Agenda item

Full employment

 

Councillor Mohammed Ibrahim asked the following question of the Portfolio Holder for Jobs and Growth:

 

Given George Osborne’s commitment to full employment, what level of employment and what kind of jobs are required to meet full employment in Nottingham, and by how much would Nottingham’s economy have to increase to support this?

 

Councillor Nick McDonald replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Ibrahim for your question. Yes, it was quite interesting to hear the Chancellor make a commitment to creating full employment in his recent speech in Essex and actually Mr Osborne’s words were weasel ones, the commitment he made was to secure the fullest possible level of employment. But, he also used the term full employment, what he described as a modern approach to full employment and that approach carries with it a number of important implied commitments that I don’t believe this Chancellor has any intention of making. So, let me just explain what I mean by that.

 

As economist in the room will know, a commitment to full employment has quite a technical definition. It is, what is essentially defined as structural unemployment, sometimes called the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment. What that means is that essentially, temporary or cyclical causes of unemployment are cut out. Now, economists from John Maynard Keynes through to Milton Freidman have argued about what that rate is, or should be. William Beverage put it at 3%, the Office of Economic Co-operation and Development defines it currently at 6.9% but, actually it is not a constant. It is defined by other important economic factors, interest rates, inflation rates, food and commodities prices and this is an important point actually, because what is full employment in technical terms isn’t actually what we would understand as being full employment.

 

So, when you start to un-pick the Chancellor’s commitment it starts to melt away. There are no figures to back up what he meant by full employment in his speech unlike the last Labour government’s commitment to 80% employment. It was deliberately vague, deliberately slippery and deliberately evasive and entirely political. For all that, it was also a commitment that I don’t believe this Tory-led Government is in a position to make based on its current policies.

 

So, let me briefly explain what I mean by that. Whatever rate you set full employment at, and is certainly a rate that is considerably higher than the current employment rate in this country because, let’s remember, we are not talking about unemployment here, we are talking about employment rates. Whilst unemployment rates have been going down nationally and in Nottingham for the last few years, employment rates, the number of people employed and in work are not going up by an equivalent number. Now, our Nottingham Job Plan sets a target employment rate of 75%. There are currently just short of 100,000 adults in the city who don’t work, of these around 56,000 are students, retired or on long-term sick. We wouldn’t reasonably expect them to be seeking work. That leaves a potential 41,000 workers in the city. That group then in turn breaks down to 21,000 unemployed people who are out of work actively looking for a job, 13,000 who want a job but are perhaps unable to take one because of childcare responsibilities or temporary sickness and 7,500 people not actively looking for work. What does that mean? For everyone currently searching for a job to get one we would need to create an extra 33,000 jobs in the city, and that patterns is duplicated right across the country. We are well short of a full employment situation in this country, we are a considerable way away from it.

 

Now, in Nottingham we are developing our industrial strategy, building on our Growth Plan to deliver our Nottingham Plan target and close that jobs gap but be under no illusions, it is an extremely difficult target to meet, and I will tell you why. This Government’s policies act against, not in support of that aim. Now, there has been a lot written about this, and all of the sensible economic commentary and here I would reference Paul Krugman who has been very clear about this, all of the sensible economic commentary is saying the same thing: to get employment rate up and to get the levels up, we would need to see an increase in the aggregate amount, and that Lord Mayor, means economic stimulus. We are not seeing economic stimulus from this Government, are we? No, we are seeing the opposite of stimulus. We are seeing fiscal tightening, otherwise known as cuts but cuts don’t increase the aggregate amount, they reduce aggregate amount because fiscal tightening means reduced budgets, it means no pay rises, it means worse terms and conditions, it means public sector organisations forced to lay people off. It means private sector organisations cutting costs, it means a cost of living crisis, less research and development, less innovation and that doesn’t stimulate the economy, it means it continues to bump along the bottom as it has done the last few years.

So, not only is the Chancellor’s commitment a non-commitment, it is a non-commitment by any sensible definition he cannot keep. I will make a final point on this, the other thing that a commitment to full employment doesn’t do, even if the Chancellor was serious about it is address structural problems in the labour market and I think that this starts to address the elements of the question. What kind of jobs, what hours, what pay and conditions and what levels of skills would be created by the commitment to full employment.

Actually, this is where the attention needs to be because whilst unemployment falls, as much a product of people disappearing off the JSA register as it is a reflection of increasing employment levels, long-term unemployment, particularly long-term youth unemployment is rising and rising fast across the country, creating a lost generation of unemployed and unemployable young people and skill levels that are making our businesses uncompetitive, and I say this constantly in this Chamber, and I will keep saying it because it is important, the Government’s response to this crisis is pitiful. The work programme has had zero impact on this issue, I’m hearing reports of work programme caseworkers dealing with 400 claimants each, not surprising that they are not getting people into work, the youth contract has been an abject failure. This Government’s policy towards FE funding is distorted mess and instead of supporting schools to improve employability levels, it is actually taking money away from the sort of activities that will improve them.

 

Now, here in Nottingham we are doing something about it, Councillor Mellen and myself are leading a drive on employability in schools together with local head teachers as one of the meaningful programmes to tackle youth unemployment and we have increased apprenticeships by over 30% via our Apprenticeship Hub. We are also launch the Nottingham jobs pledge this month to encourage employers to do more to help improve skill levels in the city and give more young people the chance of a job and help us achieve the clear target that we have set of another 33,000 people in work. A clear contrast then, Lord Mayor. A Chancellor and a Tory-led Government who make idle and vague promises of full employment without any commitment to making them which frankly they don’t mean and aren’t doing anything to achieve and a Labour Council who are prepared to commit to targets and more importantly are doing something about meeting them.

 

Wollaton Park children’s play area

 

Councillor Eileen Morley asked the following question of the Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture:

 

Would the Portfolio Holder join me in welcoming the long anticipated start of construction work on the Wollaton Park children’s play area which will not only serve the local community but be an asset to Wollaton Park that will be enjoyed by the whole of Nottingham and visitors to the city as well?

 

Councillor David Trimble replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and can I thank Councillor Morley for her question. I absolutely welcome the start of construction work on the children’s playground. Wollaton Hall and Deer Park is one of the finest Grade One listed Elizabethan mansions in the country and it is a unique asset for this city that will now have a beautiful playground for all to enjoy added to that. Over the last few years we have seen a fantastic improvement in our parks and open spaces with over 50 new playgrounds across the city as well as nature reserves.

 

We have invested over £20 million, much of it into our most deprived communities. With the vast majority of the funding coming from external sources such as the previous government’s pathfinder programme, Landfill tax sources such as Wren and Viola and the Lottery, among others. Key to this has been Labour councillors allocating section 106 and Area Capital Funding to kick-start and provide match funding in order to maximise projects, something Conservative councillors have consistently not wanted to do. The play area has taken some time to deliver but the Parks team have yet again worked extremely hard to maximise the use of the Council’s resources. They have done this by securing over two and half times more external investment that has been used to match against the Council’s funding in order to deliver a £255,000 project.

 

The funding package includes, £70,000 from the City Council including £35,000 of that in Area Capital and £25,000 Parks and Development and £10,000 sourced by the Leader of the Council. £75,000 from Wren which Councillor Grocock is a part of and we can thank him for that, £50,000 from Viola and a very welcome £60,000 contribution from Eibe Play who are the constructors of the play ground. I would like to thank Councillor Battlemuch too, he has been instrumental in setting up a fantastic new friends group which has great vitality and energy. I enjoyed meeting Helen Mitcham, the Secretary of the Group when we were interviewed on site by Radio Nottingham on Friday morning. The Wollaton Park Friends Group was established in September 2013 and it contains a broad spectrum of the local community and it has already become a very active and very supportive group.

 

This has enabled us to carry out extensive consultation thereby ensuring that the new design is appropriate for the sensitive historic location that it is in and it is a very beautiful design too. Councillor Battlemuch, I have been doing a little bit of digging and I might have unearthed something that might come as a little bit of a surprise to you. Long before you ever thought of becoming a councillor, the Labour government had a pathfinder programme which they provided substantial money to build new playgrounds.

 

On 20 May 2008 the Executive Board accepted the Labour Government’s pathfinder funding and it subsequently set aside £50,000 towards a £200,000 new playground at Wollaton Park in year 2 which would have been 2009/10. The Executive Board recommendation went before the Area Committee 11 December 2008 and it was a very different Area Committee than it is now and I have that very report that went to that Area Committee here. Councillor Culley was the Chair of the Area Committee, Councillor Benson was the Vice-Chair and Councillor Morley made up the Wollaton West contingent. Councillors Longford and Webster will remember Councillors Sutton and Oldham, the Wollaton East members of the Committee. I have the minutes of that Committee here with me too. The minutes of that meeting says, “that no indication of support for the proposed year 2 2009/10 works at Wollaton Parks be given to the Portfolio Holder at this time.” Councillor Culley and Councillor Morley made that decision. Councillor Culley as the Chair signed that minute.

So, Lord Mayor I welcome the long anticipated start of construction work as a Portfolio Holder and a member of the executive back in 2009, I wish we would have done it well over four years ago, but I am afraid that Conservative Councillors were far too short sighted to take that opportunity until Councillor Collins shamed them in this Chamber by offering a £10,000 contribution and Councillor Chapman pointed out that they were sitting on £80,000 capital in their Area Committee that they were refusing to spend on parks.

 

 

Community Representatives on Area Committees

 

Councillor Georgina Culley asked the following question of the Portfolio Holder for Community Services:

 

Could the Portfolio Holder confirm to the Council whether or not Community Representatives appointed to Area Committees are authorised to participate in voting on non-financial matters?

 

Councillor Nicola Heaton replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and thank you Councillor Culley for your question. The short answer to the question is that community representatives do not, in fact, have any formal voting rights on Area Committees. I very much value the large number of people who work hard in their local community and are elected to represent groups on Area Committees. The quality of discussion at Area Committees is usually very high and decisions councillors make are improved by consultation with the communities they represent, both informally and within formal structures, such as Area Committees.

 

The Executive Board has previously tried to extend voting rights to community representatives however, a review of the legal position has clarified that in whatever way community representatives are appointed to an Area Committee, cannot have voting rights. The Local Government Act 1972 confers a power to co-opt to certain committees, including Area Committees, but the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 further specifies that non-councillor members of committees and sub-committees do not have voting rights. While there are some exceptions to this rule these are mainly in relation to parish councils or to advisory committees and sub committees. The City’s Area Committees are not advisory bodies but exercise executive and non- executive powers. Therefore, under the 1989 Act, community representatives on Area Committees cannot have any right to vote.

 

It should also be said that business at Area Committee meetings is generally constructed informally and consensually and formal votes are uncommon, therefore, while we cannot give voting rights to community representatives on Area Committees full and effective participation by community representatives should not be diminished because of this legal clarification.

 

Individual Electoral Registration

 

Councillor Roger Steel asked the following question of the Deputy Leader:

 

Could the Portfolio Holder update the Council on the arrangements for the forthcoming move to Individual Electoral Registration, and confirm when the first full canvas of the electorate under the new system will commence?

 

Councillor Graham Chapman replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and I am sorry that we are now moving away from the Wollaton parish council meeting we have had for the past half an hour, however, onto other matters. 

 

We expect individual registration to come into full effect at the end of 2015 – but we is still not absolutely sure. The arrangements for IER are as follows and there are four points. From the 10 June this year, all new applicants must be individual registration and would require the applicant to provide date of birth and national insurance number.

 

Secondly, this is the confirmation stage, Electoral Services must compare the City’s electoral register with DWP records and local records in order to confirm electors and add them onto a new IER register. The Cabinet Office have given us a provisional date of 16 June.

 

Thirdly, there is the ‘Write Out’ stage which will take place simultaneously to all citizens some time in July / August. Where an existing elector’s details have been confirmed against DWP or other local records, we will write out to tell them they need do nothing further. This is what will happen to the vast majority of people. Electors whose details don’t match will receive ‘Invitations to Register’ as they will need to register individually. There will also be new ways for doing this, including a government digital portal and at that moment my heart sinks. The Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) is required to actively pursue registrations by sending out reminder forms and canvassers as part of this stage. This stage concludes with publication of a revised register on 1 December 2014. 

 

Any ‘unmatched’ electors who haven’t  confirmed and who haven’t responded to an Invitation to Register by the time that IER transition is complete in December 2015  will be removed from the register only at that point. It will therefore still be possible to vote in the Parliamentary and local elections in May 2015, even if they don’t respond. Council will also note, and this is a real change that I think people need to know, that arrangements for absent voters will be different. Specific letters will be issued to unconfirmed electors with absent votes to explain to them that if they do not register individually before 1 December 2014, they will lose their absent vote and have to vote at a polling station.

 

In the longer term, ensuring that new registrations under IER are maximised across the city will require registration to be integrated and encouraged where possible, at the first points of contact for services. So, what we are going to have to do is make it part of, for example when people sign up for tenancy agreements we will check that they are registered. I suspect that we will be doing the same thing for benefits and I would hope that we would want to do the same thing for libraries because this is the only way we are going to make sure that we do not lose hundreds and hundreds of people from the electoral register, although my suspicion is that this was the Government’s intention in the first place – to lose hundreds and hundreds of people from the electoral register because they are the sort of people who might not vote Conservative at the next election but that is just me being a bit conspiratorial and I may be exaggerating.

 

Municipal art collection

 

Councillor Malcolm Wood asked the following question of the Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture:

 

The controversial and crass pronouncement by Councillor Culley that the municipal art collection should be flogged off to cushion the savage and draconian cuts to this Authority by her Government has provoked widespread condemnation and derision. In view of her misguided understanding of such a proposal, will the Portfolio Holder enlighten the Leader of the minority party?

 

Councillor David Trimble replied as follows:

 

Thank you Lord Mayor and can I thank Councillor Wood for this question. Some people might find Councillor Wood’s question a little direct and straight to the point but I find that it’s got a little je ne sais quoi about it but a je ne sais quoi that I agree with. I don’t know whether Councillor Culley went out deliberately and sought the headline or rather she just responded to a media enquiry but whatever she did, she got it spectacularly wrong.

 

Councillor Culley was wrong to state that we don’t have proper records, in fact we have quite detailed records of our artworks and our entire collection of oil paintings is accessible online. I have got here, a full collection of quotes from the Post and a Nottingham Post comment, even on the same day of the article says that, “not for sale, city must guard its civic treasures.” George Adkins Snr, didn’t agree with Councillor Culley by stating that “the collection is an important part of the city’s heritage.” Terrace Sleeford of Sherwood wrote that “Councillor Culley should hang her head in shame” and he agreed with my assessment of the situation. Whilst Steve Wallace from Sherwood agreed that “fine art should not be sold as a quick fix” and Shirley Reid stated that “it would be crazy to sell off art” as well as there be plenty of other comments online about the article.

 

Even the disgraced ex-Cabinet Minister, Maria Miller in her letter to the Prime Minister disagrees with Councillor Culley. In her letter to the Prime Minister, she wrote that she “was immensely proud in ensuring that art and cultural institutions received the rightful recognition that they deserved in making Britain great.” Definitely or not something Councillor Culley claimed that she has done for Nottingham, which Maria Miller claimed that she has done for the country.

when talking about museum collections at our disposal, I am afraid that Councillor Culley completely fails to understand museums, she fails to understand the tangible link between the past, present and future and she doesn’t understand that many of the collections are entrusted to the care of museums. The principle that the Arts Council work to states that,

 

“… when private persons give property for public purposes the Crown undertakes to see that it is devoted to the purposes intended by the donor, and to no others.  When a work of art is given to a museum or gallery for general exhibition, the public thereby acquires rights in the object concerned and these rights cannot be set aside. The authorities of the museum or gallery are not the owners of such an object in the ordinary sense of the word: they are merely responsible, under the authority of the Courts, for carrying out the intentions of the donor. “

 

Failure to adhere to this principle would put our accreditation with the Arts Council at serious risk with very severe financial penalties for this Council.

Breaking this code of conduct would mean that Nottingham’s Museum Service would lose its accredited status and with this the trust of any future donors gifting significant works to the service along with withdrawal of Arts Council funding to the Council. 

 

The Council has, over the last three years, attracted over £1.3 million in revenue support for its Museum & Gallery Service under the Museum’s Strategic Support fund. This type of action would also jeopardise Nottingham Castle redevelopment bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund, as fundamentally our bid builds on our strong and established reputation for being a leading accredited Museum and that would be at risk. We will announce that decision very soon, a decision will be made by 30 April I think, but if that is successful, it would have cost us £12.5 million and I would be absolutely bonkers to put that at risk.

 

Recently, I am aware that Conservative Croydon Council has pursued the sale of Chinese ceramics to plug a financial gap in another theatre project. As a result of the sale going ahead in contravention to the accreditation standards, the Council has now lost its accreditation status and all grant assistance from the Arts Council England. Even Alan Davey, the Chief Executive of the Arts Council, accused Croydon Council of being “short-sighted” over its pawn shop sale. I’m sure Councillor Culley wouldn’t really want that to happen in Nottingham. Croydon Council has lost its accreditation for a whole 5 years, £1.3 million over 3 years, what would that be over 5 years? That would mean no external funding from them at all, we would not be allowed to have any temporary exhibitions for 5 years. We would not be able to doing the sort of thing we did with the National Silk Exhibition, we would not have been able to borrow it. Our two recent exhibitions from Nottingham artist Paul Waplington and the Turner Prize winner, Jeremy Deller, we would not be able to borrow anything from them or host those exhibitions.

 

Do you want a Nottingham Castle that has no temporary exhibitions for 5 years? I also understand that the Arts Council have asked the Heritage Lottery Fund to retrospectively claw back a grant already awarded to Croydon. I think Councillor Culley should think more carefully in the future prior to making such announcements that could harm this city’s heritage, harm her reputation because we would not want to end up like the Conservative Croydon Council would we?

 

Debt support for people in Nottingham

 

Councillor Rosemary Healy asked the following question of the Deputy Leader:

 

Could the Deputy Leader tell Council what is being done to help support people in debt in the city?

 

Councillor Graham Chapman replied as follows:

 

Can I thank Councillor Healy for her question. Nottingham City Council has a commitment to help people in debt in fact, with very little option these days. Our advice services this year have so far helped to manage £4.3m of worth of debt. 30% of demand for the Council’s Welfare Rights service is in relation to debt issues. The LGiU has five top tips for what local authorities can do to help people avoid and manage the problem of debt.

 

Firstly, show people how to manage money. In collaboration with Capital One we run Corporate Social Responsibility programme and examples of projects operating in Nottingham include the programme that has been delivered to over 1,000 local students and aims to cover every school in Nottingham by 2014. Capital One has been supporting Bulwell Academy and Big Wood School, in Nottingham for many years. They focus on delivering workshops  and include sessions on financial management. Again, through Capital One, local primary schools have been offered one day sessions which cover the basics of financial management, along withan introduction to the world of work.

Secondly, spotting the signs of early intervention. The Employment and Work Support Programme is led by Carole Mills, and I would like to thank Carole because this is not necessarily a part of her job, she has given additional time to this and I am very grateful for what she has achieved. The programme has been created to help households to respond to the risk of financial impact and vulnerability created by the welfare changes. Through this programme, the Council will support people into work and improve the level of financial capability in order to reduce dependency on irresponsible and expensive lenders. With NCH and Nottingham City advice and support there is a protocol whereby any agency will refer debtors in financial difficulty to the Advice Agencies and tries to find ways of alleviating debt at an early stage, which brings us on to the next point, referral.

 

Citizens referred to Nottingham City Council Welfare Rights Service will receive help with debt issues including, preparing financial statements and offering budgeting advice, negotiation payment arrangements with creditorshelp with court forms, support for tenants and home owners with arrears and possession proceedings,insolvency options such as Bankruptcy or Debt Relief Orders.

 

Nottingham City Council have invested £900k in city-wide advice services provided by a consortium of debt agencies (Advice Nottingham it is called) providing a service which is free, independent, impartial advice to City residents on a range of matters.

 

The fourth element is trying to restrict the market in debt. Nottingham City Council believes that pay day loans are detrimental to the health and economic wellbeing of Nottingham's citizens. In order to control and limit the visibility of these types of lenders, from September 2013, all pay day loan company websites were blocked and inaccessible from all Nottingham City Council computers, including public computers in libraries.

 

The Council is also supporting stricter controls over pay day loan companies and premises, stricter regulation of advertising for pay day loan companies and the promotion of Credit Unions which provide a safer loan alternative to vulnerable citizens and can I thank Councillor Sam Webster for the support he has been giving to the Nottingham Credit Union, he has played a very valuable role already.

 

The City Council are committed to improving access to responsible alternative credit arrangements and have invested approximately £300k in the Nottingham Credit Union, £200k of which is accessible only by residents of Nottingham through a Small Loans Scheme. A report published by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling found almost £1.5 billion was lost in fixed odds terminals across England in 2013.Hackney Council has made a submission to government under the Sustainable Communities Act asking that betting shops be given their own planning class, as with nightclubs and casinos. The submission has received cross-party support for which we are grateful from boroughs across London and 35 councils outside the capital – including Nottingham City Council. This would mean residents and councillors could have a say over every application, and the potential impact a new betting shop may have on an area.

 

Acting responsibly - From 1 April 2014, Nottingham City Council has increased the rate of the Living Wage to the equivalent of £7.65 per hour for the lowest paid employees, such as cleaners and kitchen assistants. The Minimum Wage is a good thing that recognises that the amount the Minimum Wage is set at £6.19 per hour and does not provide enough money for people to make ends meet. For this reason, the Council has made a commitment to pay the higher Living Wage to people on lower pay grades, and to increase it this year to £7.65 per hour.

 

Now, there will always be debt, there was debt in the Bible, there was debt in Shakespeare and there was debt in Dickens and a great deal of debt. The trouble is is that debt is on the increase and in the recent years it has been due to a culture that promotes easy gratification on credit and we saw that in the last 15 to 20 years. This has been overlaid by the promotion of gambling for which I blame the last government which eased up on restrictions, I wasn’t comfortable, I was wondering why I was in the Labour party which was easing restrictions on gambling. However, it did and it was a mistake and I think we should admit it. It has now however, taken a far more worrying turn still with the withdrawal of support for some of the most poorest people in society. For the first two phenomenon I mentioned, borrowing for quick gratification and gambling, we can to some degree put the blame on the individual but we should also put some blame on the industry. For the withdrawal of support for the poor, that is firmly at the door of the Coalition and as with the ‘bedroom tax’ you can see from all the effort this Council is putting in, not to mention the potential debt write-off down stream that it may well cost more to withdraw the support from the poor then it saves in financial terms but it will cost a hell of lot more in human terms. We may well end up paying enormous financial costs in order to create misery in human terms, that I’m afraid is the current Government for you.

 

Irresponsible landlords

 

Councillor Sam Webster asked the following question of the Deputy Leader:

 

Could the Deputy Leader tell Council what we are doing to encourage people to report irresponsible landlords?

 

Councillor Graham Chapman replied as follows:

Thank you Councillor Webster. I would also like to say that not all landlords are responsible and a lot of tenants are irresponsible, I have seen landlords left with having to face thousands of pounds worth of damage as a consequence of irresponsible tenants. However, we do have the phenomenon of an increasing number of irresponsible landlords. The Council is undertaking a range of work to encourage people to report irresponsible landlords

 

Irresponsible landlords campaign in bus shelters and customer contact points will start week commencing 22 April 2014. In May 2014 there will be a bus campaign and for 4 weeks which encourages people to report a landlord who is being irresponsible. A new Nottingham City Council webpage about the private rented sector including reporting a rogue launched recently and note that for this social media below these are at an early stage and will continue to be improved upon. By the sounds of it the website needs a bit of development.

 

Social media has gone live and there will be an article in the next Arrow about reporting a rogue landlord and supporting the private rented sector. Leaflets are being sent out to 35,000 homes in the additional licensing designation areas and that is happening this week. By the end of 2013 / 2014 letters to all landlords about HMO licensing and information into neighbourhoods was sent out and there will be attendance promoting the event at community events and there have been recent radio interview on BBC Radio Nottingham and further one planned with Kemet FM. There will be posters going out into the community from the beginning of May so you can see that it is fairly comprehensive.