Queen's Speech boosts right to buy and tackles Town Hall Pravdas, referendum dodgers and rioters

Councils and housing association should be doing far more to evict tenants engaged in crime or anti social behaviour including rioting. Weakness in this regard is not entirely their fault but also due to court delays.

At least this provision of the Anti-social, Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill should help a bit:

"Part 5 – Recovery of Possession of dwelling-houses: Anti-Social Behaviour grounds

Anti-social behaviour can have a negative impact on neighbourhoods and communities. Social landlords have a key role in tackling anti-social behaviour. Provisions in the Bill introduce a new ground for possession to speed up the process in the most serious cases of anti-social behaviour bringing faster relief to victims and communities."

Also in the Queen's Speech:

DCLG plans to move in with Home Office to cut costs

The Financial Times reports(£) that the Department for Communities and Local Government are to move out of their current offices Eland House and squeeze in with the Home Office to save money. As the workforce at the DCLG has already been halved less space is needed - although already they have sublet floors to tenants including the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and the High Speed 2 rail project.

The FT says:

Senior mandarins are still negotiating over the price that the Home Office will charge to sublet space in its large building on 2 Marsham Street, just off Horseferry Road in Westminster.

The move is expected to take place within the next year, meaning that the communities department will probably have to pay its private landlord a “break fee” to end its lease prematurely.

However, the ministry expects to make considerable savings in the long term as it will take up less space in its new home.

Eland House in Victoria opened in 1997 to house the DETR) is far too big for the streamlined DCLG. Compared to 1997, Eland House is now prime real estate - with Cardinal Place opposite and the full-scale redevelopment around Victoria Station.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles is practising what he preaches to local government. Better use of property management is item 16 in 50 ways to save.

Not that Mr Pickles is alone. Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, has reports the FT "now saved the taxpayer a cumulative £1bn through sales, re-lettings and more efficient use of office space."

The Old War Office building in Whitehall could raise £100 million and will probably be converted into a hotel. Admiralty Arch has already been sold for £60 million. There are negotiations to shift the transport
department into either the Home Office or the Ministry of Defence.

Pickles warns that councillors should not take payments to lobby their own councils

A robust response from Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles to the revelations in the Daily Telegraph of councillors.

In a letter replying to his Labour Shadow Hilary Benn, Mr Pickles says:

It is unacceptable for councillors to be receiving any form of payment to lobby their own council. Such behaviour is a clear breach of the Nolan Principles (embedded in the Localism Act), and we would expect such conflicts of interest to be prohibited in councils’ own local codes of conduct, which the statute requires must be consistent with those principles.

Under the Act, councillors must also register their employment and any trade for profit or gain, and failure to do so is a criminal offence. It is a requirement in law for such registers to be online by the local authority. I have asked my officials to remind councils of this requirement.

Nor is this the only legal safeguard:

The Bribery Act also covers those who promise or provide such payments, be they consultancy firms or individuals. Those who offer financial advantage to any councillor to attempt to influence the planning process in their local authority are themselves potentially committing a criminal offence. It is no different than offering a bribe to a police officer – a practice that is both unacceptable and illegal.

Pickles boosts English language tuition

When I go canvassing I usually encounter at least one person who doesn't speak English. I'm never qute sure how to mark them on the sheet. According to the 2011 Census in 5% of households in this countrry nobody can speak English. In his speech yesterday the Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles announced a £6 million competition fund to boost English language tuition.

Mr Pickles said:

It has been estimated that the public sector spends as much as £140 million a year translating documents into foreign languages.

Now, it wasn’t that our predecessors were ill intentioned, don’t get me wrong there.

Their hearts were in the right place.

It was just their decisions were simply wrong.

And that made matters worse.

Labour MP asks: "What is a sock puppet?"

Labour MPs are still sniping at the Department for Communities and Local Governmet's 50 ways to save: Examples of sensible savings in local government.

Here is the following exchange from a Written Q&A recorded in Hansard:

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to item 37 of his Department's document, 50 Ways to Save: Examples of Sensible Saving in Local Government, what he meant by (a) sock puppet and (b) fake charity; and which local authorities have entered into arrangements with such organisations. 

Brandon Lewis: As 50 Ways to Save explains, the footnote source referenced is the Institute of Economic Affairs' Discussion Paper, “Sock puppets: How the government lobbies itself and why”, June 2012, This can be found online, and it includes definitions of such arrangements and case studies.

www.iea.org.uk/publications/research/sock-puppets-how-the-government-lobbies-itself-and-why

50 Ways to Save also references the Taxpayers' Alliance research paper, “Taxpayer funded lobbying and political campaigning”, which includes further examples.

www.taxpayersalliance.com/tflpc.pdf

To assist the hon. Member in his visualisation of a sock puppet, I would observe that DCLG Ministers in the last Administration authorised £38,200 of taxpayers' money to bankroll lobbyists, LLM Communications; in turn, LLM then ran the supposedly independent 'Campaign for More and Better Homes' which campaigned in favour of the last Administration's Regional Spatial Strategies, and issued press releases praising the (then) Government's policies and attacking the Government's critics.

What Eric did over Christmas

Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has offered the following update to Parliament:

Helping hard-working families with council tax

On 1 January, my Department highlighted new legislation that takes effect in April 2013 which allows local taxpayers to choose to pay their bill over twelve months rather than ten, if they wish. This new right will make it easier for those on fixed incomes to manage their bills, and would lower the average band D council tax installment by an average of £24 per month for 10 months.

This builds on the support that the Coalition Government has already announced for local authorities and Police and Crime Commissioners in England to help them freeze council tax for a third year and assist in keeping the cost of living down. The Government has set aside £450 million in the Autumn Statement. Taxpayers living in an average band D home in England could save up to £72 compared to a 5 per cent increase, while the cumulative effect of the three years’ worth of freezes is potentially worth over £200 to band D residents. I hope hon. Members will encourage their local authorities to take up this year’s freeze offer.

Tackling council tax fraud helps reduce bills for law-abiding citizens. I intend to lay and publish this week draft affirmative regulations, including setting out the powers which local authorities will have to combat fraud in the council tax system and to prosecute those who commit criminal acts. These regulations will ensure that local authorities continue to be able to tackle fraud when council tax benefit is replaced by local council tax reduction schemes in April, and are consistent with those that prevent fraud in the welfare benefit system. Reflecting the Coalition Government’s commitment to civil liberties, we have scaled back existing state powers which we believe to be disproportionate.

No excuse for Council Tax rises

Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis says councils will become less dependant on funding from the centre

The priority for councillors and their officers, over the next few weeks, will be the preparation of their final draft budget for the next financial year. These decisions will determine whether residents face council tax increases when the new bills drop through the letterbox in late March.

With the Government providing funding for another council tax freeze, most people can look forward to no change in their bill. In real terms, under this government, council tax has been able to fall, following year-after-year of eye watering increases that saw the household liability double under the last Labour government.

Obviously, I hope that every Conservative Council across the country will deliver a council tax freeze – there is no excuse not to. Of course, with County Council elections only a few months away, there is an additional incentive for councillors to deliver this key Conservative election pledge. At the General Election, this policy was extremely popular on the doorstep. It continues to remain popular as people face other rising household bills. I know some Conservative administrations plan to go even further, having calculated they can do so, by pledging a freeze for four further years.

Pickles advises council on 50 ways to save

Nearly four years ago I wrote a post for this site entitled 100 ways to cut the Council Tax without cutting key services. Some were policies that had been adopted by Hammersimith and Fulham Council, others were examples from elsewhere. It was rather controversial at the time and subjected to some quite farcical misrepresentation.

James Alexander denounced the ideas - now as the Labour Leader of York Council he is cracking on with implementing some of them. Not enough though. There is still money wasted employing full time union officials, while the number of litter bins is reduced and the Council Tax is pushed up. 

Number 13 on my list was:

Stop funding translations / interpreting for Council documents and services and funding refugee lobby groups. This money is much better spent teaching people English. But even redirecting some of it, you should still find some change for Council Tax cuts.

This appears to have become official Labour Party policy.

Eric Pickles answers your questions

On Sunday the Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles answered questions from Kirsty Young when he took part in Desert Island Discs. You can listen to it here.

Now he answers questions from Conservative Home readers:

Fausty:

If the desire to curb council tax rises arises from the desire to keep household bills down, will Mr Pickles ensure that councils be banned from recovering their 'lost' revenue by creating new and spurious 'offences' that incur fines?

Eric Pickles:

We recently announced funding for yet another council tax freeze next year- a massive help for hardworking families, and especially those on fixed incomes like pensioners.

We've also scrapped Whitehall rules which forced up parking charges – instead, through the local retention of business rates, we're giving councils a financial stake in their high street, so they have a real stake in encourage enterprise and support shops.

Owen Paterson in DEFRA will also be introducing legislation to scrap Labour’s unfair bin fines – by introducing a new ‘harm to local amenity’ test in law. This will mean action can be taken against genuine fly-tippers, but not against a householder who puts a yoghurt pot in the wrong bin.

Somerset_Bob:

When will you make Localism a reality in Planning, by reforming the Planning Appeals Procedure to leave decision making where it belongs, with the Local Community?

Eric Pickles:

The planning system is essentially a ‘plan-led’ process: a planning application is granted, unless a planning policy says otherwise. This gives certainty and clarity to both local residents and local business.

Through the Localism Act, we are abolishing Regional Spatial Strategies (see LINK to find out more). The National Planning Policy Framework has reduced 1,000 pages of national planning guidance to just 50, and makes Local Plans more important.

We are also encouraging local communities to draw up new neighbourhood plans. They will bring the community together to outline the development that's needed, and where that should best go, and then other proposals for development will be assessed against that plan.

Why should young people stand for council?

Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis says young people have large networks of friends that helps them run campaigns - more should stand for their local council

At a Conservative Future event recently I was asked to outline why young people should stand for council. This, initially, seemed a peculiar argument to put to CF – they are the largest political youth organisation in the UK and surely need no persuasion to be politically active. On second thoughts, however, even CF may need some persuading. There is a big difference between being a local activist or party supporter and becoming a councillor. It is important to remember too that young people affiliated to a political party are a rare breed.

Young people are – and always have been – political, but the politics of youth is often one of gut reaction single issue movements, not what can be seen as the more sober and cautious atmosphere of party politics.

What we as a party need to show young people is that they have been given a real place in local politics. Young people, perhaps more than any other group, spend a lot of time in their local area. They have not yet started families, taken on mortgages or bought cars. Their lives, therefore, revolve around bus routes, pubs, cinemas, cycle paths and parks.