local government

What levelling up? Councils forced into tax rises and drastic service cuts

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Poor levelling up. Any time any individual or body is going through the mill, it’s the fault of Levelling Up. Not the case in my book, but this article does point to a number of authorities in danger of intervention, some with rural footptrints

Levelling up secretary Michael Gove last week unveiled the government’s long-delayed plans to address regional and social inequalities, but cash-strapped councils across England are having to plan heavy cuts to frontline services after more than a decade of ongoing austerity. Recent funding increases have not undone £15bn of cuts in central government grants to local authorities between 2010 and 2020, and councils wrestling with the impact of Covid are set to pass a succession of savings measures plus widespread council tax increases. Several local authorities are facing votes on service cuts in the coming weeks.

Shropshire ‘overlooked’ in ‘levelling up’ plan

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This article speaks for itself…

Government plans to “level up” the country are ignoring rural areas like Shropshire, the local authority has said.

The scheme is designed to close the gap between rich and poor parts of the country.

On Wednesday, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove announced details of the government strategy.

But councillor Ed Potter said the plans meant “once again Shropshire has been overlooked”.

“At the moment we feel overlooked, unrecognised, taken for granted and completely undervalued,” the cabinet member for economic growth said.

Philip Dunne, Tory MP for Ludlow, echoed the council’s disappointment at failing to get anything from Wednesday’s announcements and said he would be arranging a meeting with Mr Gove.

Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, who took the North Shropshire seat from the Conservatives in December, said the plans showed the government was continuing to ignore people in the area.

“We are having our rural services cut left and right and we are facing [a] healthcare crisis. Yet the government chooses to turn a blind eye,” she added.

The secretary of state’s plans bring all existing government initiatives into 12 “national missions” which include improving “well-being” and increasing pay, employment and productivity across the UK.

Climate change: Local leaders in England demand more power

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From a local government perspective, one thing the pandemic has revealed is that local action often trumps centralised planning. This story builds on that theme in the context of climate change, with the usual urban sway of many articles, but containing an important grain of rural truth, it tells us:

The UK will struggle to reach its climate change targets unless more power and money is put into local hands, say a group of metro mayors and council leaders. 

The influential figures have written to the PM calling for “further and faster” action to protect the environment. They say the pandemic has shown that local leaders can get things done.

The government said councils and mayors had “a pivotal role” in reducing carbon emissions.

Labour’s Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Steve Rotherham, the Metro Mayor of Liverpool and the Conservative leaders in Hampshire and Leicestershire are among the signatories.

They say without a locally-led approach, the UK will struggle to reach its world-leading climate change targets. 

Ministers have committed to cutting carbon emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels, and to become carbon neutral – or net zero – by 2050. 

That will involve things like switching homes and businesses to sustainable energy sources, more use of public transport, encouraging the use of electric cars and better insulating homes.

Northamptonshire elections bring hope of fresh start after years of turmoil

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As we go to the polls on Thursday a new landscape is emerging in Northamptonshire. Let’s hope this new structure is more capable of tackling the social care funding crisis than its predecessor…..

Home to what was once branded the worst-run council in the country, local elections this week mark the start of a new chapter for Northamptonshire.

After years of council turmoil including bankruptcy, a corruption scandal and failing social services, when people head to the polls on Thursday they’ll be voting for the first time to elect two new unitary authorities hoping to start afresh.

It’s the first local elections in the area since 2017, after the vote was delayed first for the restructuring process and then Covid. “It’s been a long time coming, we haven’t had an election for years, so I think everybody is keen to see democracy in Northamptonshire again,” said Robin Burgess, the chief executive of the Hope Centre in Northampton, which works to address poverty in the town.

English councils handing huge extra care bills to disabled and mentally ill adults

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/08/english-councils-huge-extra-care-bills-disabled-mentally-ill-adultsIf anyone is either surprised by this story or tempted to blame local government they should think again. This is a direct consequence of our ongoing failure to properly calibrate the way adult social care is paid for and delivered. As usual local government gets the blame. This story tells us:

Adults with a disability or mental illness are receiving extra care bills running into thousands of pounds that they say could force them to cut back on food and heating and threaten their social independence.

Amid a care funding crisis, some English councils are quietly increasing charges to people with learning disabilities and mental illness, in effect clawing back welfare payments and leaving some working-age adults with little more than £3 a day to spend.

People facing the charges fear they will be unable to afford enough clothes and worry that basic pleasures like swimming trips will have to stop. One single man living with bipolar disorder said he may have to put down his dog because he will be unable to afford to look after it.

Care charities have drawn up dossiers of charges they describe as a new “care tax” and say it is a result of national underfunding of social care. The Health Foundation has estimated that at least an additional £6bn a year is needed to meet growing demand, rising to £14bn if the country wants to improve access to care and pay more to staff, many of whom earn minimum wage.

Mencap, the learning disability charity, said it had received dozens of “concerning” calls to its helpline about the issue, and its chief executive, Edel Harris, said it was “causing huge distress for them and their families, ​and leaving many without enough money to cover their additional needs”.

Some people are refusing to pay and are considering legal challenges. Care Act guidance says charges must be “reasonably practicable” for people to pay and that the approach to charging should promote “independence, choice and control”.

Hand health powers to elected mayors, says report

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In view of some of the major challenges arising from the last four months I’m not sure local council leaders will want a number of the powers proposed here, particularly those areas with limited appetite (mainly rural) for elected mayors. This article tells us:

Health powers should be handed to elected mayors as part of a ‘rejuvenated and fortified wave of devolution,’ a think-tank report has suggested.

The report by Respublica said the move would provide ‘regional democratic legitimacy’ to devolved health and care systems.

Respublica previously proposed a ‘path to reform’ involving ‘transformative devolution to the counties’ and ‘complete reorganisation in the form of single-tier unitary councils’.

It also suggested that adult and children’s social care departments of local authorities should be merged as part of a plan to integrate health and social care into one unitary system as a ‘first step towards full devolution’.

The report said ‘full place-based devolution of power and authority for health delivery from Whitehall and Westminster to local health and care economies’ was key.

The report read: ‘Devolution to the locality is an inspirational ambition that will mobilise the health and care workforce, reversing its increasingly dispirited outlook.

‘It will replace the current jumble of confused jurisdictions and unclear responsibilities, both within the NHS and between the NHS and local authorities.’ On Devo Manc, the report said it had ‘not lived up to initial aspirations,’ adding:

‘Devolution that looked good on paper has not been followed through with the type of delegated executive authority, driven by competent management, over the still-disordered patchwork of local authorities, commissioners, primary care, community-based care and hospital providers.

‘In conclusion, a rejuvenated and fortified wave of devolution needs to be launched.’

Health leaders urge review of UK’s readiness for Covid-19 second wave

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This is serious stuff and gives pause for thought. My gut reaction is in favour of local lockdowns if a second wave arises. In my county we have one coronavirus infection for closer to 1000 than 500 people and could potentially have stayed far more economically robust with more local determination (through local government of course) on how we managed our approach. This story tells us:

The UK’s top health leaders have written to all political parties asking them to work together to ensure the country is ready to contain a second phase of coronavirus as Brexit approaches.

The experts – who include presidents of the Royal College of Physicians, Surgeons, GPs and Nursing, and the chair of the British Medical Association – ask for a review of the first stage of the pandemic to learn lessons including why black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities have borne a “disproportionate burden”.

They also ask for better parliamentary scrutiny and involvement of regional and local leaders and more international collaboration, “especially to mitigate any new difficulties in pandemic management due to Brexit”.

In an open letter published on the British Medical Journal website, the leaders warn that “local flareups are increasingly likely and a second wave a real risk”. They say “substantial challenges remain” despite many elements of the infrastructure needed to contain the virus “beginning” to be put in place.

The job now is not only to deal urgently with the wide ranging impacts of the first phase of the pandemic, but to ensure the country is adequately prepared to contain a second phase, they suggest.

Luton council draws up emergency cuts to avoid bankruptcy

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Poor Luton, however I fear the local government landscape is about to change radically over the next 5 years. Without major action the coronavirus will push many authorities over the edge and then what? National Government can borrow its way out of trouble, the NHS can overspend without the sanction of closure, why is local government treated so comparatively harshly when it underpins many of the services which are equally important to people’s quality of life? This article tells us:

Luton borough council is drawing up drastic cuts to services to avoid bankruptcy after after a coronavirus-related collapse in passenger numbers at Luton airport blew an estimated £49m hole in its budget.

The council described the impact of the projected drop in revenue from the airport as a “nightmare scenario”. As the owner of the airport, it was receiving a £20m annual dividend, which has helped it maintain local services despite £130m of funding cuts since 2010.

It has been forced to plan a July emergency budget that will cut £22m, or 16% of its annual spending. “The airport has held back the tide of austerity in Luton, but coronavirus has broken those defences,” said Andy Malcolm, the council’s cabinet member for finance. “We are now going to feel the full force of austerity in council services.”

Local authority leaders called for a long-term stability plan for councils after figures suggested that continuing income losses from coronavirus-related shortfalls in council tax, business rates and commercial investments would run into several billions over the next few months.

Estimates based on the latest monthly government survey of councils’ financial projections suggest that local authorities remain on course for a £9bn-£10bn net shortfall this year, as the extra costs of meeting Covid-19 pressures in areas such as social care and homelessness continue to mount.

But there is growing concern that even if cost pressures start to reduce as the lockdown eases, many councils will face long-term structural deficits as record job losses and a faltering economy reduce income from local taxes, rates and business investments.

Cornwall leads calls for more money for rural areas

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Interesting initiative by a long established RSN member…

A major new report has called on the Government to provide more support to rural areas which are being missed by Government policy.

Land of Opportunity – England’s Rural Periphery has been published by the New Local Government Network (NLGN).

It was written in collaboration with a group of 12 local councils, led by Cornwall Council, brought together as Britain’s Leading Edge which is aiming to highlight how the Government focus is on urban areas with rural areas being left out.

The report puts forward three key “asks” of the Government which could help improve the opportunities of rural areas, their businesses and residents.

The first is “a stronger, rebalanced national economy” which includes an industrial strategy that works for both rural and urban areas; a UK Shared Prosperity Fund that minimises regional inequalities and more devolution to rural and peripheral areas.

“Improved social cohesion and mobility” is the second area with calls for a new Rural Social Mobility Fund; employment and skills devolution to rural areas and improvements to transport infrastructure.

Lastly it calls for “21st century living and working” with a need for excellent digital connectivity in rural and peripheral areas; more innovative approaches to improving mobility in rural areas and linking them with the rest of the UK; and the establishment of a high profile 21st century rural commission.

Williamson promises review of special needs education in England

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I have previously explained how the changes to special education needs entitlements have put intolerable financial pressure on local government. This affects many RSN members. This article suggests some recognition of those challenges is emerging. It tells us:

 The government is to review the provision and funding of special needs education for children in England, after the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, admitted that many families faced struggles as a result of the government’s reforms.

The introduction of education, health and care plans (EHCPs) in 2014 was followed by a steep increase in the number of children and young people with special needs and disabilities (Send) in England, with local authorities and schools complaining of funding shortages, and families of long delays in receiving diagnoses and support.

 “Our reforms in 2014 gave vital support to more children but we know there have been problems in delivering the changes that we all want to see. So it’s the right time to take stock of our system and make sure the excellence we want to see as a result of our changes is the norm for every child and their families,” Williamson said in announcing the review.

Last week the government said that special needs education in England would receive an extra £700m from next year, which Williamson said was “to make sure these children can access the education that is right for them”.                                                

The Department for Education (DfE) said the review would look at how support had “evolved” since 2014, and tackle the lottery of provision that sees children in one area receiving less than children with the same needs in another area. It will also look at balancing provision across mainstream and specialist schools, and how support is linked across health, care and education services.

About 1.3 million school-age pupils in England are classed as having special educational needs – 15% of the pupil population, according to DfE figures – while the number with EHCPs has risen from 271,000 to more than 350,000 this year.

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