Local Authority round-up 12/11/18

Brexit

Cabinet aims for deal by end of November

On 6 November 2018 senior ministers attended a cabinet meeting to discuss the mechanism for governing the Irish backstop. It is understood that a final deal was not presented to the cabinet but that ministers agreed they want to reach a deal by the end of this month.  Associated with the cabinet  meeting is a detailed suggested timetable of how the Government should try to ‘sell a deal’ to MPs and the public. It includes speeches from Theresa May and support from business figures and foreign leaders. In particular, the narrative suggests both the Withdrawal Agreement and Future Framework will be presented to Parliament on 19 November.

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Prime Minister forms five business councils

Theresa May has formed five new business councils to advise on how to create the best business conditions in the UK after Brexit. Each council will meet three times a year, twice with Mrs May and once with a senior cabinet minister, to provide high-level advice and policy recommendations on the critical issues affecting businesses. Each council will be co-chaired by two business leaders with ten members representing core sectors of the UK economy and a representative from the UK’s key business groups. Such representatives include executives from Tesco, ITV, the Confederation of British Industry, BAE Systems and GlaxoSmithKline.

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Institute of Directors (IoD) publishes ‘Preparing your business for Brexit – Part 3’

The IoD has published the final section of its third-part series of advising UK SMEs on how best to prepare their organisations for the post-Brexit landscape. The IoD outlines its plan of five points that need to be considered by SMEs that trade internationally: (1) set budget rates on the currency crosses that affect your business that guarantee that currency will not impinge on your profitability; (2) ensure certainty of terms with suppliers and customers; (3) implement back-up plans with European and global conveyors so supply chains remain flexible; (4) regulatory assurance; and (5) consider business funding and access to lending operations.

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Business Leaders call for a second Brexit vote

More than 70 business leaders have signed a letter to the Sunday Times advocating a second vote on Brexit. Among the senior executives to have publicly supported the call for a second vote are James Daunt, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Waterstones and Justin King, former CEO of Sainsbury’s. The letter does not specifically mention a second referendum but discusses the “ultimate choice” being given back to the electorate and concludes “we are bit facing either a blindfold or a destructive hard Brexit.” Theresa May has responded to the letter by making clear that asking the public to vote again would be a “betrayal of the public’s trust.”

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Commercial

North of Tyne devolution deal becomes law

On 1 November 2018 Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry confirmed by Parliamentary Order a £600 million devolution deal for the North of Tyne in a “once-in-a-generation” transfer of devolved power and investment to a new combined authority. The deal covers Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland authority creating North of Tyne Combined Authority and the election of a directly-elected mayor, with the election planned for May 2019. The deal is expected to generate £1.1 billion and 10,000 jobs for the local economy, and bring in £2.1 billion private sector investment, providing a major economic boost to a “key region within the Northern Powerhouse.”

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Funding promotes nutritious breakfasts to school children

Children and Families Minister Nadhim Zahawi has announced that thousands of children across the country are now benefiting from nutritious breakfasts. The announcement follows figures released by Family Action, one of the two leading charities to run breakfast for pupils in more than 1,700 schools by 2020, as part of the Government’s £26 million investment. Family action has reported that 15,000 breakfasts are already being served every day to children, many from disadvantaged families and 500 new or improved breakfast clubs have signed up to the programme with more than 150 already up and running in schools.

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National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) responds to budget infrastructure measures

Last week the Chancellor of Exchequer Phillip Hammond announced plans for a National Infrastructure Strategy in 2019, alongside infrastructure measures including £28.8 billion towards improving the UK’s motorways and major local roads from 2020-2025. Responding to the Budget statement, Sir John Armitt, Chairman of the NIC said: “Today’s Budget includes a number of welcome measures for infrastructure – but the real test will be next year’s Spending Review and, crucially, the National Infrastructure Strategy that the Chancellor has promised.” He also prompted the strategy to “bring together the roads funding from this Budget with longer-term funding for cities and projects like Northern Powerhouse Rail and Crossrail 2.”

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Regulatory

Local Government Association (LGA) responds to release of Serious and Organised Crime Strategy 2018

As part of the Government’s Serious and Organised Crime Strategy, launched on 1 November 2018, the Government will pursue offenders through prosecution and disruption,  prevent people from engaging in serious and organised crime, protect victims, organisations and systems from its harms and prepare for when it occurs and how to mitigate the impact. Chair of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, Councillor Simon Blackburn responded to the strategy and said: “It is good that the Government acknowledges this in the strategy, but what we really need to see is long-term investment in local services, so we can identify signs of exploitation and intervene at an early stage.”

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Government launches consultation on fracking

The Government has launched a consultation on community involvement in shale gas proposals in an effort to “open a meaningful dialogue.” The consultation seeks views on whether to require shale gas developers to publish relevant information, consult with stakeholders and listen to residents before submitting a planning application. Early engagement with communities would give local people an earlier say on proposals, while making developers aware of issues of importance to the community that may need to be resolved through working with the relevant local authority. The consultation invites comments until 7 January 2019.

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Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LG&SCO) upholds complaint against council

On 23 July 2018 the LG&SCO published a report, which has only recently become available, upholding a complaint against North Somerset Council, finding that there had been fault causing injustice. Furthermore, the council had failed to offer and provide support to a father while he was temporarily caring for his son and also for failing to make it clear that there would be charges associated with attending a day centre. The LG&SCO recommended that the council apologise to the father and pay him £1,000 for the avoidable distress caused as a result of its failure to consider what support may have been required and to provide it.

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Health Secretary launches prevention strategy

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has published his vision for how he plans to transform the Government’s approach to prevention. The document, ‘Prevention is better than cure’ builds on the Government’s previous work in areas such as childhood obesity and social prescribing. It shifts the focus to primary and community care services and the value they can bring in offering early support. These plans include halving childhood obesity by 2030, reducing loneliness and social isolation, making social prescribing available in every local area by 2023 and diagnosing 75% of cancers at stages 1 and 2 by 2028.

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Planning and Housing

Amended regulations to benefit tenants

Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry announced on 5 November 2018 that tenants living in some of the coldest homes in England are set to benefit from amended regulations requiring landlords to install energy efficiency measures. During 2019, properties with an Energy Performance Certificate rating of F or G, the lowest 2 energy efficiency ratings available, must be made warmer by landlords before they can be put on the rental market for new tenancies. This is expected to cost £1,200 on average and will affect 290,000 properties, which represents around 6% of the overall domestic market.

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Government responds to supported housing delivery consultation

On 29 October 2018 the Minister of Housing, Communities and Local Government published its response to the Government’s consultation on proposals to support housing delivery through developer contributions published earlier this year and proposes to: (1) remove the current statutory requirement for two separate rounds of consultation on charging schedules (2) lift section 106 pooling restrictions (3) make changes to the penalties associated with the failure to submit a commencement notice prior to starting work on exempted development (4) consult on indexing Community Infrastructure Levy rates to house prices and (5) introduce a Strategic Infrastructure Tariff.

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Homes England reveals five-year strategic plan

Homes England has unveiled its five-year plan to deliver and face the long-term housing challenges across the country, arguing that it will “disrupt the housing market.” The public body aims to unlock both public and private land in order to build more homes where they are needed. For example, the £1.03 billion Land Assembly Fund will “bring forward sites that the private sector cannot.” The strategy also aims to unlock investment, with the £5.5 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund hoping to bring forward land for development, increase productivity by supporting the uptake of modern methods of construction and by working with various Government departments to develop modern construction skills and drive market resilience.

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Court of Appeal (COA) issues ruling on advertisements

The COA has given an important judgement clarifying the nature of a council’s power to regulate advertisements by serving a notice to remove the right which would otherwise exist to display advertisements pursuant to “deemed consent.” The appellant argued that a notice under Reg 8(1)(a) of the Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 2007 could only be appropriate where the site was unsuitable for any advertisements of the relevant kind. If successful this would have significantly restricted the ability of planning authorities to control harmful advertisements in their area. However, the COA rejected this argument leaving the developer free to apply for express consent for a particular advertisement if it can show that it would not be harmful.

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Upcoming seminars

As you may well know we run a programme of seminars on a wide range of topics. Listed below are those seminars coming up which we feel may be of interest to you. Please click on the links for further information and to book your place. You can see our full programme of upcoming events by clicking here.

Public Sector property update

Join us at our free breakfast briefing, where Ward Hadaway’s legal experts will consider the latest changes affecting property, land and estates in the public sector.

Thursday 22nd November (Newcastle)

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