Local Authority round-up 26/07/19

Brexit

EU says Johnson must decide if UK wants deal or not

Following the announcement that Boris Johnson was the next Prime Minister, EU negotiator Michael Barnier said on Twitter “We look forward to working constructively w/ PM @BorisJohnson when he takes office, to facilitate the ratification of the withdrawal agreement and achieve an orderly #Brexit.” This reinforces the EU’s position that they will not renegotiate the withdrawal agreement with Barnier further saying “We are ready to listen and to work with him in a constructive way. We will wait for the new decision, the new declarations of the UK Government.”

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New Prime Minister triggers numerous resignations

Following the news that Boris Johnson would become Prime Minister this week there have been a number of resignations prior to him taking on the new role including Jeremy Hunt as foreign secretary, David Gauke as justice secretary, Rory Stewart as international development secretary, David Lidington as Cabinet Office minister, Mick Davis, the chief executive and treasurer of the Conservative party and education minister Anne Milton. Philip Hammond has now also quit as chancellor and in his resignation letter to Theresa May he said “Despite the uncertainty created by the unresolved issue of Brexit, we have been able to make notable progress in rebuilding the public finances and preparing the British economy for the opportunities ahead.”

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EU confirms it will not renegotiate Brexit

Following the announcement of Boris Johnson as the next Prime Minister, Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s first vice president, told reporters in Brussels that the EU would not renegotiate the deal reached with Theresa May. He said “I think the position of the EU is also clear: the United Kingdom reached an agreement with the European Union and the European Union will stick with that agreement. We will hear what the new Prime Minister has to say when he comes to Brussels.”

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Boris Johnson announced as next Prime Minister

Boris Johnson has beaten Jeremy Hunt, winning 92,153 votes to his rival’s 46,656, and has now been elected as the new Conservative leader and the next Prime Minister. He has pledged that the UK will leave the EU on 31 October “do or die”, accepting that a no-deal exit will happen if a new agreement cannot be reached by then and in his victory speech, Mr Johnson promised he would “deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbin.”

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Sir Alan Duncan quits as a Foreign Office minister

In protest against Boris Johnson’s victory in the Conservative leadership race, Sir Alan Duncan quit as a Foreign Office minister the day before Johnson was announced as the new Prime Minister. He quit to demand an emergency Commons debate to give MPs a chance to say whether they supported Mr Johnson’s “wish to form a government” but the Speaker refused his request. In his letter of resignation he said “It is tragic that just when we could have been the dominant intellectual and political force throughout Europe, and beyond, we have had to spend every day working beneath the dark cloud of Brexit.”

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Trade envoys quits in protest over Government’s no-deal Brexit policy

One of Liam Fox’s trade envoy, Andrew Percy, has quit in protest that the Government’s no-deal Brexit policy threatens the demise of an existing trade deal with Canada worth £800m. A study for the Government found that losing the Ceta deal with Canada would deliver an £800m blow to GDP by 2030, both from direct trade lost and from “diversion” to the EU – which would still have the agreement. Barry Gardiner, Labour’s shadow trade secretary “Andrew Percy’s resignation, claiming he was patronised and ignored when he was clearly ‘telling it like it is’, is sadly typical of the arrogance Liam Fox displays to everyone who disagrees with him.”

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Commercial

Funding for councils to improve local roads

The Department for Transport has announced £348 million funding to help improve local roads over the next 4 years. The funding will be available in two stages with the first fund around £200 million, known as the Challenge Fund, aimed at improving the quality of roads and surrounding infrastructure to benefit the local economy and make driving safer. The second set of funding, known as the Pinch Point Fund, will be £150 million available in 2021/22 and 2022/23 and is aimed at projects which are designed to ease congestion on some of the busiest roads. Councils will need to bid for a share of the funds.

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Neighbourhood services cut by £8.9bn

A new report by the New Policy Institute has found that over the nine years from 2009/10 resources devoted to neighbourhood services, such as parks and public realm, had been cut by £8.9bn in 2017/18 prices, a 27% reduction over the last decade. Published by APSE, the report says that the real fall in total UK local government spending over the same period was 19%, which means neighbourhood services have been hit harder by austerity than other council services. The report builds an argument for a sustained increase in local government spending on neighbourhood services which are critical to residents and businesses as they include council services such as frontline public services, recycling, bin collections and roads and highways.

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Unions propose pay rise for council staff

Unison, the GMB and Unite, are scheduled to present a package to local government employers to agree pay rises for council staff next week for the year starting April 2020. The unions are requesting a 10% pay rise for all staff and a £10 per hour minimum rate. Unite national officer for local government, Jim Kennedy, said ” ‘Our claim will be based on the fact that local government staff have borne the brunt of the Government’s harsh austerity regime since 2010 – our members have seen their pay cut in real terms by 22% since then – and they need a substantial pay lift in recognition of the dedicated work that they do to keep council’s services running smoothly 24/7.”

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Regulatory

Southwark Council becomes latest London borough to back introduction of late night levy

The London Borough of Southwark has approved the introduction of a late night levy across the whole borough from 1 September 2019. The levy will apply to premises licensed to sell alcohol between the hours of midnight and 06:00 the following day and the net monies raised from the levy will be used to pay for the full costs of the police night time economy team, to pay for the council resources within the night time economy team, the surplus to be decided by a board made up of representatives for the council, Police, licensed trade and residents. UKHospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said “By introducing a discredited tax, that the House of Lords recommended be abolished, Southwark Council has proven it only cares about revenue-raising, rather than supporting the local community. Local businesses, their employees and customers are the ones who will suffer.”

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Consultation on improving access to data on road works announced

The Department for Transport (DfT) has launched a consultation on changing the law so that councils and utility companies have to share roadworks data on a new website, Street Manager, which will help to plan and manage roadworks and reduce congestion as a result of roadworks. The consultation will seek views on making it the law from April 2020 and will also look at removing temporary traffic lights as soon as possible after the completion of works and a new national condition requiring companies to place roadworks underneath pavements to reduce the impact on traffic

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Planning and housing

LGA launches third year of Housing Advisers Programme

The Local Government Association (LGA) has launched its Housing Advisers Programme again which funds the provision of independent expertise for councils undertaking specific projects to tackle the effects of the housing crisis in local communities. This year the LGA will be supporting a smaller number of larger, strategic housing projects with up to £50,000 being awarded to each project for the purpose of securing expert advice in transforming how a service or partnership meets the housing needs of communities. The LGA are now inviting bids from councils.

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New measures announced to tackle social housing segregation

Communities Secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP has announced new measures to tackle stigma and help end the segregation of social housing residents in mixed-tenure developments. This will include tougher panning guidance and a new Design Manual to promote best practice in inclusive design to stop “poor doors” (where entrances for social housing residents stigmatise and divide them from other residents in the development).

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LGA urges new PM to prioritise homelessness

The LGA are urging the new Prime Minister to tackle homelessness as an urgent priority. As part of its Councils Can campaign they are requesting the new Prime Minister and the Government to introduce a range of measures to help councils tackle homelessness and to give them the tools and powers to resume their historic role as major housebuilders of good quality affordable homes for social rent. The LGA estimates that 320 homeless children could be placed into temporary accommodation during the school holidays and according to the latest Government figures there are more than 124,490 children living in temporary accommodation at present due to a severe shortage of social rented homes. Councils are currently facing a £421 million funding gap by 2025 and the LGA is urging the Government to use the Spending Review to give then long-term sustainable funding to help tackle homelessness.

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Extra funding to increase flood resilience

Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey has announced £2.9 million extra funding to help make homes more resilient to flooding. Three projects in Yorkshire, Devon and Cornwall and central England will each receive £700,000 to boost research into protecting homes and businesses from flooding. The funding will be used towards new research initiatives and demonstration centres and advice portals so people can learn about measures to reduce the impacts of flooding and the benefits of the measures available. The projects will be delivered with support from the Environment Agency who will also monitor the projects.

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Government accused of prolonging UK housing crisis

The Government has been accused of prolonging the national housing crisis by failing to sell enough land for affordable and social housing. The Public Accounts Committee have published a report ‘Sale of public land’ in which they said “the Government has failed to use its position as a major land owner to develop and execute an effective strategy to meet land disposal targets.” They note that the UK would miss its 2020 target of public land sales “by a wide margin” and “has wasted a once-in-a-generation opportunity to alleviate the nation’s housing crisis by failing to develop a strategy for public land disposal.” The Public Accounts Committee calculated the Government’s land sale failure would result in 91,000 fewer homes in 2020 than anticipated, equivalent to 57% of its overall target.

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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.

NHS Estates Forum

Join us at a free half-day forum where experts will discuss some of the key strategic issues impacting on Estates currently. We are running the forum jointly with NHS England and NHS Improvement, Audit One (a leading not-for-profit provider of internal audit) and North Tees and Hartlepool Solutions LLP.

Thursday 5th September (Leeds)

Tuesday 10th September (Newcastle)

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)

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