February 2012

Communities have a chance to revive their neighbourhoods
Communities Minister Andrew Stunell has invited community and voluntary organisations to apply for a share of £100 million that will help revitalise communities and bring the empty homes blighting their areas back into use. Mr Stunell said that the Government cash would help tackle this national scandal, creating more affordable housing and giving a new lease of life to homes and communities. Some community projects have already started tackling the problem of empty homes in their area. Around 720,000 homes are sitting empty across the country, with 280,000 unused and under-maintained for six months or more. For more information, please visit the Department for Communities and Local Government website.

MPs fight for fairer rural funding
MPs fighting for fairer rural funding have taken their case to Prime Minister David Cameron. A cross-party group of MPs led by Graham Stuart met with Mr Cameron at 10 Downing Street on Monday, 16 January 2012. Mr Stuart, who is the chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Rural Services, has championed the rural cause for a number of years. Secretariat services to the all-party group are provided by the Rural Services Network. The meeting was held after Mr Cameron agreed to discuss the discrepancies in funding between rural and urban areas. Currently, people in rural areas earn less, on average, than those in cities and pay council tax which is £100 higher per head, said Mr Stuart. For more information, please visit the Rural Services Network website.

Climate Change Risk Assessment shows the UK needs to adapt
The UK is set to be amongst the best prepared nations for the implications of climate change following publication of a groundbreaking study into the threats the country faces. The Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) highlights the top 100 challenges to the UK and our economy of a changing climate and provides the most compelling evidence yet of the need to increase our resilience. The research confirms the UK as a world-leader in understanding climate risk to ensure we can make robust plans to deal with these threats. In order to provide a reliable baseline for decisions by Government, local authorities and businesses the research does not take into account any future policies or plans. For more information, please visit the Defra website.

Parishes pilot neighbourhood plans
Three parish councils have been chosen to pilot a new way of shaping how their communities will develop. Situated in Northumberland's North Tyne Valley, the parishes have been chosen by the government to be a "Front Runner" of Neighbourhood Planning. Bellingham, Tarset with Greystead, and Wark Parish Councils have joined forces to create a single Neighbourhood Plan in the North Tyne. The Localism Act 2011 sets out key measures for decentralising power in England to the lowest possible levels. In planning matters, this will be delivered through neighbourhood planning, placing decisions that shape development in the hands of local people. By taking part, residents, local groups and businesses will be able to create planning policies for development and land use. The community will be able to decide where new homes, shops and offices should be built, and influence how new buildings will look. For more information, please visit the Rural Services Network website.

Big Society funding enables transition of award-winning Beatbullying into new social action organisation
Half a million children and young people will be now able to access an online advice service to deal with issues such as bullying, racism, violence, truancy and unemployment as a result of investment from a Big Society Fund. Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd has awarded £1.3 million to children's charity Beatbullying so that young people can get support and advice in a safe online environment on issues that are worrying them, such as problems with their peers or parents. For more information, please visit the Cabinet Office website.

A further £7.9 million Regional Growth Fund for businesses
Four more businesses have successfully secured government support through the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) to create new jobs and boost growth in their local communities. The four firms are: Nifco UK in Stockton on Tees in the North East, e2v Technologies Limited in Chelmsford, Essex, Bentley Motors in Crewe in the North West and Halifax Rack and Screw Cutting Co. Ltd, Halifax in Yorkshire. The projects, three from round one, and one from round two, successfully completed a period of necessary checks by the companies and the government to ensure the deals offer the best value for taxpayers. So far, £1.4 billion has been conditionally allocated to 164 projects through two bidding rounds; creating and safeguarding more than 330,000 jobs and is supported by more than £6 billion of private investment. Many round one bids are now up and running, with 29 projects overall having now received their funding. More projects are expected to complete the legal checks and receive their funding in the coming months. For more information, please visit the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills website.

Rural tourism 'has further potential'
The government aims to increase the contribution made by rural tourism to the economy, MPs have been told. "Tourism is already a significant contributor to the rural economy and had the potential for further growth," said Defra minister Richard Benyon. "The government has therefore announced a £25 million initiative to promote rural tourism and support rural tourism businesses." The money includes establishing a new £10 million fund for the rural development programme for England. This would provide funding for the development and improvement of tourism destinations, facilities and products. For more information, please visit the Rural Services Network website.

Future of Post Office is secure
The future of post offices up and down the country has been secured by Government action, funding and a new agreement between Royal Mail and the Post Office, Postal Affairs Minister Edward Davey has announced. As part of a progress update on Post Office policy, Edward Davey informed Parliament that pledges given during the passage of the Postal Services Act that a new long-term deal between the Post Office and the Royal Mail would be reached before they separated, have now been delivered with the signing of a ten year deal this month. For more information, please visit the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills website.

Written ministerial statement by Chris Huhne on Feed-in Tariffs
On Thursday, 26 January, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) released a written ministerial statement from Chris Huhne on Feed-in Tariffs. It read: As the House will be aware, the Government's proposed changes to the Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) scheme are the subject of a judicial review. Specifically, the Government has been challenged regarding its proposal to apply new tariffs for solar photovoltaics (PV) from 1 April 2012 to all new installations with an eligibility date on or after an earlier "reference date", which we proposed should be 12 December 2012. Yesterday (25 January), the Court of Appeal handed down a negative judgment on the Government's appeal against an earlier decision by the High Court. We respectfully disagree with the judgment and are seeking permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. In the light of that, we cannot rule out the possibility that lower tariffs could be applied to installations which became eligible for FITs on or after the proposed reference date. It is important that consumers are aware of this. To view the full statement, please visit the DECC website.

Warm Front energy help scheme getting a frosty reception
Consumer Focus and National Energy Action are warning that the UK Government's flagship scheme to help the poorest households in England to make their homes warmer and cut their energy bills, is set for up to a £30 million underspend this year. This means many older people, families and people with long-term health problems will miss out on much-needed help. The Warm Front scheme, which offers heating and insulation improvements to households living on low incomes, is expected to see up to a fifth of its £143 million worth of funding for this year going unclaimed. This money could help up to 16,000 households struggling to afford their energy bills to cut their costs by a potential £650 per year. For more information, please visit the Consumer Focus website.

Pickles invites examples of unfair sector funding cuts
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has asked the NCVO to feed in to him personally, any examples of disproportionate or unfair local authority cuts to voluntary sector budgets. And he has promised NCVO's chief executive, Sir Stuart Etherington that he will write to Nottinghamshire County Council about the extent of its funding cuts to the local sector. According to the NCVO, Pickles made the commitment in a phone call with Sir Stuart. Sector bodies have been lobbying Pickles to intervene in Nottinghamshire for several weeks. Late last year, the then Navca chief executive Kevin Curley wrote to him requesting that he take up the matter with the Council's leader Kay Cutts, and asked her to look again at the budget proposals and reinstate some of the funding. For more information, please visit the Civil Society magazine website.

Defra launches consultation to tackle unpaid water bills
The burden of bad debt in the water industry, and its impact on everyone's water bills, is to be tackled through a new consultation launched by Environment Minister, Richard Benyon. Every year the failure of some customers to pay their water bills adds an average of £15 to every other customer's bill, which the Government is determined to see reduced. The level of outstanding revenue from domestic water customers in the UK was over £1.6 billion in 2010-11. The industry had to write off approximately £328 million of household debt in 2010-11 which leads to higher bills for those that do pay. For more information, please visit the Defra website.

Comic Relief launches grant programme to help older people manage their money
Comic Relief has launched an interim Older People's grant programme to support projects across the UK. The aim of the programme is to help older people, who are defined as 65+, cope with the challenges of the harsh financial climate by building their knowledge and skills to manage their money more effectively, ensure access to good, independent financial advice, guard against financial scams and abuse and cope better with cold homes. It also aims to encourage partnerships between voluntary sector organisations and banks, building societies, credit unions and others to recognise and respond to the needs of older people. For further information, please visit the Comic Relief website.

Cash injection to support coalfield communities into the future
Communities Minister Bob Neill has confirmed a further £22million to help former coalfield communities get back on their feet and secure economic growth for years to come. The funding will be allocated to the Coalfields Regeneration Trust over two years to 2015 and will be used to transform it into a self-sustaining organisation so it can continue to champion the interests and needs of coalfield communities, without being reliant on Government funding. This £22 million cash injection is on top of the £30 million already confirmed for this year and next. For more information, please visit the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Grants to the grassroots: a winning formula for communities
With funding for the third sector in increasingly short supply, it is often the smallest voluntary and community groups who get short-changed as they lack the resources to argue their corner. The Grassroots Grants programme targeted investment to these groups and the Community Development Foundation's (CDF) evaluation report demonstrates how valuable these groups are to their communities, as well as the significant impact small amounts of funding can have. Grassroots Grants was a £130m government-funded programme that aimed to support the voluntary sector in building stronger, more active communities. It consisted of an £80m small grants programme that provided grants of between £250 and £5,000 to small, local community and voluntary groups in England, and a £50m endowment where donations raised by local funders were matched by the government to provide sustainable grant funding in the longer term. To view the report, please visit the CDF website. An executive summary version is also available.

Good practice guides to help groups work with young people
The Big Lottery Fund has published seven good practice guides for organisations working with young people. These guides share learning and practical examples from projects supported by the Young People's Fund. Good practice guides focus on: Encouraging active citizenship, Actively involving young people, Reducing anti-social behaviour and working with young people who have offended or are at risk of offending, Improving behaviour in schools, Reducing cases of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), Working with young carers and Working with care leavers. To view the good practice guides, please visit the Big Lottery Fund website.

Serving deprived communities in a recession
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has released a new report which explores how budget cuts affect the capacity of English local government to meet the needs of more deprived households and communities. The report aims to provide early, systematic evidence of the scale of the cuts and of how local councils are grappling with these issues. To view the report, please visit the JRF website.

CRC release January Newsletter
The Commission for Rural Communities has released their January Newsletter. The newsletter contains features on their response to the Government's consultation about rural policy functions within Whitehall, and the future of the CRC, the CRC's response to the Department of Health consultation exercise relating to the future of social care, the review of education and training for young people in rural communities and social isolation experienced by older people in rural communities. To view the newsletter, please visit the CRC website.