Announced in September but scrapped on 17 November the investment zone proposals were very short lived. The proposal has now morphed into the proposal for a smaller number of clustered zones earmarked for investment.
Announced in September but scrapped on 17 November the investment zone proposals were very short lived. The proposal has now morphed into the proposal for a smaller number of clustered zones earmarked for investment.
What we had expected for their short life was that some of the mechanisms of the Enterprise Zones (48 of which were created between 2012 and 2018) would be recycled (which in themselves employed some of the tools of the 1980s enterprise zones.)
The Enterprise Zones, described as “the most powerful funding tool handed to local authorities …we have seen for decades”, offered businesses:
and helped deliver schemes which created jobs and investment into their areas, examples being the Phoenix 10 scheme in the Black Country EZ, Smithfield in Birmingham EZ and Skylon Park in The Marches EZ (Hereford), in particular by using tax increment funding where there was true collaboration between the public and private sectors.
The advantage for the local area occurred because the business rates are kept by the local authorities and LEPs in the EZ area for 25 years to reinvest; this commitment enabled capital to be raised based on tax increment funding, so local authorities could invest into land and property to kick start regeneration projects that would have struggled to be delivered by either the private sector or with the public sector involvement, had those same mechanisms not been available.
Investment zones as an idea were not well received, however. The Government’s stated intention was for them to complement Freeports with existing Freeports able to apply to become investment zones. There was a certain degree of controversy around the first round of applications, with some authorities declaring that they did not wish their projects to be allocated as IZs, due to a concern over de-regulation within the zones of measures designed to protect the environment.
Concerns voiced (other than the infamous lack of costing laid out for the policy) included:
With the return of Michael Gove as Levelling Up Secretary it became more likely that Investment Zones would morph into the Regeneration Zones that were mooted in the Levelling Up White Paper, published in February 2022.
“High potential knowledge intensive clusters” will, apparently, be accelerated in the next few months, so hopefully it will become clear what these are during this time.
Other news noted from the autumn statement was that whist levelling up funds continue, mention of the prosperity fund was conspicuous in its absence: now that is it impossible for the funds to be spent in the required timescale it gives the Government the politically unpalatable option of reclaiming its own underspend or; providing more flexibility along with additional funds.
Law firm Browne Jacobson has collaborated with Wiltshire Council and Christ Church Business School on the launch event of The Council Company Best Practice and Innovation Network, a platform which brings together academic experts and senior local authority leaders, allowing them to share best practice in relation to council companies.
In the Autumn Statement delivered on 17 November, rises to the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates were announced, to take effect from 1 April 2023.
Announced in September but scrapped on 17 November the investment zone proposals were very short lived. The proposal has now morphed into the proposal for a smaller number of clustered zones earmarked for investment.
Settlement agreements are commonplace in an employment context and are ordinarily used to provide the parties to the agreement with certainty following the conclusion of an employment relationship.
On 2 November 2022, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in the much awaiting case of Hillside Parks Ltd v Snowdonia National Park Authority [2022] UKSC 30. The Court’s judgment suggests that the long established practice of using drop-in applications is in fact much more restricted than previously thought. This judgment therefore has significant implications for both the developers and local planning authorities.
In ‘failure to remove’ claims, the claimant alleges abuse in the family home and asserts that the local authority should have known about the abuse and/or that they should have removed the claimant from the family home and into care earlier.
Across the UK, homelessness is an urgent crisis, and one that is set to grow amid the rising cost of living. Local authorities are at the forefront of responding to this crisis, but with a lack of properties that are suitable for social housing across the UK, vulnerable individuals and families are often housed in temporary accommodation.
Updates include UK Shared Prosperity Fund, contracts, Subsidy Control Bill, data controller liability, Government Covid-19 procurement and Highway Code revisions.
The complex and rather nebulous transitional subsidy control regime set out in the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement and the UK’s wider international commitments has made it difficult for public authorities and those working with them to proceed with certainty where subsidies are involved.
Investment zones have been introduced by the Conservative party to get the United Kingdom (UK) ‘working, building and growing’. They are to be designated sites which provide time-limited tax incentives, streamlined planning rules and wider support for local growth to encourage investment and accelerate the development of housing and infrastructure that the UK needs to drive economic growth. Processes and requirements that slow down development will be stripped back with the intention of attracting new investment.
