Monthly Archives: July 2009

We need a City Region Scrutiny Committee

31 Friday Jul 2009

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Unemployment in Birmingham was a huge problem even before this recession, with levels at 20% in some wards in the city. With the economic downturn particularly affecting the manufacturing industry, and unemployment now considerably worse, getting people back into work has become the city’s biggest priority.

A £500m fund set up for the City Region to tackle this problem, and a new plan – the Multi Area Agreement for Employment and Skills (MAA)- gives us the opportunity to make a real difference to residents’ lives. Unfortunately, however, and even though Birmingham makes up 40% of the City Region in terms of population, there’s not a single elected member for the city sitting on the Board set up to administer the MAA. Instead, the Employment and Skills Strategic Management Board (ESSMB) is made up of chairs of the regional Employment and Skills Boards, directors of Job Centre Plus and the Learning and Skills Council, and the chief executive of Solihull Council. The only councillors on the board are the leaders of Solihull and Dudley Council. There are no elected members representing the interests of Birmingham residents, despite our particularly acute problem with unemployment.

We desperately need a fresh approach, particularly given the lack of progress made in the past. The reason this issue is in the news today is because the Council’s Regeneration Scrutiny Committee ‘called in’ the original Cabinet decision, made in June. The Birmingham Post’s call for a City Region version of this body, to scrutinise the Employment Management Board which, afterall, meets behind closed doors, is an excellent idea. And proper accountability at the regional level should also reduce the risk of further ‘call-ins’ when the money is eventually spent on the ground.

Demand for better information

30 Thursday Jul 2009

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An interesting report   from the Audit Commission out today, has found that councillors are basing important decisions on unreliable information.

Apparently:

  • Councillors say they receive lengthy reports but still do not have the relevant information they need. Powerful data are unexploited.
  • Less than 5% of councils have excellent data quality and quality problems are fundamental in nature.
  • Almost 80% of councils say a lack of in-depth analysis is a problem.

And perhaps most worryingly:

  • Two thirds of councils say councillors struggle to understand information and half say that senior officers do. Training to address this is inadequate or non-existent.There is a widespread concern that inaccurate or out-of-date information drives key decisions.

In typical Audit Commission style, it recommends the use of a ‘toolkit’  to drive better quality data. Ultimately, however, if the information that councillors and officers base decisions on is incomplete, lacking in evidence or badly presented, then they’ve got a responsibility to return it and demand something better. This may temporarily drive local government to a shuddering halt but at least we’ll have confidence in the decisions that’ve been made.

Flooding in Birmingham – part 2

29 Wednesday Jul 2009

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The Local Government Association has called for the government to think again on funding councils for their new ‘flood role’:

The Chairman of the LGA’s Environment Board, Paul Bettison, said: “Town halls are ready to take the lead on improving flood risk management but it should be clear that they will need funding to properly protect people’s homes.” Calling on the Government to look again at its calculations he added: “When councils spend money clearing up after floods it comes from budgets for other services, so it is wrong to say that councils can pay for this new role by cutting spending on flood clear up.”

 It can sometimes be a good thing for councils to be told to ‘do more with less’ – especially if it improves efficiency and stops unnecessary spending – but I don’t buy it in this case. The Floods and Water Bill would give councils such a clear set of new responsibilities – coordinating water companies and the Environment Agency, ensuring that drainage systems work etc – that it’s got to involve the spending of some extra money somewhere.

I don’t know whether climate change will lead to more flooding in the future. But if it does – and if the effects of climate change are going to be as serious as some people predict - then I’m sure we won’t be able to deal with it on the cheap.

Politics and the art of making things complicated

27 Monday Jul 2009

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Decisions made in local government often come across as being complicated because they are complicated, and the use of technical language is the only way to adequately explain what on earth they’re about. And no amount of re-wording or attempts to simplify is ever going to change that. Often, though, what’s discussed seems complicated because bureaucrats and politicians have temporarily lost the ability to communicate effectively and have submitted to pressure to use jargon. And I’m often guilty of this, too. However, given the importance of some of the stuff that gets discussed in local government – and, also, bearing in mind that the overuse of jargon has been identified as one of the reasons why people are turned off politics – this ’overcomplication’ is not only frustrating, it also isn’t good for democracy.

Today’s Birmingham Cabinet Meeting, for example, had over 20 items on the agenda, most of their titles and reports written in the usual impenetrable council style. So the meeting began with an item titled the ‘Reconsideration of Decision Called-In – Multi Area Agreement for Employment and Skills’. And the agenda included the snappily titled item: ’Winning Resources: Local Area Agreement Working Neighbourhoods Fund Strategic Interventions’. Yet both these items – if you can get past the titles - were, and are, extremely important – dealing with the spending of huge amounts of money on trying to tackle perhaps the biggest problem this city faces at the moment – long term, mass unemployment. We should all, as far as we can, be trying to get away from this sort of convoluted language.

Today’s Cabinet Meeting was actually one of the most important for a long time, with decisions being made on the:

‘Highways Maintenance and Management Private Finance Initiative’ – the awarding of a £2.2bn, 25 year, highways’ maintenance contract (one of the biggest PFI contracts in the country).

‘Approval of Academies Process’ – significant progress on the setting up of 3 (controversial) new Academy schools.

‘BMG Birmingham History Galleries Project – Full Business Case’ – the awarding of a £2.9m contract to repair the roof works at the Council House Extension and the submission of a £4.8m bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the setting up of a History of Birmingham Gallery at the Museum and Art Gallery. It was also agreed to spend £874,000  to cover development work on the project.

Be Active – £9.3m to be spent on an 18 month project to increase participation in sport. All residents may now swim/use the gym at council run leisure centres completely free of charge.

There was much more discussed at Cabinet today, all of it important to residents in Birmingham and not much of it decipherable by those outside of local government. And that’s why we need to ensure our established local media survives this deep recession. After all, somebody needs to help explain what all this stuff means.

Flooding in Birmingham – the wrong kind of soil, the wrong kind of rain

24 Friday Jul 2009

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floodingbhamTo my huge surprise the two hour presentation/debate on flood management that I sat through at this week’s Regeneration Committee meeting, turned out to be really interesting. And given the ongoing problems with flooding in Birmingham, how we deal with this issue is becoming increasingly relevant.

Last year’s Pitt Review – set up in response to the problems caused by the widespread flooding of 2007 - contained 92 recommendations for improvements in Flood Risk Management (FRM). The review led to the Draft Flood Risk Management Bill which was put out for consulation in April ’08, and proposed/concluded the following:

  • high intensity localised storms (thought to be as a result of climate change) are causing increasing problems with flooding
  • it is now acknowledged that not all properties in flood risk areas can be defended
  • the Bill will create clearer structures and responsibilities for managing risks, and enable better planning/prediction and warning of floods

The wrong kind of soil

As Birmingham doesn’t have any large rivers, we don’t (usually, and 2007 aside) get the kind of dramatic headline grabbing incidents of flooding common to some parts of the country. However, probably uniquely in Europe, the city is part of a large conurbation at the top of a river catchment. It’s much more common for cities to have developed on the coast or near large rivers. We also appear to have the wrong kind of soil – there’s a geographical fault line under the city with impermeable clay to the south east/permeable sand stone to the north west. So we get our very own, special kind of flooding taking place simultaneously at several locations across the city (Aston/Witton/Handsworth etc). This makes it extremely difficult to offer effective flood warnings. (Though setting up ‘local flood action groups’ in these areas is seen as an attempt to tackle this).

The wrong kind of rain

Also, our location on top of a catchment of rivers makes flood warnings much less reliable than elsewhere in the country. It also means the city is much more affected by less predictable local weather patterns – we get different types of flooding in different parts of the city, depending on the intensity and duration of the rainfall.

So, the Pitt Review/Draft Bill is going to mean that Birmingham (for no extra cash) will have to:

  • lead in the management of local flood risk
  • establish ownership and legal responsibility of e.g. flood defence assets (embankments/gates/pumps etc)
  • collate and map the main flood risk management and drainage assets

As a lot of this is going on in Birmingham, anyway, it seems as though the real benefit of the bill – aside from making it clearer to everyone what they’re meant to be doing – will be in ensuring that neighbouring authorities operate to similar standards and under the same guidelines as we do.

Birmingham Citizens’ Advice Bureau and the Recession

23 Thursday Jul 2009

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Recent news from Birmingham’s Citizens’ Advice Bureau makes it clear that the recession is hitting harder in this city than elsewhere in the country. Locally the organisation has seen a:

  • 77% increase in debt related issues (c/w 32% growth nationally across the CAB network)
  • 60% increase in benefits issues (nationally 29%)
  • 14% increase in employment advice (nationally 9%)
  • 93% increase in Jobseekers Allowance Issues (nationally 61%)

The Birmingham CAB has also seen a 34% increase in mortgage arrears issues and a 184% increase in debt collection problems. The number of people seeking bankruptcy advice has gone up by 122%.

There are 426 CABs across the country, predominately staffed by volunteers and they’re independent charities, dependent on a variety of (often short term) funding streams. And it seems that the absence of more stable funding makes it extremely hard for Birmingham CAB to make long term plans. Even in the ‘good times’ the organisation was under pressure – over 58,000 people sought (free) advice from the CAB  in 2007/08 and it dealt with debt issues totalling £60m.

These latest figures don’t just underline how severely the recession is impacting on Birmingham – they also remind us as to the incredible job done by CABs across the country as well as of the huge importance of the volunteer workforce.

AWM Funding Cut and ‘Business Support’

21 Tuesday Jul 2009

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It’s hardly surprising, given the dire state of the economy, that AWM is having to cut funding for a number of projects in the region. After all, it’s had its budget cut by central government by £48m and has seen a significant drop in return from its own assets. However, this isn’t just a story about a budget squeeze and the pressure on public finances. Projects in the region are also being cut because AWM has been forced by the government to re-direct £64m of its funding, earmarked for regeneration schemes, into support for business. On the face of it, this is no bad thing. If ever there was a time for businesses to get extra help, then it’s now, as they struggle to cope with the worst recession in 80 years. However, I’m not convinced that the support AWM is funding is measurable in any way or is going to make any tangible difference. Take the £3.5m ‘Automotive Recovery Programme’, announced yesterday. Apparently 120 companies are to be ‘assisted’ and up to 1000 jobs safeguarded by AWM’s delivery of up to £50,000 of ‘specialist strategic consultancy’. Is this what companies really want at the moment? Consultancy? Wouldn’t a cut in regulation, support in retaining staff and improved access to bank funding be more helpful?

It doesn’t make sense to stop funding projects by, for example, Thinktank and the Black Country Living Museum - projects which are helping to safeguard jobs and attract tourism into the West Midlands – and to spend the money instead on (relatively) small packages of consultancy support. And it will be fascinating to see how much of the total £64m is actually taken up by businesses. After all, the £2.3bn loan fund set up for the automotive sector in January has not yet been successfully accessed by a single company.

£500m Govt aid not helping jobless

20 Monday Jul 2009

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Interesting article in the Birmingham Post today about how the public sector led approach to tackling unemployment doesn’t actually appear to be making any difference. Even at the height of the ‘boom years’ unemployment in certain wards in the city was at 20%. ( And the figure was much higher if you included people on disability/single parent benefit).  With the unemployment claimant rate  in Aston currently running at 28.2% (and with the wider ’worklessness’ figure across the city at 37%) it’s obvious that we need a radical change in how we address this issue. The current approach just isn’t working.

July Unemployment Briefing

Culture bid worth it even if we lose

17 Friday Jul 2009

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If a serious bid is put forward for Birmingham to become the first UK City of Culture in 2013, and if it’s put together in partnership with as wide a range of interested parties as possible, then we’ve got to have a good chance of winning. There seems to be so much going on in this city at the moment, and so much energy and cross-over between events/projects etc that the city just seems ready for an award like this. We’re a long way from the embarrassment of the 1992 Olympic Bid when the city’s ambitions were seriously adrift from reality (were we really going to have sailing on Edgaston Reservoir?). However, even if Birmingham ends up not being successful in 2013, as long as the actual process of the bid celebrates all the good stuff going on in this city, then it will have been worth it. In the case of Liverpool, 2008 European Capital of Culture, Phil Redmond saw the process of bidding as being as important as the award itself:

The confidence of the people has improved not just because it had a fantastic year long festival of world class cultural events, but because they realised that great things could be done in their city. That great things had been done in their city and that great things could be done again in their city. And they could do them.
Yet, there was something else. It was done the way they wanted it done. Other’s were invited to the party but it was very clearly a family affair. Liverpool may have been the UK’s host city for the EU award, but Liverpool took what was nothing more than a badge of authority and made it its own.
No culture can live, if it attempts
to be exclusive.
Mahatma Gandhi
That is how the UK City of Culture of programme should inspire. Instilling a sense of ambition and ownership, while sending out a clear but simple message that wherever the “badge of authority” is awarded, the people there are part of the UK cultural mosaic but that they also have their own distinct culture to promote. Perhaps rediscover. Perhaps nurture. Yet, whatever the aim, like Liverpool, the badge of authority is their opportunity to make a real step change.
Whatever that is will be left to potential bidders to define, but will form part of the award criteria. It will also be a valuable asset in its own right because although the ultimate accolade, with its subsequent media exposure, will prove extremely valuable, the European programme has also demonstrated that the process of bidding, in terms of auditing assets and building cultural networks, is itself a very positive outcome.
It will be those networks that will deliver in the future. It will be those networks that will discover, like they did in a post-industrial Northern port city in 2008, that great things can be achieved individually, but even greater things can be delivered collaboratively.

UK’s ‘City of Culture’ 2013

15 Wednesday Jul 2009

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birminghamnightBen Bradshaw, the Culture Secretary, has announced that a competition is to be held to find the UK’s first ‘City of Culture’:

“Culture is something that we are incredibly good at in the UK.  But excellence and innovation in the arts does not begin and end inside the M25 and I believe we have been too London-centric for too long in our cultural life.  So this competition aims to find a city or area outside London that has the wow factor, with exciting and credible plans to make a step change in its cultural life and engage the whole country.”

Birmingham’s bid to be the 2008 European Capital of Culture went horribly wrong (despite us serving up Balti to the panel of judges) with the prestigious title going to Liverpool. And although the award doesn’t bring any extra funding Liverpool has by all accounts really profited from their year in the spotlight – the city seeing a significant boost in publicity and a large increase in visitor numbers.

Apparently the regional character of our bid worked against us last time – judges felt that our ‘Be in Birmingham’ phrase also really meant ‘Be in Warwick’ and ‘Be in Stratford’. It was suggested that we should have just concentrated on selling Birmingham. Also, it was rumoured that the committee chairman was critical of the city’s built environment and our lack of iconic architecture. A lot has changed, of course, over the last 6 years (the competition was held in 2003) and we now, of course, have Selfridges and a re-developed Bull Ring.

Outline applications have to be in by 16th October and the winner will be revealed at the end of 2010.