Consultations
CLG: A new 'Planning Guarantee' will create greater certainty for local communities by speeding up local planning applications that get stuck in the system, Planning Minister Greg Clark announced in a letter to local councils recently.
At the moment thousands of planning applications get caught in the system for over a year, leaving householders & local firms frustrated by delays to getting a decision. Mr Clark has advised local authorities that the Planning Guarantee will mean that no planning application should take longer than 12 months to reach a decision, including any appeal.
The Government will consult in the autumn on reducing the information required to accompany all planning applications. Ministers are keen to hear from local people, local firms, councils, and other parties on what information is really helpful & necessary.
Press release & links ~ Draft National Planning Policy Framework consultation (closes on 17 October 2011).
ScotGov: Scotland's first Social Housing Charter is taking shape and the Scottish Government is seeking views to inform the final document. The Charter is part of new arrangements to ensure that tenants and other customers of social landlords receive continually improving services. It will set the outcomes & standards that all social landlords should be achieving and the new Scottish Housing Regulator will monitor, assess & report on how well the landlords do. Responses & comments should be sent by Tuesday November 1, 2011.
CLG: As part of the Government's commitment to the Great British pub, Community Pubs Minister Bob Neill has launched a review of restrictive covenants, a legal clause that can be used to prevent community pubs reopening as public houses following a sale. Between 2004 & 2009 some 572 pubs are said to have been permanently lost following a sale with a restrictive covenant, potentially depriving thousands of regulars of an important community asset. Consultation will close on25 October 2011.
CLG: Plans to put councils in charge of providing financial support for council tax which are designed to help more people back into work, maintain protections for pensioners and save the taxpayer up to £480m a year have been published for consultation by Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles (closes on 14 October 2011).
Under the existing system local authorities are responsible for council tax rates & collection but do not control the policy on council tax benefit, which is run centrally from Whitehall. Ministers are proposing to bring all aspects of the council tax system together at local level, freeing billing authorities how best to support working age households and establish stronger incentives for councils to get people back into work.
Ofgem: Energy regulator Ofgem has published initial proposals for the revenues it will allow the 4 energy transmission companies to recover from consumers in the year from 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013, under the one-year extension to the existing price control. Consultation closes 12 September 2011.
The current transmission price control runs from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2012. It is to be extended by one year so that it finishes at the same time as the 2008-2013 gas distribution price control.
HEFCE: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has published a technical consultation on a new regulatory framework for higher education (closes on 27 October 2011). The consultation follows the White Paper, 'Higher education: students at the heart of the system' (June 2011), which signals the Government's intention to establish a more integrated & transparent regulatory framework for higher education.
The White Paper proposes a new role for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) as an independent 'lead regulator', working in partnership with the other higher education regulatory bodies. BIS is now consulting on the detail of the new framework, to take effect from 2013 and, as part of that, on HEFCE's new role & responsibilities, including as a 'single gateway' for entry to the higher education sector
CLG: Housing Minister Grant Shapps has announced plans to speed up the process for evicting persistent 'neighbours from hell' from their homes when all other efforts to curb their anti-social behaviour have failed. The Minister made clear that eviction should only ever be the last resort - but that too often the rights of victims have come second to those of the people making their lives a misery.
He has proposed a new mandatory power for possession, enabling previous convictions for anti-social behaviour to be taken into account and short-cutting the often long & expensive process which requires landlords to prove again the 'yobbish' actions of their nightmare tenants. Consultation closes 27 October 2011.
CO: Minister for Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, has launched a public consultation on open data (closes on 27 October 2011). The consultation follows the commitment by the Prime Minister to publish key data on public services, including GP achievements & prescribing, the performance of hospital teams in treating key conditions, the effectiveness of schools at teaching pupils across a range of subjects and criminal sentencing by court.
ScotGov: A plan to increase the number of Scots diagnosed in the earliest stages of cancer by 25% - to improve cancer survival rates for patients in Scotland – has been published for consultation. The draft Detect Cancer Early Implementation Plan - published for consultation with the NHS, clinicians, cancer charities and key third sector groups - will aim to save more than 300 lives a year by the end of the next Parliamentary term. Stakeholders are being invited to submit their responses by 26 August 2011.
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