LGA first magazine January 2017

No.607 January 2017 www.local.gov.uk

the magazine for local government

Interview:

“Councils’ core reason for being is to deliver local services, not central government cuts” Teresa Pearce MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

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The finance settlement ‘Hugely disappointing’ says LGA

Building homes and communities The LGA’s Housing Commission report

Local Government Ombudsman Accountability and devolution

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Costs and housing

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his edition of first is all about the money – with information about the local government finance settlement and lots of reaction to it, as well as to November’s Autumn Statement.

Ahead of the Government’s housing white paper, expected this month, the LGA’s Housing Commission has published its final report on what needs to be done to get more homes – of all kinds of tenures – built where they are needed most.

Needless to say, we think councils, as the locally democratic organisations responsible to communities, must be at the heart of strategies to resolve our housing crisis – see p12-13 for more.

Elsewhere in the magazine, we look at how the Leading Places project – which brings together universities and councils to work on local issues – is shaping up in Brighton & Hove, where the focus is on social care.

Professors Rallings and Thrasher provide a round-up of the year’s byelection results on p31, and you can find out about the resources available from the LGA to help you develop your community leadership skills – see p29.

As ever, let us know what you would like to see in your magazine by emailing first@local.gov.uk Lord Porter is Chairman of the LGA

contents news

4 Finance settlement

5 Home ownership

Public health Fraud awareness

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Junk food ads Roads and growth 6 Improving schools

Children’s services

Minibus loophole 7 New Year honours Broadband

Growth funding

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Advertising James Pembroke Publishing Write to first: Local Government Association Layden House, 76-86 Turnmill Street London EC1M 5LG Email first@local.gov.uk Tel editorial 020 7664 3294 Tel advertising 020 3859 7100

The inclusion of an advert or insert in first does not imply endorsement by the LGA of any product or service. Contributors’ views are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the LGA.

Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

“I don’t want people making a profit out of getting an old lady out of bed each morning”

comment features 10 Funding and adult

social care 12 Housing Commission report 15 Leading Places

21 Accountability 22

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January 2017

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Design & print TU ink www.tuink.co.uk

Circulation 18,300 (December 2016) first is published online at www.local.gov.uk/first at least two days before the magazine. To unsubscribe email first@oscar-research.co.uk

16 Teresa Pearce MP,

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Editor Karen Thornton

Photography Photofusion, Dreamstime and Ingimage unless otherwise stated Interview and cover Chris Sharp

interview

and devolution LGA Chairman and group leaders Counties and economic policy Urban funding gap Districts and housing Rural finances Gypsy and Traveller sites Trees for newborns

regulars 8 Letters and sound bites 29 Councillor –

community leadership 30 Parliament – social

care and housing 31 Local by-elections

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news

Public health faces further cuts

Finance settlement is ‘hugely disappointing’ The failure of last month’s provisional local finance settlement to provide any new government funding for social care was “hugely disappointing”, according to LGA Chairman Lord Porter.

Instead, England’s 152 social care authorities will be able to increase council tax by up to 3 per cent in total in 2017/18 with income from this extra precept spent on social care.

The total social care precept increase allowed across the next three years remains unchanged at 6 per cent.

“By bringing forward council tax-raising powers, the Government has recognised the LGA’s call for the urgent need to try and help councils tackle some of the immediate social care pressures they face,” said Lord Porter.

The move will help some areas in the short term but extra council tax income “will not bring in anywhere near enough money” to fully protect the services which care for elderly and vulnerable people today and in the future, he added.

“Already planned further £2.2 billion cuts to revenue support grant to councils next year will far exceed the benefit of any extra council tax income.”

As part of the settlement, the Government confirmed New Homes Bonus

(NHB) payments to councils will be reduced from six years to five years in 2017/18, and that local authorities will need to achieve growth of greater than 0.4 per cent before they receive any NHB funding. This will save £241 million next year, which will be used to support councils providing social care as a one-off measure in 2017/18.

Lord Porter said: “This is not new money but a redistribution of funding already promised to councils. It is wrong to present this as a solution, given the scale of the funding crisis.

“New Homes Bonus is money which was taken from councils in the first place, and this move will see money taken away from councils which is designed to incentivise new homes at a time when the Government has made boosting house building a clear priority.”

The finance settlement confirmed that councils will receive £2.2 billion (30.6 per cent) less revenue support grant to run local services in 2017/18 than last year.

The LGA, in its submission to the Autumn Statement, identified a £5.8 billion funding gap facing local government up to 2020, with adult social care needing an immediate £1.3 billion to prop up the system for now, and a further £1.3 billion by 2020.

• See p10-11, 30

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ouncils will receive £84 million less from government for public health in 2017/18, it was confirmed last month, as part of the local government finance settlement.

This follows a £77 million reduction in 2016/17 and a £200 million in-year cut in 2015/16.

The LGA has long warned against cutting the public health budget, as services to prevent people falling ill help to keep the strain off adult social care and the NHS. In the 2015 Spending Review, the Government announced a 9.7 per cent reduction in public health funding between 2016/17 and 2020/21 – which in cash terms is more than £330 million.

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “Central government’s cutting of the public health budget is a short-term approach and we are concerned this decision could undermine the objectives we all share to improve the public’s health and to keep the pressure off adult social care and the NHS. “To take vital money away from the services which can be used to prevent illness and the need for treatment later down the line is extremely counterproductive.

“Interventions to tackle teenage pregnancy, child obesity, physical inactivity, sexually transmitted infections and substance misuse cannot be seen as an added extra for health budgets.

“Local authorities were eager to pick up the mantle of public health in 2013 but many will now feel they have been handed all of the responsibility without the appropriate resources to do so.”

• The LGA’s annual public health conference is on 9 March, see www.local.gov.uk/events

Free fraud awareness workshops

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ith protecting the public purse never more important, the LGA and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) are running a series of free fraud awareness workshops for elected members, hosted by the CIPFA Counter Fraud Centre. The workshops address the nature of fraud and how it is investigated, and what elected members can do to ensure that their councils are combating fraud effectively. The events take place in February in London, Bristol and Salford, and can be booked online at http://bit.ly/2hTbVhP

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www.local.gov.uk

Generational shift in home ownership New analysis for the LGA reveals almost half (46 per cent) of all 25-year-olds owned their home 20 years ago – compared to just a fifth who are on the housing ladder today.

The LGA is warning that a drop in new social and affordable rented homes is combining with rents rising above incomes to make it more and more difficult for people to get on the housing ladder.

As a result, the proportion of total homeowners of all ages across the country has fallen by 4.4 per cent since 2008, while private renters increased by 5.1 per cent.

Homes for affordable or social rent are vital to help more families afford to save up for a deposit to buy a home. Instead, just 6,550 social rented homes were built in 2015/16 – a drop of 88 per cent from 20 years ago, when 56,950 were built in 1995/96.

In advance of the Government’s housing white paper, expected this month, the LGA’s Housing Commission, set up last year to explore new ways to boost house building, has set out more than 30 recommendations for how local and national government can work together to solve the nation’s housing challenges.

Alongside building more social rented homes to boost home ownership and a renewed effort to increase the incomes of those in need of affordable homes, these also include action to provide better housing for older people.

Cllr Martin Tett, the LGA’s Housing Spokesman, said: “Our figures show just how wide the generational home ownership gap is in this country. A shortage of houses is a top concern for people as homes are too often unavailable, unaffordable and not appropriate for the different needs in our communities.

“The housing crisis is complex and is forcing difficult choices on families, distorting places, and hampering growth. But there is a huge opportunity, as investment in building the right homes in the right places has massive wider benefits for people and places.

“There is no silver bullet and everyone must come together to meet the diverse housing needs in our villages, towns and cities. The Government’s housing white paper is an opportunity to boost housing supply and affordability. It must recognise that a renaissance in house building by councils will be crucial to helping ensure a mix of homes to rent and buy that are affordable for those people that need them.

“This means giving powers and funding to councils to replace sold homes and reinvest in building more of the genuinely affordable homes our communities desperately need.”

He added: “Our focus is beyond just bricks and mortar. The Housing Commission sets out how council house building can also help families boost their household incomes, create prosperous and successful places, and improve the health of our ageing population.”

The Housing Commission’s report, ‘Building our communities, homes and future’, is available at www.local.gov.uk/publications. See also p12-13

Roads and growth consultation

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ighways England is developing an economic growth plan called ‘The road to growth’, exploring the economic role of the road network. A discussion paper has been published to test its emerging thinking with stakeholders. The LGA is urging all interested councils to contribute to the plan and engage with Highways England, given the huge impact its road programme will have on growth and local road networks.

The closing date is Friday 20 January – see ‘strategic economic growth plan’ at www.highwaysengland.citizenspace.com for more information.

January 2017

news in brief Restrictions on junk food ads

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nline adverts for food and drinks high in fat, salt or sugar aimed at children are to be banned under new rules published by the Committee on Advertising Practice (CAP).

The new rules would bring non-broadcast media, such as online, social media, cinema and billboard advertising, in line with rules introduced in 2007 which restricted the advertising of junk food during children’s TV programmes. Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “Research shows that marketing and advertising can be a big influence on young people’s choice of food and drink. Councils support the new rules and we are also pleased CAP has backed our call for these ads to be banned from online ‘advergames’ targeting children.”

Mental health spending

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n average, less than 1 per cent of each council’s public health budget is spent on mental health according to the charity Mind, which wants local authorities in England to spend more on mental health. Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said it is “wrong” to look at mental health funding in isolation without considering the range of other services councils provide that directly impact on people with mental health issues. “Local authorities do a huge amount of positive grassroots work including tackling obesity, and helping people to get active, stop smoking and cut down on drinking. As physical and mental health are inextricably linked, this has a major impact.”

Have your say

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MG Research is undertaking the LGA’s annual Perceptions survey of its member councils, and may contact you to take part.

The survey, which runs until mid-January, is asking for your views on the LGA, its offer, roles, priorities, communications and support for the sector. It is shorter this year and should only take around 15 minutes to complete.

If you would like to take part, please email lys.coleman@bmgresearch.co.uk.

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Improvement funding cut for council schools Almost nine out of ten council-maintained schools (89 per cent) are now rated as either good or outstanding by Ofsted.

In its annual report for 2015/16, published last month, inspectors recognised that the improvement in school performance overall across the country was a direct result of the number of council-maintained primary schools improving during 2015/16.

However, councils will receive just £50 million next year to carry out their school improvement duties, compared to up to £815 million spent previously, after cuts to the Education Services Grant were confirmed in last month’s local government finance settlement.

Aside from working with their local schools to drive improvement where necessary, councils have also used the grant to ensure children are well supported with speech therapy and physiotherapy, plan ahead for more school places, and run criminal checks before recruiting staff.

While councils fully support a schoolled improvement system and recognise the great work of teaching school alliances, multi-academy trusts and regional schools commissioners, currently that support isn’t in place everywhere.

Cllr Richard Watts, Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said: “Inspectors have recognised the increase in school performance overall across the country was a direct result of the number of councilmaintained primary schools improving during 2015/16. Cutting councils’ school improvement budgets risks the long-term work and planning that has been put in place.

“Councils’ track record of helping to improve schools with their local knowledge, expertise and democratic oversight cannot be ignored. With the majority of secondary schools now academies, Ofsted has also found that more work needs to be done to improve these schools, especially in northern parts of the country and in the Midlands.

“Councils are key to unlocking that improvement. Allowing them to intervene early and use their vast experience would help these schools to deliver the high quality education that all of our children deserve.”

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Justine Greening has confirmed that the Government’s new national funding formula for schools, due in from 2018/19, will result in less money for urban schools and more for those in the suburbs and shires.

The overall schools budget will not change, with schools facing £3 billion in efficiency savings to 2020, according to the National Audit Office.

Cllr Richard Watts said: “Councils have long called for a fairer funding system for all schools. It hasn’t been right that pupils with similar needs can receive such different funding depending on where they live.

“However, whilst an injection of extra money for some schools will be fantastic news, others will see significant reductions. It is absolutely essential that the new formula is phased in over time to protect those schools that will face these reductions. Government should look at extending the transition period of one year to ensure that councils and schools are able to plan as well as they can for every child’s future.”

Evaluating children’s services

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ervices for almost 800,000 children in need of help or protection every year have not been good enough, with progress on improving help and protection services too slow, according to a recent report from the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee.

The committee also said that government lacks a credible plan for how and by when it will make a difference. Cllr Richard Watts, Chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board said: “Local authority children’s services teams in England handled more than two million initial contacts in 2013/14, up 65 per cent from 1.2 million in 2007. The number of children on child protection plans has increased by more than 60 per cent during the same period. Child protection reform and improvement support has been largely removed from local government in recent years and increasingly centralised within Whitehall instead. It’s vital to examine how Department for Education initiatives imposed on local authorities, such as children’s services trusts, are evaluated to check whether they are doing a better job of looking after vulnerable children, and use that evidence to develop future initiatives in partnership with councils.”

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Minibus taxi loophole ‘puts public at risk’

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he Department for Transport is planning immediate action after the LGA highlighted a loophole that allows people to drive members of the public in minibuses without having a criminal record check.

The safeguarding flaw is putting the public at an increased risk of harm, including those who may be more vulnerable after a night out.

Under current laws, drivers of public carriage vehicles (PCVs) – those seating between nine and 16 passengers – are licensed by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency but are not subject to a criminal record check.

This contrasts with councils whose licensing of taxis – both hackney carriages and private hire vehicles (minicabs) – requires drivers to produce an up-to-date enhanced criminal record check. Councils have the power to refuse or revoke a licence if a driver has convictions or cautions, or has behaved in a way that they believe renders the driver a risk to the public.

The loophole means that drivers refused a taxi or minicab licence, or whose licence has been revoked by councils, are obtaining a PCV licence and then continuing to operate in the same area – sometimes working for the same company.

The LGA says the loophole is undermining work to safeguard taxi passengers and has urged the Government to amend the law to ensure that PCVs are licensed by councils in line with the requirements for taxis and minicabs.

The Law Commission made recommendations on this in its 2014 report into taxi licensing, but the Government has yet to respond to the report or introduce a taxi reform bill.

Cllr Simon Blackburn, Chair of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said: “The majority of PCV drivers will be people who the public can trust, but this loophole provides an opportunity for unscrupulous drivers to continue to work in close proximity to passengers, even when a council has determined that they are not safe to do so.” www.local.gov.uk

‘Devolve funding to boost growth’ – LGA research Councils and businesses could boost house building, create jobs and invest in new infrastructure – if growth funding was devolved.

Research commissioned by the LGA reveals that £23 billion of growth funding is spread out across 70 funding streams managed by 22 government departments and agencies.

This is creating a maze of complexity that is hurting the economy by creating significant delays in delivering projects, and generating frustration among partners.

The research shows that in most areas over 63 per cent of the funding streams have little or no connection to local efforts to drive growth and create jobs.

However, areas with devolved deals are faring better, with influence or control over 47 per cent of funds. And some progress has been made overall, as previous research from two years ago found there was then £22 billion of growth funding spread across

120 funding streams managed by 20 government departments.

Cllr Mark Hawthorne, Chairman of the LGA’s People and Places Board, said: “Millions of pounds and hundreds of days of officer time are tied up just trying to access vital growth funding. This is proving completely counterproductive to our efforts to create jobs, build homes and develop the infrastructure we need to get our economy growing.

“The current system, which requires millions of pounds of public money to be spent on bidding for funds from the public purse, creates uncertainty for businesses and investors. Councils and businesses want to spend this money on improving the economy, not reams of costly bureaucracy.

“Local economies are complex and national funding streams are not as coordinated, flexible and responsive as we need them to be in order to get projects off the ground in good time.”

Affordable broadband for all?

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he LGA’s call for the broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) to include a social tariff at an affordable price for those most in need has been echoed by regulator Ofcom.

Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2016 report, published in December, also found significant parts of Britain are still unable to get a decent broadband connection.

The number of properties unable to get a strong broadband connection is down one million over the past year, but 1.4 million homes and offices – roughly 5 per cent of all properties – are still unable to receive broadband speeds over 10 megabits per second (Mbps), generally regarded as essential to meet a typical household’s digital needs.

Cllr Mark Hawthorne, Chairman of the LGA’s People and Places Board, said: “This report highlights that up to 1.4 million households stand to benefit from the Government’s proposed USO. “Given the increasingly critical part good digital connectivity plays in everyday life we urge government to implement a USO that provides a minimum download speed, rising in line with national averages, and guarantees consistent performance of other elements which make for a good quality internet connection, such as upload speed.

“We are glad Ofcom has echoed our calls for the USO to include a social tariff January 2017

at an affordable price for those most in need. We press government to include the requirement for a social tariff in the secondary legislation outlining how the USO will be designed.”

He added: “There is still much work to do to connect more than one million premises without decent broadband speeds and ensure mobile data coverage is sufficiently robust and widespread to match people’s needs and expectations.

“We await further details regarding the £1.1 billion Digital Infrastructure Fund announced as part of the Autumn Statement and believe councils have a key role to play in ensuring this investment helps address the needs of those communities and businesses that remain at risk of digital exclusion.”

Honours for council leaders

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he leader of the LGA’s Conservative Group and the deputy leader of its Independent Group were among the local government figures to be recognised for their work in the New Year’s Honours 2017.

Cllr David Hodge (Con), Leader of Surrey County Council and LGA Vice-Chairman, received a CBE for services to local government and charity, while LGA Deputy Chair Cllr Peter Reeve (UKIP), a member of Huntingdonshire District Council, was made an MBE for services to local government and the community.

Also honoured, with CBEs, were Roselyn Jones (Lab), Mayor of Doncaster Council, for services to local government, and Cllr Ravindra Govindia (Con), Leader of Wandsworth Borough Council, for services to local government and the community in Wandsworth.

There were local government service OBEs for Cllr Bob Sleigh (Con), Leader of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, and Cllr Neil Stock (Con), Leader of Tendring District Council, while Cllr Peter Fox (Con), Leader of Monmouthshire County Council, received one for services to Cardiff Capital Region.

Kim Bromley-Derry, Chief Executive of Newham Council, was made a CBE and Jack Straw, lately Chief Executive of the City and County of Swansea Council, was made an OBE, both for services to local government.

There was an MBE for services to public health for Dr Anthony Hill, lately Director of Public Health at Lincolnshire County Council and NHS Lincolnshire.

Malcolm Newsam, lately Children’s Social Care Commissioner at Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, and Nigel Richardson, lately Director of Children’s Services at Leeds City Council, were awarded CBEs for services to children’s social care and for services to children and families respectively.

And Terry Dafter, lately Director of Adult Social Care at Stockport Council, received an OBE for services to children’s and adult social care.

Dr Jane Martin, the outgoing Local Government Ombudsman, was made a CBE, for services to administrative justice and transparency in local government, and writes in this edition of first (see p21).

For the full honours listing, please visit www.gov.uk/government/ publications/new-years-honourslist-2017

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letters Pictured are: social enterprise partners outside Positive Outlook clothing store in Fargo Village, Coventry. Front from left are Carole Donnelly from Coventry University Social Enterprise; Cllr Linda Bigham, Cabinet Member for Community Development at Coventry City Council; and Kate Launchbury, of Coventry and Warwickshire Co-operative Development Agency. Behind them are Keith Jeffreys, Managing Director of CU Social Enterprise, and Richard Groves from Warwick University

Building social enterprise Coventry has won national recognition as a thriving centre of social enterprise thanks to the efforts of Coventry University, Coventry City Council and other organisations.

Social Enterprise UK, the national organisation for businesses that have a social or environmental mission, has awarded Coventry a Social Enterprise Place badge.

The city is the first in the Midlands to achieve this accolade and now joins a network of 20 places across the UK that are recognised as hotspots of enterprising, socially aware activities.

The award came about as a result of a successful bid by the Coventry Social Enterprise Forum, established by Coventry University’s community interest subsidiary CU Social Enterprise, and including the University of Warwick, Coventry City Council, Coventry and Warwickshire Co-operative Development Agency, Voluntary Action Coventry and a number of social entrepreneurs.

Among the wide and varied range of public spirited ventures which helped secure the city’s official social enterprise status were an ethical clothing retailer, a dealer in specially tailored social care software and a collection of confidence boosting training providers.

There are many social enterprises in Coventry and as a council we are really keen to support them. The key is to ensure that these enterprises are sustainable and benefit our community.

Cllr Linda Bigham (Lab), Cabinet Member for Community Development, Coventry City Council

Business rates windfall could pay for care

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he Government’s £2.4 billion business rates ‘windfall’ – not further increases in council tax – should be used to plug the social care funding gap.

This ‘windfall’ has come about because the Government now receives more in business rates from councils than it gives back in revenue grant funding.

It’s clear to everyone that we need more money for social care but there are better ways to do this than the Government simply loading more and more costs onto council tax payers.

The social care council tax precept already allowed by the Government is deeply flawed.

It is insufficient to even cover inflationary and National Living Wage costs for care providers, while pressure from increasing demand for services has continued to rise.

It also favours better-off areas of the

What do you think? Please submit letters for publication by emailing first@local.gov.uk.

Letters may be edited and published online

8 | first letters

www.local.gov.uk

sound bites

country as they are able to raise more money, at the expense of more disadvantaged areas, including Nottingham. As a result, the money does not reach the less well-off places where it’s needed most and elderly people in deprived areas miss out.

Using the business rates surplus would allow billions of pounds of investment to be put into social care and help provide decent support where it’s needed most for some of the most vulnerable people in society.

Cllr Graham Chapman (Lab), Deputy Leader, Nottingham City Council

Time for council funding review

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ocal government finance is in crisis. The demands of adult social care and the cost of looking after vulnerable children are warping the financial picture.

They way local services are financed has hardly changed since the old rating system which was supposed to fund the services related to a property. We have been through the poll tax and now the council tax. It is worth remembering that VAT was increased to fund the gap left between the poll tax and the current system.

However, capping has left the council tax unfit for purpose. Councils are unable to use it to cover their costs. It is also a deeply unpopular

January 2017

and unfair tax that hardly takes into account the ability to pay or those who are asset rich and cash poor.

It must now be time for a fundamental review of the way councils are funded. The LGA has already suggested a 2p per litre top slice to fund road repairs. Why stop there? Why not a proportion of death duties, vehicle excise duty, or even a local VAT? Most European countries levy a hotel departure tax that is paid directly to the local authority.

I do not propose to abolish the existing tax completely, but to change the formula so the cost of some elements currently in the portfolio are transferred to another funding stream. Council tax should reflect the cost of the infrastructure services provided to individual properties. Everything else should come from a new and fairer system.

Cllr Alan Seldon (Ind), Herefordshire Council

Volunteer gritters are ‘snow friends’

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ast year 50 residents took part in Kingston Council’s volunteer ‘snow friends’ scheme, to help keep their communities moving during the winter months by clearing snow and gritting paths. The council grits priority roads and public spaces, and our snow friends help us to reach the residential areas that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to get to.

This is the type of new relationship being struck up between the council and residents, where we all play our part to make life better and safer for people in Kingston. We know that many residents take it upon themselves to help out when temperatures start to fall.

Our job as an enabling council is to support them, by giving them the tools and the training to perform this role and encouraging others to do the same.

Cllr Phil Doyle (Con), Cabinet Member for Resident Services, Kingston Council

Cllr Alan Rhodes (Lab, Nottinghamshire) “I was interviewed today by @bbcemt about the scandal of Gvt underfunding of adult social care. Our elderly & vulnerable deserve the best.” www.twitter.com/CllrAlanRhodes Cllr William Nunn (Con, Breckland) “National tax remains high, local services are cut as money is taken away from local authorities! The answer? Tax more locally... really.” www.twitter.com/willumnunn Cllr Richard Kemp (Lib Dem, Liverpool) “2.5% reduction in public health spending as predicted. This means 15 times as much health spending in later years on preventable illnesses.” www.twitter.com/CllrRichardKemp Cllr Rebecca Knox (Con, Dorset) “Presentation today to Councillors, lots of opportunities but the focus from councillors must be on communities...” www.twitter.com/rknoxwestdorset Cllr Judi Billing (Lab, North Hertfordshire) “Love way old friends still speak of ‘tuning in’ to radio shows. Incredibly quaint reminds me of children’s hour with crumpets.” www.twitter.com/judibilling Cllr John Clancy (Lab, Birmingham) “Delighted that @BhamCityCouncil has secured additional funding for #homelessness prevention.” www.twitter.com/brumleader Do you have a blog or a Twitter account we should be following?

Let us know. Email first@local.gov.uk

first letters | 9

features The local government finance settlement Councils will be able to increase social care precepts but no new money has been announced to tackle the social care funding crisis

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ext year will continue to be hugely challenging for all councils, as they face an estimated overall funding gap of £5.8 billion by 2020.

Further government funding cuts could result in councils having to make significant reductions to the local services communities rely on, including filling potholes, collecting waste, maintaining our parks and green spaces, and running children’s centres, leisure centres and libraries, to plug growing funding gaps.

Disappointingly, the ‘Provisional local government finance settlement: England, 2017 to 2018’ failed to find any new money to tackle the £2.6 billion funding gap facing social care.

Instead, the Government has created more flexibility by allowing the social care precept to rise by an additional 1 per cent in 2017/18 and 2018/19 (from 2 per cent to 3 per cent), on condition that the total increase to 2019/20 does not exceed 6 per cent.

While this recognises the LGA’s call for the urgent need to help councils tackle some of the immediate social care pressures they face, the measure will not bring in enough money to fully protect care services for elderly and vulnerable people today and in the future.

Increasing the precept also raises different amounts of money for social care in different parts of the country, is unrelated

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to need, and will add an extra financial burden on already struggling households.

The Government also plans to redistribute £241 million from New Homes Bonus (NHB) reforms to social care authorities – taking away from councils money designed to incentivise new homes when the Government has made boosting house building a clear priority.

Alongside this, a new housing threshold to qualify for NHB payments will be a concern to many authorities, particularly shire districts and those with low housing growth.

Education and health Elsewhere in the settlement, the proposed reduction in Education Services Grant means councils can only expect £50 million annually to carry out the exact same duties that cost up to £815 million previously.

And cuts to public health budgets of £84 million in 2017/18 risk undermining councils’ role in preventing illness, improving health and easing the pressure on adult social care and the NHS. More positively, business rates pilots in five areas will enable aspects of the further business rates retention system to be tested.

Discussions between government, the LGA

Funding and council tax •

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Councils will receive £2.2 billion (30.6 per cent) less revenue support grant to run local services in 2017/18 than last year.

Councils will be able to raise council tax by up to 1.99 per cent in 2017/18 to fund local services without the need for a referendum – most district councils can increase by £5 per year at Band D level.

England’s 152 social care authorities will be able to increase council tax by up to a further 3 per cent in total in 2017/18. Income from this extra precept must be spent on social care.

The total social care precept increase allowed across the next three years remains unchanged at 6 per cent.

and councils on how the national system should work will continue.

The closing date for responses to the provisional settlement is Friday 13 January 2017. The final settlement is expected to be published in February.

• See p30

This is an edited version of the LGA’s on-the-day briefing on the local government finance settlement. The full briefing is available at www.local.gov.uk/briefings-and-responses

www.local.gov.uk

Making the case for more care funding

Care and health •

•

•

A new adult social care support grant worth £241 million, for 2017/18 only, to be allocated using the adult social care relative needs formula, will be paid for by a reduction in New Homes Bonus.

In 2017/18, social care authorities will receive the first £105 million from the additional funding for social care in the improved Better Care Fund, announced in the 2015 Spending Review, rising to £1.5 billion by 2019/20.

Public health grant will be £3.3 billion, down £84 million from 2016/17. This follows a £77 million reduction in 2016/17 and a £200 million in-year cut in 2015/16.

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Schools •

•

The general funding rate element of the Education Services Grant will be paid at a transitional rate between April 2017 and August 2017, and cease from September 2017.

Councils will then receive a separate grant covering their statutory intervention functions, equivalent to £50 million for the whole year.

Fire and police •

•

Revenue support grant funding for fire and rescue services will reduce by £103 million in 2017/18.

Funding for police and crime commissioners will be protected compared to 2015/16, assuming PCCs take full advantage of the maximum council tax precept increase available in both 2016/17 and 2017/18.

New Homes Bonus • • •

The length of time that the New Homes Bonus is paid will be reduced from six years to five years in 2017/18, and to four years in 2018/19 and thereafter.

Local authorities will need to achieve growth of more than 0.4 per cent before they receive any New Homes Bonus funding.

Payments in 2017/18 will be withheld from councils that have not submitted a local plan and for residential developments that have been allowed on appeal from 2018/19.

January 2017

he LGA has continued to lead calls for adult social care funding to be put on a sustainable footing. After no new money was announced in November’s Autumn Statement, we redoubled our efforts in our work with the media, parliamentarians and stakeholders, and through our online channels, in the run-up to the local government finance settlement. In the weeks between the two announcements, we provided a range of briefings, questions and formal evidence to parliamentarians, which saw the Prime Minister questioned about social care at the Liaison Committee, in which our figures on the funding gap were highlighted. LGA Chairman Lord Porter asked questions in Parliament on social care and the impact of business rate appeals on local government’s financial planning. Our political group leaders hosted, or will host in the new year, briefings on social care for LGA vicepresidents and senior parliamentarians, while LGA Chief Executive Mark Lloyd, gave evidence to the Communities and Local Government Select Committee’s inquiry into social care (see p30).

Our call for sustainable funding of social care received 86 national newspaper and broadcast hits in 17 separate stories – an average of more than one story and five national hits a day. This included a joint letter signed by all LGA political group leaders which was reported on the front page of the Observer and picked up widely elsewhere.

During the week of the finance settlement and in the days after, our call for social care funding was reported for six days in a row. LGA councillors were quoted across a range of media, calling for new central government funding and warning that council tax rises would not bring in enough money. And on the day of the finance settlement, we issued a statement from Lord Porter highlighting the lack of new money for social care.

Since our on-the-day briefing on the finance settlement was published online, it has been downloaded 1,716 times. On social media, Tweets sent throughout the week relating to the settlement generated 35,000 impressions. Targeted emails were sent out to leaders, group leaders, finance portfolio holders and resources board members from the LGA’s chairman; and to chief executives, finance directors and heads of communications from the LGA’s chief executive.

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The LGA’s Housing Commission has published its final recommendations on how to build more of the right homes in the right places

Building our communities, Cllr Martin Tett is Chairman of the LGA’s Environment, Economy, Housing and Transport Board

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ince the LGA’s Housing Commission launched a call for evidence in December 2015, we have engaged with more than 100 partners including councils, developers, charities and health organisations.

While the latest housing figures are encouraging, all partners agree that there is no silver bullet to the housing crisis and recognise that councils have a pivotal role in providing the strong leadership, collaborative working, and longer-term certainty that local areas and the people that live in them need.

Local government shares the collective national ambition to build one million new homes, which will only be achieved with national and local leadership working together. As builders of homes, as planning authorities and place shapers, as agencies of growth, transport and infrastructure, as guardians for the most vulnerable and homeless, and as locally democratic organisations responsible to communities – councils must be at the heart of strategies to resolve our housing crisis.

‘Building our communities, homes and future’, the commission’s final report, sets out recommendations for how local and national government can work together to build more homes that meet the diverse needs of people, partners and places, ahead of the anticipated government housing white paper.

The recent Autumn Statement introduced a number of welcome measures including supporting house building across different tenures, and investing in affordable homes and infrastructure linked to housing growth. These were important asks in our preliminary findings report – but there is much more to do.

As councillors, you will know that

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Creating prosperous places where people want to live Housing investment has substantial wider benefits for people and places. Councils are building homes within wider local strategies for improving health, creating jobs, and boosting educational attainment. Local and national government should work together to: resource an efficient, positive and proactive role for planning services to deliver homes by allowing councils to set planning fees locally; attract the next generation of place-makers by replicating the success of programmes such as TeachFirst (teachers) and Frontline (social workers); and amend the New Towns Act to give councils the flexibility to establish and run delivery agencies to boost housing through garden villages and towns.

housing challenges and solutions are complex and vary around the country.

Having the right homes in the right areas enables people to live healthy and happy lives, driving growth for all and preventing public service challenges and costs. This means building homes that are affordable, that meet the diverse aspirations of communities and our ageing population, and that are well supported by local services and infrastructure.

Yet currently, the housing crisis is forcing difficult choices on families, distorting places, and hampering growth. Average house www.local.gov.uk

homes and future Putting housing at the heart of integrated health and care

Building more homes House building improved last year, with 164,000 new homes completed, but is still below the levels required for an efficient and fully functioning housing market. Estimates of national housing need vary from between 220,000 and 250,000 homes a year.

The Government and councils need to work together to build more homes of all types and tenures – for example by enabling councils to rapidly replace homes sold through Right to Buy, by using the money from sold council homes to build new homes; giving councils the tools to hold utilities and power companies to account where development is held up; and helping councils find new and creative ways to build more homes of all types, for example by working with neighbouring councils.

There is an acute shortage of homes suitable for our ageing population. Everyone is an individual with different needs and aspirations, and will have varying experiences of ageing.

We must put housing at the heart of integrated health and care, for example by supporting partners to start early collective conversations with people about their current and future housing aspirations and needs as they age; enabling older people to modify their homes to support prevention and positive ageing; and building more homes that support positive ageing.

Increasing the employment and earnings of households in need of affordable rented housing Security in home and employment are fundamental to wellbeing and raising a family. However, far too many people in affordable rented housing are looking for work or are in low-paid and insecure work.

The Government and councils share the responsibility to increase the employment and earnings of households in need of affordable rented housing by, for example, piloting ways to financially reward housing providers who are successful in supporting tenants into work and increasing their earnings; enabling the efficient sharing of information and data with housing, health and employment providers; and mobilising partners to design an integrated local support pathway for workless tenants.

prices are now eight times average earnings, and renters pay on average one-third of their income on rent. Increased housing supply will take many years to improve affordability, so the need for more affordable housing has never been more immediate.

Our recommendations focus on four interrelated issues: building more homes; creating prosperous places where people want to live; putting housing at the heart of integrated health and care; and increasing the employment and earnings of households in need of affordable rented housing (see boxes, above, for more information).

January 2017

These recommendations form the basis of our policy and lobbying programme for 2017. They will shape our investments in improvement and good practice work with councils looking to innovate in how they meet the housing needs of their communities.

This is a summary of ‘Building our communities, homes and future’, the LGA Housing Commission’s final report, available in full from www.local.gov.uk/lga-housing-commission.

You can get in touch with us to discuss the report by emailing lgahousingcommission@local.gov.uk

first feature | 13

Advertisement feature

An evidence-base for local planning around higher education THE POSITIVE IMPACT that higher education (HE) has on the economic strength of a region or local area is increasingly in the spotlight. HE providers attract businesses and talent to an area, staff and students utilise local services, and graduates start new businesses and drive commercial innovation.

It’s therefore no surprise that initiatives such as Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs), Community Partnerships, City Deals and now HEFCE’s Leading Places programme are emerging fast. Supporting devolution, they’re all designed to incentivise and empower local councils to manage their own economies.

Local skills, enterprise and public services strategies will be high on the agendas of those involved, for which understanding the migration of students and graduates into and out of an area will play a big part.

HESA’s HE Impact: Local Level Report, designed specifically for local authorities, offers an evidence base for planning in these areas. It provides locally specific information – up to seven years of the most recent data – on the flow of students and graduates into and out of a specified local area.

From where students come from to what they’re studying, to the accommodation they live in and the jobs they move into, the data offers valuable information for strategic planning.

Many local authorities approach HESA for bespoke data on students and graduates. The HE Impact: Local Level Report, priced at £499, packages relevant data into 26 interactive charts and graphs to support planning for local economic growth.

For more information and a sample report, visit www.hesa.ac.uk/he-impact Please note that the image on this page is illustrative. Chart styles may differ in the HE: Impact Local Level Report.

Nottingham City Council use HESA’s bespoke data services and helped develop the report.

“We have two world-class universities on our doorstep and 67,000 students, so we’re committed to retaining our graduate-level talent. HESA’s data is a critical evidence base and ensures our graduate retention strategy is driven by solid information.” Steven Heales, Employment and Skills Strategy Manager “Some Nottingham wards have very high concentrations of student households. This brings challenges in terms of service provision, shortages in family homes, changing demand for local services, and tensions between student and non-student populations. We use this HESA data to inform our planning to relieve these kind of pressures.” Geoff Oxendale, Information and Research Officer

Leading places

Brighton & Hove is one of six areas in the country where councils and universities are working together to improve public services for the benefit of their local communities

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s cradles of learning, innovation and inspiration, universities have been at the heart of establishing and sustaining great cities.

For those fortunate enough to experience a university education, the benefits can be profound. But for many others they are not always obvious. So why should local communities care?

That is what the ‘Leading Places’ initiative is aimed at exploring. Through the Higher Education Funding Council and the LGA, the Government chose Brighton & Hove as one of six locations to form action learning partnerships to explore ways in which universities and councils might work better together to start solving some of the big problems facing local people.

Complex solutions In a bold and ambitious step, we took hold of the city’s biggest service and budget challenge – the spiralling demand for adult health and social care services – and looked at what the two universities (Brighton and Sussex) might do in the short, medium and longer term to make a difference.

After discussions between social care service managers and academic experts, a long list of key questions and research ideas began to emerge. But this took us to our next challenge – how to resource the work January 2017

Professor Sue Baxter is Director of Research, Enterprise and Social Partnerships at the University of Brighton

needed to generate complex solutions to difficult challenges.

These more ‘applied’ questions didn’t lend themselves readily to being funded through research grants, which tend to support more blue-skies investigation.

So the trick was to alight on an achievable programme which produced outcomes for local communities and enabled university researchers to commit their time whilst also meeting their academic obligations. Finding that sweet spot has not been easy. So we structured collaboration around the three

areas of university core business: teaching, innovation transfer, and longer term research.

Our teaching offer will involve student health and social care teams working with professionals to help local older people better manage their health, activity, diet and medication. Our innovation transfer offer will involve testing new digital ‘wearables’ in supported housing units. Our longer term research opportunities will focus on the collaborative opportunities arising from supervised access to people in care homes, for instance on remedies to social isolation.

This exercise has already opened up a fresh dialogue at the top level of all three institutions about how a more purposeful collaboration between town and gown can make a difference to everyone in the city. Working relationships are building, new opportunities to make better use of scarce public money are being identified, students are gaining an enriched educative experience, and real improvements to the quality of life for older people are emerging.

It’s the start of a journey that may bring new meaning to the life-long learning, innovation and inspiration that underpins a truly great city.

Leading Places is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council. It builds on research by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education which underlines the potential of universities to benefit their local areas and the extent to which many councils are now seeking to engage with them more actively. The foundation is providing expert facilitators to work with each project. Besides Brighton & Hove, the other areas taking part are Greater Manchester, Coventry and Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Bristol, and Newcastle. For more information please visit www.local.gov.uk/leading-places or email leadingplaces@local.gov.uk

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interview People over profits Council tax and how we pay for social care both need a major overhaul, says Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary Teresa Pearce MP

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eresa Pearce knows only too well the problems facing adult social care. The Shadow Communities Secretary has first-hand experience of finding care for loved ones.

“It was a minefield,” she said, when recalling the difficulties of arranging social care for her late mother.

“You don’t know what you’re entitled to, what you’re not, what’s a good home, what isn’t, what a reputable care agency is.

All of those things are really, really difficult, and people are thrown into it and have to reinvent the wheel of working it out, and it depends where you live as opposed to what service you get.”

Ms Pearce, Labour MP for Erith and Thamesmead, warns that while most people “switch off” when you try to start a conversation about social care, at some point in their lives they will probably need it.

“It has the same effect as when you start to talk about pensions,” she said.

“Unless it affects them and their family it’s something that’s in the future.

It’s about ageing, it’s about being ill, people don’t want to think about it. But we have got an increasingly ageing population and most families if they’ve not already been touched by it will be touched by it.”

CHRIS SHARP

first went to meet the mother-of-two just days after the local government finance settlement was announced. To help alleviate the funding crisis facing social care, councils were told they could bring forward council tax rises.

Ms Pearce said the settlement was “hugely disappointing”. The Government’s solution was merely “a sticking plaster”.

“We all had great expectations with the Autumn Statement and were disappointed then, so we felt they must announce something now but didn’t. With so little in it, we were left wondering how people are left to cope.”

Ms Pearce is of the view that how we pay for social care needs to be overhauled, and council tax is not the answer – she described it as “regressive”. She added: “The 2 per cent precept raises different amounts across different parts of the country. In some places where the need isn’t very great it raises a huge amount. In places where the need is very great it doesn’t even raise a drop in the ocean.”

Ms Pearce says the current funding system is “unsustainable” and heading in the wrong direction. She wants to see councils at the heart of conversations about how we fund social care. She said: “This shouldn’t be central government telling local authorities what to do and how they do it. That’s not localism. You can’t empower councils if you impoverish them.”

January 2017

“I don’t mind people making profits in bookshops, bars or restaurants, but I don’t want people making a profit out of getting an old lady out of bed each morning” While favouring the option of social care being funded purely by central taxation, Ms Pearce refuses to rule anything out, and says we need to sit down and look at every possibility.

“We are in crisis at the moment and crisis needs an adult response and you can’t play party politics with vulnerable people. There shouldn’t be anything that’s off the table at this point. You’ve got to consider any solution that’s workable and fair and just piling pressure on to local authorities and basically devolving the responsibility and the blame to them without devolving the funds, that’s no way forward at all.”

Following the finance settlement, the LGA called for an urgent and fundamental review of social care and health before next year’s spring Budget, and Ms Pearce is adamant that councils need to be fully involved.

“We need to talk to the people who represent the users of services and the people who deliver services. They’re more likely to come up with sensible solutions than someone in Whitehall.”

A Labour government would look at reforming how local authorities are funded.

Council tax could be kept lower and pay for “universal services” such as street cleaning and waste collection, whereas children’s services and adult social care would come from central government and central taxation.

Ms Pearce said: “There should be a complete change in the way councils are funded. People pay their council tax and expect something for it, but lots of people get virtually nothing for their council tax now apart from getting their bins emptied.

“The problem with council tax at the moment is it is going up but unless you’re dependent on children’s services or adult social care, what you’ve seen is the services such as grass being cut or parks being open and library services either going, or already gone, and yet what you’re paying has gone up. That’s not fair.”

A former councillor in Erith, south east

first interview | 17

“Councils’ core reason for being is to deliver local services, not central government cuts” London, Ms Pearce is only too aware of what it is like to be an elected representative in local government. “Really tough, really hard. Meeting after meeting after meeting.

It’s thankless,” she said. She is especially sympathetic with councillors and councils during a period where services are stretched and funding is being reduced.

She added: “Local people elect representatives to shape the community they live in, and it’s virtually impossible for councils to do that at the moment because they are just delivering front line services, they’re just reacting. I’d like councils to be able to make decisions for local people and that has been taken away. You’ve got people who have given up all their spare time for public service and they are now not able to deliver any of the vision that they want for the place they live which is what most people go into local government for, because they care about where they live.”

Local services Ms Pearce has a vision for councils where they are able to plan, which at the moment they can’t “because they’re dealing with day-to-day crises and are just managing”.

She says the current financial climate is “soul destroying” for councils.

“We need to have a conversation with councils about what it is they think their core reason for being is and it’s to deliver local services, not to deliver central government cuts, which is what it has been for the last six years.”

Ms Pearce is strongly in favour of devolving power to councils, but says the

18 | first interview

current model is not working. She said: “What we have at the moment is a topdown devolution, when what we need is a bottom-up devolution, because it needs to be different in different areas, different communities want different things, and that’s not what we’re getting.”

This is especially true in how council services are funded. She describes plans to fund services from business rates as a “20th century response to a 21st century problem”.

“What we need to be doing is listening to council leaders who can tell us how they can best raise funds. But we’re not doing that.

We’ve got a one-size-fits-all, which is basically saying this is the funding, this is what you’ve got to do for it.

“The blame is devolved to local authorities. They’re not set free to decide how best to run their council.”

On Brexit, Ms Pearce said “none of us know what the plan is.” But once again she was clear she wanted councils to be involved in all discussions.

“Brexit will affect local authorities and regions in particular. They are the people who know best what would work for them and what wouldn’t. They definitely need to be round the table.”

She backed the LGA’s call for government to guarantee that local areas will receive every penny of the £5.3 billion in EU funding for regeneration projects. The consequences of not doing so would be “devastating” for local communities, she said.

Concluding, Ms Pearce returns to social care, which she says is “the immediate crisis” facing local government. Bringing the provision of care back in house to councils is something she would like to see “where it is an option”. She sees some providers prioritising profit over providing quality of care.

“I don’t mind people making profits in bookshops, bars or restaurants, but I don’t want people making a profit out of getting an old lady out of bed each morning, and dressing her and giving her lunch. That shouldn’t be left to the market. That should be left to all of us as a society to make sure it happens.” www.local.gov.uk

CHRIS SHARP

“The problem with council tax is it is going up but unless you’re dependent on children’s services or adult social care, what you’ve seen is the services such as grass being cut or parks being open and library services either going, or already gone, and yet what you’re paying has gone up. That’s not fair.”

January 2017

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Leading innovation The future of culture, tourism and sport LGA Annual Culture, Tourism and Sport Conference Wednesday 22–Thursday 23 February 2017, Bristol Sustaining valued frontline services during tough times is the critical challenge facing local culture, heritage, tourism and sport services. At this national conference we will look beyond local government to how devolution, changes to local government funding and wider public service reform, could open up new delivery and investment models. We will also take stock of what a new government and negotiations to leave the EU mean locally.

To book your place visit: www.local.gov.uk/events 9.8 LGA first CTS_02.indd 1

09/08/2016 14:08

LGA/ADPH Annual Public Health Conference and Exhibition Extending influence to promote health and wellbeing London, 9 March 2017 Keynote speakers: Nicola Blackwood MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health and Innovation Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Director, Institute of Health Equity, UCL Lord Victor Adebowale, Chief Executive, Turning Point Dr Justin Varney, National Lead for Adult Health and Wellbeing, Public Health England Local authorities continue to make progress on improving health and wellbeing and tackling health inequalities since public health was transferred from the NHS in April 2013. Join us at our most popular health conference of the year where we explore and build on the challenging, innovative work undertaken by councils and public health teams with their partners and local communities.

To book your place visit www.local.gov.uk/events

20 | first adverts

19.4 LGA first conf ad_02.indd 1

www.local.gov.uk 08/11/2016 15:01

comment Accountability and devolution Dr Jane Martin is the outgoing Local Government Ombudsman

The changes I’ve seen during my sevenyear term of office as Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) have been much bolder than I could have imagined; both in terms of transformation within the LGO, and the structure of local government.

Much like councils, we have seen a reduction in budgets – 37 per cent since 2010 – but responded innovatively by changing how we provide our service. We now demonstrate a 31 per cent increase in productivity, complete investigations more quickly, while increasing customer satisfaction levels.

But devolution presents the most significant change in local government in a generation. The objectives cannot be disputed: better integration of services; better value for money; and better outcomes for local people. But I am concerned with how far ‘better accountability’ has been considered as part of the mix.

Local services should be accountable to the people who use them. People already tell us of the complex maze they have to navigate in order to raise concerns about local services. We often have to piece together the local jigsaw to get to the heart of who is responsible for a service – and liable for remedy when things go wrong.

One case concerned a young man with Asperger’s Syndrome who had missed out for more than a year on support to help him engage in the community. The council had contracted the local NHS Trust to deliver these services, and said he needed to complain to the trust. We had to step in and remind the council that it cannot

The LGO’s guidance can be downloaded at www.lgo.org.uk

January 2017

delegate its ultimate responsibility to provide social care services.

The new devolution arrangements will result in the creation of new bodies and boards making decisions about how integrated budgets will be spent. The potential for further confusion over who is accountable when things go wrong is a valid concern.

Councillors have an important role to play in ensuring the voices of local communities are heard in this brave new world of local government. Acting as the eyes and ears of the council, they can offer vital intelligence as to how local people are affected by the restructuring of service provision.

The LGO has recently launched new guidance for combined authorities on the key principles of complaint handling in a devolved setting. This is a useful tool for councillors to scrutinise to what extent a fair, integrated and accessible complaints system has been considered as part of the governance of emerging new authorities.

We advise a good system should have a ‘no wrong door’ approach to complaints: people can raise a concern with any service provider or body and be confident it will be addressed quickly and efficiently without having to understand or navigate the responsibilities of those involved. The person’s right to come to us if they remain dissatisfied should be clearly explained.

There should be a seamless route to redress, covering all the services and structures that are part of the devolution agreement. This could be organised through multi-level devolved complaints handling arrangements which reflect the differing responsibilities and liabilities of bodies within a combined authority.

The executive cabinet should champion the complaints process and ensure proper scrutiny of complaints data. It should use this intelligence to ensure that learning from complaints is used

to improve services for everybody, and hold all parts of the system to account. Such a system would also mean better value for money. Sharing good practice, avoiding repeated mistakes, and supporting service planning and budgeting are genuine benefits.

I firmly believe there is a necessity, as well as a real opportunity, for local government to ensure the needs of local

“People already tell us of the complex maze they have to navigate in order to raise concerns about local services”

people are at the heart of how devolved services are provided and that concerns can easily be raised and remedied when they do not meet expectations.

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group leaders’ comments Social care: the issue that will not go away

“The Government needs to recognise that adult social care is just as vital as the NHS”

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he provisional local government finance settlement saw some movement to address the crisis in adult social with the announcement that social care authorities will be able to increase council tax by up to a 3 per cent in 2017/18 and again in 2018/19 – or alternatively 2 per cent for each of those years and again in 2019/20.

This is in addition to the up to 1.99 per cent increases that all councils will be allowed to make to fund local services without the need for a referendum.

There will also be around £240 million made available for adult social care from the New Homes Bonus allocation redistribution.

LGA Chairman Lord Porter, Cllr Izzi

Seccombe, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, and I have all said that we needed new funding for adult social care, not redistribution of New Homes Bonus funding.

I am clear that the settlement does not come close to addressing the funding crisis which adult social care is currently facing in either the short term or the long term.

The simple fact is that this is one issue that will not go away.

Indeed, due to demographic pressures it will only grow. The Government needs to recognise that adult social care is just as vital as the NHS: we all want to live longer and to have a decent care system to support us in older age.

Cllr David Hodge is Leader of the LGA’s Conservative Group

The LGA has consistently highlighted the fact that social care services face a projected funding gap of £2.6 billion by 2020.

Our concerns have been echoed by the NHS, parliamentarians and the Care Quality Commission.

As Simon Stevens, the Chief Executive of NHS England, recently remarked, the case for investing in social care is “unarguable” and it should be at the “front of the queue” for extra funding.

As attention now shifts to the Budget, the LGA’s member councils can rest assured that we will continue to lobby on your behalf to ensure that the social care system is adequately funded.

chairman’s comment

Another busy year ahead

Lord Porter is Chairman of the LGA

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irstly, happy New Year. I hope that you all managed to get some downtime over the festive period because if 2016 was anything to go by, we’ve got another busy year ahead of us.

The 2016 finance settlement, local government elections, Brexit, a new Prime Minister and a cabinet reshuffle, the closure of the Calais camp, the Autumn Statement and the social care crisis, while dramatically changing the political landscape, didn’t throw us off course. Like always, we knuckled down and got on with it.

As usual, we ended the year with the provisional local government finance

22 | first comment

settlement. We’ll get £2.2 billion (30.6 per cent) less revenue support grant in 2017/18 than last year. Social care authorities will be able to increase adult social care tax by up to 3 per cent in 2017/18 and 2018/19 to help deal with social care pressures. While government acknowledged our call for urgent action to be taken, the extra council tax income raised won’t bring in anywhere near enough money. We’ll be pressing government to complete a review of social care funding so we can get a sustainable funding solution by the next Budget.

The redistribution of New Homes Bonus funding to social care is also a concern for many authorities, particularly shire districts.

This move will see money designed to incentivise the building of new homes taken

away from councils. This isn’t the solution to the social care problem, particularly given the scale of the funding crisis. It also sends out a mixed message around the Government’s clear commitment to house building.

This year will continue to be challenging for all of us – we’ll have to make some tough decisions if we’re to continue to balance the books. But there are also potential opportunities, with Brexit negotiations, the implementation of 100 per cent business rate retention and the housing white paper all presenting themselves as chances for radical change.

Amidst all this turmoil, I know there is one thing we can trust, and that is that we will all roll up our sleeves and get on with the job – delivering what’s best for our residents.

“The redistribution of New Homes Bonus funding to social care will see money designed to incentivise the building of new homes taken away from councils” www.local.gov.uk

Cllr Marianne Overton MBE is Leader of the LGA’s Independent Group

Cllr Nick Forbes is Leader of the LGA’s Labour Group

Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson CBE is Leader of the LGA’s Liberal Democrat Group

Care crisis is down to Downing Street

Council tax can’t plug care shortfall

Poorest are paying for social care

“Increasing the adult social care precept doesn’t even give councils the ability to pay the National Living Wage”

“Piecemeal funding additions are not enough. We need longterm solutions to the care funding challenge”

“The needs of the extremely poor will be paid for by the very poor if council tax is the route for dealing with social care funding”

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orcing councils to increase council tax to pay for social care is the Government kicking the can down the road.

The local government settlement was disappointing for a number of reasons, but the lack of new money from central government has been the most alarming. There’s a real and growing crisis facing social care with a funding gap of at least £2.6 billion predicted by 2020.

By failing to find any new money for this, the Government has once again let down the most vulnerable in our society.

Councils now have some flexibility, with the Government allowing the social care precept to rise. But because the total allowable precept increase over the remaining years of the 2015 Spending Review stays the same, it won’t go anywhere near meeting the £2.6 billion funding gap.

In truth, increasing the adult social care precept doesn’t even give councils the ability to meet our requirement to pay the National Living Wage (introduced by government this year), let alone pay for a single new care package, or a single new or extra residential place. Instead, it places an increased tax on households already working hard to get by.

It’s wholly unfair that tax payers will have to dig further into their household finances: the colossal funding gap in social care is a crisis of Downing Street’s making, that every street in the country will be paying for.

he local government finance settlement fell far short of what was needed.

We have made the case clearly for the £2.6 billion shortfall facing care, yet the Government’s solution of an increase to council tax is insufficient. A flat percentage on property tax means that most will be raised in the South East, where properties are most expensive.

There is no correlation between where money is raised and where need exists and it is in no way connected to disposable income.

Not only could this destabilise households, it could also create a postcode lottery for those seeking support.

Among other announcements, the New Homes Bonus is set to decrease by £241 million, a potential ‘saving’ that will transfer from housing to the Better Care Fund. This moves money between councils in two-tier authorities and is dependent on homes actually being built, which is largely down to developers and property markets – not the most sustainable footing upon which to fund our care system.

Add to this three years of cuts to public health and the cumulative effect puts residents at greater risk.

Our councils are now very ‘lean machines’.

Piecemeal funding additions are not enough.

We need long-term solutions to the care funding challenge. This means supporting businesses to grow and looking at new ways of devolving income tax to address the gap this year’s settlement did little to fill.

utting up council tax is not the answer to the social care funding gap.

This year’s 2 per cent increase brought in about £360 million nationally and still leaves a predicted gap of £2.6 billion by 2020. This suggests council tax would need to increase by about 14 per cent to deal with this problem, ignoring any other inflationary issues faced by any provider of services. Which will never happen.

If council tax was a fair tax, this might be acceptable. But it is not. People who own a small terraced house in Portsmouth already pay as much as the owner of a mansion flat in Westminster or Kensington because of the way that the system works. Poor people pay a much higher proportion of their income in council tax than rich people.

In places like Portsmouth, the needs of the extremely poor will be paid for by the very poor if council tax is the route for dealing with this problem.

Raiding the New Homes Bonus, like a Tory version of Indiana Jones, is not the answer either. The decrease of £241 million will hit districts hard, and it is nothing better than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as the ship of social care sinks.

This recycling of money is yet another example of the Government having no idea of how to tackle the tsunami of issues arising from our increasing longevity.

For more information about the LGA’s political groups, see www.local.gov.uk

January 2017

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An inclusive economic policy Cllr Philip Atkins is Vice-Chairman of the County Councils Network and Leader of Staffordshire County Council

Philip Hammond’s first Autumn Statement signalled an important shift in emphasis – away from a city-based focus to a more inclusive economic policy.

Counties deliver 41 per cent of England’s gross value added (GVA), and contain half the nation’s employment in key sectors such as construction, motor trades, and manufacturing. The Government’s agenda is based on getting economic results and works on scale to drive growth across large areas.

Counties are well placed as the crucial bodies who can do business with this Government.

Considering counties have below average productivity, the Chancellor’s emphasis on high-value infrastructure investment and improving productivity is welcomed.

County Councils Network (CCN) members are clearly key influencers: two of the major infrastructure projects announced were East-West rail and the ‘Oxbridge’ expressway, as advocated by the Economic Heartland – a group spearheaded by county authorities.

But severe financial pressures on county budgets remain. Local government absorbed a 40 per cent reduction in funding last Parliament, but counties have been historically underfunded despite having some of the most acute, demand-led pressures. This is especially true in social care.

It was disappointing that there was no extra funding in the Autumn Statement, while the solutions offered by the local government finance settlement – more precept powers

and redistribution of New Homes Bonus – are short-term at best. We must work with government to find a long-term solution to the social care crisis, which requires both sustainable funding and reform.

Importantly, the Government’s ‘fairer funding’ needs-based review could help address this underfunding, which has led to severe strain in budgets in life-critical services, stunted our members’ ability to invest in infrastructure, and created an imbalance in council tax bills across the country.

As part of CCN’s work with the Government on 100 per cent business rates retention, we will argue that the fair funding review needs to be done in tandem with the design of this new way of financing local government.

Having counties’ current and future needs and pressures accounted for will go a long way to ensuring financial self-reliance through business rates is sustainable.

“The Government’s ‘fairer funding’ needs-based review could help address counties’ historical underfunding”

A widening funding gap Cllr Sir Stephen Houghton CBE is Leader of the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities

Authorities may be relieved that there was no knee-jerk reaction to worsening post-Brexit forecasts in the Autumn Statement. Knowing that four-year finance settlements are not immediately under threat offers some short-term comfort, but it is not a case of ‘no news is good news’.

A crucial issue on our agenda, and one reflected in national discussions, is the widening funding gap in social care.

Prime Minister’s questions, immediately before the statement, featured several queries on care, yet this received no mention in the Chancellor’s speech. There was consequently something approaching a national outcry that this crucial area received such scant attention.

Care costs have increased above inflation due to the National Living Wage, changes in national insurance and the ‘transformation of care’ agenda, all with immediate impact.

The Government’s solution, disclosed in last month’s local government finance settlement, is to bring forward the already planned 6 per cent

“Those providing vital services to some of the poorest communities will be able to raise significantly less than their more prosperous neighbours” 24 | first comment

social care precept rises, and redistribute New Homes Bonus. However, the social care precept takes no account of where the care is needed, to the huge disadvantage of our members. Due to historically lower tax bases, those providing vital services to some of the poorest communities will be able to raise significantly less than their more prosperous neighbours. The social care grant, paid for by reduced New Homes Bonus, is a one-off, disappearing the following year.

Elsewhere in the Autumn Statement, the Treasury policy commitment to rebalance the economy through infrastructure investment was welcome and something we have been pressing for over many years. Such announcements always need a certain amount of unpicking however, and we were disappointed to find that the headline £1.8 billion of local growth fund investment was a restatement of an announcement first made in March. No account was taken either of the ‘back door’ redistributions from local government to other departments through shifting costs to authorities – issues we raised in our Treasury submission.

We will continue to press for a fair deal across the country. www.local.gov.uk

A DV E R T I S I N G F E AT U R E

Are you making money from your data assets?

Here’s how Using registers better and more effectively can save councils money

L

ocal government could gain net benefits of around £86 million from better use of the address and street data that councils create and maintain, growing to £202 million in the next four years.

These were the key findings in a recent report commissioned by GeoPlace, a public sector limited liability partnership between the Local Government Association and Ordnance Survey.

The research highlighted the potential for an impressive 4:1 return on investment. Every council either owns, or has access to, a centralised address register and street register. Over the past 16 years, time and time again, councils have proved that using these registers effectively saves councils money.

The registers aren’t simply a list of addresses for every parcel of land, property or street within each council administrative area, but a data asset that can be leveraged to reduce data duplication and integration; improve tax revenues; aid channel shift; optimise routing in waste management or simplify school admissions. The registers do this by providing a single view of a property and the council services that are delivered there.

Examples of savings made by councils through using their address and street registers as a corporate resource:

Barnsley Council created a property level view of troubled families by bringing information together from disparate systems to identify who may be in need of support. Using the address register, the council was able to link together eight different datasets, including Education and Benefits systems, to a property address to evaluate whether individual records met the programme criteria. The outcome was a database which could be used to interrogate the various data sources at property level to build up a more detailed picture of families in Barnsley and provide support to those in need.

South Staffordshire Council has improved routing efficiencies using the LLPG to deliver contract savings of £380,000 per annum for at least the next seven years.

The London Borough of Bromley tendered its street cleansing contract by creating a schedule of streets and paths based on its local street register.

The process facilitated evidencebased decision making of the tender document, resulting in substantial annual savings of £800,000. The data is now used for monitoring of the contract within an open source mobile web GIS platform.

Eight local authorities in Wales have generated savings of over £850,000

by using the address register to verify single person discount claims. The consortium commissioned a project that saw 135,000 claims checked. The project cost approximately £145,000 to run and returned savings, based on additional revenue, of £1 million. The average return across the seven authorities was £7 for every £1 spent. Importantly, this was achieved without any extra pressure on existing staff and ultimately helped toward making the savings that all councils are required to achieve.

By using the registers across the council, Wychavon has been able to notify and link together departments such as Council Tax, NDR, and Electoral Register of any new properties. Saving money by reducing duplication and identifying additional taxation revenues.

Every council can make these kinds of savings by utilising their address and street registers. Your council can do this by adopting the registers as your definitive master location reference and using it to link to council functions and services.

Every council has a person responsible for either their address or street registers.

Talk to your own local data custodian in your council, to GeoPlace, or to Ordnance Survey.

www.geoplace.co.uk

Vital to councillors, directors, senior officers, directors of public health, policy makers and service managers as well as organisations with responsibilities for children and adults in the statutory, voluntary and private sectors, the conference will include a mix of keynote and ministerial addresses as well as plenary sessions by expert representatives from the adult, children and education sectors.

There will also be opportunities to participate in a wide range of workshops and networking sessions.

In addition, delegates will be able to visit the exhibition and speak with suppliers and providers of relevant services. #ncasc17 Book your place at www.local.gov.uk/events

Housing: a national asset Cllr Neil Clarke is Chairman of the District Councils’ Network

Chancellor Philip Hammond clearly recognised in his first, and last, Autumn Statement the overarching importance of housing as a national asset and driver of economic growth.

“The unavoidable problem is that housing delivery numbers have remained significantly lower than consents granted”

He demonstrated the Government is open to fresh approaches to tackling the affordable housing challenge by bringing greater flexibility to the types and tenures that can be supported through additional funding for a widened affordable homes programme.

The District Councils’ Network (DCN) has long lobbied for infrastructure funding to support housing growth and, therefore, welcomed the Chancellor’s additional infrastructure funding cash pot to unlock barriers to housing delivery.

The unavoidable problem, however, is that delivery numbers have remained significantly lower than consents granted. The challenge of building 200,000 new homes a year remains.

Districts are – and will continue to be – at the forefront of delivering the country’s housing needs since they already enable one out of every two new homes. The housing white paper will clearly be key and we at the DCN will continue to work hard to help shape it.

For many in the sector, adult social care funding was the dog that did not bark in the Autumn Statement night. Any sustainable

response requires new funding streams to meet demand, but disappointingly the local government finance settlement has come up with sticking-plaster solutions that largely recycle existing funds within local government and will blunt the positive impact of the New Homes Bonus.

District areas are also keen to be at the forefront of supporting local economic growth – which provides such a strong sense of purpose to place.

Unless local economies outside London and the South East are given the power to unleash their full growth potential, we will be unable to create a strong, fair and balanced society.

The DCN has for some time now underlined the importance of the rural economy and welcomed the Chancellor’s offer of support to rural businesses in the form of business rates relief.

However, with the Government making more exceptions and exemptions, consideration should be given to how such exemptions are altering revenues or the extent to which funds are localised.

Social care costs rural areas Graham Biggs is Chief Executive of the Rural Services Network

The bad bits of the Autumn Statement – mainly what was not even mentioned – are terrible for both rural and urban areas, but rural areas will suffer more acutely.

The heaviest blow was the omission of extra monies for adult social care, redressed only in part in the more recent local government finance settlement – and at the expense of council tax payers who already pay much more in rural areas from, on average, lower wages. The number of rural residents aged 65-plus is set to rise to one in three by 2039, as against one in six in urban areas. Social care support costs are also much higher in rural areas due to added sparsity.

Neither was there any mention in the Autumn Statement of support for rural transport and yet, as highlighted by the LGA’s ‘Missing the bus?’ report, rural bus services have severely reduced, exacerbating social isolation and hampering the rural economy. Rural areas needed a cut in fuel duty to help households, business

and service providers – not just a freeze. The announcement that the local housing allowance cap will apply to existing tenants from 2019 leaves tenants on universal credit trapped in homes they cannot afford – because there is no alternative housing available.

The potentially good bits? We welcome the additional £1.4 billion (making £6.1 billion in total) for affordable housing and the decision to allow a mix of affordable rent and low cost home ownership. We also welcome the new £2.3 billion housing infrastructure fund – but how much of either will reach rural areas? The latter will be largely urban biased, with 52 per cent of the money allocated to London. We want a £60 million a year rural housing programme to enable guaranteed benefit to rural areas and their economies. And the digital infrastructure fund must prioritise rural areas still without broadband, rather than giving ever faster speeds to those with a good existing connection.

‘Missing the bus? Councils and the future of the bus in non-metropolitan areas’, see www.local.gov.uk/publications

January 2017

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Accommodating Gypsies and Travellers Professor Jo Richardson is Director of the Centre for Comparative Housing Research at De Montfort University

There are many symptoms of an ongoing failure to accommodate Gypsies and Travellers.

These include continued poor health, anxiety, and an increasing disconnect with the broader community for Gypsies and Travellers, and poorer education outcomes for their children.

Council officers and elected members receive complaints about unauthorised encampments and have difficulty responding if there are no appropriate sites to offer as alternatives.

This combination of a lack of community

cohesion, along with a need for local authorities to find more efficient ways of delivering and managing housing, requires a new way of looking at the issue.

Lack of sufficient appropriate accommodation is a complex challenge with no ‘quick-fix’ solutions. But it is possible to deliver well-managed Gypsy and Traveller sites, and where that is achieved encampments and associated problems also reduce.

My colleague Janie Codona MBE and I have been looking at this problem over the last two years in a piece of research funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. We interviewed 122 Gypsy and Traveller residents on 54 sites across the UK as well as 95 public service professionals and local politicians to find out more about site delivery and site management.

We found there were 10 key ingredients to successful site management and a further seven involved in site delivery. Good communication and negotiation skills were vital in successful

approaches as were political will and leadership.

For example, in Devon, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors who helped to deliver a new site said of their council colleagues in the planning decision-making process: “Members did what was right rather than what was easy.”

The evidence of need was there; the imperative to provide for the residents on the long-standing unauthorised site was there; and the local politicians realised this was the right thing to do.

In Leicester, there was a discussion, and at times a challenging conversation in public meetings, on the sites. The Labour mayor showed political leadership in the debate, the sites were included, grant money successfully applied for and sites subsequently delivered.

‘Managing and delivering Gypsy and Traveller sites: negotiating conflict’ offers 12 key recommendations to housing bodies, local authorities and government agencies, see www.dmu.ac.uk/JRFGypsyTraveller

Trees for newborns Cllr Marie-Louise Holland (Ind) is the Deputy Mayor of Cambridge

My daughter was born in March 2005 and as a then recently elected councillor I was delighted to learn that Cambridge City Council would give me a tree to commemorate Imogen’s birth to plant in our small garden.

All I had to do was choose the species and wait until November for its delivery.

Eleven years later we are lucky enough to be living in the same home, my daughter has started senior school and the winter-flowering cherry continues to flourish. Each year I look forward to seeing the delicate pinkish white blossom appear to brighten up a bleak winter’s day.

Cambridge City Council’s scheme enables trees to be planted in public open space and on private land. The planting is part of the ongoing

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replacement of trees which are removed from town gardens every year (there are around 240,000 trees in total in the city).

The project also seeks to aid the reduction of an ‘urban heat island’ effect, where a metropolitan area is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities.

Anyone living within the boundary of the city who has recently become a parent is

eligible, and the tree must be planted in Cambridge. The scheme is flexible and ideally the tree should be planted in a private garden, but if this is not possible it can be planted in a place where you and your newborn can enjoy and watch the tree grow.

This could be in a friend or relative’s garden, at a nursery, a school or even in the grounds of your workplace.

This year’s applications to Cambridge City Council for the planting of small trees to commemorate the births of Cambridge babies recently closed.

Kenny McGregor, an Arboricultural Officer at the council, is placing orders for amelanchiers, dessert apple trees, medlars, mulberry trees, pear trees, silver birches, snakebark maples, walnut trees, whitebeams and winter-flowering cherry trees. www.local.gov.uk

councillor

“Devolution provides the opportunity to ensure that decisions are taken as close to residents as possible”

•

Community leadership An understanding of the issues and challenges specific to your local area is a key skill needed by every effective councillor.

As the dynamics of communities change and evolve over time, so the need to be able to respond to the needs of the residents and businesses who make up your ward or division becomes ever more important. Your ability to take decisions which are closer to the people affected by them is the way to ensure better outcomes and save money.

Since the introduction of the Localism Act 2011, local government has been at the heart of making decisions that respond to the needs of their local residents and businesses through a process of transferring powers, assets, and resources, and devolving decision making down to local communities.

Devolution, therefore, provides the opportunity to ensure that decisions are taken as close to residents as possible.

Devolution deals, in providing agreements between central and local government, grant January 2017

councils new flexibilities and freedoms when it comes to making decisions for their local area. Many local authorities are also looking to take this agenda one step further through ‘double’ or onward devolution – passing down control of services to town and parish councils, as well as community groups.

Better engagement The Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016 has provided the legal framework for the implementation of devolution deals with combined authorities and other areas.

Against this backdrop of increased localisation, there are three compelling reasons why councils have to get better at engaging with their communities: • They have a primary responsibility to consult and involve their stakeholders – localism and devolution is about giving more say and power to local communities.

• It can help improve their reputation and build trust among their residents – in an era of tight fiscal constraint and public

service reform, councils need to do all they can to demonstrate that they are delivering value for money by keeping their residents well informed.

It is fundamental in building the capacity of communities to solve their own problems without the need for costly statutory sector provision or intervention.

This is not just about the need to save money – although that is undoubtedly a driving force – but also the need to recognise that society is changing with a more connected population demanding greater participation in shaping the lives of their own communities.

The LGA is working to support councils to better engage their communities in the design and delivery of services, and has developed a ‘Community action’ web resource (see www.local.gov.uk/communityaction). This provides information and case studies about how councils can involve communities in the design and delivery of services.

The LGA’s DevoNext Hub is dedicated entirely to devolution news and resources: please see www.local.gov.uk/devolution.

And www.mycommunity.org.uk also provides a one-stop hub and network for communities to help them get inspired, offering resources, stories and the opportunity for individuals to find community rights activity in their area.

We have also revised and reissued our ‘Neighbourhood and community engagement’ workbook to better equip councillors to deal with the challenges arising from the devolution agenda and to enable you to learn from good practice from other councils (see www.local.gov.uk/ councillor-workbooks).

This is designed to work alongside our community leadership and engagement e-learning module (see first 606). Through this module you can test your knowledge of your local communities and the changes and challenges being faced by them and the politicians who represent them. If you have not yet signed up to access our e-learning modules, please contact elearning@local. gov.uk for a user name and password.

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parliament Social care funding Since the omission of adult social care from the Government’s Autumn Statement in November, the LGA has been working with parliamentarians to make the case for additional government funding to help protect services for elderly and disabled people.

Last month, LGA Chief Executive Mark Lloyd gave evidence to the Commons’ Communities and Local Government Committee’s inquiry into health and social care integration, where he called for an injection of genuinely new money into the system.

For more on the LGA’s parliamentary work please visit www.local.gov.uk/parliament

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“The LGA has assessed the financial challenges facing councils across the whole range of services through to 2019/20. The deficit baked into their resources is £5.8 billion, of which £1.8 billion is children’s services and £1.3 billion is adult social care,” he told MPs. “That £5.8 billion assumes that everything is okay today, and it is not. If we were to even meet the fair funding criteria for care today, we would need to add another £1.3 billion into the social care system. The foundations are therefore not solid and the future looks grim unless we get an injection of further resources.”

Also last month, the Treasury Committee heard evidence from Chancellor Philip Hammond MP as part of its inquiry into the Autumn Statement. Wes Streeting MP quoted the LGA’s call to end the worst funding crisis social care has ever faced and asked why the Chancellor had not addressed the issue in the Autumn Statement.

Mr Hammond said it was the responsibility of the Department of Health and Department for Communities and Local Government. He set out the increase in social care funding over this Parliament and spoke about rising local government reserves.

In Prime Minister’s Questions, the Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn MP quoted research from Age UK suggesting 1.2 million people are not receiving the care they need. Prime Minister Theresa May said she recognised the immediate pressure on social care. The Government is putting more money into social care through the Better Care Fund and the social care precept, and would address the issue in the local government finance settlement, she said.

Finally, just before Christmas, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid delivered the settlement, announcing the redistribution of some New Homes Bonus funding to social care and that councils will be able to raise the social care council tax precept to 3 per cent for the next two years (see p10-11).

Following the announcement of the

Legislative updates The Homelessness Reduction Bill has been in Committee in the Commons, with the LGA briefing MPs on a number of amendments aimed at ensuring the legislation is workable and better prevents and resolves homelessness.

Housing Minister Marcus Jones MP said the Government would continue to consult the LGA to ensure provisions in the Bill are funded properly under the new burdens doctrine.

The LGA briefed MPs ahead of a debate on supported housing, noting that the Government has listened to our concerns regarding the long-term sustainability of supported housing by committing to provide top-up funding above the level of the Local Housing Allowance cap. Welfare Minister Caroline Nokes MP put on record her belief that local authorities are best placed to make decisions about how to support vulnerable people in their own areas.

LGA Vice-President Lord Beecham (Lab) led questions in the Lords on how many affordable houses to rent the Government expects local authorities to build by 2020. He quoted figures from an LGA media statement estimating that reducing rents paid by tenants in social housing in England by 1 per cent a year will cost councils £2.6 billion by 2019/20.

local government settlement an influential committee of senior MPs met to discuss social care with Theresa May. In the session the Chair of the Communities and Local Government Committee, Clive Betts MP, asked the Prime Minister to commission a cross-party review into finding a long-term sustainable solution for social care. He also highlighted the fact that the funding announced in the settlement would not cover the £2.6 billion funding gap identified by the LGA. Following the session, the Health Committee issued a media statement in support of a social care review, with the Chair of the Committee, Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, saying that “social care is facing an immediate crisis and this needs urgent action to ensure people get the services that they need”. www.local.gov.uk

elections Seats changing hands more frequently December is not an ideal time to be filling casual vacancies but the 7 per cent turnout in Lancaster’s University and Scotforth Rural ward came close to an unenviable record.

Only two other examples have gone lower (also December contests) leaving Tamworth’s Stonydelph (5.7 per cent in 1998) as the record holder.

By contrast, voters in Pendle’s Reedley ward again turned out in force, recording the third highest by-election turnout of the year in a closely fought race edged by former mayor, Pauline McCormick.

Conservative candidates were successful elsewhere, capturing seats from the Greens in Bath and from UKIP in Dorset. The 2013 county elections marked a major breakthrough for UKIP, including the Ferndown division.

Three of the five by-elections held in early December saw the defending party defeated.

While Labour gained some compensation by taking a seat on Telford and Wrekin council, there were two gains by Independents from the two main parties.

More than 260 by-elections were held in 2016 with more than 400,000 votes cast.

Deaths and resignations accounted for a large majority of the vacancies. Vacant seats caused by resignation are more likely to change hands than where the incumbent died in post – maybe electors are sympathetic to the circumstances.

Electoral volatility is on the increase. Seats changed hands with greater regularity than in recent years with a change of party now occurring in 31 per cent of all vacancies.

Bath & North East Somerset, Abbey CON GAIN FROM GREEN 7.2% over Lib Dem

Professors Colin Rallings (right) and Michael Thrasher are Directors of Plymouth University’s Elections Centre

Turnout 26%

Chichester, Southbourne LIB DEM GAIN FROM CON 32.1% over Con

Turnout 20.2%

Dorset, Ferndown CON GAIN FROM UKIP 26.6% over UKIP

Turnout 22.1%

Lancaster, University & Scotforth Rural LAB HELD 6.8% over Green

Turnout 7.1%

Maldon, Maldon West Conservative defences accounted for almost half the by-elections. The party lost 45 of these, with losses to the Liberal Democrats running at twice the level of those to Labour.

The Conservative profit and loss account was compensated with 13 gains, mostly from Labour.

This was not a good year for Labour with 18 losses and only 13 gains. Its candidates secured an average vote share of 31 per cent, one point behind the Conservatives but still nine points ahead of the Liberal Democrats.

But the Liberal Democrat strategy means it contested fewer than eight in ten vacancies (although this is a higher rate than for UKIP and the Greens). It emerged as the most successful party, securing a net gain of 25 seats. Candidates averaged 21 per cent of votes, ahead of UKIP on 15 per cent and the Greens’ 9 per cent.

Turnout averaged 28 per cent, comparable with recent years. Almost 1,200 candidates stood, an average of 4.4 for each vacancy.

Attention will now turn to the battle for the county and unitary councils this May. There were 38 by-elections in these areas over the year. Changes in vote share since 2013 show a nine-point fall for UKIP and modest declines too for both Conservative and Labour. The Liberal Democrat vote is seven points better than four years ago, suggesting significant gains for the party next May.

Only by-elections referenced in the text or where a seat changed hands are listed above. For the full list of recent results and a spreadsheet with detailed data on each election, please visit www.local.gov.uk/first

January 2017

local by-elections

IND GAIN FROM CON 14.6% over Con

Turnout 24%

Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Madeley IND GAIN FROM LAB 39% over Con

Turnout 18.5%

Pendle, Reedley CON GAIN FROM LAB 4.5% over Lab

Turnout 58.3%

Telford & Wrekin, Horsehay & Lightmoor LAB GAIN FROM CON 8.5% over Con

Turnout 17%

Tower Hamlets, Whitechapel IND GAIN FROM THF 12.6% over Lab

Turnout 24.5%

“Seats changed hands with greater regularity in 2016, with a change of party occurring in 31 per cent of all vacancies” first political | 31

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LGA Annual Fire Conference and Exhibition 7-8 March 2017, Hilton Hotel Newcastle Gateshead The LGA’s Annual Fire Conference and Exhibition provides an excellent opportunity to discuss the Home Office’s fire reform programme. Inspection, transparency, workforce, governance, collaboration and the role of Police and Crime Commissioners are all key issues for the fire and rescue sector as we look to the future.

This is the leading conference for fire authorities and services in England and Wales and will provide an opportunity to hear from the Minister of State for Policing and Fire Services as well as from a range of fire service experts.

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