07.02.10

Taxes, Trams, Boots and Broxtowe

Nottingham City Council recently approved the Workplace Parking Levy and the local BBC are calling for your views via their website.

The council says it hopes to raise £14M per year from the scheme, and they are currently the only council in the country to use it, though others have considered it, and have so far backed down in the face of unpopularity.

Meanwhile, major Nottingham pharmaceutical manufacturer, Boots, has announced that they are outraged by the WPL. They have since promised not to pass on the charge to their staff and announced a plan to avoid having to pay it altogether.

The plan goes like this. Boots' site is partly on City Council land, and party on Broxtowe Borough Council land. 1,500 of their parking spaces are in Broxtowe, while the other 3,000 are in the City. In the first year, Boots will have to pay around £750,000 for those 3,000 spaces. Boots has spare land in the Broxtowe area to simply move all of its parking spaces into the non-chargeable Broxtowe area, thus saving at least a three quarters of a million pounds per year.

If Boots were to go through with this, the City's WPL budget would obviously reduce by £750,000 per year - not ideal perhaps, but the City say they have made allowances for the fact that "employers may potentially reduce the number of liable parking places they provide."

Boots does not currently have planning permission for additional parking spaces from Broxtowe Borough Council.

The spotlight now falls on Broxtowe. Boots can expect around three quarters of a million pounds in savings each year if Broxtowe grant a request for planning permission.

The WPL is meant to fund Line 2 of the tram, which will serve the Broxtowe area, and also fund improvements to the City Council-owned NCT 'Link' bus services, who happen to provide transport for Boots workers.

Notes

The WPL will come into force in April 2012 and charge £253 per space per year, and is intended to raise the council's share of the money required for Line 2 of the tram, plus additional transport "improvements".

The scheme will be limited to employers within the City Council's administrative boundary, and will only apply to businesses that have more than 10 car parking spaces for their workers (and certain types of business visitor). Spaces marked for disabled use will be exempt from the charge.

Although charging will not begin until April 2012, registration will be required before then. Businesses who must pay the Levy will be subject to random inspections to ensure the number of eligible spaces is correct.

The government has promised to meet the financial shortfalls incurred by setbacks and delays to the financing of Nottingham's Tram. So in effect, all the taxpayers in the UK are contributing towards the Arrow Consortium's Nottingham tram project.

04.02.10

Leicestershire Councils: When Two Tribes go to War

The Leicester Mercury has provided an interesting case study of two different councils, one run by Labour, the other by the Conservatives.

The City Council is run by Labour. About 70% of its income comes from government grants. They are planning budget cuts of 7%. They plan to cut £19M from a budget of £280M, and cut 270 posts from their workforce of 7,000.

The County Council is run by the Conservatives. They get about 70% of their income from council tax. They're planning to cut the budget by 20%. They plan to cut £66M from their £325M budget and cut 650 posts from their workforce of 6,000.

Given the difference in funding sources, obviously the Tory-run council would be harder hit by a council tax freeze or reduction (it would have to cut costs by about twice as much as the Labour-run City Council to deliver the same freeze or reduction, all other things being equal). The government recently called upon all councils to deliver a low council tax rise in a press release - "councils are getting 39 per cent more funding from Whitehall than they did in 1997 and there is no excuse for huge tax rises."

The article discusses a future expectation of a 2% cut in government grants, and calls upon Professor Lawrence Pratchett, head of the Public Policy Department at De Montford University, to inform readers that differences between the councils might be a party political issue. Well worth a read.

01.02.10

Notts County Council Sick Days: The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Included in the 29th January Personnel Committee papers is a report from the Service Director of Human Resources on levels of sickness at NCC and proposals to reduce them.

NCC has reduced its average number of days lost per employee to 9.56, but they're aiming for 8.75 by March 2010. The biggest cause of sick days is medical operations and post operative recovery. The second most common cause is stress.

NCC is setting up a steering group to examine the issue of stress and "prevent and identify potential stress at an earlier stage".

There are also various proposals. Trigger levels for absence management action are to be set to 3 instances of absence in any 6 months, or 10 working days per 12 months, or a 2 working-week equivalent for part-timers. The unions are said to be opposed to this. Appeals against dismissals brought about by absence management are to be heard by senior managers, rather than elected members. The unions are said to be opposed to this.

Statistical breakdowns on absences are to be circulated to Corporate and Service Directors on a quarterly basis "in order to address the common themes and issues identified in addition to more localised issues."

And finally, a pilot project is to be set up to have people who are phoning in sick report their symptoms to a qualified nurse rather than their line manager.

01.02.10

Notts County Council: Terms and Conditions Update

NCC has issued the following new Terms and Conditions proposals: Talks with the unions are ongoing. One alternative put forward in negotiations was equalise all holiday entitlements by lowering the entitlement for the better paid (Band A upwards). Apparently this would save £3.2M, thus removing the need for any other changes to Terms and Conditions. NCC rejected the proposal.

Original NCC report

31.01.10

Your Government "Expects" Smaller Council Tax Rises

Communities Secretary John Denham is quoted in The People as saying "...we expect this year's increases to be the lowest for 16 years". The article adds, "Labour says councils are getting 39 per cent more funding from Whitehall than they did in 1997 and there is no excuse for huge tax rises."

Mr Denham, Secretary of State for the Communities Department (the branch of Government that deals with Local Authority funding) then goes on to attack Conservative plans to increase funding from Central Government to fund council tax freezes.

The story is probably a response to this press release from the Government. In the notes to editors section, it helpfully points out that the Government is working towards freeing councils from 'strings-attached' funding and has moved £6Bn into non-ring-fenced funds (i.e. the Formula Grant).

According to statistics published by the same department, the government moved £24Bn from the 'no-strings attached' formula grant in 2006, to help fund more targeted grants, mainly the Dedicated Schools Grant. Since then, at least two other targetted grants have been set up, including the Area Based Grant and Sure Start, Early Years and Childcare Grant, both set up in 2008. Total funding for these two grants stood at around £4Bn in 2009. In 2008, there were more than 60 targetted grants. About two-thirds of all government money to councils was in the form of these ring-fenced funds.

Council formula grant is recalculated every year according to a complex formula which may change each time. Here's the data on all councils' formula funding for 08/09

And now, here's a pretty graph based on the Communities Department statistics:


This gives a reasonable view of the proportions of the various sources of government funding flowing to councils over the last 5 years - plus council tax. The formula grant includes money collected from business premises in business rates - this money is collected locally, and then redistributed nationally via the grant.

The source data goes into great depth regarding the funds from central government, but when it comes to overall income flowing to local government, the data is far less clear. Council income from charging for services, sale of assets, interest on savings and revenue from investments, etc, appear to be glossed over.

Given that central government expects reduced council tax (and seems to be getting it, at least at shire level - the resulting reduction in funding to lower-tier councils seems to be increasing tax at district/borough council level), then it appears that if councils want to continue their current levels of spend, they will have to draw in extra funds from this less accounted-for category. That would be charges for services or sale of assets. The other obvious local source of income would be business rates (and councils have powers to increase them), but as these are redistributed nationally, there is no incentive for councils to increase them, as it would likely decrease their popularity with little or no increase in funding.

30.01.10

Councils Expecting Future Government Funding Cuts

Friday's Nottingham Evening Post reports that Nottingham City Council is bracing itself for a reduction in government grant from 2011 onwards. The council is apparently looking at reductions of 5% or 10%, and hoping for 5%.

Saturday's Northern Echo reports that North Yorkshire County Council is bracing itself for "a perfect financial storm", including an expected 5% reduction in government grant from 2011 onwards.

N Yorks Council is looking to deliver a 2.94% council tax rise, the lowest in 16 years. It also cites the usual increased financial pressures in adult and child care, and also adds road repairs to the mix - recent cold conditions have damaged roads nationwide.

Cold weather road damage is caused by a freeze/thaw erosion process, where water collects in existing cracks and holes and then freezes, expanding and making the hole bigger.

29.01.10

Tory Re-think on Regional Tier of Local Government?

The Northern Echo reports that Nottinghamshire Conservative MP and Shadow Secretary for Business Ken Clarke has ordered a review of Conservative policy on Regional Development Agencies (RDAs).

The article states that this has come about following concerns raised by the CBI and British Chambers of Commerce with regard to "scrapping" the RDAs.

However, actual published Conservative policy suggests they weren't going to entirely scrap them anyway, they were mainly going to devolve their planning, regional spacial strategy and housing powers to councils. Given that the RSS sets priorities for regional investment and transport, perhaps this is the bone of contention.

The CBI represents 'big business' in the UK, with 80% of FTSE 100 companies signed up as members. The Chambers of Commerce represents business of all sizes, and is comprised of various regional branches. Large national and international firms are usually well represented at board level.

RDAs serve as a tier of local government above local councils, and currently have wide-ranging powers over planning and funnelling government grants to regions. Local businesses, often Chamber of Commerce members, are usually represented on the LGA boards, along with local authorities, trade unions and the voluntary sector. Unlike at LA level, representatives are not directly elected by the public.

Various newspaper reports have suggested that Tory plans to move powers away from RDAs and towards local authorities is motivated by the fact that the Conservative Party is currently better represented at LA level than at RDA level. Current Conservative plans for LA's include greater accountability and transparency, while their plans for accountability and transparency at RDA level are currently less clear.

25.01.10

Unions Vote to Accept Poole Council Pay Review

Deja Vu: 13% face pay cuts of up to £3,000. Unions welcome "fair settlement"

The Bournemouth Echo reports that GMB and Unison members have voted 3:1 in favour of a new pay deal for the Borough of Poole Council.

Sadly, it's an all-too-familiar story: 13% lose out, 26% get a rise and the rest are unaffected. The voting turnout is not mentioned, but if everyone in the unions voted then 38% of the workforce made the decision for everyone. One employee quoted in the article says, "We feel very let down. We were told it was not going to affect us." That may indicate that Poole's unions made past promises that no-one would lose out, just like Nottinghamshire's did.

A joint union statement reads, "We all see this as a very clear endorsement that this is an equitable and fair settlement to deliver equal pay." I suspect some might disagree with that statement.

The article also mentions that refuse workers are facing reduced hours and longer routes, and are working to rule in protest.

25.01.10

When is a Budget Increase not an Increase in Spending?

The answer, as the Evening Post reveals, is when you overspent your budget the year before by more than your proposed budget increase.

According to the article, Nottingham City Council has previously stated they will increase its spending on fostering and child protection by £3M. But Lib Dem Councillor Tony Sutton has revealed that the amount the council actually spent last year was £15.6M, and next year is budgeting for £14.1M.

Like the City Council, the County Council has also stated that current financial problems owe a lot to budget increases in social care.

According to this NEP clipping, Notts County Council is increasing the budget for adult care by £15.5M, and the budget for children's care by £6.8M. But it also mentions that the children's care budget has been overspent every year for 5 years - where did the extra money come from before now? It seems the County's budget is just as mysterious.

NCC's budget figures don't shed much light on 'spending' vs 'budgets' - there doesn't seem to be a distinction drawn between the two anywhere.

The County's budget also makes a number of assumptions, for example: Council tax will be frozen for 3 years; various government grants will reduce; workers will receive a wage increase of 1% every year; no increase in council taxbase in 10/11, then growth of 0.5% each year for 2 years; inflation on things other than wages will be 2% per year.

How many of these assumptions will prove correct?

Unison have already discovered that increases in the council taxbase 2010/11 will release an extra £2M. Inflation is currently around 3%. The Conservative party has said it will give councils the equivalent of a 2.5% council tax rise if they freeze council tax. The LGA seems to be aiming for a 0% pay rise.

21.01.10

Notts County Council Finds £4M Down the Back of the Sofa

Hot on the heels of the LGA referring to the current economic climate in councils as being "rather like the time when you've got to scrabble down the back of the sofa for loose change...", Unison and NCC have have had a rummage around and discovered £2M in the shape of increased council tax revenue from new houses, thanks to the diligent efforts of Ravi Subramanian of Unison.

Apparently the latest figures for the new tax base weren't available when the budget was compiled. The budget was released a month earlier than usual due to scale of the cutbacks and to "make sure everyone gets the opportunity to have their say about the Council's future financial priorities."

The new budget has found an extra £4M and means that many threatened cuts to local services have now been softened, and Council communications suggest that some redundancies may be avoided. Here you can find further details of the revised budget. Changes to Terms and Conditions have also been softened.

NCC states that of the £85M savings required over 3 years, £53M is to be invested "to meet increased demand for Council services." 2 days after the budget revisions were announced, NCC's budget proposals consultation closes tomorrow, on Friday.

21.01.10

A Tough Year Ahead for Council Employees?

Budget cuts, pay freezes and rising inflation may make 2010 a difficult year to be a council worker.

Councils around the country are shedding workers and making cutbacks. The government has announced mandatory efficiency savings and a 1% pay rise next financial year for public sector workers, while the LGA seems to be aiming for 0%, according to recent communications from them. There's not much sign of hope from the political opposition, either, with the Conservatives planning a 0% wage increase for one year if elected.

Set against a backdrop of rising inflation, council pay looks likely to decrease in real terms. Depending on the rate of inflation and how long pay is held down for, those who saw increases under job evaluation may see those gains wiped out in real terms - and the workers who sacrificed their wages to pay for the increases will suffer yet again.

Many workers are now approaching the end of their 'pay protection' period, meaning that they will now feel the impact of the wage cuts brought about by single status.

In the short term, this seems likely to further cool the economy, as public sector workers tighten their belts. Nottingham stands to be particularly badly hit, as a recent Centre for Cities report shows that Nottingham has one of highest proportions of employees working within the public sector.

16.01.10

"Hundreds" of Derbyshire Council Staff Receive Dismissal Notices

Belper News reports that hundreds of DCC workers have missed the Council's deadline to sign up to a new pay deal and have received dismissal notices as a result.

The new pay deal will result in around 3,500 staff taking a pay cut. Job types facing a cut include care workers, child centre workers, support workers and library assistants. Job types that will see a wage increase include catering, social work and learning support assistants.

Workers have until the end of March to sign up or face dismissal. The tactic will be familiar to many councils who've already been through this, including Birmingham City and Notts County.

The Chief Exec of DerbysCC is quoted as saying, "This is the best deal we could afford. We have put an extra £10.1 million into the annual pay budget to help pay for single status and a further £6 million to protect all employees from a cut in their basic pay during the next three years."

12.01.10

Future Jobs in Nottingham

The Future Jobs Fund is coming up to speed in Nottingham, according to the Nottingham Evening Post.

The paper reports the Government is spending about £6M on creating 1,000 new temporary jobs.

The jobs are said to include environmental work, gardening, horticulture assistants and trainee sound engineers.

The cash arrives from Government via a bid for funds through the FJF. The bid was made by Enable, on behalf of the Notts Partnership, and the jobs in question appear to be mainly or wholly with local government.

Presumeably this arms-length arrangement will keep these new temporary-contract, minimum-wage workers safely away from the Single Status Agreement, and therefore ineligible for review under a local government job evaluation scheme.

An under 22-year-old who was only claiming jobseeker's allowance would see their weekly income rise by £69.80 under this scheme.

10.01.10

Vernon Coaker Urges Some Schools to be Less Careful With Money

The Northern Echo reports reports that Nottingham MP and Schools Minister Vernon Coaker has warned hundreds of North East schools they may face "further action" if they don't stop 'hoarding' 'excessive' financial reserves. The General Secretary of NASUWT joined the call for smaller reserves, saying "this is not prudent financial management, as some would claim, but unacceptable stockpiling of public money."

'Excessive' is defined as being more than 8% of a primary school's budget or 5% of a secondary's.

10.01.10

A Local Shortage of Grit?

The Nottingham Evening Post has been closely following the Notts grit shortage saga.

Despite having fully-stocked up on salt before winter, the paper reports that the County Council's remaining stocks are now low, that deliveries are uncertain and less than expected. The Council is now looking at reducing the roads it grits to only category A and B routes.

Meanwhile, the Northern Echo reports that at Durham County Council, supplies of grit are running low despite having fully stocked up before winter. Apparently deliveries are uncertain and less than expected. The Council is now rationing spreading to category A and B roads.

The Northern Echo article also goes on to helpfully explain that salt defrosts ice by lowering the freezing point of water, but it becomes less effective below about -5C. It also becomes less effective if there isn't much traffic about to mash the salt into smaller particles and spread it around.

10.01.10

Transport Minister "Endorsement" for the NHS to Contribute to Road Gritting Costs

The Northern Echo reports that Sadiq Khan, Transport Minister, has endorsed the approach taken by Durham County Council to paying for road gritting - they managed to get £1M out of the local NHS to "reduce the number of people treated after slipping on icy roads and pavements".

The payment provoked a hospital governor to resign in protest.

The 'endorsement' in question reads as follows:

"Asked in the House of Commons by Croydon MP Andrew Pelling whether would 'look positively' at the Durham approach in a bid to reduce hospital admissions, he replied: 'I am keen to consider whether the Department of Health and Department for Transport can work better together and whether lessons can be learned from Durham that can be used in London and other parts of the country.'"

10.01.10

Nottingham City Council to Pay Experian to Find People not Paying Enough Council Tax

The Nottingham Evening Post reports that the Council will pay £37.50 for every household it finds that is wrongly claiming single occupancy discount.

Experian and Northgate have been commissioned to "review and update" their council tax records.

10.01.10

LGA: Councils will be "Desperately Short" of Money in 2010

Speaking at an Association of North East Councils' Conference on Friday, LGA Chair Dame Margaret Eaton is reported to have said, "It's rather like the time when you've got to scrabble down the back of the sofa for loose change at the moment."

08.01.10

Nottingham City Council Pays Quarter of a Million 'Golden Goodbye'

The Nottingham Evening Post reports today that the City Council is paying more than £250,000 to retire Sallyanne Johnson (54), head of Adult Services. The move is part of a cost-cutting restructuring exercise.

The council will have spent £2.18M in three years on similar retirements and restructures.

"A spokesman said plans to restructure the council's management, which includes the departure of Ms Johnson and the abolition of seven other director posts, would ultimately save the authority, £671,000 a year."

06.01.10

77 Posts Lost at Darlington Council; Terms and Conditions Under Threat

The Northern Echo reports that Labour-controlled Darlington Borough Council has announced a council tax freeze and budget cuts.

77 posts are to go and terms and conditions are under threat, specifically overtime payments and essential car user allowance. The full cabinet report states that "18 of the posts are vacant, therefore there are potentially 59 redundancies. However, as the business model is implemented this number may increase."

The council is trying to save £4.7M from its budget, and deliver a council tax freeze this year, followed by 1% and 2% in the following two years. The council has opened a public consultation on the budget proposals. The deadline for comments is Friday 5th February 2010.

Darlington Borough Council is a unitary authority employing over 4,000 staff, spends about £100M and has a general fund reserve of £9.7M (total reserves £21M)

02.01.10

The State of Pay 2009

The ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings for 2009 is available. Wages in the public sector grew by 3.1%, and in the private sector they went up by 1%. Overall, the gender pay gap slightly widened in the private sector and slightly narrowed in the public. The age pay gap stayed about the same.

02.01.10

What's David Cameron got in store for Local Government?

DC seems to have kicked off the electioneering in earnest today with a speech at the Oxford School of Drama. (Full speech here)

Amongst other things, he stated his intent to restore the economy and stop central government "undermining the professionals in our public services." He later went on to mention a pay freeze for the public sector.

Apparently the Conservatives will start publishing their manifesto from Monday. Looks like they're serialising it on a chapter-by-chapter basis.

In the meantime, we can turn to their Green Paper on Local Government to get an idea of what a future Conservative election win might mean for local government. Here's a (fairly) easily digested short summary of the 34-page document. Highlights include a referendum for a mayor of Nottingham (and 11 other cities), all sorts of interesting new powers for local councils (including new ways of raising money) and the power for local people to trigger local referenda by signing petitions.

You can read the original 34-page Green Paper here.

01.01.10

NEP: In the Midst of Budget Cuts, County Council In £10M Underspend Shocka!!! Sort of.

The NEP seems to have kindly provided Nottingham with a reading comprehension test dressed as a budget article. The article states that amidst the County Council budget cuts, the Conservatives are also managing to add to the Council's financial reserves.

A lot of figures are thrown about in the text (including an underspend of £10M), but the facts appear to be as follows:

The Council currently has financial reserves of more than £23M (source: Labour councillor)

At the present time, the council has spent £10M less than it planned to by March 2010. (source: NEP)

The current budget plan was devised by the previous Labour cabinet, and included in the spending plan was an intention to take £3.7M out of the reserves to pay for the plan.

By March 2010, the council expects to have spent £5M less than was previously planned.

This means that the £3.7M that was going to be removed from the reserves will stay there.

This leaves £1.3M underspend. £0.5M will be added to the reserves, while £0.8M will be carried forward and added to next years spending plans. (source: NEP / Conservative cabinet member for finance and property)

So perhaps the article should read more like this:

County Hall Plans to Underspend by £1.3M: £700,000 to be added to reserves; £800,000 to be spent next year.

Assuming the quoted figures of reserves of £23M and overspend of £33M are true, it appears that NCC would be bankrupt in a year if the Council did nothing to reduce expenditure.

"Unison and councillors say there is no clear picture why the savings needed to be made."

Liberal Democrat leader Coun Jason Zadrozny said: "It seems bonkers to me.

"I am certain we don't need to make these cuts. They are talking about making £33m of cuts but have found £10m."

"They should be using that money to protect services."

30.12.09

Tory Stories, Starring Kay Cutts

Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham, has published an article in the Guardian entitled "The inconvenient truths about Tory councils", in which he points the finger at (amongst other things) budget cutbacks in Tory councils, and launches a website, Tory Stories to track all the bad things going on in Tory-run local governments. Nottinghamshire County Council features prominently, of course.

30.12.09

Nottingham City Council - Budget Cuts, Redundancies and Tax Rises

The BBC reports that Nottingham City Council is not only increasing council tax by 2.9%, but is also facing budget pressures that Unison fears will "be of a similar scale as last year which saw 300 posts lost."

The Labour-run council said, "...we are having to make reductions in some areas because of the massive pressures on child protection, large pressures with the growing numbers of elderly and disabled."

Compare and contrast this with the Tory-controlled County Council's pronouncement on their own budget cuts:

"...we need to re-allocate £33m to meet the ever increasing demand for our services, especially in adult social care and children's safeguarding. In these areas alone, we have to find an additional £15.5m and £5m respectively, just to cater for our aging population and to meet the rise in safeguarding referrals that have followed the Baby Peter case. The trends in Nottinghamshire match the trends nationally."

Thanks to the NCCLOLs Blog for drawing my attention to budget cuts at Nottingham City Council.

30.12.09

NCC Computer Porn Crackdown II

"Councillors have vowed to crack down on computer misuse"

'[Cllr Barnfather] said: "We're coming along and seeing past the event but maybe we should be stopping it arriving on the scene."'

'[Cllr Heptinstall] said: "First of all, people accessing or attempting to access inappropriate sites - that's one issue to be dealt with. The other is receiving e-mails - we all receive e-mails - if that does happen, in a sense it's a bit hard on the recipient."'

30.12.09

Nottingham Tram Workers Urged to Accept Pay Freeze

The Nottingham Evening Post reports that NET workers had previously been threatened with a pay freeze and a change to Terms and Conditions. GMB will be balloting on the revised deal in January with a recommendation that members accept.

29.12.09

Approx 8 Million People Unemployed

The BBC reports that according to the CIPD (The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development), unemployment will peak at 2.8 million in 2010.

A more detailed picture can be found here

There are currently over 7.9 million people out of work in this country ('economically inactive') - more than one in five working age people.

According to recent statistics from the ONS, there are approx 38.5M people in the UK of working age, and there are approx 29M people doing about 31M jobs and 0.4M job vacancies.

The CIPD has previously welcomed an inquiry into why the two different measures of unemployment used by the government show slightly different figures. In July, the ILO measure showed 2.38M out of work, while the claimant count was 1.58M.

28.12.09

The State of Pay 2008: The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings

A brief glance at the report will confirm the disparity between male and female wages - about £100 per week on average. A more detailed look will also reveal that the wage gap between people in their 20's and people in their 40's is almost double this, while the gap between 16/17 year olds and their 40-year old counterparts is more than £400 per week (a situation unlikely to be remedied by the recently-announced Future Jobs Fund)

The 2002 version of this report also has additional data that shows only 10% of the population earns £37,692+ per year (gross). The national average wage is £24,603, but nearly 70% of people earn less than this.

Look at that again. The pay gap between different age groups is greater than the gap between the genders. The 1970 Equal Pay Act has been used to make damaging changes to local government in 2007-2009, in the name of equalising male/female pay. Had central government made extra funds available to cover the wage increases, perhaps the results would not have been so damaging. Perhaps one day, the 2006 Age Discrimination Act will cause more carnage.

And that's before we get to discrimination based on disability, race, religion or sexual orientation, all of which have Acts on the subject.

The Equal Pay Act seems to have been particularly badly constructed, however. More on that in a later post.

Broxtowe Council Update: Budgets, Ballots, Appeals and Politics

Budget cuts force introduction of car parking charges, and also cause a political row as funding is cut to parish councils.

Meanwhile, job evaluation appeals are under way, with a deadline of 15th January 2010 to get the forms in. Appeals will be heard from February through to April. Unison has expressed concern over the wording of the proposed new terms and conditions, and they will be aiming to ballot members in early 2010. Minutes of the December council meeting can be found here.

Government's Pre-Budget Report 2009

The report includes a 1% cap on public sector wage increases for two years (starting from 2011). This is expected to save £3.4Bn by 2013.

PPP organisation Partnerships UK Plc (appears to be involved in a number of PPP projects in Nottinghamshire, including the Veolia waste contract) is to be merged with various government bodies to form 'Infrastructure UK'. The LGA response to the announcement says that PUK's '50% interest in Local Partnerships will be acquired by HM Treasury', but that this requires the LGA's permission and is not expected to occur "until after the general election". The full Government PBR states this move is designed to 'build on the unprecedented investment in infrastructure over the last decade", help towards moving to a "low-carbon economy" and "help facilitate private sector investment". The LGA's response notes targets of £550M public sector "efficiency savings", part of which must come from "more efficient waste collection and disposal"

The LGA broadly welcomes the measures in the report and emphasises local government's leading role in bringing about public sector savings. One of the themes of the PBR seems to be about promoting private sector growth at the expense of the public sector.

LGA response summary
Full LGA briefing
Full Pre-Budget Report

Perhaps the strangest measure is the new 'Landline Tax', which places a new tax on the number of individual phone and internet connections you have.

The Future Jobs Fund

The government is looking for bids from all industry sectors to receive funding to create a target of 150,000 new jobs for 18-24 year olds (an age group that seems to have been most heavily hit by the recession, according to recent figures - there were 528,000 under-24's out of work in July)

"From early 2010, everyone between the ages of 18 and 24 who has been looking for work for a year will get an offer of a job, work experience or training lasting at least 6 months."

The criteria states that a bid must create new jobs, each must be for at least 25 hours per week, must last at least 6 months and the work must benefit local communities - there's an emphasis on 'green' work and 'social enterprises'

The jobs must pay at least minimum wage and the funding is for a maximum of £6,500 for each job. Quick calculation: Minimum wage for 19-21 year olds is £4.83; 6 months of working 25 hours per week = £3,139 (or £6,279 for a year).

Details of employers who have applied for funding can be obtained by FOI.