Local Authority round-up 26/05/23

Commercial

£200 million funding for walking and cycling routes

The government has announced that it will be providing £200 million of funding for cycling and walking schemes with the aim of helping to promote healthy travel, reduce emissions and grow the economy. The funding is being provided following extensive consultation with local authorities and through the new government-funded schemes it is expected that up to 16 million more walking and cycling trips a year will be taken across the country. Transport Secretary Mark Harper said “We want to make sure everyone across the country can choose cheaper, greener and healthier travel while we continue to support our local businesses and grow the economy. This £200 million investment will improve road safety, ease congestion and ultimately improve the health and wellbeing of the millions of people choosing active travel.”

For more information please click here.

Regulatory

Government publishes response to consultation on reform of non-compete clauses in employment contracts and impact assessment for proposed reform

The government has published its response to the 2020 consultation on the reform of non-compete clauses in employment contracts. Having considered the responses to the consultation, and carried out further research, the government has confirmed it will introduce a statutory cap on non-compete clauses of three months. The cap will apply to employment and worker contracts only, and not to other workplace contracts, such as LLP agreements or shareholder agreements. Where non-compete clauses last less than three months, the existing common law principles of enforceability will apply. There will be no cap for other restrictive covenants, such as non-dealing or non-solicitation clauses. In addition, to enhance transparency around non-competes, the government has confirmed that it will publish guidance on their use and the underlying law. The government has decided not to proceed with the two proposals which formed the basis of the 2020 consultation, namely the proposal to introduce mandatory compensation for non-compete clauses or, alternatively, to ban non-compete clauses in employment contracts. It found that the introduction of mandatory compensation would involve too much of a direct cost for employers, and that the blanket nature of both options could lead to unintended adverse consequences. Consequently, there was not enough evidence to support government intervention in these respects. The government’s consultation response was published alongside a detailed impact assessment of the proposed reform. This suggests that the statutory three-month cap may lead to greater labour market flexibility and predicts that this could in turn lead to greater innovation, higher wages and lower government spending on work-related benefits.

For more information please click here.

Planning and housing

Night Shelter Transformation Fund receives funding boost

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has announced that it is providing more than £3 million of funding through the Night Shelter Transformation Fund to enable shelters to provide more beds and support services to rough sleepers. Organisations can access the prospectus and check their eligibility on the government website which should be launched in a few weeks. Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Felicity Buchan said “Night shelters are often the first step for rough sleepers to get off the streets and turn their lives around, providing a safe place to sleep and access to support. Today, I visited Gravesham Sanctuary to see how our Night Shelter Transformation Fund helps organisations provide these services. I’m delighted to announce this £3 million boost to the fund which will be life-changing for rough sleepers up and down the country.”

For more information please click here.

Upcoming events

Seminar: Contract law update with Professor Ewan McKendrick

Professor Ewan McKendrick KC will share with us the latest insights and case law on the following topics, a must for all in-house legal teams:

• Recent cases on the interpretation of contracts
• The drafting of exclusion clauses, termination clauses and force majeure clauses
• The meaning of an express term of the contract requiring parties to act in good faith
• Incorporation of terms into a contract
• Other topics include winning the battle of the forms, implied terms, the scope of the doctrine of duress and the role of estoppel and waiver in commercial transactions.

This event will take place in person at the Sage, Gateshead on 20 June 2023 at 9am.

For more information please click here.

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 next in our series ‘Data protection and the implications of AI tools’ will take place on 4 July 2023.

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.