Local Authority round-up 06/09/19

Brexit

Bid to stop UK Parliament suspension rejected

A legal challenge submitted by businesswoman, Gina Miller against Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament has been rejected by the High Court. Lord Justice Burnett, when rejecting Ms Miller’s case has advised that she could immediately appeal to the Supreme Court due to the important points of law involved. The appeal is expected to be heard by the Supreme Court on 17 September 2019.

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Boris Johnson announces that he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than delay Brexit

As the Prime Minister challenged opposition parties to back his call for a general election on October 15, Mr Johnson announced that he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than delay Brexit beyond October 31. During a speech to a police force in Yorkshire this week, he pledged to recruit 20,000 more police officers nationally, Mr Johnson called an extension to Brexit as “pointless”. He highlighted that an extension to the deadline costs “a billions pounds a month” yet achieves “absolutely nothing”.

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Lords agree to push through bill preventing no-deal Brexit by end of Friday

The House of Lords agreed to progress a backbench bill seeking to block a no-deal Brexit, as Boris Johnson prepared to make a speech calling for Labour to allow a general election. At about 1.30am on Thursday, following hours of debate, peers were told that the cross-party bill, tabled by Labour’s Hilary Benn, would be returned to the lower house by 5pm on Friday, ruling out the prospect of a filibuster. Boris Johnson is expected to refuse to abide by the Benn bill, which would mandate him to seek an extension to Brexit until at least 31 January if, by the end of next month’s crucial European council summit, he has not secured a deal or gained MPs’ consent for no deal.

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Pound surges as Boris Johnson loses control of Brexit

Sterling posted its biggest increases in six months on Wednesday morning after Parliament voted to block the Prime Minister taking the UK out of the EU without a deal. The currency hit $1.2347, its strongest value in a week, just before 11.20am UK time on Thursday. That followed an overnight surge of 1.4 per cent, its biggest one-day jump since March. City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta suggest that this is “what the market was hoping for”.

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EU could declare no-deal Brexit a major natural disaster

The EU is considering whether to categorise a no-deal Brexit as a major natural disaster akin to flooding, fires or earthquakes, a move that would release emergency funds to the member states most affected. The plan would allow EU officials to distribute cash from the bloc’s solidarity fund. About €500m (£450m) can be accessed every year but unspent cash from the previous year is also available if required. The Irish government has already been promised extra cash if the UK crashes out without a deal and other countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Spain may receive extra cash as they will also face severe challenges in the parts of their economy most reliant on British trade.

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Boris Johnson’s brother quits over Brexit in fresh blow to PM

Jo Johnson, who was MP for Orpington in Kent tweeted that he would stand down amongst a spate of conservative resignations. Andrea Leadsom, Business Secretary and  Caroline Spelman, former Conservative party chair have both said they will stand down at the next election. The timings of the announcement are a significant blow to Boris Johnson’s authority.

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Banks warn Sajid Javid over SME readiness for no-deal Brexit

Senior bankers, including the bosses of major UK lenders including HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays have told Sajid Javid that whilst they had made the necessary contingency plans in case the UK leaves the European Union’s without a deal next month, many of their SME clients had not.

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“Get Ready for Brexit” Campaign launches

The Government have launched an information campaign urging the public to “get ready for Brexit”. The campaign began with the launch of the website gov.uk/brexit with billboards, TV adverts and social media posts to be rolled out in the near future. Michael Gove, has stated that the adverts encourage “shared responsibility” for preparing to leave the EU on 31 October 2019. Reports suggest that the campaign could cost as much as £100 million as ministers seek to inform the public of what they might need to do (if anything) ahead of the deadline.

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No alternative to backstop until withdrawal deal ratified 

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator has stated that he’s not optimistic about avoiding a no-deal outcome. The EU are prepared to start looking for “alternative arrangements that achieve the same objectives as the backstop”, but only during the transition period following Brexit. In contrast, Boris Johnson has called for the backstop to be removed from the Withdrawal Agreement altogether. If implemented, the backstop would see Northern Ireland staying aligned to some rules of the EU single market should the UK and EU be unable to agree a trade deal after Brexit.

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Brexit talks between UK and EU step up to twice a week

With just two months to go until the October 31 deadline, Downing Street have announced that Brexit talks with the EU will take place twice a week. The Prime Minister has stated that this boost in activity is part of his “energetic and determined” approach to scrapping the controversial Northern Irish Backstop. The two sides have agreed to discuss a number of issues at future meetings but a European Commission spokesman stated that the EU expects the UK to come forward with concrete proposals.

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Tony Blair advises that a pre-Brexit election is “an elephant trap”

The former Prime Minister has warned Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn that having a general election prior to Brexit would be “an elephant trap”. Mr Blair spoke at an event hosted by the Institute for Government this week and stated that the “brutally clear” challenge in an election is that the opposition vote would be split and “under our system, that delivers a comfortable Tory majority.”

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Commercial

Plans to raise primary and secondary teachers’ salaries to £30K by 2022

Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson this week announces plans for the salaries of new teachers to rise to £30,000 by 2022-23 under a government scheme for the biggest reform to teacher’s pay for a generation. He is also to ask for recommendations on additional pay reforms, including the introduction of progressions points linked to performance in order to support the recruitment and retention of the most talented teachers.

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Chancellor announced £400 million investment for 16-19 year olds’ education

In the single biggest annual increase for the sector since 2010, Chancellor Sajid Javid has announced that providers of 16-19 education (such as further education and sixth form colleges) will receive £400 million additional funding to train and teach young people the skills needed for well-paid jobs. As part of the funding, £120 million has been allocated to help colleges and sixth form schools to deliver expensive, but crucial subjects such as engineering which will ultimately lead to a more productive economy.

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New “Flexi-Working” website launched

Amber Rudd, Work and Pensions Secretary and Minister for Women, has this week announced that a new job search website is due to be launched which will gather more than 50,000 job adverts that are specifically designed for flexi-working in mind. The roles on offer will include both full-time and part-time roles and will allow parents to find flexible work.

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Council plan to invest £20 million invested outside of its district this year

A council has recently set out an investment programme it intends to use to generate additional income to add to its budget. The budget reveals that a total of £81.2 million will be spent over a four year period on investments outside its district, mostly in investment properties, which it is hoped will reduce the funding gap for the council and help to minimise the impact on frontline services.

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Regulatory

Government reveal plans to cut traffic jams with Artificial Intelligence

According to the Department for Transportation, the government plan to release data on “planned changes to the road network” which will allow tech firms the chance to feed the information into their AI route planning systems, allowing them to predict traffic jams and provide more accurate journey time estimates. The plans are part of a review of legislation around Traffic Regulation Orders which allow for temporary roadworks or permanent changes to the road. The proposals are part of the governments Future of Mobility Grand Challenge to consider whether existing legislation is suitable to maximise the potential of technology.

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More Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment funding available for councils

Councils hoping to increase volumes of Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) collected via civic amenity sites have been offered £650,000 in funding through the latest phase of the Distributor Takeback Scheme. The funding offered is separate to the total of £3 million funding which is already being provided by the WEEE Compliance Fund which is aimed at increasing the amount of WEEE waste collected at the kerbside by local authorities.

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Planning and Housing

Government publishes revised guidance aimed at simplifying advice on Community Infrastructure Levy regime

The Ministry for House, Communities and Local Government has published new planning practice guidance designed to simplify the CIL regime and help communities and developers understand what is required. Councils are now required to publish an annual report on all the CIL agreements entered into with developers from December 2020. The regulations, which came into force on 1 September 2019, would make it faster for councils to introduce the CIL and for them to fund single, larger infrastructure projects from the cash received from multiple developments.

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Council hails clamp down on “beds in sheds” a success

Oxford City Council has revealed that it has shut down twenty-one “beds in sheds” and served thirty-one enforcement notices since January 2018 when it received government funding to tackle the issue. The Council reported that officers had visited more than 1,000 suspected “beds in sheds” to date and anticipates a further 400 will be visited by the end of 2019. Central government granted £274,942 for the scheme, which allowed the funding of three additional full-time members of staff for two years. The clamp down includes aerial thermal imagining surveys being undertaken on garages and outbuildings constructed without planning permission to ascertain if they emit a heat signature.

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Changes to shared ownership to help more people get on the property ladder

Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick has revealed a new package of measures to help those on lower incomes get onto the property ladder. The government are to review a new national model for shared ownership to make it easier for people to buy more of their own home, including allowing them to buy in increments as low as 1%. The proposed scheme is viewed as a step to help the Prime Minister achieve his goal to close the opportunity gap for home ownership and help millions of young people become home owners.

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Upcoming seminars

As you may well know we run a programme of seminars on a wide range of topics. Listed below are those seminars coming up which we feel may be of interest to you. Please click on the links for further information and to book your place. You can see our full programme of upcoming events by clicking here.

Housing Management Law School – Autumn Term 2019

Join us at the next Ward Hadaway Housing Management Law School taking place this Autumn. Autumn term will bring with it a brand new programme where our social housing experts will update you on the most recent news and topics that you need to know about from both a legal and practical perspective.

Wednesday 9th October (Newcastle)

Thursday 10th October (Leeds)

Thursday 17th October (Manchester)

HR and employment law update

Hear from Ward Hadaway’s employment specialists who will ensure that you are kept up-to-date with the latest developments in employment law.

Thursday 28th November (Middlesbrough)

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