In 2013/14 and 2014/15 DCLG has paid Billing Authorities a combined total for each
financial year of £3.3 billion to officially pass on to parish councils
in their areas to minimise the impact of the reduction in revenue
following the diminution of average council tax bases in parished areas. In 2014/15 most Billing
Authorities passed on the Localisation of Council Tax Support
Scheme (LCTSS) mitigation grant to parishes in their areas, but 15 did
not.
NALC lobbied the Government very hard to ensure that it put
pressure on Billing Authorities to pass on to all parishes in their
areas the maximum amount of LCTSS mitigation grant in 2015/16.
Thus the impact of the average 10% reduction to parish council tax bases
over the last two financial years has been minimised so that services
can continue as seamlessly as possible in parished areas.
Despite
uncertainty as to how much capital funding the current Coalition
Government is referring on to Billing Authorities in 2015/16 due to the
intervening General Election, the National and County Associations will
continue to lobby Government as hard as they possibly can to ensure that
maximum LCTSS funding is passed on to Billing Authorities and that
the Government communicates its expectation
that the monies should be passed on to parish councils in
their areas. NALC will know the Government's
intentions by the Local Government Finance Settlement in December, 2014
and the sector will be advised accordingly.
If your council feels sufficiently strongly that your unitary authority is not passing on the support grant then you may wish to send your comments directly to DCLG here or lobby your own MP:
Bracknell Dr Phillip Lee
Maidenhead Theresa May
Newbury Richard Benyon
Reading East Rob Wilson
Reading West Alok Sharma
Slough Fiona Mactaggart
Windsor Adam Afriyie
Wokingham John Redwood
Whitchurch Town Council, Hampshire is advertising for a new Clerk/RFO. It is a full time job.
Applications have to be in by 12th December.
More information on our Vacancies page
The Big Energy Race* is a national initiative to help community groups and individuals to take control of their bills and reduce how much they are spending on energy. The Race will see numerous community groups from regions across England, Scotland and Wales register to take part by January 2015. Big Energy Race will engage 25,000 households and ultimately reach over one million people.
Community groups across the country sign up as ‘teams’, and compete with other groups around the UK in a race to accumulate points by promoting energy efficiency in the community. A ‘team’ will encourage individuals to sign up as ‘team members’ and undertake household energy challenges, such as tracking their meter readings, turning down boiler thermostats or turning off appliances. The more team members each community group recruits and the more challenges that are undertaken, the more points the whole team earns.
Taking part in the Big Energy Race may be for a community group if any of the following apply:
• Your group aims to help people in your local area
• You want to help local people save on their energy bills
• You want some ideas for activities to do in Spring 2015
• You have some ideas for a local community energy project
• You are planning events / activities in Spring 2015 where you could easily slot in some additional element
There are lots of weekly prizes to be won, which will be awarded to each Region of the Week, Team of the Week and Team Member of the Week during the Race. In addition, one team crowned the Big Energy Race Champions at the end will win the main prize of cash towards a community energy initiative.
The Big Energy Race will begin in mid-January and last 11 weeks. From November 2014, community groups can visit the Big Energy Race web page and register their interest in taking part as a team.
Visit www.bigenergyrace.org to register your interest and receive further information.
*The Big Energy Race is an initiative designed by behaviour change experts Global Action Plan and is delivered in collaboration with the Energy Saving Trust, Citizens Advice Bureau and Energy UK. It is supported by major energy providers, including Npower, British Gas, EDF Energy and Green Energy.
Bethan's latest update for November is on Variations in Employment contracts
In the last newsletter the topic of ‘contracts of employment’ was covered. This month we shall be looking at how an existing contract of employment can be varied, what the law permits an employer to do and what risks or potential pitfalls could cause a council problems when seeking a contractual change.
- Can a contract of employment be changed?
- What should our council do if we want to alter an employment contract?
- What might make a variation unlawful?
- How do we avoid creating an unlawful or unreasonable variation?
- What process should we adopt then?
- How do we know how much notice to give?
- Can notice be reduced?
- What if the employee refuses to change?
- What is unilateral variation?
- What records should we keep of the variation?
- What is meant by ‘Termination and Re-engagement’?
- Which laws are involved in variations of contract?
The full article is on the BALC website here
An update from Bethan Osborne, BALC HR adviser:
Pensions
Further to the article published in the September 2014 newsletter we have received some helpful clarification from a County Pensions administrator which helps put in context apparently contradictory advice within the ‘Being a Good Employer’ guide and rules for auto-enrolment of pensions.
Town and parish councils can provide a scheme before the staging date but (other than where the Scheme is the LGPS) can’t contribute to it. Once Councils reach their staging date they need to make a choice as to what scheme they want to use to fulfil their responsibilities and, whatever scheme is chosen, they will be able to make an employer contribution to it. The administering authority has no responsibility to tell town and parish councils what they can and can’t do. The assumption is that it is the auditor’s role to check whether an employer is doing something they should not be doing."
Please note that ‘Being a Good Employer’ was written in 2010, before the pensions reforms and auto-enrolment were introduced to the statute book, and is to be revised by NALC and SLCC in the coming months.
The National Pay Agreement. The Local Government Employers and main unions who are signatories to the “Green Book” have agreed a settlement on council staff salaries to April 2016. There are 1.5 million employees affected by this settlement. The agreement is worth an average of 2.35% with some of the lowest paid staff receiving significantly higher pay rises.
The NALC and SLCC announcement is here Councils with staff at scp5 need to take immediate action as the existing pay rate is below the new National Minimum Wage level of £6.50/hour. There will be payments which will need to be included in the December 2014 payroll and further increases from April 2015.
For the geeks, nerds and wonks out there!
Mark Sandford, researcher, House of Commons Library has produced a useful summary paper on recent issues facing town and parish councils.It is on the BALC website here.
I hope it is useful reading. You may find it helpful to bring to the attention of your MP. They may need reminding as we come up to elections that 16 million people are represented by town and parish councils, a number that is increasing as more people in unparished areas show an interest in having a parish council
If your community is interested in running a community shop or pub you need to know about Community Shares
The Community Shares Unit is supported by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) until March 2015 and is delivered in partnership by Co-operatives UK and Locality. The unit acts as a central reference point for market intelligence, providing the latest information on community share activities nationwide, as well as producing regularly-updated guidance materials.
The unit also operates as a dynamic hub for support, building relationships with networks and organisations to signpost communities, investors and other interested parties to the most appropriate forms of advice and assistance to develop new share offers and support existing ones.
Finally, it acts as a strong platform for highlighting the community share model, raising awareness of the value of the approach and facilitating peer support and networking to those already involved in community shares.
Community Shares have produced a film on saving The Bell pub in Bath. Have a look on Youtube or sign up for their Newsletter
