Housing and Local Government

We want a new housing revolution to fix our broken market – read more here.

We’re calling for a major overhaul of the powers of local councils to meet the goal of ensuring that everyone in Britain has a home.

The package, passed at Spring Conference in Southport, calls for new powers that will see local authorities able to build and invest in more affordable and social housing. This includes greater access to borrowing for local authorities, strengthened powers to bring empty homes back into use and the power to direct the use of otherwise unwanted public land. Alongside measures to allow local government to abandon Right to Buy and to require that profit from council house sales is invested in new social housing.

These proposals will empower local communities to provide the affordable and social housing that Britain needs and tackle the housing crisis head on.

Having a place to call home is a basic human right. In the face of a national housing crisis we’re failing as a country to fulfil that right. The private sector can’t be relied upon to deliver affordable homes for those struggling to get on the housing ladder.

Social housing is one of the pillars that underpin our welfare state. It’s a vital safety net for tens of thousands of families who can’t afford to rent privately, let alone ever buy their own homes. We need local government and housing associations to provide new social housing directly.

The Conservatives seem happy to just let social housing die. Their ideology is ownership and they don’t seem to see a need for social housing at all. It’s time to move away from providing shadowy land banking and towards greater housing provision.

We’re the only party empowering local councils and communities to provide the housing that is needed.

Reporting Back: Life after Walk-In Centres

The last month saw two opportunities for us to raise residents concerns about what will replace our Walk-In Centres in the revised package of ‘Urgent Care’ across the whole of Bury. The was the regular meeting of Bury Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee, and also a meeting of the Liberal Democrat Council Group with the CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group) Chair.

All areas are experiencing very high demand at hospital Accident and Emergency Department . The current estimate is that 30% of patients that visit A and E do not need to be at such an intensive service. The Government has new guidance for Urgent Care Services for the whole of England.

Bury will have just one Urgent Care Centre, which will be built adjacent to the Accident and Emergency Department at Fairfield General Hospital. (Manchester will be providing a similar Urgent Care Centre at North Manchester General Hospital.) The Urgent Care Centre has to have access to diagnostic services (e.g. X-Ray) which means it realistically does have to be on the hospital site which is where this equipment is. Being next to A and E will help reduce the number of people who currently attend A and E for more routine urgent needs, which can be dealt with at the Urgent Care Centre.

The full urgent care service across Bury will be:

Pharmacy – there will normally be a consulting room were the pharmacist can give advice and propose medication etc for minor ailments and wounds etc.
GP Surgery – All of the current services will be provided.
Integrated Health and Social Care Hub – initially three (Prestwich, Bury and Radcliffe, but eventually one in each township area)  – A mixture of Medical professional will be based in the Hub.  This will allow patient to have face to face advice from a GP. This will also allow elderly and vulnerable patients with complex issues to be seen in the local community, and will reduce hospital visits.
Urgent Treatment centre – will be located at the hospital in a separate building along side A & E.
A and E – Will treat all emergencies.

We asked a lot of questions about the Integrated Health and Social Care Hub, which will be replacing the Walk-In Centres at Prestwich and Moorgate in Bury, with a new one in Radcliffe. What was clear to us is that the Hub will be very different from the current Walk-In Centre which has general ‘walk-in’ access to Senior level of Nurse. In the future there will be some element of ‘walk-in access’ to the services at the Hub – e.g. GP appointments, this will not be particularly advertised or promoted and access to services by phone will be the preferred route. It was hoped that some of the clinics and other services that currently take place in Outpatients Departments in hospitals could take place at the Hubs, which means less trips to hospital for some people with longer term health needs.

We raised a concern that the some in the media were being too simplistic saying that Walk-In Centres have been ‘saved’ and will continue as they are now in the future, which is clearly not the case. Bringing local services together under one roof at the ‘Hub’ is a good idea, but it is certainly not the Walk-In Centre we currently have. It is important to note that the Hub will only be for people who are register with a GP in the Borough of Bury, so will not be for people who are registered with GPs outside of Bury.

Another big change proposed is access to services by telephone. The first number that people in Bury will be encouraged to phone is their GP practice where staff will be able to take calls to guide the patient to the appropriate medical professional. Outside working hours this number will be redirected to a 24/7 number. We asked questions of the CCG about the capacity of reception staff in GP practices to help people in this way and how staff would be trained to be able deal with a variety of issues. We also asked about confidentiality in GP practices (e.g. where the phone is answered next to the waiting room).

The 111 phone number will be still available if you need advice on such things as urgent dental appointment, the availability of pharmacy out of hours etc

Hope this information is useful please get in touch if you want more information. More details too at these FAQs from the CCG.

School Reform Package Proposed

The Liberal Democrats have launched a package of education reforms that would inject greater parental and teacher trust in the English schools system.

The education reforms proposed include:
-Replacing Ofsted with a reformed independent schools inspectorate system that assesses teacher and pupil well-being, as well as results, and a focus on whether school leaders can deliver future improvement
Replacing league tables with a broader set of indicators, including qualitative data on pupil well-being
– Qualitative information would come from getting pupil and parent feedback on how well a school is doing, as well as looking at indicators such as what happens to a pupil when they’ve left a school, like attaining university places
Scrapping mandatory Sats for years two and six and replacing with moderated teacher assessment and lighter-touch testing
– A ‘curriculum for life’ that includes relationships and sex education, financial literacy and first aid
Establishing a specific individual responsible for mental health in schools to help children
An end to Conservative cuts to education, such as protecting per-pupil spending in real terms, including in further education

Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said:
“Children must have a well-rounded education and our systems should not just be tick-box exercises. The Gove revolution has produced a Dickensian approach to education. We need to take account of information from teachers, parents and children views as part of improved qualitative and quantitative assessments of our schools.”

Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Layla Moran said:
“The over-emphasis on high stakes testing has meant the system has overlooked so many other elements of the development of the child. Parents want to know there children’s well-being is looked after and that they are taught lessons for life, such as first aid and financial literacy, and have the prospects to succeed.

“We need inspectorate and league table systems that recognise these values, in addition to looking at exam and test marks in maths and English.”

Survey shows growing public anger at Conservatives’ mishandling of Brexit

More and more people are getting tired of the Conservatives mishandling of Brexit. It’s why we need a referendum on the deal.

A survey by Kantar Public, published today (Sunday, 18 February), has found that 56% of the public judge the Conservatives’ handling of Berexit as poor or very poor.

Whether people are for or against Brexit, there is clearly growing anger that the Conservatives are badly mishandling negotiations.

Warring factions in the Conservative Party mean the prospect of sensible negotiations has long since disappeared.

This is why there is growing support for the Liberal Democrat policy of a vote on the terms of the deal, with the option of an exit from Brexit.

Reporting Back: Budget Setting Council

Last week was Bury’s annual ‘Budget Council’. This is the meeting of all 51 councillors where the Budget for 2018-19 is set, including the all important council tax rates from April.

The proposals of the majority Labour Group were voted through.  This is a Council Tax rise of 5.94% from 1 April 2018. The actual rise for residents will be about 6.35% when you add in the Council Tax charges from the Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. 

The Liberal Democrat Councillors voted AGAINST this budget. This is a rise of practically 17% in three years which we were not prepared to accept.

The increase is made up of a basic increase of 2.94%, plus a further 3% ‘social care levy’. This is the maximum increased any Council is allowed by Government without a referendum.  There are then the areas of Council Tax set by the Greater Manchester Mayor (Police, Fire, and a new Mayoral Precept to pay for the office of the Mayor). When the increases are taken into account the increase is around 6.35%. The Council Tax rates from 1 April 2018 are below.

The budget included very significant cuts to services – £32 million over three years – but with precious little actual detail on what these might mean. The Government continues to make life very difficult for local councils, with huge cuts in funding every year, but we feel that the Council should be more up front with residents about what savings are required and what choices need to be made. The bulk of the extra 1% of council tax rise proposed by the Labour group was to go on Children’s social care costs, which have been under extreme pressure recently.

What did Liberal Democrat councillors do? 
The Liberal Democrat Group voted against the budget. Although we recognise that so much money has to be saved we felt that we couldn’t vote for £32 million of cuts when we didn’t know what they would mean to ordinary people and we couldn’t support such a huge increase in Council Tax.

We did propose changes to the budget: 
– More money to tackle litter and dog fouling with more bins for streets and parks.
– £500,000 to ‘kickstart’ the recently announced Prestwich Town Centre Challenge regeneration programme. In Prestwich we’re fed-up of hearing promises that the village centre will be improved and we need to put some money behind the plans to bring in further investment.
– £10 million pounds to fix potholes and roads, over three years, so desperately needed. At present Council’s have access to very cheap borrowing rates AND we currently spend nearly £1 million each year on dealing with compensation claims for poor road surfaces. We would rather spend that money on FIXING the roads!

Our proposals to fix roads and invest in Prestwich were defeated with every single Labour and Conservative Councillor voting against. 

Hope this information is useful. Your comments and views are always welcome and appreciated. 

The papers for the budget meeting are here.

Council Tax for 2018/19 is: (current year in brackets)

Band A – £1,165.91 (£1,096.26)
Band B – £1,360.24 (£1,278.98)
Band C – £1,554.55 (£1,461.69)
Band D – £1,748.89 (£1,644.41)
Band E – £2,137.52 (£2,009.83)
Band F – £2,526.16 (£2,375.26)
Band G – £2,914.80  (£2,740.67)
Band H – £3,497.76 (£3,288.81)

More than 423,000 homes with Planning Permission waiting to be built

More than 423,000 homes have been given planning permission but are still waiting to be built, according to new research published today by the Local Government Association.

The study shows the backlog has grown by almost 16 per cent in the last year.

The figures also show that developers are taking longer to build new homes. It now takes 40 months, on average, from schemes receiving planning permission to building work being completed – eight months longer than in 2013/14.

The LGA, which represents 370 councils in England and Wales, says the new analysis underlines the need for councils to be given greater powers to take action on unbuilt land which has planning permission.

It says councils need powers to act on uncompleted schemes, including making it easier to compulsory purchase land where homes remain unbuilt, and to be able to charge developers full council tax for every unbuilt development from the point that the original planning permission expires.

No-one can live in a planning permission. Councils need greater powers to act where housebuilding has stalled.

Here in Greater Manchester the Spatial Framework says we need to find space for 227,000 new homes in the next 20 years.

Government must wake up to crisis facing NHS as A&E wait times hit record levels

NHS A&E waiting times have hit the worst levels on record.

This is yet more evidence of the growing crisis in our health and social care services, where staff are being put under great pressure and quality of care for patients is suffering.

When will the Government wake up to the fact that they urgently need to commit additional funding?

The Liberal Democrats are the only party being honest with the public that we will all need to chip in a little more by increasing income tax by a penny in the pound and ring-fencing that money specifically for the NHS and social care, as well as looking to bring health and care funding together into one dedicated tax in the longer term.

We have also urged the Government to bring together a cross-party convention on health and care, to consult with patients, the public and staff on the longer term funding settlement for these vital services.

Expert Health Panel calls for ring-fenced Health and Care Tax to replace National Insurance

A new tax earmarked solely for the NHS and social care is among the recommendations from a panel of 10 experts in a report on healthcare reform commissioned by the Liberal Democrats.

This heavyweight report, Health and Social Care: Delivering a Secure Funding Future, will form the blueprint of the Lib Dems’ ongoing healthcare policy.

The panel, which includes former chief executives of NHS England, the Royal College of Nursing, and the Patients Association, concluded that the NHS in England needs a real terms funding increase of £4bn in 2018-19 and further real terms increases of £2.5bn in each of the following two years.

In the short-term, the NHS funding gap could be bridged by an income tax increase. The Lib Dems have been calling for a penny on the pound in income tax to help fund the NHS. Longer-term, health and care funding should be brought together in a single ring-fenced tax to replace National Insurance, the report argues. The Lib Dems have previously campaigned for a dedicated health and care tax and a related review of National Insurance.

Other recommendations include:
Creating an Office for Budget Responsibility for Health
Introducing incentives to encourage people to save more towards adult social care
Additional revenue for local authorities to invest in public health
Reinstating the cap on the costs of adult social care
The panel also argued that consideration should be given to scrapping the total exemption from National Insurance Contributions for people who work beyond the age of 65. Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable is considering this proposal for higher earners.

Lib Dem leader Vince Cable said:
“This specialist report provides some convincing answers on arguably the greatest domestic crisis facing the country: how to deal with the severe pressures on health and social care services. We must never again be in a position whereby funding is so short that more than 50,000 operations have had to be postponed over the course of a single month.

“The health and care budget should be financed by an earmarked tax, which could replace national insurance. Many of those previously strongly opposed now accept that, in the case of the NHS, there is a strong argument for a form of ringfenced tax.”

Professor Clare Gerada, former chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said:
“At a time when the NHS and social care face such immense pressures, policymakers must be willing to look at bold solutions in order to safeguard vital services for generations to come.

“Developing this report has been a welcome opportunity to explore ideas including the creation of a dedicated health and social care tax, which could help deliver the long-term funding that services desperately need. I hope policymakers of all parties will consider these recommendations seriously.”

Download the report here

Lib Dems mark the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act

Yesterday marks the 100-year anniversary of female suffrage in the UK. Speaking on the centennial, President of the Liberal Democrats Sal Brinton said:

In the last 100 years there have obviously been massive changes for the role of women in society. We are more equal, we are treated more fairly, and we face fewer obstacles in our lives. But the job is not yet done. As women we are not yet truly equal, we are not yet treated fairly, and we still face obstacles in our lives.

“We are still behind in our politics and change must be led from the top. My granddaughters will be two this summer. At the current, glacial, rate of change they will be in their ninth decade before we have parity in the House of Commons. That is not good enough.”

Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable added:

“Today, we celebrate 100 years since partial extension of the franchise to women. It is shocking to think that another decade had to pass before votes were offered on a fully equal basis.

“The causes both of gender equality and real democracy in the UK still have far to go. A century on, we still see unjustifiable gender pay gaps, and sexism remains a scourge in the workplace and throughout society.

“Parliament itself remains unrepresentative of society and of political opinion. The next historic battle for democratic rights in the UK is to extend the franchise to 16 and 17 year olds, and reform our broken electoral system so that every vote counts and all voices can properly be heard.”

Reporting Back: Bury Council Cabinet January 2018

Last week was the regular meeting of Bury Council’s ‘Cabinet’, the Committee of the eight Labour councillors who are Cabinet members. The two opposition leaders are allowed to attend but not vote, Councillor Tim Pickstone reports:

The main items on the agenda included:

Homelessness
The Homeless Reduction Act comes into force in April 2018. The new legislation focuses on early intervention and prevention. There are twelve clauses within the Act which means that the Councils approach to supporting people who are homelessness or approaching homelessness needs to be revised. The Council is doing a lot of proactive work preventing homelessness and doing better than most of our Greater Manchester neighbours.

I asked about what more could be done across Greater Manchester. The Major of Greater Manchester has promised to end rough sleeping completely by 2020. New figures released in January by the government show rough sleeping in the conurbation has gone up up 42% in the last 12 months. Manchester has three times the number of rough sleepers as Liverpool.

One good piece of news is that Greater Manchester has received £7 million of Government Funding to provide a number of housing projects to support homeless people.

Radcliffe Market
The Council has sought bids to run a different sort of market at Radcliffe Market, which is currently losing the Council money in an unsustainable way.

The Council is  looking to move away from the traditional market model due to a perceived lack of demand from both the public and stallholders The Council wish to put Food and Drink and evening entertainment at the heart of the offer at Radcliffe Market and is keen to expand on the number of days the site is open and also to extend its current Friday evening offer.

Radcliffe Market benefited from a £1 million refurbishment in November 2015. Now a new private sector operator will run the market with the specification including:

To hold markets on a minimum of three days a week.
To hold events on one or more evenings per week centered on food and drink. Day to day management of the market building and stallholders.

The Council will receive not rent from the private operator, but would take a small share of profits after reasonable costs have been covered by the company.

Full papers for the Cabinet are here.

Radcliffe East Lancashire Paper Mill Housing Plans
Not at the Cabinet but it did happen last week was the publication of plans to build 440 new houses on the site of the former East Lancashire Paper Mill in Radcliffe. Most of the land belongs to the Homes and Communities Agency, though some land belongs to the Council on what was meant to be the site of the Radcliffe Riverside School, plans which never happened, meaning that sadly there is no high school at all in Radcliffe.

There are some poster boards which promote the site which can be viewed here.

There is an online survey here: online survey  which will be open  until Wednesday 14th February 2018.