Five million UK workers cannot afford essentials this Christmas

Story published on  Women's Views on News, Thursday, December 22, 2011 

As you dash out to do the last of your Christmas shopping, spare a thought for the person behind the counter, as she is likely to be one of the five million British workers paid too little to cover basic costs like housing, food and clothing.

In a recent report, Low Pay Britain, the Resolution Foundation found that 27 per cent of women and 16 per cent of men earned less than the living wage.

Sixty per cent of retail staff, over half of workers in elementary jobs such as labouring and a third of workers in service occupations like hairdressing earn less than the living wage - the hourly rate needed for an individual to meet their own or their family’s basic day-to-day needs.

The living wage is currently set at £8.30 an hour for London and £7.20 for the rest of the UK.
Low-paid workers are more likely to be young and working part-time in the private sector.

Amy* is 25 and lives in Scotland, and earns £6.30 an hour as a senior sales assistant.

“People tend to think that you’re only working in a shop so just standing about not doing much, but you still have to go into work every day and do a job,” she said.

Her colleagues who are under 18 get £3.57, which is below the national minimum wage of £3.68 for workers of that age.

“I just don’t understand why, when they’re doing the exact same work, that they get so much less.

“In principle obviously I think the minimum wage should be higher than what it is, but I think everyone should be on the same rate if doing the same job,” she said.

Amy feels trapped. “The only experience I have now is working in shops really. I’m kind of stuck until I can save enough to do what I really want – and with the money I’m on that will be a while.

“There’s nothing I can do – where can I go?”

Amy doesn’t feel able to challenge her rate of pay, particularly in the current climate.

“They’re constantly talking about ‘cuts’ so I doubt very much that an increase in pay would be something they’d even consider,” she said.

Citizens UK, a community organisation made up of trade unions, religious groups and community activists, established a Living Wage Campaign in London in 2001, after parents in the East End told them they were frustrated that working two minimum wage jobs left no time for family life.

It has since established the Living Wage Foundation, and 140 employers including Barclays, KPMG and retail chain Lush are now paying the enhanced rate, lifting 10,000 families out of poverty.

Research by the foundation found 80 per cent of employers reported that the living wage had enhanced the quality of work, 66 per cent said it had a significant impact on recruitment and retention and 75 per cent believed it had enhanced their ethical credentials among consumers.

Guy Stallard, director of facilities at KPMG, said: “We’ve found that paying the living wage is a smart business move as increasing wages has reduced staff turnover and absenteeism, whilst productivity and professionalism have subsequently increased.”

The Living Wage movement is spreading across the UK
.
Glasgow City Council adopted a ‘living wage’ of £7 per hour in 2009, and 700 council staff got a pay rise of £1,100 per year.

In 2010 the Glasgow living wage was increased to £7.15, and in April 2012 it will increase to £7.20.
So far 160 companies have signed up, and the Council would like to encourage more firms, especially in hospitality and retail, to follow suit.

One of the beneficiaries is 28-year-old Sarah*, a catering worker who started out on an hourly rate of £5.73 on a zero hour contract.

With low pay and unpredictable hours, she was finding it hard to cope.
“I was relying a lot on my parents for help. I didn’t know from one week to the next how many hours, if any, I was going to be getting,” she said.

The irregular working pattern meant it was difficult to access government support such as housing benefit.

“When I was working, it was too difficult to apply for anything like that because my situation changed from week to week.

“We would have to struggle on ill as you couldn’t afford for your wages to be docked, and we never really knew what holidays we were entitled to,” she said.

Sarah’s situation is set to improve as the company she works for has now been taken over by Cordia Services through Glasgow City Council.

She has been transferred to a 35-hour per week contract paying £7.30 an hour with sick pay, 28 days holiday and a points system, which tops up the hourly rate for evening and weekend working.

“If it works out the way it looks on paper then it will be great. Now I know I’m getting 35 hours I can work out my money better,” she said.

Glasgow City Council would like to be able to stipulate that all its contractors pay the living wage but has been advised that this would be illegal, so is pressing the Scottish government for a change in the law.

Despite this, the council has signed a £150m waste disposal contract with Viridor which stated its intention to pay the living wage from the outset.

Councillor Gordon Matheson, leader of Glasgow City Council, said that when they first considered introducing the living wage, the economy was buoyant, unemployment low and the number of jobs being created was increasing.

“But times have changed. In Glasgow, we are relatively well placed to avoid the worst effects of recession due to the massive body of work associated with the Commonwealth Games, but we have still felt an impact.

“However, for me, this actually strengthens the case for tackling low pay. We know that in times of recession, the impact is most keenly felt by low-paid workers.

“I have always believed that work is the best and most sustainable route out of poverty and yet recent studies have shown that the majority of children living in poverty in the UK have at least one parent in paid employment.

“The message from this is clear: low paid, transient, unskilled work is not sufficient to lift people out of poverty and that is something that all tiers of government must address.”
To find out more follow the links below:

The Living Wage Foundation

The Scottish Low Pay Campaign

Glasgow Living Wage

The Poverty Alliance

*The names of the workers featured in this article have been changed.

A matter of life and death for disabled people

Story published on Women's Views on News, December 1, 2011

To celebrate International Day of Disabled People, on December 3, I spoke to UK-based disabled women about their lives and concerns.

British actor Liz Carr is writing a play. It’s called Assisted Suicide the Musical.

“The right to life and death at the moment is huge. With the current economic climate, NHS cuts, the pressure could be on people to end it, to not be a burden, not to be more trouble than they are worth.

“We have heard about people not being able to cope with the changes to welfare benefits.

“I’ve heard from the mental health community that people are becoming iller and considering killing themselves because of the pressure.

If I can write something comical and thought-provoking at the same time, it can get a lot of attention,” she said.

Carr is one of the UK’s ten million disabled people.

Only half of working-age disabled people are employed compared with nearly 80 per cent of the general population.

Disabled people are twice as likely to have no qualifications, and over a fifth say they often have no control over their daily lives.

The disabled women and their partners I spoke to all feared their position would worsen as cuts to benefits and services began to bite.

Ruth Mills’ wife Sonia has a spinal injury and they need a grant to install a lift in their home in Shrewsbury. Sonia used to use a stairlift, but this is now impossible because of the risk of accident.

Mills works as a self-employed IT consultant and the council means test said the couple would have to contribute over £100,000 before it would pay a penny.

The council admitted that if they were both on benefits they would almost certainly get a grant.

The couple re-mortgaged in 2007 to convert their garage into an accessible downstairs bathroom.

“Our outgoings don’t leave us with that much disposable income at all once the mortgage, credit cards and bills are all paid,” said Mills.

“Sonia is in the situation where she is stuck on the sofa in the lounge when she isn’t in her electric wheelchair, which is causing her an awful lot of discomfort, and risks giving her pressure sores.”

“We aren’t able to properly be together as a married couple too, because she can’t get upstairs.

“Ironically we have a super-king adjustable bed upstairs, that we bought in 2007, that Sonia can no longer use as she can’t get upstairs.”

Deborah Sowerby, a retired community development worker from West Berkshire, said: “The local authority here are saying where someone’s care package is costing more than keeping them in residential home they won’t fund it.”

She said the right to an ordinary life, to live in a street as opposed to a block or an institution, was under threat.

There is also uncertainty about the future of the Independent Living Fund, a government trust which pays disabled people directly to employ their own personal assistants (PAs), due to be closed in 2015.

Sue Elsegood from London uses PAs to help her with everything from dressing to playing power-chair football.

“My PAs are highly skilled.  They are trained up by my more experienced PAs for quite a while before they work with me.

“Agency staff are not so well-trained, that’s why I prefer to employ my own,” she said.

All three women believed disabled people were being demonised as a way of justifying the cuts, and Elsegood was concerned this might lead to an increase in hate crime.

“A few weeks ago Ricky Gervais got into a lot of trouble for using the word mong, but people are content for us to be called scroungers and workshy, that’s the way we are being labelled at the moment,” said Carr.

But there are signs that the attacks on services and living standards are bringing the disabled community together in a way not seen since the campaign for the Disability Discrimination Act in the 1990s.

“I think it’s quite exiting. I went to the AGM of  DPAC [Disabled People Against Cuts] recently, they are doing amazing things.

“There seem to be lots of pockets of people doing different things, using social media. There have been so many demos against ATOS [the company re-assessing Incapacity Benefit claimants on behalf of the government].

“They’ve been getting themselves in The Guardian and on TV. It’s not just the same few people anymore.  A lot of the petty arguments and disagreements are being put aside,” said Carr.

Sowerby believes that social networking has done a lot to break down the isolation felt by many disabled people.

“I’ve never seen so much networking. Facebook is fantastic,” she said.

Both Sowerby and Carr believe the campaigns are enabling disabled people to find common cause with others.

“It’s a challenge to get disabled people together, but the most exciting challenge is to link up all the campaigns, like the demonstration in March, which brought together all different groups,” said Carr.

Sowerby urged non-disabled women to learn more about disability.

“Anyone running anything or doing anything needs to think, where are the disabled people?

“Look and see what people are saying, plug in, find out, speak out – take up the issues, they are everyone’s issues” she said.

Elsegood agreed. “Disability can happen to anyone, so having a society set up to help disabled people will help everyone.”  

Find out more

DANmail – e-mail group of the Disabled People’s Direct Action Network

Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC)

Transport for All campaign

Black Triangle campaign

Where’s the Benefit

Office of Disability Issues

Youth Unemployment: "We won't stand for this any more"

Story published on  Women's Views on News, Sunday, November 6, 2011

WVoN recently spoke to Stephanie Maston, a 21-year-old unemployed woman from Bradford who is marching to protest youth unemployment.

Maston is one of around 20 young people who have been re-creating the historic Jarrow march of 1936, when thousands of unemployed workers marched from the North East to London, to draw public attention to the poverty and misery caused by unemployment.

The marchers are part of Youth Fight for Jobs, a trade union-backed group which campaigns for jobs, education and housing for young people.

Maston was on Employment Support Allowance because of a mental difficulty until she was ruled fit to work, against the advice of her doctors.

“My housing benefit was completely cut and they told me I owed them money.  I had to move back in with my parents.  All the stress is not going to help someone with mental health difficulties.

“They are forcing people to work whether they are fit or not,” she said. 

But Maston would be marching even if she wasn’t unemployed. 

“It’s all about solidarity, it doesn’t matter whether it affects me or not.

“Pensions are being cut and older people are being forced to work.  This is denying young people jobs. 

“Older people are having to work when they should be enjoying their retirement,” she added.

The government’s new Work Programme is a particular concern for the marchers.

“They are making people work for their dole money.  The agencies are getting work for free. There is no guaranteed job at the end.  The minimum wage is too low and people need contracted hours,” said Maston.

She said that a friend, Bobbie Crannie, who is also on the march, spent six months on the Work Programme folding and packing boxes with ten others.

“They said there would be work for some of them, but no-one got a job, which meant they got more free work. 

“It’s a crap job anyway, but people used to be paid for it.  Their jobs have been cut and the agencies get free work.  And the government has arranged for this to happen.

“Further education is off-limits for a lot of young people and even if they get through sixth form, [university tuition fees of] £3,000 were too high for some people, let alone £9,000.”

They are also campaigning for council housing for everyone.

The marchers have received a warm welcome throughout the five-week slog from Jarrow, through towns and cities like Leeds, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry and Rugby, with some people joining them for parts of the march.

“One woman pulled up at the side of the road, said ‘It’s fantastic what you’re doing’, put £100 in the bucket and drove off,” said Maston.

The march is officially sponsored by the Rail Maritime and Transport workers union, the University and College Union, the Communication Workers Union and the Public and Commercial Services union.

Some councils have allowed them to stay in community halls, but they have mostly relied on the hospitality of more seasoned campaigners.

“One of the women we stayed with, Lorna, had a Che Guevara flag on her wall.  Her nieces and nephews had drawn pictures of our march.

“She was involved in the Poll Tax campaign and showed us a lot of pictures.  She gave us a letter she wanted us to hand in to No 10,” said Maston.

The march has been covered on Newsnight, in the Guardian and on Sky News.

“I’m in a big room full of interviews at the moment,” she laughed.

When they appeared on The One Show, Happy Days actor Henry Winkler drew parallels with the Occupy Wall Street movement in the USA.

Stephen Fry tweeted his support, which brought 2,000 views to their blog.

But there has been some negative coverage.  In early October the Daily Telegraph reported that the march had “fizzled out”, and quoted Robert Goodwill, Tory MP for Scarborough, who called them “an insult to the memory of the Jarrow marchers.”

“We see that as a positive,” said Maston.  “Why would they write things like this if we are not making people realise?  We have made people notice and they are scared.”

The marchers crossed the border into London on Wednesday night. Later half of them marched to the Occupy London protest outside St Paul’s Cathedral. 

The rest leafleted colleges to publicise a benefit gig in Brixton featuring comedy, music and speakers including film-maker Ken Loach, and a rally in Trafalgar Square on Saturday.

“I have been the resident foot doctor, I’ve seen a lot of blisters but it hasn’t stopped anyone.  There have been a few tears but the endurance has been fantastic,” said Maston.

Yesterday the marchers joined hundreds of supporters for a demonstration from the Embankment to the rally in Trafalgar Square.

They were addressed by Bob Crow from the Rail Maritime and Transport union, Lizzi Gray, granddaughter of one of the original Jarrow marchers, and organisers of the London Slut Walk.

Next week the marchers will return home and will help unions build support for the public sector strikes planned for November 30.

“We are all interlinked.  The main aim of this march is to get students, the unemployed, everyone together on the same platform to say we won’t stand for this any more,” said Maston.

“If the capitalist system can’t afford to give us jobs we can’t afford this system any more.” 

Interaction, variety and team-work key to science success says Ofsted report

Story published in on the FE News website, Saturday, October 15, 2011

Colleges that want to achieve success in science should treat students as individuals, ensure lessons are interactive and relevant and make smart use of technology, according to an Ofsted study published yesterday.

The regulator visited 15 colleges across England in Spring 2011.

A total 12 colleges had been judged as good or excellent in recent inspections, the remaining three were either located in areas of high deprivation or offered a wide range of science courses.

The researchers found the best colleges were aware of students' backgrounds, able to identify starting points and go on from there.

The best teachers were able to relate the curriculum to the student's own experiences and design lessons which were manageable and relevant.

Questions were often used to stimulate discussion and debate. Field trips, site visits and work-placements made the courses more varied and interesting.

The best teachers helped their students get the most out of practical sessions, offering assistance in setting up equipment and working with them during experiments, to increase their confidence and develop investigative skills.

High performing departments made full use of technology – using video, audio and animations.

Students were encouraged to use the technology to make their own presentations, and virtual learning environments enabled students to work at their own pace, from home.
The best colleges offered students additional support, all year round, not just in the run-up to exams.

In the best departments, staff worked together to develop the curriculum, analyse results and develop each other's skills.

However, the authors were concerned at the quality of careers advice available to science students, and felt that learners studying science at foundation or intermediate level had less choice than those taking other subjects.

Drop in teenage enrolments worries college leaders

Pulbished in FE News, Thursday, October 13, 2011

Nearly half of FE colleges have seen a drop in the numbers of 16-19-year-olds enrolling for courses this September, according to a study by the Association of Colleges (AoC), published today.

College leaders blamed the end of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) for new students, competition from other colleges and cuts to transport for the decline.

The Association of Colleges, which represents FE Colleges, Sixth Forms and Specialist Colleges, surveyed its 347 members in England, 164 responded and 49 per cent reported a drop in the numbers of 16-19-year-olds enrolling for courses.

The South West was hardest hit, with 66 per cent of colleges reporting a decline, followed by the West Midlands, the North East and North West.
49 per cent of those who reported a decline, said numbers were down by less than 5 per cent, but 22 per cent said enrolments fell by over 10 per cent and four colleges reported falls of over 15 per cent.

Enrolments for Level 3 courses seem to be holding up better than for Levels 1 and 2.

23 per cent of respondents said that enrolments for Level 3 courses were falling, while 41 per cent reported a drop off in interest for courses at Level 1.

Science, maths, engineering, motor mechanics and history are increasing in popularity, whilst media, sport, hairdressing and art and design seem to be waning.

53 per cent of colleges who responded said that they would be topping up the bursary fund, with 14 colleges contributing over 50 per cent extra.

But the picture is mixed. 42 per cent of colleges reported an increase in enrolments for the age group.

Overall, the numbers of 16-19-year-olds enrolling in the sample colleges fell by 598, a drop of 0.1 per cent; the first time absolute numbers have fallen for this age-group in 15-20 years.

56 per cent of colleges said they were spending more to subsidise 16-19 transport, while 60 per cent reported a decline in local authority spending on transport for this age group.

79 per cent of respondents believed that providing free school meals to disadvantaged 16-19-year-olds would improve participation.

Commenting on the results, Martin Doel, chief executive at the Association of Colleges, said the results painted a complex picture.

He believed that some changes may be due to demographics, a drop of 40,000 in the 16-18 age-group, while the decline in enrolments by Level 1 students may be partly explained by rising school standards.

But he was concerned that the results may point to a more worrying trend of more vulnerable young people disappearing from college and school rolls

"There could be longer-term socio-economic implications if the trends suggested by this research are borne out by further studies," he said.

Tom Pierce, NUS Vice President (Further Education), believed that the drop in numbers is due to the abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance.

"Ministers were warned over and over again by teachers, students, parents, economists and college leaders that scrapping EMA would harm participation in further education and now they are reaping what they sowed," said Pierce.

"In an increasingly hostile jobs market and a stagnant economy for many young people further education is their only chance to get a foot-hold in the world.

"The Government didn't listen and its paltry replacement is a failure, they must admit they were wrong and properly support young people to get the skills they need to build a life for themselves."

But a Department for Education spokesman said record numbers of 16 and 17-year-olds were already in education or training, with 1.5 million places and 360,000 apprenticeships, guaranteeing a suitable place in sixth-form, college or work-based training for every student.

"We are targeting financial support at students who need it most to get through their studies – through the new £180m a year bursary fund, with further transitional support available for those students who were already drawing the EMA," he said.

The AoC will undertake future research into enrolment patterns and student retention and will repeat its enrolment survey in September 2012 to monitor the situation year on year.

Training is 'no brainer' for Paphitis

Story published in FE News, Friday, October 7, 2011

Three key figures from the world of business spoke to FE News about the importance of training and shared some of their good practice with us; at the recent National Training Awards ceremony.

Theo Paphitis, chairman of Ryman's Stationary and star of the BBC's Dragon's Den programme, who presented the awards, said training was not talked about, but without it none of us would have a business.

"We are in what is the most serious downturn in history," said Paphitis.

"The only way we can survive is to ensure that we have the skills to stay competitive. It's a no brainer, without it we would not have the skills we need, without it we would not be competitive, without it our business would cost a lot, lot more."

Chris Banks, chair of the Winner of the Year panel and founder of the Independent College Partnership, which supports FE colleges to become mutuals, felt it was important to celebrate outstanding training that delivered for the employers, individuals and the communities they served.

"At the heart is the [training] provider," said Banks.

"The better, more efficient and focused a provider can be, the more value we can add as a sector to individuals and their communities." he said.

Meanwhile, Andy Cross, director of learning and development at BT, explained why the company had been shortlisted for two awards at the event.

Firstly, they re-wrote the training programme for those going into consumer sales; the people who answer the phone when you want a phone line or request BT vision, said Cross.

"The training was taking 19 weeks, you can train a pilot in less time," he said.

The company canvassed managers for ideas like re-writing the advert so it clearly explained the role, and they have brough thet training time down to eight weeks, cutting costs by £1.2m.

"By making it far more brand, mindset, product led rather than teaching them every aspect of the job; people came out able to sell far better than their colleagues in the contact centres," he continued.

The company was also nominated for iTool, an iPad style e-learning app, which allows managers to train sales staff to use BT's new product directory.

"All of the training we do is grounded in improving customer service here at BT, and we are always looking for those innovative ways of doing that," he added.

FE Minister: WorldSkills good for individuals, the country and the world

Story published on FE News, Friday, October 7, 2011

Further Education Minister John Hayes believes that WorldSkills is good for individuals, good for the country and good for the world.

Speaking at the event, which will attract up to 250,000 visitors to London's Excel Centre this week, he said: "Worldskills is a showcase of practical skills, everything from traditional to high-tech skills. I've seen everything from thatching to robotics.

"It showcases competences which have economic value, which have life-changing potential, which build successful individuals and communities, in an economy that works."

Hayes believes that the event will not only transform the apprentices, but also touch all those who came to support them, and change their attitudes to vocational training.

"Its about bringing countries together, united in a shared understanding of the value of practical skills," he said.

'I wanted to prove to my dad that I was a good cabinet maker', says first ever UK WorldSkills competitor

Article appeared on the FE News website on October 6, 2011.


When Doug Hill entered the WorldSkills competition back in 1953, all he wanted to do was to prove to his dad that he was a good cabinet maker. Little did he realise that he would become its first ever UK competitor.

He travelled to Madrid with his father and picked up the silver medal.

Inspired by his son's success, his father founded Team UK and built it into the organisation it is today and was later awarded the MBE.

Hill went on to build a successful notice-board company and built the first flight indicator board for Heathrow Airport.

"I am here today because I believe that apprentices bring the skills that this country needs," he told FE News yesterday on the sidelines of the London 2011 Worldskills competition.

"They are the core of our skills base, we can sell the products as they will be made to a high quality."

He added: "It's so different from 1953, I was a team of one, waiting to meet my other UK competitors but there weren't any."

Hill now spends his time encouraging young people to become apprentices and 'earn as they learn'.

Although he is retired he is still putting his engineering skills to good use, helping to rebuild an old steam engine at the Didcott Heritage Centre.

"I would encourage all employers to send their apprentices to these competitions it really brings them on, when they come back to the company they are so highly skilled that they can move that company forward," he said.

The 'best of the best' honoured at National Training Awards

Article published on the FE News website on October 6, 2011

Four businesses and an outstanding training manager were honoured at a prestigious awards ceremony yesterday for their outstanding contribution and commitment to training, learning and development.

They were crowned the 'best of the best' at the National Training Awards 2011 at ExCeL London.

The winners included nuclear company Magnox Limited for training 50 radiographers to fill a national skills gap, and Tata Global Beverages, which manufacture the famous Tetley tea-bags, for saving themselves £2m by training 55 of their 450-strong staff to develop leaner business practices.

The Meningitis Trust was named Small Employer of the Year for introducing a 2-year programme to boost the morale and confidence of staff and trustees.
As a result, annual recruitment costs have dropped from £30,000 - £7,000, the trust now supports 20% more people, without any increase in cost, and it has established a major donor programme.

Brother Industries UK Limited won the prize for medium-sized employer, and Robert Jackson, training manager at Preston-based Recycling Lives, won the Linda Ammon Award for inspiring his colleagues and having a real impact in his workplace.

His health and safety training programme has saved the company £70,000 in insurance premiums and he often goes beyond the call of duty, offering employees help and advice, even late at night, so they can keep their jobs.

Winning can boost an organisation's success. According to the organisers, forty percent of recent winners reported a rise in profits, one in five won additional contracts and a third said their organisations became more efficient.

Dragon's Den star Theo Paphitis presented the awards, and celebrity chef Brian Turner hosted a confectionery showcase featuring a 'cook off' between two former Team UK Worldskills competitors.

The National Training Awards are given to employers who can show that they have tailored their training to the needs of the organisation and that their organisations have benefited as a result.

The awards are sponsored by City and Guilds and the Independent College Partnership.

The winners, who all won regional heats in their categories, joined other winners from across England, Northern Ireland and Wales to fight it out to become Winners of the Year.

John Hayes, Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, said: "I would like to congratulate all the winners in this year's National Training Awards. It is a fantastic achievement and one they should rightly be proud of.

"It is more important than ever for organisations to follow the example of these companies and continue to invest in the development of their staff. We will only be able to achieve sustainable economic growth if we have people with the skills to meet the demands of today's globalised economy."

Teachers have 'fantastic dual identity', says IfL's Lee Davis

Article published on the FE News website on October 6, 2011.

Wednesday 5 October was National Teachers Day and Lee Davis, deputy CEO of the Institute for Learning (IfL) and President of the Chartered Institute of Plumbers and Heating Engineers, spoke to FE News about why those who can, should teach.

"First and foremost our members are experts in their fields," said Davis.

"Then they decide to give something back to their profession and become teachers and trainers, and the IfL supports them through their training. They have this fantastic dual professional identity; not only are they subject experts but they are also fantastic teachers and trainers.

"For them, WorldSkills is an opportunity for the young people they have trained to show off their skills, but also for them to celebrate their involvement in getting them to that level."

The IfL has a stand at World Skills, and Davis has been amazed at the numbers of young people keen to find out about what they do.

He explained: "They really get into it. They are really interested that the people who teach them are chefs and engineers themselves. We are inspiring young people to come into the vocations, and we are inspiring those people who are already engineers, chefs and plumbers to want to teach."

'Data needs more context' says select committee

This article was published on the LGN webiste on September 29, 2011.

MPs have called for the national data watchdog to help ensure government departments release information in an “intelligible, objectively interpreted and accessible” way.

A report issued by the public administration select committee last week recommended the Statistics Authority take a more pro-active role in ensuring that government data can be easily understood by the public.

The committee said simply “dumping” data into the public realm was not sufficient. “Data dumping does not on its own constitute transparency and good governance”, it said.

In February, LGC reported that some of the information released by the Department for Communities & Local Government about its expenditure had been incorrectly coded.

There have also been concerns that publishing spending data with little context adds nothing to the public’s understanding of spending decisions.

But the civil service may lack the capacity to deliver on the MPs’ recommendations. According to the Cabinet Office, staff numbers were expected to fall by 18,000 in this quarter alone.

The report also urges the civil service to build its expertise in IT, as well as improving interdepartmental working and commissioning services from the voluntary and private sectors.

It recommended the Cabinet Office monitor individual departments’ change programmes to ensure the civil service did not lose people with the necessary skills.

Regulators say system for predicting A-Level results is working well

This article was published on the FE News website on October 3, 2011. An independent review of the system for predicting A-Level results has found that it is broadly fit for purpose. The GCSE results of all students entered for a particular subject at A-Level are used to produce prediction matrices, which are used, along with coursework results, not to predict individual student's results, but to guide examiners and set boundaries for grades. In 2009 exam regulators OFQUAL, DFES Wales and Northern Ireland CCER commissioned research company NFER to find out whether the matrices were being used consistently across awarding bodies and to explore whether they could be improved. The study found the matrices were being applied consistently, but recommended tolerance levels, which set the acceptable variation between predicted and actual results, should be adjusted to reflect the numbers of candidates sitting a particular subject. Examining bodies have to report and justify any wide disparities between predicted and actual grades. The recommended changes were made in time for this year's A-Levels. The researchers also believed that students sitting A-Levels for CCER in Northern Ireland  were achieving better results because the examining body used a matrix based solely on the results of Northern Irish students, rather than incorporating data from across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland as the WJEC, Edexcel, AQA and OCR did. CCER has agreed to investigate this further. The report also concluded the existence of Welsh as an additional compulsory subject, taken by large numbers of students at GCSE-level in Wales, made no difference to the accuracy of predictions.

Statue will celebrate tradesmen's contribution to the City

This article was published on the FE News website on October 3, 2011.

A statue of an apprentice plumber will be unveiled by the Duke of Gloucester and the Lord Mayor of London on the newly refurbished concourse at Cannon St Station next Thursday.

The Worshipful Company of Plumbers raised £100,000 to commission and erect the seven-foot high bronze statue to celebrate 400 years since it was granted a royal charter by King James 1.

The statue will also highlight the importance of apprenticeships and celebrate the contribution of professional traders have made to the City of London..

At a fundraising dinner held last year at the House of Lords, former president of the Chartered Institute of Plumbers and Heating Engineers Ben Bradshaw said:  “A good apprenticeship is an essential part of training and I think it is a great idea to have a statue honouring apprenticeships in such a busy public place.”

The statue was created by sculptor Martin Jennings who also sculpted the statue of Sir John Betjeman at St Pancras Station and has cast bronzes of Phillip Larkin, Ronnie Barker and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

The Cannon Street site was chosen because the Worshipful Company had its livery hall there until 1863 when it was compulsorily purchased to make way for the expansion of the station.

The company was first established in the fourteenth century to regulate plumbing.

These days the company is a charitable trust which provides bursaries to plumbing trainees, supports a small number of plumbers volunteering oversees and makes donations to local schools and voluntary groups.

Master of the Company, Chris Sneath, told Plumbing and Heating Monthly magazine that the future was not in bronze but in living persons.

“We will be expanding our programme to provide support for those setting out in the craft as well as those whose training is at higher levels.

“We believe that it is very important to support those on whose shoulders the future of plumbing depends,” he said.

 

Air Commodore Paul Nash, Clerk of the Company said the organisation currently supported plumbing trainees doing NVQ 2 and NVQ 3 level courses, but hoped to be able to support those doing more advanced training in future.

“Any trainee facing financial hardship can visit our website at http://www.plumberscompany.org.uk/, go to the section called ‘support for training’ and download the application forms,” he said.

The unveiling ceremony will take place on at Cannon Street Station at  11.00 am on Thursday October 6, 2011.

First quarter council spending fugures released

This article was published on the LGC website on September 29, 2011.

The Department for Communities & Local Government has published the first release of quarterly council spending figures.

The new system will see out-turn data published for the sector as a whole and also broken down by individual authority.

The first release showed council spending running marginally ahead of budget, with the forecast total service expenditure 1.8% ahead of budget.

In total, councils spent £24.4bn on services in the first quarter of the year. When projected for the full year this gave a forecast full year expenditure of £99.3bn, compared to the £97.5bn that councils have budgeted to spend.

However, the full-year measure for net current expenditure – which includes the amount paid in housing benefit along with receipts from various levies, precepts and the balances on trading accounts – was just 0.4% ahead of that budgeted for at £116.7bn.

There were regional variations, with net current expenditure in London expected to exceed its target by 2.1% while authorities in the east Midlands were set to come in at 3.5% under budget.

Valid data was not submitted by 16 local authorities, 10 of which are councils including Brentwood BC, communities secretary Eric Pickles’ constituency authority.

Scottish councils join forces in mass tweet

Next week councils throughout Scotland will use twitter to give local residents a better understanding of what they do.

From 12noon on Tuesday 27 September until 12noon on Wednesday 28 staff in 29 of Scotland’s 32 councils will tweet updates on local services.

The initiative is being organised by the National Communications Group, which brings together communications professionals working in Scottish councils.

Kate Bond who is chair of the group and head of communications at Aberdeenshire Council said it waas an opportunity for local government in Scotland to work together to improve awareness of what they do.

“It’s a good way of introducing councils who are new to social networking.

“We have set up a buddy system, matching councils who have been using social networking for a long time with those who are less experienced.

“Social networking offers a new way of promoting dialogue with residents and getting them to engage with us,” she said. 

Walsall Council undertook a similar exercise in March and its chief executive Paul Sheehan, writing about the experience in the LGC said:

 “The most popular tweet of the day was that we were moving a woodpecker roost from a rotten tree.

“It all painted a picture of a vibrant authority filled with dedicated people doing good work. A series of small things that add up to so much more,” he said

Survey records high trust in councils

This article was published on the LGC Plus website on September 23, 2011.

The last-ever government survey of public attitudes towards citizenship has found trust in local government at a record high.

The 2010-11 citizenship survey found that 64% of respondents trusted their council – a higher percentage than in all previous years.

In addition, 86% of adults in England were satisfied with their local area as a place to live, showing a continued increase from 82% in 2008-09 and 83% in 2009-10.

However, in a blow to the government’s Big Society agenda, the survey showed levels of volunteering and civic participation stubbornly refusing to rise.

Twenty five percent of respondents said they had volunteered formally at least once a month in 2010-11 – a rate unchanged on 2008-09 and 2009-10 levels but still lower than at any point between 2001 and 2007-08.

Similarly, 34% of people said they had engaged in civic participation at least once in the 12 months prior to the survey, a figure unchanged on 2009-10 but lower than in any year before then.

Junior local government minister Bob Neill (Con) said the results showed that councils were still able to improve services, despite funding cuts.

“Despite the need to pay off the deficit inherited from the last administration many councils are showing they can reduce costs, while at the same time improving services for their residents,” he said.

“Central government is setting councils free, shifting power away from Whitehall and putting it back in the hands of councillors and councils giving them greater control their finances and putting them at the centre of driving local growth.”

The annual citizenship survey has been testing public attitudes to influencing decisions, volunteering, community cohesion, fear of crime and racial and religious prejudice since 2001.

But this year’s survey will be the last, as the Department for Communities & Local Government has decided to cancel it in a bid to save the estimated £4m annual cost.  

A Cabinet Office spokesman said it would still need robust statistics on volunteering and would be announcing plans for collecting them shortly.

However, Ellie Brodie, a researcher at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), said the end of the survey was bad news for those interested in monitoring the progress of the Big Society.

“We had some grave concerns about DCLG cutting the survey, as there isn’t any other source that provides data on that range of subjects,” she said. “It provides data over time that allows us to say whether volunteering has changed year on year and in the context of a big push to get people involved.

“There is not going to be any other way of the government measuring the impact of those policies,” she added.

Nick Hurd, minister for civil society, said the figures were in fact positive in difficult economic times.

“It’s very encouraging that the decline in volunteering and civic participation has stopped,” he said.

“And community spirit is on the rise, more people feel like they belong strongly to their neighbourhood than recorded at any time in the last decade.”

Council carbon data published

This story was published on the LGC Plus website on September 19, 2011.

Carbon emissions fell in almost all local authority areas in recent years, according to government figures.

Figures released last week by the Department for Energy and Climate Change showed an overall fall of 14% across all local authority areas between 2005 and 2009.

Total emissions increased in only ten local authority areas, most notably in Highland Council where they were up by 11%.

The council believes this may be due to increased tourist traffic and the widespread use of oil as a domestic fuel.

The biggest fall was seen in Gravesham BC, down 66% since 2005, and is attributed to the closure of a large cement works.

The report found that domestic emissions had fallen in all local authority areas but there were rises in industrial, commercial and road emissions.

King’s Lynn & West Norfolk BC’s total emissions rose by 7%, driven by a 25.3% increase in industrial and commercial emissions.

Deputy leader Brian Long (Con) defended the increase: “King’s Lynn has seen major industrial and commercial growth.

“One of Europe’s largest paper processing plants has just opened in the area, it will increase carbon emissions but it is recycling more newspaper than anywhere else in the country.”

“Kings Lynn is on the up and the council has done a lot to promote that.”

With emissions increases and decreases so closely linked to industrial activity, a spokesman for DECC said the government was not relying on the economic downturn to keep emissions in check.

“When the economy picks up again we want to make sure we don’t see a sudden peak in emissions which is why we have policies in place to help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels,” he said.

Although industry is the biggest producer of emissions - 43% compared to 30% from the domestic sector and 27% from road transport - the Carbon Trust has been encouraging councils to look at their own emissions.

Richard Rugg, director of programmes at the trust, said local authorities should aim to reduce their own emissions by up to 25% in five years, a figure already achieved by Oxford City Council.

Schools were important places to start as emissions from their buildings can add 84% to the total, Mr Rugg said, and the trust is working with Cambridge schools on quick ways to save energy and money.

“We start with heating and lighting controls, insulation and IT, a big consumer of energy,” said Mr Rugg.

Case study: Sheffield City Council – 20% drop in emissions

The council has increased the numbers of bus lanes, joined up cycle lanes and introduced free parking for low emissions vehicles.

Bio-methane vehicles form part of the councils’ fleet, fuelled from green matter, supplied by local businesses.

The Care4Air partnership encourages local residents, schools and businesses to ‘do their bit’ to improve air quality and runs an award scheme to recognise excellence.

The council is part of the East End Quality of Life Initiative, which works in some of the most deprived parts of the city, where local volunteers carry out pollution monitoring and free air quality alerts are available to those with respiratory problems.

Andy Nolan, Director of Sustainable Development at Sheffield City Council said: “We are still digesting the data but there has been a bigger push around renewable energy over the last few years which have enabled us to create energy distribution.”

Three large wood burning installations produce two MW of power to heat 550 dwellings and the city is one of the top generators of solar power. Heat from the city’s waste incinerator fuels 140 buildings.

Mr Nolan believes that clear planning policies are essential.

“Sheffield was the first of the core cities to have a Local Development Framework in place with very clear and supportive planning initiatives that have encouraged the adoption of sustainable fuels.

“We also have businesses in the city who have responded to opportunities such as Feed in Tariffs,” he said.

Mr Nolan believed that national initiatives such as CRC and emissions trading were driving reductions in the business sector, especially in manufacturing.

The first CRC league tables, rating the energy efficiency performance of large businesses and public organisations, will be published later this autumn.

Social housing fraud much worse than thought

Story published on LGC Plus, September 12, 2011.

The threat of social housing tenancy fraud in the UK could be three times higher than previously thought, new research has warned.

The research by data company Experian Public Sector reveals that the fraudulent occupancy of social housing such as subletting could exist in at least 157,000 properties or around 3.1% of all social rented housing. This is three times the number estimated by the Audit Commission in 2009.

The figures are based on an initial analysis of 125,000 social housing tenancies in ten UK local authorities and housing associations in rural and urban areas.

Experian said it hoped to analyse data in more areas over the coming months.

Researchers matched data from a variety of sources to identify tenants living at other addresses.

Experian believes that £2bn a year could be saved if these properties were made available to those in temporary accommodation.

Nick Mothershaw, Experian’s director of fraud & identity, said: “Our initial research suggests that the level of social housing tenancy fraud in Britain could be much higher than previously estimated.

“It also demonstrates how more effective data matching can quickly provide a reliable indication of what could be illegal occupancy and subletting.

“This means investigators can prioritise and deal swiftly with fraudulent cases. Reducing social housing tenancy fraud will significantly reduce the cost of temporary accommodation which we estimate at over £2 billion a year.”

Gwyneth Taylor, policy director at the National Federation of Arms Length Management Organisations, who manage council housing said illegal sub-letting was hard to track.

“ALMO’s do a lot of work to try and estimate the level of illegal sub-letting, It’s quite difficult if people pay their rent. We don’t come knocking on peoples doors asking for rent any more,” she said.

Tower Hamlets votes against broadcasting investment

This story was published on the LGC Plus website on September 12, 2011.

Tower Hamlets LBC has agreed to continue not recording and broadcasting council meetings, despite an earlier decision to ban members of the public from taping, filming or photographing meetings.

The council’s cabinet decided last week to take no action on a report outlining a range of options for webcasting meetings, thus continuing the current practice of not recording council meetings.

This was one of four options considered by the cabinet last week, one of which would have involved upgrading the council’s existing recording systems, at an estimated cost of up to £75,000.

Conservative opposition leader Peter Golds last year criticised the council leadership for not making meetings available to the public over the internet.

In February, the authority amended its constitution preventing members of the public and guests from recording meetings but vowed to webcast all public council meetings within 48 hours, but it has yet to implemented the pledge.

The cabinet had considered three options:

Using existing CCTV equipment to implement a “basic, low quality service” that could be delivered within existing budgets;

Upgrading the existing system, employing “pan-tilt cameras” and “ambient microphones” to improve sound and picture quality at a one-off cost of up to £75,000; and

Contracting out the webcasting at a cost of £25,000 a year, which would allow meetings to be streamed live and would typically offer sub-titles and links to explanatory materials such as presentations and reports.

The cabinet report described the system of fixed video cameras and microphones in the council chamber as “old and unreliable”.

Is the future flat-pack?

School buildings should be more uniform and funding to rebuild and maintain them, allocated to councils, rather than direct to schools.

These are the main findings of a government-backed report into the use of capital funding for schools, including Building Schools for the Future (BSF).

The report was written by Sebastian James, a long-standing friend of David Cameron and a former  member of the Bullingdon Club, who is now Group Operations Director of Dixons Retail plc.

The report claims that BSF was bureaucratic and costly.

Designs were sometimes inadequate and funding decisions were made on the basis of deprivation and attainment, rather than the condition of the buildings.

The authors say there should be a sharp move away from “iconic buildings and structures to buildings that are fit-for-purpose, efficient to run” and manageable.

They argue a standard design spec should be developed centrally to act as a blueprint for future projects.

The report cites the Flexible School Project in Swindon as an example of good practice.

Here schools will be built to a timber frame modular system in future.

This will consist of a teaching block, which can be adapted to form classrooms or any public facilities, and a link block containing wet facilities such as toilets and showers.

Ruth Reed, president of the Royal Institute of Business Architects (RIBA), dismissed this as a “flat-pack” approach to building schools.

She said the report overemphasised the role of standardisation.

Mrs Reed pointed out that housing minister Grant Shapps had recently condemned an identikit approach to house building. 

“Schools work best when they respond to the needs of pupils, teachers and the context of a site,” she said.

But Paul Carter, leader of Kent County Council, one of six authorities that sued the government over the halting of the BSF programme, expected that standardisation would only apply to larger projects.

“We shouldn’t over-estimate the massive backlog in maintenance and repair that is still needed”, he said. 

But he believed that BSF was overly grandiose.

Given the right freedoms Kent could achieve the same projects for 40% less.

“You don’t need a different architect designing every school in the country, you can still have buildings of architectural merit and cut down on consultancy” said Mr Carter.

But fellow litigant, Sandwell council leader Darren Cooper, claimed the government was planning to use prefabricated buildings, which would get us by in the short term, but in 20 years time would leave us in the same position as before.

Mr Cooper said his council was still waiting to hear about the nine schools that had their funding frozen when secretary of state for education Michael Gove called a halt to BSF last July. 

“You can always do things differently but these schools were being built in line with the needs of the areas they were built for.

“One size fits all is not good enough”, he said.

“This is an idea from America where schools are shipped over at a standardised cost of so many pounds per unit”, Mr Cooper added.

He believed that BSF projects had transformed the education of children in Sandwell and contributed towards the regeneration of the local area.

Dr Neil Bently, deputy general secretary of the CBI, said: “A set of centrally-approved designs is a sure fire way to make significant savings”.

He urged the government to respond swiftly to the recommendations.

Disability organisations were keen to ensure that the new designs did not exclude disabled children.

Marc Bush, head of research and public policy at disability charity Scope, said: “Regardless of who has the responsibility for designing the schools, we believe that all contractors must adhere to the principles of inclusive design, if we ever want our schools to be accessible and give disabled children the same educational opportunities as their non disabled peers.”

Simone Aspis, campaigns and policy co-ordinator at the Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALFIE), was concerned that the government’s drive towards deregulation, and the creation of Free Schools in particular, would lead to lower standards in building design for disabled children.  

A spokesman at the Department for Education said the buildings would be fully compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act.

The report also recommends that local authorities draw up and agree a short Local investment Plan with the government, so that funding for rebuilding and renovation can be prioritised in line with need.

It is hoped that greater economies of scale will be achieved by procuring projects together rather than one by one.

Funding for Free Schools and Academies will be allocated centrally.

The report suggests that a number of building and maintenance contacts are agreed centrally, an approach that may also be applied to the purchase of insurance and information technology.

The report also calls for the simplification of planning regulations relating to school design.

 

Shadow education secretary Andy Burnham said: “School building and repairs are in complete chaos thanks to Michael Gove.

“His decision-making over the scrapping of 700 Building Schools for the Future projects was described by a High Court judge as an “abuse of power”.

“And as if this wasn't bad enough, he has made matters worse by prioritising pet projects from the shrunken capital budget.

“With mainstream schools facing harsh cuts, he must set out how he intends to fund his free schools programme so that local communities can judge whether this is the most effective use of scarce resources.”

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “This is an independent report and ministers will now look at the report in detail and respond later on in the year.”

He said that there would be a lot of debate with schools and the construction sector, but could not say when or how further consultation would take place.

This article appeared in the June edition of Local Government News magazine.

Renewable incentives: Back to basics

Governments of all persuasions have been trying to encourage individuals, public bodies and businesses to generate their own energy and save power.

Rachel Salmon investigates some of the current initiatives and the controversies surrounding them.

There are two main schemes for energy generation, Feed in Tariffs (FITs) and the Renewable Heat Initiative (RHI)

Feed in Tariffs were launched in April 2010.

They allow individuals and organisations to generate their own electricity using wind turbines, solar panels, river hydro and anaerobic digesters, which burn organic waste.

Under the scheme the generator receives a ‘tariff’ for each kilowatt-hour (KWh) of power produced, this is usually paid as a rebate on the electricity bill.

The level of tariff depends on the amount of electricity generated.

A typical householder, generating two-and-a-half kilowatts, currently receives 36.1p for each KWh produced.

This is considerably higher than the 10-13 pence the companies normally charge domestic customers for electricity.

The government makes up the balance and larger generators receive a lower tariff.

FITs have been very popular, with over 27,000 installations approved in the first year, 92 per cent of which are for singe households.

But the government cut funding for FITs by £40m in the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review.

On March 18, Gregory Barker, minister of state at the Department for Energy and Climate Change, launched a “fast track review” of FITs, and is proposing to cut tariffs for larger generators from July.

The consultation closed on May 6 but, if the proposals are implemented, those generating between 50 and 100 KW will see their tariffs fall from 31.4 pence to 19 pence per KWh.

Those generating between 250 KW and 5 megawatts (MW) will see their tariff fall from 29.3 pence per KWh now to eight-and-a-half pence.

The government insists these changes have been brought about by the larger than expected number of applications for commercial solar farms.

The lower tariffs will only apply to installations completed after July 2011.

The government originally estimated that 40MW of solar power would be generated in the UK by 2015.

But the solar industry now estimates that as much as 1,470MW of solar power could be generated by then.

The government said it is implementing the higher charges for larger generators to ensure enough funding is available to support smaller generators, particularly householders.

The move has provoked anger from councils, housing organisations and commercial solar energy companies.

On April 18, eleven companies filed a claim in the High Court seeking a judicial review against energy secretary Chris Hulme for “reneging on previous commitments not to cut Feed in Tariffs until 2012 and failing to adhere to its previously stated processes for reviewing the incentives”.

In April, the BusinessGreen website reported that the government had “quietly dropped” plans to fit solar panels on buildings across its estate because of the new tariffs.

A spokeswoman for government procurement agency Buying Solutions said that they had undertaken an exploratory exercise, but early indications suggested it was not viable so the plans were put on hold.

Cornwall Council is planning to develop a large-scale solar farm outside Newquay airport.

It has also received numerous applications for solar farms from commercial developers.

Tim German, renewable energy and partnerships manager at Cornwall Council, said: “When Chris Hulme bought in the new act last August, which allowed local authorities to sell renewable energy and generate income from it, we went full steam ahead.” 

It was informed of the 10 per cent spending cut at meetings with energy minister Gregg Barker earlier this year.

Mr German said the government wanted communities, rather than councils and large companies, to take the lead in solar power generation.

“We think communities would benefit more from large-scale solar parks,,we want to get community gain from these large scale projects,” he said.

The council established a special planning team to assess applications for large-scale renewable installations which also include wind, wave and geo-thermal projects.

The team has developed supplementary planning guidance for solar farms.

Developers pay an average £5,000 a year into a community fund for each megawatt generated.

“The community can re-invest the money in putting solar panels on schools or do whatever they want to do, it’s all part of the big society,” said Mr German. 

A 5MW solar farm has the potential to generate as much as £1m for community projects over its lifetime.

According to Mr German, a recent meeting to establish a Renewable Energy Network in Waybridge attracted 600 people.

A number of communities were looking to develop similar bodies and the council was talking to the government about replicating the model nationally.

Mr German said the planned tariff changes had left them stranded, although some developers were racing to complete their solar farms by July.

He insisted that the council would continue working with government, but expressed frustration at the constant change in policy.

“It is a problem for local government when legislation keeps changing, how can you set up consistent delivery plans to support renewable energy,” he said.

In a separate move, the Homes and Communities Agency announced in March that the Affordable Homes Programme would not fund the installation of renewable power generators if they can generate income from FITs.

Andrew McNeil, energy efficiency manager at Derby Homes, said: “Derby City Council has a 90KW system that it was proposing to put in place.

“If these figures do go through we may have to re-tailor it to ensure it is under 50KW.  50KW is not big enough it would only power 25 homes.”.

Whilst the cost of solar panels had come down the cost of installation had not.

It still took the same amount of time to put them up and whilst they were getting some savings they were ‘nowhere near enough to support the figures that the government has proposed,” added Mr McNeil.

Leone Greene, head of external affairs at the Renewable Energy Association, which represents renewable energy producers, said: “We are very worried about proposed reductions for solar power which was extremely popular.” 

She said there were particular concerns for urban authorities, which have less option to use other renewable sources such as wind and hydro.

“50KW is quite small. Anyone doing a leisure centre, council offices, any interesting community scheme is in trouble.

“Solar power is not something that should be marginalised to the domestic sector.

“Authorities like Cornwall, Sheffield and Birmingham have integrated plans for solar power into their regional economic development strategies,” she said.

But a spokesman for Birmingham City Council, which plans to install solar panels on the homes of 100,000 residents, said the new tariffs would have no impact as households would register for FITs individually and would therefore benefit from the higher tariffs.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Energy and Climate Change, said: “The fast-track consultation will conclude on May 6, 2011 and we will be taking views expressed as part of the consultation into account in finalising the policy.”

In March the government launched the Renewable Heat Initiative (RHI), under which local authorities and businesses will be able to bid into a £860m fund from July to help install renewable heat pumps, biomass (wood burning) boilers and solar panels for heat generation.

It is hoped the scheme will increase renewable fuel investment to £4.4bn by 2020, safeguarding 150,000 jobs

RHI tariffs for industry, commercial and public sector generators will be agreed soon and the government hopes these will stimulate up to 13,000 industrial scale heat installations by 2020.

It expects tariffs for new installations to fall over time as costs decline.

A quarter of the first year’s budget will be used to make “premium payments” to 25,000 households to fund the installation of equipment for renewable heat and encourage take up.  Tariff payments will start from 2012.

Mr German said: “We want to tap into RHI in the same way as we tapped into FITs.  We hope we do not have the same problems with this as we have with FITs.”

Jaryn Bradford, senior technical manager at the Energy Saving Trust (EST), which advises businesses and consumers on renewable energy, said: “Local Authorities have been particularly interested in generating solar power for heating rather than electricity.

“The main interest has been to power swimming pools and local recreation centres.”

He said he thought the tariffs for RHI would be more adequate than the previous Low Carbon Building Programme and should allow a payback of ten years or less with a revenue stream thereafter.

He expected the tariffs would be announced this October.

Mr Bradford admitted that the number of low carbon schemes was confusing, particularly to householders.

He said the EST was working with government to simplify procedures.

Part of the remit of the EST is to promote low carbon schemes to the right audiences.

This article appeared in the May 2011 edition of Local Government News magazine.