January 2010

Parliamentary Business

Children, Schools and Families Bill

The Children, Schools and Families Bill had its second reading on 10 January.

The bill contains measures including guaranteed one-to-one tuition for children falling behind and a personal tutor for every secondary school pupil; more information for parents on how local schools are performing and where standards are unacceptably low, ministers will be able to direct local authorities to issue a warning notice; any school that fails to comply with a warning notice will be closed down.

It will also require local authorities to conduct annual surveys of parents about the school provision in their area and act upon the results.

Personal Care at Home Bill

The personal care at home bill went through the final stages of debate on 12 January.

The bill guarantees free personal care for people with the highest care needs including those with serious dementia or Parkinson's disease.

The introduction of this bill will help 130,000 people needing home care for the first time to regain their independence whilst protecting the savings of those who already receive care.

It is the first step towards setting up a new National Care Service. A white paper with further proposals will follow.

Crime and Security Bill

The Crime and Security Bill had its second reading in the House on 18 January.

The bill covers four main areas; making the streets safer; preventing crimes against vulnerable people; shutting down criminal and exploitative markets and ensuring justice for victims and their families.

Provisions in the bill will extend the powers of gang injunctions to 14-17 year olds (currently only applicable to over 18s). Gang injunctions are a civil order which can prevent individuals entering particular areas and associating with other gang members.

The injunctions seek to break down gang culture to prevent younger gang members' behaviour escalating as well as enabling exit strategies for gang members.

The bill also contains measures to protect victims of domestic violence. It will introduce a civil order that will require the perpetrator of domestic violence to leave the address of the victim and prevent contact with them. The order, issued by the police, will enable immediate protection whilst longer term protection is sought, allowing the victim to stay at home rather than be forced to seek refuge elsewhere.

Pensions

On 12 January the Government put the final rules for pension reform before Parliament.

The reform will ensure all employees have access to a workplace pension. From 2012 up to 9 million workers will have the chance to save with guaranteed contributions from their employer and the Government.

The reforms to private pensions go alongside reforms to the state pension to make it fairer for women and carers; ending the bias for women inherent in the system since it was founded.

This year the number of women who reach state pension age and qualify for a full basic state pension in their own right will
increase from 50 to 75 per cent.

Other matters

Family Housing

On 11 January, Housing Secretary John Healey announced an extra £122.6 million to build new council homes. London will receive over £70 million of this extra funding.

Many of the new builds will be family homes with three or four bedrooms and all will be highly energy efficient.

This new funding round is in addition to the £130 million announced in September last year. With councils matching the Government grant, the total public investment in the programme is over £500m.

Hackney will receive £6 million in this second funding round for developments Alexandra National House on Seven Sisters Road and Bridge House, Ponsford Street.

The programme as a whole will now see over 4,000 new council homes built in 2010.

Details of the successful bids are available via the Government's housing delivery agency.

Details of the first and second round bids can be viewed at
www.homesandcommunities.co.uk

Copenhagen climate change conference

During December, 180 countries came together in Copenhagen to make a deal to tackle climate change.

The Accord agreed at Copenhagen includes; international backing for an overall limit of 2 degrees on global warming; agreement that all countries, developed and developing, need to take action on climate changes and the provision of immediate and longer term financial help for countries most at risk.

The Copenhagen Accord will also list what every country is doing to tackle climate change; introduce scrutiny and mandatory
reporting on emission targets and provide $30 billion of immediate short term funding from developed countries over the next three years to help poorer countries adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change has welcomed this but said it must go further.

The UK will be working with other countries to convert the accord into a legally binding agreement and persuade more countries to sign up. He has also welcomed the decision by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to host a Conference as part of mid-year negotiations in Bonn.

Offshore wind energy

The Government has announced plans for major expansion of the UK's wind energy industry.

The Crown Estate (owner of the UK's coastal seabeds) has granted rights for energy companies to expand offshore wind farms potentially creating an extra 32GW of electricity.

Boiler scrappage scheme

The pre-budget report announced a £400 incentive to help people upgrade their boiler. The subsidy is available to replace G rated or worse boilers and is being delivered by the Energy Saving Trust.

From the 5 January householders and landlords can find about more about the scheme and register for a 'cashback' voucher. Vouchers will be issued from 18 January to the first 125,000 eligible households.

To find out more visit www.est.org.uk or call 0800 512 012.

Replacing an old boiler can save households between £200 and £235 a year. Replacing 125,000 old boilers will save the same amount of CO2 emissions as taking 45,000 cars off the road.

To find out what rating your boiler is visit
http://www.governmentboiler-scrappagescheme.info/EligibilityCheck.php

Jobcentre Plus changes

Following the recent Government white paper on employment, published in December, Jobcentre Plus is now rolling out new schemes for customers.

Young persons guarantee
From January, 18-24 year olds will have a dedicated advisor providing additional support which will intensify after 6 months unemployment. Additional opportunities will be available to this age group including work-focussed training, internships and Future Jobs (a Government scheme to open up new job opportunities locally for young people) funded job opportunities.

From April this year Jobcentre Plus will be working with Connexions (a support service for young people) to strengthen the support available to 16-17 year olds including additional advisor support and access to local employment partnership vacancies.

In April the Jobcentre will also be increasing back to work support for over 50s, professionals and people wishing to go self-employed. Jobcentre customers undertaking training will have access to travel and childcare costs and each region will get its own outreach team working with local authorities and social landlords to tackle worklessness.

Hackney issues

Youth, Arts and Culture festival

January 22 - February 28
Free events and workshops will be taking place across Hackney over the next month run by Hackney Council's - Discover Young Hackney.

The festival theme this year is talent and is a great opportunity for young people to make their mark. The festival is designed by young people, for young people.

The programme of events kicked off with an X-factor style show at the Hackney Empire. The events will run until 28 February and feature workshops on music production, dance, graphic art and much more.

To find out more and to register for events visit www.discoveryounghackney.com

Pure Potential

I recently visited Pure Potential a Shoreditch based organisation helping raise the aspirations of young people and provide support for students applying to higher education institutions.

Pure Potential was founded in 2005 to help state-educated pupils progress to the most competitive universities and careers. They run numerous events around the country with advice and information.

They are hosting events at three London universities in July this year where you can get advice on writing a personal statement, student finance and help with communication skills for interviews. To book a place visit www.purepotential.org.

London Overground closure

Work will start in February on the London Overground line between Gospel Oak and Stratford.

Work is taking place to renew signals, tracks and lengthen 30 station platforms to enable longer trains and a more frequent service.

Rail replacement buses will run a service every 20 minutes (Monday to Saturday) and every 30 minutes on Sundays.

The work is due to be completed by June.

For more information visit www.tfl.gov.uk or call 0845 601 4867

Blackwall tunnel refurbishment

Work to refurbish the blackwall tunnel will commence on 7 February 2010 and is due to be completed in December 2012.

The construction work will be carried out during the night-time on weekdays between 9pm and 5am and on some weekends. During the night-time closures the southbound tunnel will be operated in the northbound direction. Southbound traffic will be diverted to other river crossings.

The 108 bus will operate in two sections; Lewisham to North Greenwich and Stratford to Canning Town. Passengers will be able to use the Jubilee Line to connect between services without additional charge.