Local Authority round-up 17/02/23

Commercial

£10.7 million to clean up air in local communities

Councils across England have been granted funding of £10.7 million in order to help them to fund projects which will improve air quality in order to reduce the impact of air pollution on people’s health. Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said “From Tyneside to Cornwall, this funding will support a range of inspiring and innovative projects across the country – stepping up our monitoring of harmful pollutants, educating the public and boosting the use of green transport. This builds on our world-leading Environment Act commitments that will enhance our natural environment and safeguard public health for future generations.” Projects have already been picked to receive the funding and include a long-term campaign in Tyneside which will educate people in schools and pollution hotspots about the dangers of air pollution.

For more information please click here.

Government funds rollout of Family Hubs

The government has announced that is providing £300 million investment up to 2025 to 75 areas in order to rollout Family Hubs which will offer early support to families and young children to help them overcome difficulties. The Family Hugs will offer help and support with issues such as infant feeding, perinatal mental health and relationship building. 14 local authority areas, including County Durham, Northumberland and Sunderland, will become trailblazers and receive extra funding in order to lead the way and support other local authorities to improve services that are offered to families, so that these can be rolled out more widely across the country. Early Years Healthy Development Adviser, Dame Andrea Leadsom said “We all agree that universal education and universal healthcare are the right of every citizen. Surely, however, the best start for life is the most fundamental right of all. It is in the period from conception to the age of two that the building blocks for good lifelong physical and emotional health are laid down. There is quite literally no better place to invest, either for human happiness or value for taxpayers’ money!”

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Councils to receive funding to combat drug and alcohol misuse

The government has announced that it will be providing councils with an extra £421 million in funding through to 2025 in order to combat drug and alcohol misuse. 151 councils across England are being allocated funding to increase the quality and capacity of drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services. The funding includes £154.3 million for 2023/2024, and indicative funding of £266.7 million for 2024/2025. Councils will be able to use the funding to recruit more staff to work with people with drug and alcohol problems, support more prison leavers into treatment and recovery services, and invest in enhancing the quality of treatment they provide. Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said “This funding will help us build a much improved treatment and recovery service which will continue to save lives, improve the health and wellbeing of people across the country, and reduce pressure on the NHS by diverting people from addiction into recovery.”

For more information please click here.

Planning and housing

Law Commission to review compulsory purchase laws

The Law Commission has announced that it will be reviewing compulsory purchase laws. It has been widely acknowledged that the law of compulsory purchase in England and Wales is fragmented, hard to access and in need of modernisation. The government has stated that it is committed to a faster and fairer compulsory purchase process which is readily accessible to all parties. To achieve this, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has asked the Law Commission to review the current law on compulsory purchase, examining the consolidation and modernisation of the law that would be required. In the review, the Law Commission will examine the laws concerning the:

• Procedures governing the acquisition of land through compulsory purchase orders.
• System for assessing the compensation awarded to parties in relation to such acquisitions.

Preliminary research on this review will begin in early 2023. This research will include a review of the 2003 and 2004 Law Commission reports on compulsory purchase as well as pre-consultation engagement with stakeholders and analysis of the current law.

For more information please click here.

Upcoming Webinars

Webinar series: Data Protection

Register you 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.