Housing and the levelling up agenda

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The Chamber and Homes for the North held a roundtable with a range of businesses and organisations across the North to discuss the role of housing in the North East’s economic recovery.  

Nigel Wilson, Chair of Homes for the North and the Chief Executive of Gentoo Group opened the roundtable highlighting the need for clarity from Government on what the levelling up agenda is and a ten-year long-term strategy to help achieve this. We need to bring existing homes in the region up to standard as well as building new affordable homes. Decarbonisation and economic regeneration are both key priorities for the housing sector but there needs to be adequate funding from Government in order to reach these goals.  

Key points from the discussion included the need for organisations and businesses to collaborate to put out a joint- message to Government on the role of housing in the economic recovery and achieving the UK’s net zero targets.  

The importance of ensuring that Government policies such as standard methodology around allocating housing and the Treasury’s Green Book reflect the levelling up agenda was also highlighted. Policy needs to take into account economic potential and allocate fair infrastrucutre funding and housing numbers to the North East.  

Attendees also discussed the changing role of town and city centres after the pandemic with the potential  of more people living in towns and cities and the implications of this for our social infrastrucutre along with possible changes to where people are based due to flexible working.   

Funding for local authorities and combined authorities was also highlighted as key to ensure the have the capacity to help coordinate work on improving the quality of housing in the region. Funding needs to be fairly allocated rather than competition based and combined authorities need to have devolved powers to help deliver on housing and regeneration in their area.  

The decarbonisation of housing was seen as a key opportunity for the region to create jobs as part of a green recovery. There needs to be a long-term plan on how to decarbonise housing and funding from Government to ensure social housing can start this process.  

Chamber Says Spending Review A Missed Opportunity

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Jonathan Walker, policy director, North East England Chamber of Commerce said: “The Chancellor’s speech had been billed as the next step in the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda at challenging time for our regional economy. While we acknowledge the pressure on public finances, the statement was a missed opportunity to restore confidence and many announcements were poorly targeted and too short-term in their scope.

“On the face of it, a Levelling Up Fund sounds good, but is far too small in scale and ambition to be effective. The Government’s own documents recognise the particular impact Covid has had on northern regions but we fear £4bn won’t go very far if spread across the country. The lack of targeted funding is disappointing at a time when the Chancellor is at pains to stress how little money there is to go around

“Our region needs a long-term commitment to address decades of under-investment, rather than short term fixes which must be delivered during this Parliament.

“In contrast, the reform to the Treasury’s ‘Green Book’ funding rules is something we have long campaigned for and should, if implemented correctly, help to shift the balance of infrastructure spending in the long term.

“Since the Brexit referendum we have constantly asked what will replace EU funding which has been so beneficial to our region over many years. We welcome the reference to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund which will replace it. However as with other elements of this Statement, we lack reassurance it will be effectively targeted, based on regional need, or that it will be delivered swiftly.

“The accompanying Infrastructure Strategy similarly is a missed opportunity to make some big ambitious announcements to address regional imbalances as it contained little in the way of new schemes.

‘2020 hasn’t exactly been the best year…’

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I’m going to buck the trend and say that 2020 hasn’t exactly been the best year.

This time last year we were looking forward to/dreading (delete as appropriate) a general election, with talk of ‘getting Brexit done’ and ‘levelling up’.

Fast forward 12 months and Brexit isn’t done, nor do we feel particularly levelled up.

Pandemic, lockdowns and social distancing have all slipped into everyday parlance while our business community has grappled with some of the most challenging and bizarre economic circumstances in living memory.

Maybe, just maybe, there is some light at the end of the tunnel following positive news around a Covid vaccine.

For the time being however, we’ve got to accept that things will still be tough. We’re in the middle of our final economic survey of the year and I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I predict the results won’t be full of good news.

But as with every dark period there are always some positive stories to tell and some hope that better days are around the corner.

Just last week we finally saw the green light given to the new arena and conference centre on Gateshead quays; a missing link in our region’s offer which will put us alongside, and hopefully ahead of, other UK cities when it comes to attracting major events.

In the south of our region, redevelopment along the Tees continues with big new investments to support further growth of the port and to cement its place as a hub for green technologies.

Businesses themselves have also adapted remarkably to the crisis, showing ingenuity and innovation. Take Tharsus in Blyth, who won global attention for their Bump product which enabled the London Marathon to go ahead earlier this year.

Listing these things is not an attempt to ignore how tough the winter is going to be for so many of our businesses. We’re continuing to fight for support and recognition for the hardest hit sectors such as hospitality, culture and aviation.

But it provides at least a small amount of comfort to know that the region hasn’t come to a standstill because of the pandemic. We still see a great appetite for growth and networking such as the Chamber Showcase @ NE Expo next week.

We’ve got to harness the North East’s appetite for reinventing itself to give confidence and encouragement to businesses to stick with it and pay their part in building a stronger, fairer and more resilient economy in years to come.

Chamber urges Government to tackle key issues ahead of spending review

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North East England Chamber of Commerce has set out a clear set of demands it wants to see in the Chancellor’s Spending Review on Wednesday, 25 November.

The list covers a range of measures needed to support the region’s business community to recover from Covid challenges as well as specific asks on important issues such as employment and building skills.

Jonathan Walker, Chamber director of policy said: “The Spending Review is an important opportunity for the Chancellor to put into action the commitment to levelling up the country. We are being hard hit on a number of fronts due Covid challenges exacerbating existing problems in our region. There need to be new, substantialinvestment announcements, with clear timescales and delivery routes. Warm words are not enough.”

He stressed the important role the region’s exporters will play if the economy is to bounceback.

Approximately 60% of North East exports are sent into the European Single Market, the highest of all English regions, so the region is disproportionately vulnerable to whatever barriers to trade come from Brexit. To help address business concerns and allow them to adapt to the increased administrative burden expected, there will need to be adequate financial support and guidance.

The Chamber’s view is the current £50m Customs Grants Scheme for upskilling staff, upgrading IT equipment and hiring customs intermediaries is a positive start, but this is set to end in January 2021. With customs declarations expected to increase by 200 million next year, this funding will need to be available for businesses in the medium to long term.

As well as exporters the Chamber want to see support for entrepreneurs, with many people looking for new opportunitiesincluding potentially starting their own business.

The Chamber has long campaigned for more detail on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to help the region level up. The North Eastnow has the highest unemployment rate, the lowest employment rate and the lowest average hours worked of all British regions. It urges the Chancellor to give clarity on this key investment programme.

Jonathan Walker also highlighted the importance of connectivity. He said: “The transport and aviation sectors have been particularly hit by Covid and the guidance on working from home. We need to ensure that the region retains its connections to help us develop opportunities.Digital connectivity is also increasingly important for businesses so investment in quality digital infrastructure will be essential.

“We need to see the Department for Transport promoting projects that meet the Government’s ‘levelling up agenda’, this must be a central plank of the Government’s investment creating jobs, more resilient networks and investment opportunities.”

Over recent years, Further Education has faced some of the largest cuts in the education sector. In the last decade, per-student funding has fallen by 12% in colleges and 23% in sixth forms, whilst funding into adult education has fallen by 45% in real terms. Successive years of disinvestment in the further education sector has been acutely felt within the North East, with 50% of pupils in the region progressing into an apprenticeship or classroom-based learning post-16 at an FE college compared to 39% in the South East and just 26% in London.

Jonathan Walker said: “Our region’s recovery from the economic fallout of Covid-19 will rely on a well-funded and well-resourced Further Education system which can deliver the widescale retraining and reskilling necessary to help adults into employment, as well as ensure all young people have the skills needed to enter into a much more competitive labour market. Therefore, it is vital Government commits to its pledges to level up the skills system and announces a plan for skills which includes locally led reskilling programmes as well as long-term funding increases for Further Education institutions.”

Child poverty

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If we’re lucky by the time this is actually published the Government will have made another, at this point predictable, U-turn and decided they don’t want poor kids to starve this Christmas.

You would think with various Conservative MPs making themselves look like Dickensian nightmare antagonists on social media, they would have come across mountains of evidence showing child poverty is not, in fact, caused by their parents not trying hard enough, or at least invested in some PR managers.

In the case of the North East, it is quite clearly impacted by a lack of levelling-up and years of austerity. Last week the Chamber, VONNE (Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East) and the North East Child Poverty Commission wrote a letter to the Government on the urgent need for them to create a plan and address child poverty issues plaguing the region as a part of their levelling-up agenda.

Research from the End Child Poverty coalition has shown the North East having the largest rise in child poverty in the last four years – a staggering 24% to 35%. Going hungry affects your ability to even focus on your education. Children from low income families have fewer opportunities and are more likely to suffer from physical and mental health issues. Pair that with the devastating impact of Covid and you’ve got a dangerous cocktail for levelling down, not up.

And no, it isn’t that the parents of these children don’t want to work. Statistics from job-search site Indeed showed Middlesbrough and Sunderland topping the charts of the number of CV postings per job available. Low paid, insecure jobs have been hit the hardest in the pandemic, and that’s having a massive effect on our region’s children in turn.

What is needed is investment into the region to create more and better jobs, so that the people and our children in the North East are open to the opportunities seen in other parts of the country. We need protection for our most vulnerable, so this pandemic doesn’t set off a wildfire of greater unemployment when we have so much to give and have made such great strides in improvement.

I for one am ready to see the Government U-turn on constantly forgetting about the North East and the brilliant people who live here.

Chamber says housing can play key part in levelling up

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North East England Chamber of Commerce has written to Government setting out how housing and development have the potential to play a key part of levelling up the country.

In response to the Planning for the Future consultation the Chamber highlighted the need for a proportional distribution of housing. It also urged Government to use new homes as potential for economic growth not to focus solely on affordability. 

Marianne O’Sullivan, Chamber policy adviser said: “Housing targets need to meet local needs and achieve growth and job creation. Without this we will see a reduction in the number of homes in the North East which will harm economic growth as the formula to calculate future housing needs is not appropriate for our region.

“Housing and development need to be a key part of the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda to drive economic growth and regenerate areas, including the renovation and refurbishment of outdated housing stock.”

This is even more important in the current economic climate with the region needing investment and a quality housing stock to a fair recovery and for people to stay and move to the region

Overall, we need to see more funding for local planning offices and an acknowledgement of local differences within planning reforms rather than a one size fits all approach. Housing methodology and the new infrastructure levy need to fit with the levelling up agenda rather than discouraging development in the North East.

The new levy would be payable upon completion on a development and be based on an assessment of the final value of the development above a set threshold.

The proposals for the infrastructure levy could negatively impact the North East as land values are lower here. The introduction of the levy could have a significant adverse impact by slowing the supply of land for development. This could harm the levelling up agenda if the levy has an adverse impact in low value areas and relatively little impact in high value areas. There can’t be a one size fits all approach as land values across the country vary.

Justin Hancock, principal development planner, Banks Group said: “As one of the region’s leading development companies, the Banks Group welcomes North East Chamber of Commerce’s participation in the Planning White Paper Consultation. The strength of the Chamber is that it represents a wide range of businesses across the North East of England. Regular development forum meetings enable members to brief the Chamber’s officers about ongoing issues and concerns. This consultation response is the product of many such discussions.

“There is little doubt that the overall objective of government policy is in line with the region’s aspiration for commercial growth and green recovery. The proposed changes to the planning system will need considerably more detail before we can be confident they will help deliver those objectives but we support in principle changes which would make the planning system more dynamic, accountable and productive for the North East.

North East leaders urge Government to act on child poverty

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Three North East organisations have written a joint letter to Government demanding action on child poverty levels in the region, including wider access to free school meals.

North East England Chamber of Commerce, VONNE (Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East) and the North East Child Poverty Commission state there is an urgent need to address growing levels of child poverty.

The letter said: “If Government is serious about its levelling up agenda, this requires concerted action to make sure children and young people in our region can access opportunities and have the same life chances as anyone else.”

Carol Botten, Chief Executive, Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East, said “Increasing levels of child poverty in the North East is a key concern of many organisations, agencies and communities within the North East. This was an issue before Covid and will be only be exacerbated by the economic impacts of the pandemic. The Government needs to act now and act fast to address child poverty and improve outcomes for the most disadvantaged children in our region.”

The North East Child Poverty Commission has set out a number of recommendations for Government including increasing housing assistance in line with inflation, retaining the £20 uplift in Universal Credit past April 2021 and extending free school meals to all families in receipt of Universal Credit.

Jane Streather, Chair of the North East Child Poverty Commission, said “It’s clear that – even before family incomes across the region were devasted by Covid-19 – the North East urgently needed a new, comprehensive Government strategy to end child poverty, and this terrible pandemic has made the need for action more pressing than ever before. This letter is a united, cross-sector demand from our region to Government to act now.”

Also included in the letter was End Child Poverty coalition research which showed the region has seen the UK’s largest increase in child poverty over the last four years from 26 per cent to 35 per cent.

James Ramsbotham, Chamber Chief Executive said: “This increase in child poverty is shocking and likely to rise even further due to the economic impact of Covid as the region now finds itself with the highest unemployment rate, the lowest employment rate and the lowest average hours worked of all British regions.”

“Those in lower paid and less secure employment have been more affected by the crisis than those in more secure forms of employment. Children from low income families are more likely to experience worse physical and mental health, do less well in school, and have fewer opportunities in the future.”

“If the Government is serious about the levelling up agenda for regions like the North East, we need to see both urgent and ongoing action to tackle child poverty and protect the most disadvantaged in society from the immediate and longer-term economic impacts of Covid. Children in the North East need to have access to the same opportunities and life chances as children elsewhere in the UK, otherwise levelling up has failed.”

View the letter in full here.