Calls for council to support the People's Supermarket

Local Government Minister Bob Neill has today written to Camden Council's leader urging him to reconsider the decision to not grant the People's Supermarket, a social enterprise initiative, a not-for-profit business rate discount.

The People's Supermarket is a sustainable food cooperative working within a local area providing healthy, local food at reasonable prices. The supermarket caught the nation's attention in a Channel 4 documentary and was praised by the Prime Minister as a shining example of the Big Society when he visited it.

It has come to light that Camden Council has decided not to grant the People's Supermarket non-profit rate relief and that it served the premises with a court order for non-payment of a £33,500 rates bill, on top of £6000 already paid off, before taking a decision on its discretionary relief application.

Councils have a discretionary power to grant business rate relief of up to one hundred per cent for properties occupied by not for profit organisations. The decision to award this kind of relief is legally one only the council can make. When such a decision is made government meets 75 per cent of the cost.

Bury propose "that the council will not directly deliver services"

Bury Council has a minority Conservative administration and a third of seats up for election on May 5.

But that has not stopped them coming up with a radical vision.

Here is a summary of their "transformation strategy":

Local Government is facing some of the greatest financial and organisational challenges ever. Central government has announced a 30% reduction our revenue grant funding, this is the money we need to pay for the extensive range of services we provide, and new legislation will cause a shift in power from central and local government to local communities. There are also new opportunities such as collaboration with partners and new technology that can help us to change what we do and how we do it.

Since September 2010 we have been developing plans to address these challenges. The transformation strategy sets out a clear way forward for how the council will meet these challenges and also fulfil the council’s vision:

Bury is a great place to live – we know this because 80% of our residents are satisfied with their local area as a place to live 1 . Our schools are successful and many are over-subscribed. It is widely acknowledged that compared with similar size councils, Bury is a low-cost, high-performing organisation.

Reading Borough Council increases funding for voluntary groups

Congratulations to Reading Borough Council, which the Conservatives gained from Labour last May, on increasing funding for the voluntary sector. The funding is £6,818,281 million in the current year but will rise to £7,039,519 million in financial year 2011/12.

Looking at the details we see greatly increased used of commissioning of the viluntary sector in an array of fields. There is more help for the vulnerable - the elderly, the disabled, the homeless, the victims of domestic violence. Rather than assume that the council should provide all the services itself it has looked to work with the voluntary sector to get the best value for residents.

 

The Big Society in Windsor & Maidenhead keeps getting bigger

This morning The Times featured(£) the progress made in building the Big Society in Windsor and Maidenhead. The Council leader, Cllr David Burbage criticised Liverpool Council for their "political gesture" in opposing the initiative.

The report detailed what the Big Society means in Windsor and Maidenhead:

In practice it means that “Adopt a street” — a community litter-clearing project — has been rolled out across the borough. A voucher scheme for recycling, although admittedly a pre-Big Society idea, has also been expanded. Volunteers will staff a museum at the Guildhall when it opens later this year, and they are currently debating the logistics of a “care bank” they hope to be running by July.

The Big Society must mean a better deal for small charities

   

For the Big Society to flourish it is crucial to see the privatisation of charities - far too many of whom have become a branch of the state bureaucracy. This doesn't mean that state financing of charities should end. Often it will make sense for it to be increased where a charity can carry out a necessary social role more effectively than the state.

But it does mean busting the cartel of big charities and giving the small and medium sized charities an even break. Civitas offered an analysis or how charities have become swallowed by the state in this paper four years ago. A website entitled fakecharities.org has started chronicling charities which get over 10% of their funds from the Government and engage in lobbying. Personally I think often state funding would provide value for money. But greater scrutiny is welcome. Any charity receiving state funding, above a modest threshold, should have to apply the same spending and salary transparency rules being applied to local government. They should also have to apply  the same rules restricting lobbying.

Will Tory council leaders join attack on Pickles?

After the Lib Dem council leaders letter to The Times, the media are understandably sniffing around to see if some Conservative Council leaders can be persuaded to break ranks and criticise Eric Pickles and the grant cuts.

Thus far the results have proved unspectacular. However the Financial Times reports (£) a couple of examples. You will always be able to persuade any council leader at any time to say that their council is unfairly treated. Cllr Peter Callow, the Conservative leader of Blackpool, says so with particular frequency and is quited again in the FT.

But they also have Cllr Kevin Carroll, Conservative cabinet member for finance in Torbay, complaining about "front loading".

Also I'm afraid that Cllr Anne Millward, the Conservative leader of Dudley borough council, parrots Labour's line that a council facing grant cuts from central Government has to recoup the money by a cut in funding to voluntary groups.

The voluntary sector has been nationalised

Glyn Gaskarth says the Big Society can succeed but only if some bold reforms are implemented

The Big Society is a clumsy phrase. It was a very poor election slogan which meant nothing on the doorstep. However, the idea is attractive and could work. It speaks to traditional Conservative values of localism, self-reliance and civic responsibility. Some on the political left argue that many areas don’t have the capacity to help themselves, they are wrong, but the right needs to explain what the Big Society is and how everyone can contribute. We are failing to do this, which is lethal to the project.

First, local councils and central government need to identify the space in which they wish the Big Society to operate.  A healthy male can mow a lawn or clear a drive. A healthy female could form a neighbourhood watch; volunteer to assist at a local school, help at the local library or begin to run a youth group for local children etc. We can all think of tasks that ordinary private citizens could perform. Local government needs to review what it does and decide what it will no longer do. If voluntary groups are to do these roles then local government needs to stop doing them.

Here the left interjects – but what about the poorer areas, this may work in Surrey but it will not in Liverpool, they don’t have the capacity.

A Vanguard Council for the Big Society

Cllr David J Burbage. the Leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council is proud his council is a Big Society vanguard

Far from being worried by the actions of Liverpool Council in “pulling out” of the Big Society, work continues apace in Windsor and Maidenhead.

Our volunteering levels are sharply increased, and the number of enquiries at our volunteer centre has reached a new record. Our coordinator says “We are absolutely delighted to be so busy with people wanting to help in the community”.

Our vanguard activities extend to government transparency, now publishing our income as well as our expenditure. The push to make available incentives – nudges in the right direction - in the volunteering sector as well as improving the networks throughout our voluntary sector are being boosted by our Big Society events. We’re also a neighbourhood planning vanguard and are seeking devolution of powers to our Parish councils.

The Big Society in Hammersmith and Fulham is thriving

 

Last night a Cabinet Meeting at Hammersmith and Fulham Council approved a decision to allow a sale, in due course, of several council buildings. It was a lively evening with a demo outside. There was an item on Newsnight by their reporter Jackie Long attacking the Council. She claimed those opposing sales of Council's buildings "were fighting to save their very own Big Society." She talked about cuts to the voluntary sector. Yet selling property allows halving of our Council's debt - and it's £5 million debt interest bill. That means we can maintain spending on grants to voluntary groups.

The report did not feature any of the groups that are getting new funding from the Council, such as the Spear charity (see film clip) which helps the young employed get jobs. Of money to help social enterprises get off the ground such as the H&F Credit Union - or H&F Circle, which encourages volunteers to help the elderly. We have cut the bureucracy that blocks the Big Society on things like applying for grants and holding street parties.

Another point missed from the BBC report was that while the Labour Party dogmatically oppose the sale of any the buildings, several of the community groups are keen to buy them. Some were protesting under the misconception that we didn't think their money was a good as anyone else's or that we were planning to sell the buildings straight away. The Irish Cultural Centre, for example, have every prospect of raising the money to buy their buildings. The report ended, in an indignant tone, that one of the buildings would "controversially" become a free school.

Royal Wedding street parties can go ahead without Council charges

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has welcomed the move to cut more Whitehall red tape to make it easier for communities to hold street parties to celebrate the Royal Wedding.

Transport Secretary Philip Hammond announced that he is writing to all local councils in England informing them that he is scrapping the Department for Transport guidance on road closures. The guidance - which was intended to cover all types of special event - was sometimes being misinterpreted by councils causing them to impose extra bureaucracy and costs on residents. This led to some communities being told they would need to employ traffic management companies to close off their road when holding even small street parties.

Now the guidance has been abolished, councils all over the country are free to avoid charges for street party road closures. 

The Secretary of State and Transport Minister want councils to use their discretion and ensure that they don't impose unnecessary burdens. This follows the announcement last summer when the Communities Secretary updated the Government's practical guide to organising street parties and fetes.