RIGHT TO BUY
UNEMPLOYMENT
Councils forced to sell off enough homes to house Oxford
Unemployment remains at 40-year low in the UK
Councils are only able to replace a third of homes currently being sold under the Right to Buy scheme, forcing them to sell off enough affordable homes to house the population of a city the size of Oxford, Canterbury or Reading in the past five years. The Local Government Association (LGA) is warning that Right to Buy is under threat, and that the scheme will not work if local authorities are not given the financial powers to replace sold homes and embark on a renaissance in council house building. Councils are currently only allowed to keep a third of all receipts from sold Right to Buy homes and are prevented from borrowing to make up the shortfall. Further rules and restrictions are also hampering the ability of councils to rapidly replace homes. For this reason, 12,826 homes were sold off under the scheme in 2016/17, with councils only able to start 4,475 homes in replacement. A total of 54,581 homes have been sold off since 2012 and just 12,472 replacement homes started, leaving a shortfall of over 42,000 - enough to house 168,000 people if each home included four family members. That is the equivalent to the population of Reading, Canterbury or Oxford.
The LGA is calling on government to use the autumn budget to allow councils to retain 100 per cent of Right to Buy sales receipts and have more freedom to borrow to invest and set rents, as well as the flexibility to determine how they implement Right to Buy locally.
GB News
BUSINESS INFORMATION FOR LOCAL AND CENTRAL GOVERNMENT – www.governmentbusiness.co.uk
Unemployment has remained at 4.3 per cent, the lowest rate since 1975, official figures show. The figures, released by the Office for National Statistics, also show that employment remains at a near record high, with 32 million people in work. Increases in full-time and permanent work are behind the figures. In the last year the number of people on zero hours contracts has fallen by 20,000. The figures also show that: the number of people in employment has increased by more than three million since 2010; the UK has the third highest employment rate in the G7; the number of workers aged over 50 has almost reached 10 million; youth unemployment has fallen by over 40 per cent since 2010; there are a near 780,000 vacancies in the economy at any one time; and the proportion of young people who are unemployed and not in full‑time education remains below five per cent.
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CITIES
North of England has fastest improving cities
POLICING
London and Manchester mayors seek end to police cuts Edinburgh
Whilst the highest‑ranked cities tend to be in the South of England, the top 10 improvers in PwC’s 2017 index suggest that the North of England and the Midlands are narrowing the gap. The latest Good Growth for Cities Index measures the performance of 42 of the UK’s largest cities, England’s Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and the new combined authorities against ten indicators based on the views of the public as to what is key to economic success and well-being. These include employment, health, income, skills, housing affordability, commuting times and environmental factors, among others.
Among the highest ranking cities were Oxford and Leeds, which joint first, Reading and Birmingham, which came second, Southampton and Leicester, which came third, and Edinburgh and Newcastle, which came fourth. The index shows that all 42 cities improved their score relative to the 2016 index, driven primarily by increasing employment. In general, those cities that have seen the biggest improvements in their overall score have also experienced particularly large falls in unemployment in recent years. READ MORE:
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The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, have urged the Chancellor to end the police funding crisis and end the risk to public safety. Ahead of the November Budget, their letter to Philip Hammond highlights the real-terms cuts to policing budgets since 2010, including cuts to counter terror funding by more than seven per cent in real terms over the next three years. Both cities have suffered horrific terrorist attacks this year, with a homemade bomb killing 23 people and injuring in excess of 500 at Manchester Arena in May, while there has been attacks on Westminster Bridge, London Bridge, Finsbury Park and Parsons Bridge underground station since the turn of the year. Counter terror experts predict that the number of attacks and attempted attacks will continue to increase, leaving both mayors concerned that the police’s ability to keep their cities safe and to prevent and respond to any future terrorist attacks. READ MORE:
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Volume 24.6 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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