General Reports and Other Publications
NAO: The National Audit Office has highlighted the benefits flowing from the innovative use of competition to award companies licences to transmit electricity from offshore wind farms - but warns that electricity consumers are being left with some significant risks, including bearing the cost of inflation.
CIPD: A new report (Sustainable organisation performance through HR in SMEs) identifies vital insights for HR practice & strategy for driving long-term performance in SMEs.
Based on research with 4 case study organisations and drawing on the experiences of 4 additional HR directors & business leaders, the study has uncovered 4 key stages of organisation transition in SMEs, each associated with different opportunities & challenges for people management: entrepreneurial edge, emerging enterprise, consolidating organisation and established organisation.
The research identified 6 key insights for HR practitioners in SMEs as well as those who are responsible for HR activities, but may not have HR explicitly in their job title.
The research identified 6 key insights for HR practitioners in SMEs as well as those who are responsible for HR activities, but may not have HR explicitly in their job title.
Demos: Clinical commissioners should look again both at how ‘reablement’ services are delivered – and who delivers them – as they take responsibility for these schemes from local authorities, says a new report by Demos.
The report comes in response to significant government investment in ‘reablement’ services, support services designed to speed discharge from hospital and reduce the need for ongoing care & support.
The report comes in response to significant government investment in ‘reablement’ services, support services designed to speed discharge from hospital and reduce the need for ongoing care & support.
Ippr: Local councils should have a duty to provide affordable housing, but the right to decide how to spend the money currently going to landlords through Housing Benefit, according to a new report published by the think tank IPPR. The report shows that current levels of new house building, at around 100,000 a year, are the lowest for a century and set to get even worse.
The new publication is the final report of IPPR’s 18-month-long fundamental review of housing policy. It shows that over the current 4-year period the UK will spend £95bn on Housing Benefit and less than £5bn on building new homes. In stark contrast, the report shows that in the late 1970s, 80% of public spending on housing went on bricks & mortar, and just a fifth on rent allowances.
NAO: In a memorandum to the Public Accounts Committee, the National Audit Office has set out the long-term challenges & uncertainties involved in supplying secure, low carbon & affordable electricity.
The memorandum describes how the Department of Energy and Climate Change is seeking to address these challenges, through existing measures & reforms to the electricity market.
The memorandum describes how the Department of Energy and Climate Change is seeking to address these challenges, through existing measures & reforms to the electricity market.
iea: 8 years on from The Orange Book’s release, a new publication looks at ‘the unfinished business of the Liberal Democrats’ policy development and sets out a wide range of new areas on which the party should now concentrate’.
Defra: Computers, televisions and other electrical products plugged in but not in use or left on standby cost the UK up to £1.3bn in electricity bills every year, a new study has revealed. The study, ‘Powering the Nation – household energy using habits uncovered also revealed that the UK is watching 10bn hours more TV than previously thought, adding £205m to electricity bills.
PC&PE: The House of Commons elected in 2010 should have the opportunity to decide its preference about the hours that it sits, the Procedure Committee concludes in its report Sitting hours & the Parliamentary calendar.
NLGN: A bold decentralisation of power and a strengthening of local government could transform the ability of English countries & cities to connect local people with the decisions that shape their communities and transform democracy in the UK – but it must be backed by compulsory voting in local elections in order to succeed.
Ippr: Ed Cox, Director of IPPR North, responds to the announcements (made on Wednesday 27 June) that the government plans to offer a wage subsidy to employers to take on young people who have been unemployed for 6 months rather than 9 in unemployment ‘hotspots’.
PC&PE: The Business Innovation and Skills Committee has published a report - "The Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property: where next?" - as part of its inquiry into the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property & Growth.
NO: Complaints about Leicestershire County Council’s grant of planning permission for a new waste-processing facility have been investigated by the Local Government Ombudsman,
Dr Jane Martin. In this case she did not uphold the complaints but, because of the considerable local interest and concern about the development, she has taken the very unusual step of issuing a public report even though she found no injustice and only one minor point of fault by the Council.
Dr Jane Martin. In this case she did not uphold the complaints but, because of the considerable local interest and concern about the development, she has taken the very unusual step of issuing a public report even though she found no injustice and only one minor point of fault by the Council.
PC&PE: The MoD is sending the wrong signals to Forces families about the value it places on providing good accommodation, says the Defence Committee in its report on Forces Accommodation. Service personnel see the provision of proper housing as fundamental to the Armed Forces Covenant.
Ippr: On the day of the publication of the Local Government Association Green Paper on Local Growth, (Wednesday 27 June) think tank IPPR North called for greater co-ordination of economic development powers at the local level in order for a return to growth to happen in areas where unemployment is rising.
PC&PE: In a report published last week, the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee calls on the Government to abandon its plans to introduce a power of recall for MPs and to use the parliamentary time this would free up to better effect.
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