Local Authority round-up 13/12/19

Brexit

Boris Johnson says he has a mandate to take the UK out of the EU next month “no ifs, no buts”.

Boris Johnson has promised to work “night and day” to repay the trust of voters after he led the Conservatives to an “historic” general election win. He said the Tories’ thumping victory had “smashed the roadblock” in Parliament over Brexit and put an end to the “miserable threats” of another referendum on Europe. He continued: “We will get Brexit done on time by 31 January – no ifs, no buts, not maybe.”

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EU chief negotiator says Brexit unlikely by 2021

The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said that Brexit trade negotiations cannot be finished by the end of next year as Boris Johnson has claimed.  In a leaked recording he said that the UK’s timetable of 2021 was “unrealistic” and that negotiations will likely continue until long after the end of next year saying “With regards to this agreement, we will not get everything done in 11 months. We will do all we can – we won’t do it all.”  He said that without a further extension of EU rules “we will still have a few months to achieve what I would describe as the minimum necessary for the economy and security or to prepare for a cliff edge.”  He further noted that if no agreement is reached then Britain could crash out on World Trade Organisation terms saying “Either we have a trade agreement or we will be in the WTO framework. We can’t take contingency measures on trade to give us more time … If there’s no deal, it is a cliff edge for trade.”

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UK trade at risk of being left at the mercy of the EU

Donald Trump has engineered the shutdown of the World Trade Organization’s top court after he refused to approve the appointment or reappointment of any judges, leaving the court unable to function.  This may cause issues for the UK’s post-Brexit trade as, if it leaves the EU on 31 January 2020 and Boris Johnson is elected he has said he will not extend the 11 month transition period to negotiate a free trade deal, meaning failure to reach an agreement within that time would result in the UK trading with the EU on WTO terms from 1 January 2021.  Phil Hogan, the European commissioner for trade, who will oversee the EU’s negotiations with the UK, said “With the appellate body removed from the equation, we have lost an enforceable dispute settlement system that has been an independent guarantor – for large and small economies alike – that the WTO’s rules are applied impartially.”

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Commercial

Council faces £14 million funding gap

Shropshire Council has announced that it has identified a £14 million funding gap and there will therefore be cuts to “all services” as a result.  This follows an earlier announcement by council leader Peter Nutting that there will be a spending freeze until the end of 2019.  The council’s financial director, James Walton said funding adult social care and children’s services has become “unaffordable and unsustainable.”  He further said “The budget has been reviewed and updated with all known information, and there is now an additional funding gap of £14m in 2020/21. This £14m must be found, and the plan is to recover this gap through innovation and transformation to create new models of delivery across the council. The council can only deliver a balanced budget by cutting costs in all services to fund increasing social care provision. The alternative would be a combination of more government funding, higher council tax and new models of delivery in social care.”  He noted that the council cannot raise enough income through council tax increased alone.

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Regulatory

Supreme Court allows appeals over village green dispute

The Supreme Court has by a 3-2 majority allowed appeals by Lancashire County Council and NHS Property Services over whether statutory incompatibility defeats an application to register land as a town or village green where the land is held by the public authority for statutory purposes.  The central issue in both the cases under appeal was the interpretation and application of the statutory incompatibility ground of decision identified in the majority judgment in the Supreme Court in R (Newhaven Port & Properties Ltd) v East Sussex County Council [2015] UKSC 7.  The majority’s opinion was that Newhaven authoritatively interpreted the Commons Act 2006 to mean that where land is acquired and held for defined statutory purposes by a public authority, the Act does not enable the public to acquire rights over that land by registering it as a green where such registration would be incompatible with those statutory purposes.

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Planning and Housing

Enquiry over housing for homeless

The Scottish Housing Regulator has announced that it will be using its legal powers to conduct an inquiry into Glasgow City Council’s ability to provide accommodation for the homeless after claims earlier in the year that homeless people were being denied a place in temporary accommodation.  Homelessness charity Shelter brought a legal action earlier this year alleging that the council had illegally denied people access to its homelessness services because councils have a legal duty to house people who are homeless or at risk of being homeless.  Fiona McPhail, principal solicitor for Shelter Scotland, said “When in the crisis of homelessness, our laws say that temporary accommodation should be provided. Too often Glasgow has failed in that most basic duty.”

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Council swamped with new housing proposals

Following South Staffordshire District Council identifying a shortfall of 8,845 homes needed within the district by 2037, it invited landowners to put land forward for development.  The council has now been swamped by new housing proposals with around 9,000 sites being put forward for development.  Brian Edwards, council leader, claims this number is 10 times too many and that the council has been “overburdened” by the sheer number of proposals.  Residents have had a chance to submit written objections to proposals which will now be reviewed by council planners before deciding which sites will be brought forward for potential development.

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Garden Communities to deliver new homes

Garden Communities are set to provide a total of 403,000 homes, up to 180 new primary schools, 56 secondary schools and 600 hectares of employment land new analysis from the consultants Lichfields has found.  However they noted that it may take more than 5 years before they are able to make a significant contribution to reaching the government’s 300,000 new homes a year target as only 3% of homes have been completed so far.  Lichfields’ Matthew Spry said; “Across the 49 projects, there is a genuine commitment among landowners, developers and local authorities to bring forward fantastic new places for people to live, work and play.  While the Garden Communities are unlikely to deliver the lion’s share of their housing allocations until the mid-2020s, they could be delivering 16,000 dwellings a year by the 2030s making a significant contribution to meeting housing need.”

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