP MP Douglas Carswell’s Clacton constituency. Yet instead of mounting a strong challenge in a division where the incumbent councillor had been disqualified after being found guilty of fraud, UKIP could do no better than a distant second place with its share of the vote becalmed.

The Liberal Democrats did gain a seat from the Conservatives in Broadland, but their performance remains patchy with impressive showings in some places contrasting with derisory votes elsewhere. They have some way to go to rebuild their previous status as a repository for the discontented.

It is, perhaps, the Greens, though, who will be most disappointed not to be taking advantage of the current intra-party strife.

They have contested half of the 157 byelections held since the General Election but have made just two gains, and have an average vote share of 7 per cent.

It remains to be seen whether micro parties and individual candidates can come close to replicating these results on 5 May, but they certainly serve as a shot across the bows of the established forces. The electorate is feeling restless.

Please visit www.local.gov.uk/first for all recent by-election results and additional data. The next byelections column will appear in the July edition of first

Caerphilly, Moriah LAB HELD 32.2% over Ind

Turnout 26.7%

Caerphilly, Ynysddu LAB HELD 37.8% over UKIP

Turnout 29.7%

Craven, Embsay-With-Eastby IND GAIN FROM CON 59.9% over Con Turnout 37.9% East Riding Of Yorkshire, Pocklington Provincial IND GAIN FROM CON 1.9% over Con Turnout 20.3% Essex, Clacton East RES GAIN FROM IND 21.5% over UKIP

Turnout 28.8%

Kettering, St. Peters CON HELD 31.4% over Lab

Turnout 24.6%

North Kesteven, Ashby De La Launde & Cranwell IND GAIN FROM CON 19.6% over Con Turnout 21% Redcar & Cleveland, Hutton CON HELD 17.5% over Lib Dem Turnout 33.4% Richmondshire, Richmond Central IND GAIN FROM LIB DEM 4.6% over Lib Dem Turnout 29.7%

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