Local Authority round-up 10/02/23

Commercial

Funding aims to encourage active travel

The Department for Transport has launched a £200 million fund to boost walking, wheeling and cycling routes in England in a bid to encourage people to choose active travel routes. Councils in England will be able to apply for grants to make improvements including more paths, safer routes for children to walk to school and better safety at junctions. Funding will also be available for schemes to support people in wheelchairs and mobility scooters. Councils are being invited to consult residents and businesses to develop projects and the successful bids will be announced later this year. The project is being managed for the Government’s executive agency Active Travel England. Transport Secretary Mark Harper said “This £200 million investment for hundreds of upgraded routes and paths across the country will help to reduce emissions, boost local economies and create jobs. These new schemes will make it safer for children to walk to school and will better connect rural communities, helping more people choose active travel as an affordable and healthy way to get around.”

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Increased funding package announced for councils to deliver local services

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove has announced that councils will receive £60 billion in funding to enable them to deliver vital services. Mr Gove said “Every day councils across the country deliver for their communities and play a crucial role in driving forward levelling up. This funding package represents an increase of over 9% for councils on last year, ensuring a fair deal for local government that reflects the vital work councils do to provide key services on which we all rely.”  The settlement includes £2 billion in additional grant funding for adult and children’s social care for 2023/24 and a one-off Funding Guarantee that ensures every local authority in England will see at least a 3% increase in core spending power. It will include a further £19 million for all services and £10 million extra for the Rural Services Delivery Grant.

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International Trade

UK-Italy export and investment partnership signed

This week Business and Trade Secretary, Kemi Badenoch MP and Italy’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani met in Rome to sign the UK-Italy Export and Investment Promotion Dialogue. This is the first trade partnership which the UK has agreed with an EU country since leaving the EU. The trade partnership, which is estimated to be worth more than £43 billion, aims to boost UK exports, help create jobs, increase wages and grow the economy. Mr Badenoch said “This partnership marks a significant milestone in the UK’s trading relationship with Europe and shows how an independent UK can benefit from striking ambitious trade deals with the world, while also reinforcing our already strong and prosperous trading relationship with EU members such as Italy.”

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Planning and housing

Government updates homelessness code of guidance

On 31 January 2023, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities announced that it had updated its Homelessness code of guidance for local authorities (2018). The guidance, to which local housing and social services authorities must have regard to when exercising their functions relating to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, has been amended as follows:

• Paragraph 7.14 of Chapter 7 of the guidance, which deals with individuals subject to immigration control who are eligible for housing assistance, has been updated to include an individual who has limited leave to remain granted under Appendix Temporary Permission to Stay for Victims of Human Trafficking or Slavery of the Immigration Rules (Temporary Permission to Stay under the Appendix). The amendment reflects the coming into force, on 30 January 2023, of the Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Eligibility) (England) and Persons Subject to Immigration Control (Housing Authority Accommodation and Homelessness) (Amendment) (No 4) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/1371).
• A new section on the Serious Violence Duty, which is a new duty introduced through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (PCSCA 2022), has been added to Chapter 24 of the guidance, which deals with victims of domestic violence. The Serious Violence Duty requires specified authorities to collaborate and plan to prevent and reduce serious violence in the area. Local authorities, as bodies with responsibility for the delivery of services, and housing authorities who have responsibility to take steps to prevent victims from becoming homeless, have an essential role to play in these partnership arrangements.

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Upcoming webinars

Webinar series: Data Protection

Register your interest for our on-going webinar series on ‘Data Protection’ for in-house lawyers, DPOs and senior management in private and public sector organisations. The series will run throughout 2023 providing attendees with up to date information on key Data Protection topics. The short one hour sessions will be delivered by our experts with allocated time for you to ask any questions you may have. The second in our series ‘Data Security’ will take place on Tuesday 14th March.

For more information or to book your place please click here.

Practical guidance on making redundancies

Join our expert Employment Law solicitors Tom Shears and Claire Turner, as they give practical advice on how to navigate your way through the troubled waters of a redundancy process. In the session Tom and Claire will deal with tricky issues such as:

• The initial announcement and how to minimise the disruption to the workforce whilst the process takes place.
• The main risk areas around selection pools and the scoring criteria.
• What Employment Tribunals look for when deciding whether consultation was genuine and meaningful.
• How to deal with employees who are on maternity leave or long-term sickness absence.

For more information or to book your place please click here.

If you have any questions about the issues raised in this update, please do not hesitate to get in touch.