Local Authority round-up 10/07/20

Brexit

Consultation launches on post EU court powers

The Ministry of Justice has launched a campaign seeking views from the legal sector, businesses and judiciary on whether other British courts should have the power to depart from retained EU case law after the transition period at the end of the year. At present, only the UK Supreme Court and the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland will have this power from 31 December 2020 and the consultation seeks view on whether this should be extended to other courts so they can make decisions without following EU case laws. This would include decisions such as those concerning our fisheries, borders or taxes. The consultation proposes that the powers be extended to either the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and its closest equivalents in Northern Ireland and Scotland or these courts and the High Court in England and Wales and its closest equivalents in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland said “At the end of the transition period it is absolutely right that British courts have the final say on legal disputes, where appropriate. We will work with judges and the legal sector to decide exactly which courts should have the power to depart from retained EU case law and will set out our plan in due course.”

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Commercial

£1.57 billion funding package for cultural and heritage organisations

The Government has announced a £1.57 billion funding package to help cultural and heritage organisations following the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on those businesses. The funding will be used to provide emergency grants and loans to museums, galleries, theatres, independent cinemas, heritage sites and music venues which have been forced to close. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said “This money will help safeguard the sector for future generations, ensuring arts groups and venues across the UK can stay afloat and support their staff whilst their doors remain closed and curtains remain down.”

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Chancellor unveils next step plans

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced the next phase of his plan to ‘protect, support and retain’ jobs in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. He said that the next steps will be to create jobs for young people, invest in infrastructure, and ‘green recovery’ with cash for home improvements. He announced the Job Retention Bonus to help businesses keep furloughed workers whereby UK Employers will receive a one-off bonus of £1,000 for each furloughed employee still employed as of 31 January 2021. He also announced a Flexible Support Fund and a £2 billion Kickstart scheme to subsidise jobs for young people which will support those who are aged 16-24, claiming Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment. Funding available for each six-month job placement will cover 100% of the National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week – and employers will be able to top this wage up. He said that following this second phase focusing on jobs, there would be a third phase focusing on rebuilding, with a Budget and Spending Review in the autumn.

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Regulatory

MHCLG publishes guidance on safe use of council buildings

The Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has published guidance on the safe use of council buildings. The guidance applies to all users of council buildings including visitors, and councillors working from council buildings. The guidance signposts those responsible for managing council buildings to relevant guidance on the range of activities that can take place in council spaces, in line with the Government’s roadmap to ease the existing measures to tackle coronavirus. Each council should apply relevant guidance locally depending on circumstances, including its size and the type of activities it conducts, how it is organised, operated, managed and regulated. Operators of council buildings will have discretion over when they consider it safe to open for activities permitted by legislation and may decide to remain closed at this stage if they are not able to safely facilitate the relevant guidelines. To determine which actions should be taken, a COVID-19 risk assessment should be completed by operators of council and civic buildings and organisers of civic events. This will be in addition to any risk assessment that is already in place. The guidance sets out the core principles for safely reopening council buildings and stipulates that any reopening plans must be consistent with core public health guidance on health, hygiene, and social distancing and safe workplace guidelines, to ensure employees are safe to return to work.

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Planning and housing

£3 billion green investment package announced

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a £3 billion green investment package to help support around 140,000 green jobs and upgrade buildings and reduce emissions. £1 billion of the funding will be made available to improve the energy efficiency of public buildings, including schools and hospitals. The remaining £2 billion will be available for individuals under a Green Homes Grant scheme where people can claim two-thirds of the cost of energy improvements, up to a maximum of £5,000, to their homes, such as insulation or double glazing in order to help them to save on energy bills. People on low incomes will be able to claim the full amount up to £10,000.

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Affordable Homes Programme extended

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has announced that the Affordable Homes Programme has been extended by a year until March 2023 following unavoidable delays in the construction industry due to coronavirus.  The £12 billion programme which is due to start next year will support up to 180,000 new affordable homes, including for shared ownership and social rent. Due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, it is estimated that the building of 53,000 new affordable homes have stalled and therefore the extension to the programme has been announced to ensure that the funding is safeguarded and the homes can be built still. Mr Jenrick said “Today I am announcing that we are giving more flexibility to housing associations and councils to help them deliver affordable homes. We’ve listened closely to the sector and agreed that there will now have a longer deadline for using Government funding to get these homes built. Building the homes the country needs is central to the mission of this Government as we prioritise uniting and levelling up the country.”

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Shelter warning over evictions

Homelessness charity Shelter has warned that 227,000 adult private renters could lose their home when the ban on evictions ends on 23 August as there are nearly a quarter of a million private renters who have fallen into arrears with their rent due to the coronavirus pandemic. The charity warms that unless further changes are made those people could be evicted from their homes when the ban on evictions ends. Polly Neate, chief executive at Shelter, said the Government needs to make “changes would give judges the power to ensure that no renter is automatically evicted, and the impact of coronavirus is always considered.”

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Government announces temporary changes to stamp duty

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced changes to stamp duty whereby homebuyers won’t pay stamp duty on the first £500,000 of a property’s purchase price. The current threshold for payment of stamp duty is £125,000 however, under the new temporary changes stamp duty won’t be payable where someone purchases a property for less than £500,000. For properties costing more than £500,000, the stamp duty bands are unchanged however buyers will still save £15,000 on the first £500,000 of the purchase price under the new measures which came into force with effect from 8 July and run until 31 March 2021.

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