Councils should have stronger planning powers

I have written to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government asking that he reviews current planning laws to give councils more powers. 

Local communities should have a stronger voice in the planning system via local councils to help protect local shops and shape the future of our local high streets and shopping areas.

My recent Leicester Mercury column argued for this. The full text of my letter to the Secretary of State is below.

 

Reforms needed to protect local shops | Leicester Mercury column

Column calling for planning law reforms to protect local, independent shops. A version of this article was published in the Leicester Mercury on Saturday 1 February.

In December we celebrated the UK’s first Small Business Saturday, an important opportunity to recognise the contribution local small businesses make to Leicester. These small businesses are the engine room of our economy and independent shops play a vital role.

In Leicester we are fortunate in having a diverse range of independent shops in the city centre and in the popular neighbourhood shopping areas. Whether it’s the Golden Mile, Narborough Road, Stoneygate shops or Evington Road – to pick just a few – shoppers find an exciting range of independent shops.

As well as variety and decent prices people shop at local independents because they are motivated to back local businesses. Whether it’s the butcher, baker, greengrocer or florist, these are quintessential mainstays of our high streets and we would miss them if they were gone.

This is why the campaign against Tesco’s plans to open in Clarendon Park is so important. If this store opens it will present a very real threat to local independent traders. Small businesses in parts of the city where supermarkets have opened report falls in their trade.

I am not against supermarkets. They make a significant economic contribution and provide many jobs. I am against an unfair balance in favour of large, powerful companies at the cost of local, small independent traders. At the heart of this debate is an important principle.

Over two thousand residents have signed a petition and hundreds attended a public meeting against Tesco’s plan to open in Clarendon Park. Locally elected councillors for the area are opposed. Councillors for other parts of the city have expressed concern, recognising this could repeat itself in other local shopping areas.

There is a real frustration that the city council is limited in what it can do to prevent a supermarket like this opening. Current laws allow for ‘change of use’ from a bank to a supermarket without the need for full planning permission. Minor permissions are needed for things like illuminated signs or cash points, often granted as a matter of course. This loophole needs addressing.

Councils should have real power to decide whether or not new supermarkets should open, and this should reach beyond routine planning matters. Councils should be able to take into account the impact on local, small businesses and wider community concerns.

The principle at stake is one of local democracy. Planning law at present deals a much better hand to big business than it does to local communities. The Secretary of State should act and could do so at the stroke of a pen.

A version of this column first appeared in the Leicester Mercury, Saturday 1 February 2014.

Mental health: the need for better services and why we must tackle stigma

At today's meeting of Leicester City Council I will be proposing the following motion. I want to see better mental health services and a continued and unrelenting effort to tackle the stigma associated with mental illness in society.

Passing a council motion won't do that, but it will set out our commitment to take actions that will.

In the past year or so I have attended Mental Health Summits, organised by local organisations and Jon Ashworth MP. There is a real determination in Leicester to see better services and a strengthened approach to mental health and wellbeing. For World Mental Health Day I wrote a column for the Leicester Mercury on why we must tackle stigma and discrimination.


Motion for debate at Leicester City Council, 23 January 2014
Local authorities’ Mental Health Challenge

This council notes:

• 1 in 6 people will experience a mental health problem in any given year.
• Leicester’s joint Health & Wellbeing Strategy identifies improving mental health and emotional resilience as a key priority.
• The World Health Organisation predicts that depression will be the second most common health condition worldwide by 2020.
• Mental ill health costs some £105 billion each year in England alone.
• People with a severe mental illness die up to 20 years younger than their peers in the UK.
• There is often a circular relationship between mental health and issues such as housing, employment, family problems or debt.

 This council believes:

• As a local authority we have a crucial role to play in improving the mental health of everyone in our community and tackling some of the widest and most entrenched inequalities in health.
• Mental health should be a priority across all the local authority’s functions, from public health, adult social care and children’s services to housing, planning and public realm.
• All councillors, whether members of the Executive or Scrutiny and in our community and casework roles, can play a positive role in championing mental health on an individual and strategic basis and in challenging stigma.

This council resolves:

• To sign the Local Authorities Mental Health Challenge run by Centre for Mental Health, Mental Health Foundation, Mind, Rethink Mental Illness, Royal College of Psychiatrists and Young Minds. We commit to: 

1. Appoint an elected member as “mental health champion” across the council.
2. Identify a “lead officer” for mental health to link in with colleagues across the council.
3. Follow the implementation framework for the mental health strategy where it is relevant to the council’s work and local needs.
4. Work to reduce inequalities in mental health in our community.
5. Work with the NHS to integrate health and social care support.
6. Promote wellbeing and initiate and support action on public mental health.
7. Tackle discrimination on the grounds of mental health in our community and to tackle stigma.
8. Encourage positive mental health in our schools, colleges and workplaces.
9. Proactively engage and listen to people of all ages and backgrounds about what they need for better mental health.
10. Sign up to the Time to Change pledge.

Leicester City Council meetings are webcast live so you can view the debate at the Council meeting which starts at 5:00pm.

Collective switching: Ready to Switch? Leicester

Last week I launched a new council initiative to help residents get a better deal for their energy supplies.

People are worried about rising energy bills and I think the council should be helping people save money. I have been working to develop this initiative for a couple of months or so with the council's Home Energy Team, which also provides advice and help to improve energy efficiency for households in the city.

Ready to Switch is an independent scheme where residents can save money on their gas and electricity bills by collectively switching their energy provider. Households already struggling to pay their energy bills could get cheaper bills, which could in turn help them to avoid fuel poverty.

Similar schemes running in other parts of the country have helped more than 21,000 people save an average of £131 on their annual energy bills. One local scheme, in Nottingham, saved an average of £225 per household.

Launching Ready to Switch? Leicester 

In total, energy schemes like Ready to Switch have saved consumers £2.7million to date.

The Ready to Switch scheme will be open to anyone, including people with low credit scores or those who use pre-payment cards.

People whose heating is provided by district heating schemes can also use the scheme to change their electricity provider. Residents on district heating schemes have their gas provided as part of their tenancy agreement.

Registering is easy. Individual households sign up to the scheme, either online or by telephone. Once registered, households are grouped together and, every quarter, energy suppliers submit their best price for the group as a whole. The more people who sign up, the more likely suppliers are to give an additional discount.

To register, people will need their current energy bill to hand. Individuals will be sent their offer of a new energy price by the energy company, and the bill payer can then decide to change supplier or not.

Find out more at www.leicester.gov.uk/switching

Plain English

Earlier this year I called for a clearer commitment to using Plain English in council and official public notices.

Many of these notices are written in a way which is baffling, often leaving the public unclear as to the intention and purpose of the notices.

In August I said:
'I think people get really annoyed and frustrated by it.'

'They are often impenetrable and in antiquated language nobody uses.'

'We might as well be putting them out in Latin, for the good they are doing.'

'If we have to put these orders up, we should have an explanation in plain English. That could be done with very little effort or expense.'

'This is not a problem isolated to Leicester City Council – it affects all authorities – but it is something we can deal with easily.'

The Leicester Mercury covered this here: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Public-baffled-jargon-council-public-notices/story-19659063-detail/story.html  

The Mercury's Editorial also backed my call: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Mercury-opinion-Ban-jargon-public-documents/story-19667331-detail/story.html

All public bodies and legislatures should use Plain English including councils, public agencies, national parliaments and the European Parliament.

Harshest cuts City Council has ever faced | Leicester Mercury column

Column for the Leicester Mercury following the Comprehensive Spending Review.

When George Osborne delivered his Comprehensive Spending Review statement a week ago we knew it would be bad news. With this Government, it usually is. Like councils across the country, Leicester City Council is now faced with a further round of painful budget cuts.

Back in 2010, the coalition made clear their intention to make significant cuts to council budgets. What has happened since is unprecedented. Local government has taken more than its fair share of cuts. This ideological attack on councils and the services is now coupled with the cost of the Government's economic failure.

The Government is now making further cuts to council budgets, and other public services, because they have failed to get the economy back on track and are having to borrow more. Because of George Osborne's economic failure, local councils will pay the price, with millions slashed from our budgets in 2015-16. Leicester City Council has already planned to deliver spending reductions in our annual budget of £85 million since 2011-12.

This has meant very difficult decisions and changes to services. Last week's spending review, with a further 10 per cent cut in our budgets, means a further £60 million reduction in the council's annual spending by 2017-18.

In the next few weeks, we will be setting out our initial plans for council spending in the coming years and how we intend to respond to this further round of cuts. These plans will be discussed with council staff, trade unions, our partner organisations and city residents. The pace and scale of these cuts is unprecedented. We are faced with questions we have not had to ask before. We will need to consider new and different ways of delivering some services.

These cuts are unfair. Councils in more affluent parts of the country are not being asked to make cuts as harsh as those we face in Leicester and in similar areas. Combined with the impact of the benefit changes and the rising costs of living, there are some very significant challenges ahead for the council and wider public sector.

We are determined to retain a good range of locally-delivered services, responding to the needs and expectations of residents. This will not be easy. These are the harshest cuts the council has ever faced. Unfortunately, the Chancellor's balance sheet does not account for how much local residents value and trust local services.

This column first appeared in the Leicester Mercury, 4 July 2013.

Our Healthy City: launching council's new public health work

From 1 April the city council took on new public health responsibilities. These responsibilities transfer to the council from the NHS Primary Care Trust as a result of the government's re-organisation of the health service.

The government's re-organisation of the NHS remains controversial and politically divisive. In my view the transfer of public health responsibilities presents an important opportunity for local government. There has been a close relationship between local government and public health ever since Victorian times; local government used to be responsible for public health functions.

In my view the big opportunity now is to embed a new public health approach across all the core services of the council. There are significant health inequalities in Leicester and I am determined that we adopt a renewed and determined approach to these trends. Health inequalities are interwoven with wider socio-economic inequalities, poverty and disadvantage. We need to see truly joined-up approaches across the council and that's what I am determined to see happen in Leicester.

Next week I will chair the first formal meeting in public of the city's new Health and Wellbeing Board where partners will adopt the new Health and Wellbeing Strategy for the city. This strategy sets out five strategic priorities. I will write more about this next week.

On Friday we launched the council's new public health agenda, Our Healthy City, with a live healthy cooking demonstration in Leicester Market. Our first public health campaign is about healthier eating, encouraging people to make small changes in their diet to eat more healthily. This campaign started yesterday with hundreds of free bags of fresh vegetables and recipe cards given away. There will be similar events over the next few months in communities across the city.

Launching Our Healthy City by cooking a
healthy curry at Leicester Market.

For more information about Our Healthy City, the new Health & Wellbeing Board and the council's approach to public health see www.leicester.gov.uk/ourhealthycity

The Our Healthy City vegetable curry recipe:

By-election campaigning and success in Nottingham

It was good to join friends in Nottingham on Thursday campaigning on polling day in the Wollaton East and Lenton Abbey council by-election.

Congratulations to newly elected Labour councillors in Nottingham Sam Webster and Wendy Smith (Bilborough ward) and well done to the Nottingham Labour team.

I am looking forward to more by-election campaigning in the coming weeks as we aim to get Vijay Riyait elected in Leicester's Abbey ward by-election. I will be also be joining Labour colleagues campaigning in the upcoming county council elections as well.

From Nottingham Labour by-election leaflet. 

Child poverty: welfare changes will have devastating impact

The dreadful welfare changes that happen today will hit many households hard. These changes will also have a devastating impact on child poverty.

Figures show that the number of children living in poverty will increase because of the government's changes to the benefits system and tax credits. The Institute of Fiscal Studies project 800,000 more children will be living in poverty by 2020 because of the coalition's welfare cuts. On top this a further 200,000 children could fall below the poverty line because of the benefit uprating changes (increasing benefits by 1% instead of at the rate of inflation).

At the same time as pushing through these changes the Government has also been consulting on how child poverty should be measured. This has been seen as a way to downplay the importance of income in measuring poverty, the government arguing that other social and economic factors should be included in a single 'multidimensional' measure of poverty. I disagree with this approach. Attempts to redefine measures of child poverty which downplay the importance of an adequate income as a central measure should be resisted.

This critique of the Government's approach and consultation by Alison Garnham of Child Poverty Action Group is worth reading.

The Leicester Child Poverty Commission which I chair has also responded to the Government consultation, the response can be read here.

The Leicester Child Poverty Commission Report, with 66 recommendations on tackling child poverty and its worst impacts, can be found on the Your Britain website. I hope people will comment and share their thoughts. Reducing child poverty has to be a central theme of Labour's thinking as we develop policy solutions to the challenges we are seeing today.

In February the End Child Poverty campaign published the child poverty rate for each local authority and parliamentary constituency in the country. Of course data at local authority and constituency level does not tell the full story; areas with overall relatively low levels often have wards where rates of child poverty are extremely high.

I have set out the data for the East Midlands below:

Child Poverty by local authority in the East Midlands

Amber Valley	15%
Ashfield	20%
Bassetlaw	16%
Blaby	7%
Bolsover	20%
Boston	16%
Broxtowe	12%
Charnwood	11%
Chesterfield	18%
Corby	18%
Daventry	9%
Derby City	22%
Derbyshire Dales	7%
East Lindsey	19%
East Northamptonshire	10%
Erewash	16%
Gedling	13%
Harborough	5%
High Peak	11%
Hinckley & Bosworth	10%
Kettering	13%
Leicester City	29%
Lincoln	22%
Mansfield	21%
Melton	8%
Newark & Sherwood	14%
North East Derbyshire	13%
North Kesteven	8%
North West Leicestershire	11%
Northampton	18%
Nottingham City	32%
Oadby & Wigston	11%
Rushcliffe	5%
Rutland	5%
South Derbyshire	11%
South Holland	13%
South Kesteven	11%
South Northamptonshire	Below 5%
Wellingborough	16%
West Lindsey	13%

 Child Poverty by parliamentary constituency in the East Midlands

Amber Valley	18%
Ashfield	21%
Bassetlaw	16%
Bolsover	20%
Boston & Skegness	18%
Bosworth	10%
Broxtowe	11%
Charnwood	7%
Chesterfield	18%
Corby	14%
Daventry	9%
Derby North	19%
Derby South	27%
Derbyshire Dales	7%
Erewash	18%
Gainsborough	13%
Gedling	14%
Grantham & Stamford	12%
Harborough	8%
High Peak	11%
Kettering	13%
Leicester East	24%
Leicester South	28%
Leicester West	34%
Lincoln	19%
Loughborough	14%
Louth & Horncastle	17%
Mansfield	21%
Mid Derbyshire	8%
Newark	11%
North East Derbyshire	13%
North West Leicestershire	11%
Northampton North	20%
Northampton South	22%
Nottingham East	33%
Nottingham North	37%
Nottingham South	24%
Rushcliffe	5%
Rutland & Melton	7%
Sherwood	16%
Sleaford & North Hykeham	8%
South Derbyshire	11%
South Holland & The Deepings	12%
South Leicestershire	6%
South Northamptonshire	5%
Wellingborough	15%

Data from End Child Poverty, February 2013.