Recession update: rockpools of worklessness, action plan, planned ministerial contactPaul RaynesProgramme DirectorLGAX 12 February 2009

The recession looked at another way

In the three months to November

4,001 companies went bust 225,000 people were made redundant500 pubs closedWoolworths shut up shop.

,,

The tide of recession leaves rockpools of worklessness

And rates of recovery vary

Action: sustaining capital investment

• Make it easier for councils to service borrowing

• Establish a mutual fund to collectively manage local authority balances, including an infrastructure fund

• Pilot Accelerated Development Zones• Revisit growth point applications not

funded in the last round • Accelerate road maintenance and

insulation programmes

Action: protecting jobs and firms

• Make entitlement to Small Business Rate Relief automatic

• Make it simpler for businesses to offer apprenticeships

• Suspend the LSC’s “firstness” criterion to make retraining easier

• Allow full data sharing about clients of public employment/training support

• Further encourage benefits take-up

Action: housing and property market

• Further help for first time buyers to get the housing market moving and deliver associated local economic benefits

• Use HRA surpluses to fund locally designed housing market support packages

• Allow developers to extend the life of planning applications and avoid the costs involved in submitting a renewed application

• Make it easier for councils to keep vacant shops in use

Ministerial engagement

• Central-Local Partnership 24 February– will consider the Action Plan

• Regional Economic Council – agenda item on local government

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