Welfare Reform Green Paper

No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility

“No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility” is a wide ranging consultation on the future of welfare. The Green Paper sets out plans for improving support and work incentives to create a system that rewards responsibility. The majority of people of working age – who can work now or at some point in the future – and their families will no longer be on benefits for life. There will also be greater choice and control over the support that is provided.

For the full details visit the DWP web site

DWP Releases Circular A 12

This circular is about the changes due in October 08 regarding housing benefit and council tax benefit Extended Payments schemes.

The seven Multi Area Agreements :

Tees Valley - Darlington, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees. The MAA covers physical regeneration, transport and housing renewal and growth. Targets include reducing the gap in GVA between Tees Valley and the rest of the region and improving the quality of the housing stock and growing local housing markets.
Greater Manchester - Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan. The focus is on maximising the benefits of greater integration between employment support and skills provision. Priority targets: employment, skills and raising wage income.
South Yorkshire - Sheffield, Doncaster, Rotherham and Barnsley - Their initial MAA is focused on growing local housing markets and housing renewal. Targets are included on both, building on the work undertaken to date as part of the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder.
Leeds City Region - Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield, York, (Unitaries) North Yorkshire (County), Selby, Craven and Harrogate (Districts). Leeds City Region is prioritising Transport and Skills with a focus on how best local people can be connected to learning and employment opportunities. Targets include increasing employment and increasing GVA.
Partnership for Urban South Hampshire - Hampshire (County) Portsmouth, Southampton (Unitary) East Hampshire, Eastleigh, Fareham, Gosport, Havant, New Forest, Test Valley, Winchester (Districts). Focus is on employment and skills, housing, transport and skills. The transport priorities will deliver a seamless management system for the area's roads which will lead to better planning and delivery of transport priorities across the area.
Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole - Bournemouth and Poole (Unitaries), Dorset (County) and the Christchurch Council, East Dorset , North Dorset , Purbeck , West Dorset , Weymouth and Portland (Districts) – The three main priorities are skills, transport and sustainable growth. Targets include increasing the GVA per employee and increasing the proportion of the population with university level skills.
Tyne and Wear - Gateshead Council, Newcastle City Council, North Tyneside Council, South Tyneside Council, Sunderland City Council, Durham County Council, Northumberland County Council. Key themes are employment, skills - levels 1 to 4 and transport. Targets include reducing the number of people on out of work benefits and congestion time per mile. The agreement heralds a new approach to the delivery of key priorities in the sub-region, in particular tackling the most acute pockets of deprivation in the area.

Place survey Manual is released

The Place Survey Technical Manual aims to provide Local Authorities all the information required to run the survey in their localities, including the timetable for the survey, sampling methods and the sampling frame, options for running the survey in two tier areas, and how to submit survey results to the Audit Commission

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/placesurveymanual0809

CLG has published all the NIs included in LAAs on an interactive webiste. This means that it is possible to identify groups of authorities who have chosen to work on the same indicator.

http://www.localpriorities.communities.gov.uk/default.aspx