Comprehensive Spending Review

Rishi Sunak made a statement today, announcing the outcomes of the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review. As well as ensuring a strong focus on public health and Covid the Government’s focus is upon protecting livelihoods (creating jobs), supporting business and protecting public services.

The OBR forecast for this year shows a predicted 11% decrease in the size of the economy this year before returning to growth in subsequent years. It is unlikely that we will return to pre-Covid economy levels before Qtr 4 in 2022. Against this backdrop, Government is borrowing significant levels of funding running a significant current deficit.

Against that backdrop, the Chancellor made a series of announcements. These include:

  • A freeze on public sector pay increases for a number of public sector employees – focusing any increases on NHS workers and those in low paid positions
  • 8% increase in day to day Government Department spending in 2021/22
  • Ongoing investment in NHS fabric; estate and capital items
  • Additional £1bn of funding for Health and Social Care
  • A UK Shared Prosperity Funding with pilot programmes in 2021/22 rising to £1.8 bn a year as EU funding tapers off – this will focus on regional development (including skills)
  • £24bn increase in defence spending over four years
  • £100bn capital investment planned in 2021/22
  • £7.1bn new homebuilding programme and increased investment in digital infrastructure alongside a 10 point plan for a low carbon / green economy
  • A new levelling up fund of £4bn to support the levelling up agenda adopting a place-based model for use over the next four years

With specific reference to employment, education and skills the Chancellor announced:

  • School budget increased by £2.2bn and expansion of new school building programme
  • £3bn Restart programme for over 1m people (unemployed for 12m +) to get back into work to be managed by DWP to counter increases in unemployment
  • £1.5 bn to improve College / FE facilities
  • £0.5bn to boost Traineeships, Apprenticeships and Sector Work Based Academy initiatives
  • An extension of Apprenticeship employer financial incentives to end of March 21.

To help fund these changes, the Government is clearly borrowing more and making cuts in some areas such as Overseas Aid (DFID budget to fall from 0.7% to 0.5% of total Government budget)

It would appear that the Government is planning significant investment in employment, education and skills but, at this point, the investment seems to be more focused on unemployment and pre-16 programmes. Whilst there are some welcome announcements it is disappointing that programmes such as Apprenticeships have not been prioritised more as they are a great vehicle for both creating jobs and improving skills

As more detail emerges, we shall, of course, circulate it.

LCA funding for digital skills programmes

Liverpool Combined Authority recently launched the Digital Skills for the Workplace project, funded by DfE until 31st March 2021 as part of the Digital Bootcamps initiative.

As part of this project, they can provide full funding for digital skills training which is at least Level 3 standard (or equivalent) and up to 12 weeks in duration. They can support employers in the Liverpool City Region who are experiencing digital skills gaps (to upskill, repurpose or recruiting), and individuals in the Liverpool City Region aged 19+ who are looking to upskill/reskill. Additionally, they are working with interested Training Providers to develop suitable digital skills programmes.

Below are links to three PDFs which contain an overview for each audience – Employer, Individuals and Training Providers.

Each PDF has an online link which takes the reader to the relevant registration of interest link. Submissions will be received at a shared mailbox [email protected] which will be picked up by a member of the project team.

 

Employer overview 

Individuals overview 

Training Providers overview 

NW Further Education and Skills Group

GMLPF represents local providers on this group, which met for the first time w/c 16th November since December 2019.

Members will be interested to learn that Paul Cocker, now a Senior HMI, has joined the NW Ofsted team. The meeting gave Ofsted an opportunity to update FES providers on their work programme currently. During the period September to December 2020, Ofsted plan to

  • Undertake 38 interim visits to providers across the NW – to date some 20 or so visits have taken place. Approximately 5 of these have taken place locally involving visits to FE Colleges and Independent Training Providers
  • Visit all grade 3 and 4 providers and undertaking a sample of visits to Grade 1 and 2 providers who will be selected randomly
  • Roll out interim visits virtually until the 2nd December (unless the Government extend lockdown) when they will resume on a face-to-face basis. Currently, interim visits are undertaken by two HMIs and run between 10 am and 3 pm.
  • Drawing together all the findings from the interim visits into a national research paper to highlight how the sector has adapted and managed Covid

Download slides

Digital training and funding

The Combined Authority has secured some funding from DfE to provide intensive training in digital skills for recently unemployed people or people at risk. GMLPF is looking to hold a members’ webinar on this programme in early September as part of a calendar of events to promote local opportunities for providers.

The LCR CA have a proposal under development to provide both digital skills and general employability skills, written and spoken communication, and general employability competencies.

To help focus the programme, the LCR CA has pulled together a survey, the purpose of which is to gauge interest in the testing of employer-led digital bootcamps and other technical skills training, get a clearer picture of the job vacancy market requiring digital and technical skills in the City Region (from September 2020), and gauge whether employers would be interested in participating in the project.

Please take the time to share or complete the survey

If members would like to know more about this programme then please contact Ian at [email protected] or on the phone at 07840 378218

Download slides

JCP-DWP Webinar 5th August

GMLPF were joined by colleagues from DWP last week who spoke about the need for providers to engage with and get involved in the local (Virtual) Youth Hub initiative, which is being established to provide local unemployed young people with access to a range of work, skills and benefits advice and to get more involved in tendering for and delivering local DWP programmes through their Dynamic Purchasing Systems.

A virtual Youth Hub, underpinned by a number of physical and accessible hubs, is being established across the LCR to support young people who have been made unemployed recently and who are looking to return to work. A calendar of advice sessions and drop-in times for benefits and work advice, skills and learning opportunities as well as business start-up support has been pulled together and will be continually updated. GMLPF members are encouraged, where they are offering support that may be relevant, to get involved, complete the attached template and highlight the support and sessions they can provide.

Currently, very few members have submitted information and I would encourage you, especially AEB providers, to get involved as this is a useful local asset for promoting your services.

Following that, we had a presentation on the JCP-DWP Dynamic Purchasing System. DWP is keen to work with local providers to deliver training support such as Sector Work-Based Schemes and other initiatives that are funded by DWP. It was highlighted that local providers have not historically got involved in and tendered for these opportunities, a situation DWP wishes to address.

One action from the session was for GMLPF and DWP to convene a webinar that took members through the process of registering and applying for tenders using a practical step by step guide. We will look to do this in early September.

The final part of the session touched upon the need, especially with the advent of the Kickstart programme, to encourage closer working and improved referral arrangements.

Download template for Youth Hub

Download JCP presentation slides

Download Youth Hub presentation slides

NCFE Update July 2020

This is the latest update received from NCFE:

Campaign for Learning and white papers

We’re delighted to confirm that Campaign for Learning, an educational services charity and policy influencer in learning, has now officially joined the NCFE family.

There is huge synergy between NCFE’s core purpose to promote and advance learning and Campaign for Learning’s commitment to ‘the advancement of education by encouraging the active participation of individuals in all sections of society in the process of lifelong learning.’ NCFE’s investment in the charity’s future means we can continue to work together for the benefit of the sector but with renewed focus, leveraging each other’s strengths in core areas of education to help engage more people in learning.

Our latest joint white paper to be published, ‘Revolutionary Forces’, is a joint commission of expert articles penned by leading authorities from the FE sector, as well as labour market economics, employment and mental health. The authors explore some of the key challenges facing the nation throughout the 2020s which the DfE needs to take into consideration when writing their recommendations. It urges the Government to ensure that the plans outlined in the forthcoming post-16 white paper are sufficiently flexible to meet the immense changes facing the UK economy.

3 Part Bid Support Webinars

We are aware of the challenging times providers face at the moment, with changing tender opportunities such as DWP or NSF. Join Steve O’Hare, owner and Director of SCLO Consulting, as he offers support on everything from getting tender ready, to finding great business opportunities and best practice for bid writing. These webinars are a free feature, delivered as part of NCFE’s new Go the Distance Youth Employability initiative – more details coming soon.

Webinar 1: Bid Support: Getting Tender Ready 

Monday 27 July

12.15-13.15

Book now

Webinar 2: Bid Support: Tendering 101

Monday 3 August

12.15-13.15

Book now

Webinar 3: Bid Support: Improving Tender Success

Monday 10 August

12.15-13.15

Book now

New Qualifications

Our product development team have been working hard over lockdown to ensure we have new, relevant qualifications to offer in priority sectors, especially where we know Covid has shown impacts on workforce and environment.

NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Climate Change and Environmental Awareness (603/5683/2)

NCFE CACHE Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Cancer Support (603/5860/9)

NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Coding (603/5854/3)

NCFE Level 3 Certificate in Coding Practices (603/5793/9)

NCFE Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of Cyber Security (603/5853/1)

NCFE Level 3 Certificate in Cyber Security Practices (603/5762/9)

NCFE Level 2 Diploma for Customer Service Practitioners (603/5681/9)

We also have some qualifications that are on their way. See our coming soon page.

T Levels

Our T Levels teams have been working throughout lockdown to ensure we continue to deliver on our T Levels contracts. Wave 1 qualifications are now approved and released, as I’m sure participating wave 1 providers will know already. We have a large offer of support available for these including webinars and one to one curriculum consultations, as well as draft materials available on our website.

We are also well on our way developing qualifications for our wave 2 contracts. We have been working closely with providers and employers to ensure our content is suitable for market, and are proud to be working with employers such as Apple, IBM, Siemens, Fujitsu, techUK, Health Education England, GSK, Jaguar Land Rover and Skills for Care, along with many others.

We’re always happy to talk to anyone who would like to support on employer engagement or qualification development for our other T Level contracts, so please do encourage anyone to contact me if they would like to talk more about this.

Supporting the healthcare sector with free EPA

To recognise the incredible work from our NHS and wider healthcare colleagues during these trying times, we’re offering 1000 free end-point assessments (EPAs) for Nursing Associate apprentices.

As a leading educational charity and End-Point Assessment Organisation, we have chosen to offer this as a gesture of appreciation and to support Nursing Associates to progress into the workforce as quickly as possible. We are also very mindful of the extreme pressure on the public purse, so want to do what we can to help minimise this. Find out more or express your interest here.

 

 

Procurement opportunity for 19-24 AEB funded traineeships

In its recent Plan for Jobs, UK Government indicated its desire to provide an additional £111 million investment to triple the number of traineeships available. In a recent update, GMLPF highlighted that the ESFA was planning a procurement opportunity to allow providers access funding to deliver 19 to 24 adult education budget (AEB) funded traineeships.

This week, ESFA published an update on this that members need to be aware of.

Providers will need to be able to start providing high-quality traineeships quickly through a ring-fenced contract for service. Details on how the ESFA will manage new traineeship opportunities for 16 – 18 year old will be published shortly. All opportunities to bid for the funding will be handled through the DfE’s e-sourcing portal. Organisations who do not already have an existing account must register one as this is the only method to access tendering documentation. You can register online.

The Plan for Jobs included a commitment to provide thousands of new traineeships to get young people aged 16 to 24 (up to 25 for those with an Education, Health and Care Plan) in England into work.

As well as an investment of £111m for 2020 to 2021, there are new flexibilities and opportunities which will strengthen traineeships and widen access to them for young people:

  • young people qualified up to Level 3 (rather than Level 2 previously) are now eligible for a traineeship
  • there is a more flexible work experience offer of minimum 70 hours, with multiple employers if needed
  • we want to see flexible content and qualifications that prepare trainees for progression to apprenticeships and jobs through a direct line of sight to the occupational standards
  • an increased AEB traineeship learning aim cost of £1500.
  • employers who offer new traineeship work placements will receive £1,000 per learner (up to ten learners) to support engagement and assist with costs such as the purchase of additional PPE for trainees
  • traineeships can now last up to 12 months, allowing twice as much time on a programme for those young people with particular needs who need it. We still expect traineeships to support young people into work as quickly as possible.
  • we want traineeships to move young people towards work or an apprenticeship more than ever before. 

Depending on the complexity of the Procurement Round we may run a webinar for members interested in tendering for Traineeship funding.

Apprenticeship Impact Survey

During the course of the Covid-19 outbreak, we have undertaken two impact surveys to establish the impact of Covid-19 on Apprenticeships. We have shared the results of these surveys with members and stakeholders to help shape thinking on how to support Apprenticeships. Both surveys have highlighted the scale and nature of the impact of Covid-19 and have shown that the LCR appears to have been hit harder than other areas in the North.

GMLPF along with the other 8 local provider networks that make up the Northern Skills Network are revisiting this issue again to try and establish the impact of Covid-19 over the period March to July and we would be grateful if you might complete this short (10 min) survey. It is anonymised and only the aggregated survey data will be shared. We are looking, following discussions with the ESFA’s new Northern Territory Manager (Clare Bonson), to provide the ESFA with a clear picture of how Covid-19 has impacted on providers who are largely based and operating within the North of England. This again can be shared with stakeholders to assist us to shape any local recovery planning arrangements and support Apprenticeships.

Complete survey

I would really appreciate it if you would complete it as it will provide a wealth of local information that we can use to shape local investment, planning and support. The deadline is Thursday 13th August 2020. Thanks in advance.

 

Chancellor’s Announcement – July 2020

Key Points for Providers

The Chancellor’s Announcement involved a focus on a Plan for Jobs with some £30bn of underpinning investment. A number of key priorities lie within this; Protecting Jobs, Creating Jobs and Accelerating Investment. Within this, the Chancellor announced a raft of new measures including:

  • Introduction of a new Job Retention Bonus to encourage firms to keep on furloughed workers – offering a £1,000 per employee to those employers bringing back and keeping furloughed workers in employment
  • Introduction of a Kickstart programme providing funding for short term employment opportunities for young people, an expansion of Traineeships and Apprenticeships
  • Protecting jobs in the hard-hit hospitality and accommodation sectors and at attractions by supporting demand for these businesses, giving them confidence to reopen
  • Announcements on bringing forward investment in FE and School Estate, Green Schemes and Housing

The Plan for Jobs provides a framework for a next step towards economic recovery and securing the UK’s long-term prosperity. Clearly these are welcome investment programmes but, as ever, the devil is in the detail in terms of skills.

  • How will certain programmes be targeted or aligned to ensure that programmes don’t operate in silos and compete with one another?
  • Will there be an expansion of the Apprenticeship budget to meet any increased demand as a result of the new incentives? Or will we see demand for Apprenticeships and incentives outstrip the supply of training support, in particular for Apprentices employed in SMEs.

One disappointing and obvious omission at this point is the lack of any meaningful support to tackle digital exclusion and particularly for learners who will inevitably have to follow blended learning programmes in the future.

What follows in this abridged paper is an overview of the investments announced by the Chancellor today. More detail will be provided as and when it emerges.

The next or following phase of the government’s plan will be set out in the autumn with measures to support the longer-term recovery through a Budget and a Spending Review.

 

Economic Context

 

COVID-19 has led to a substantial reduction in consumption.

 

  • Retail sales were 23% lower in April than in February.4Social consumption (e.g. spending on restaurants, travel and entertainment), typically worth around a fifth of total consumption,5 had fallen by around 80% at its lowest point.6
  • With lower spending, households have in aggregate saved more and paid down debt. In May ATM transactions were 52% lower than a year earlier.7In the same month, UK household bank deposits rose by a record £25.6 billion, over five times the average monthly increase, in the six months to February.8 
  • Households also repaid net £4.6 billion of consumer credit in May,9with many households less willing to make spending on major purchases.10
  • As well as reducing consumer demand, COVID-19 has reduced the capacity of businesses to provide goods and services. During the peak of the lockdown, around a quarter of firms stopped trading. For example, over 80% of firms in the hospitality and leisure industries temporarily ceased trading in April, compared to under 5% of professional services firms.

 

With many firms unable to operate, people’s jobs have been furloughed and working hours have been reduced. Over 9 million jobs have been furloughed through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

 

Firms have reduced demand for new workers, with vacancies in May 62% lower compared to a year earlier.

 

Universal Credit claims have also been elevated, with 3.4 million individual declarations made from 1 March to 23 June,15 and real time data shows the number of paid employees falling by 612,000 over April and May.16

 

Taken cumulatively these have resulted in a large-scale reduction in total output, an increase in unemployment and an on-going risk to employment, collectively risking an unprecedented level of economic and social scarring.

 

Specific Plan for Jobs Investments

With regards to jobs the following measures were introduced:

Protecting Jobs

  • Job Retention Bonus

The unprecedented Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has so far supported over one million employers to protect over 9 million jobs. The scheme has been open since March, and will wind down flexibly and gradually, supporting businesses until October.

Job Retention Bonus – The government will introduce a one-off payment of £1,000 to UK employers for every furloughed employee who remains continuously employed through to the end of January 2021. Employees must earn above the Lower Earnings Limit (£520 per month) on average between the end of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the end of January 2021. Payments will be made from February 2021. Further detail about the scheme will be announced by the end of July.

  • Supporting Jobs

Unemployment can have long-term impacts on individuals and families, with young people particularly vulnerable due to their lack of experience in work.

To address these challenges the government has a large-scale, ambitious plan to:

  • support people in finding jobs
  • enable them to gain the skills they need to get jobs
  • provide targeted help for young people to get into work

The Plan for Jobs provides new funding to ensure more people will get tailored support to help them to find work. People in the Intensive Work Search group on Universal Credit will benefit from a significant expansion of support offered through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Jobcentres, including doubling the number of work coaches and additional intensive support to those who have been unemployed for at least three months.

Alongside this, the government will utilise private sector capacity to deliver a new online, one-to-one job finding support service.

Additional funding will also mean that over a quarter of a million more people will receive individualised advice on training and careers through the National Careers Service.

The government will also support people to build the skills they need to get into work, with a substantial expansion of existing provision, providing funding to triple the number of traineeships and sector-based work academy placements, alongside further support for apprenticeships, which enable people to work while training.

The government will introduce a new Kickstart Scheme to:

  • fund the direct creation of high quality jobs for young people at the highest risk of long-term unemployment. It will give young people the chance to build their confidence and skills in the workplace, and to gain experience that will improve their chances of going on to find long-term, sustainable work.
  • This will sit alongside a guaranteed foundation of support through an expanded Youth Offer delivered through DWP, providing a range of targeted support to help young people find lasting work.

In addition to the policies outlined in the Plan for Jobs, the government intends to support those who are out of work for a longer period with a new, large-scale employment support offer. More details about this will be available shortly

  • Kickstart Scheme – Laying the Foundations for Employment

The government will introduce a new Kickstart Scheme in Great Britain. This is a wide-ranging and ambitious programme. This will include:

  • A £2 billion fund to create hundreds of thousands of high quality 6-month work placements aimed at those aged 16-24 who are on Universal Credit and are deemed to be at risk of long-term unemployment. Funding available for each job will cover 100% of the relevant National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week, plus the associated employer National Insurance contributions and employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions.
  • New funding for National Careers Service – The government will provide an additional £32 million funding over the next 2 years for the National Careers Service so that 269,000 more people in England can receive personalised advice on training and work.
  • High quality and expansion of Traineeships for young people – The government will provide an additional £111 million this year for traineeships in England, to fund high quality work placements and training for 16-24 year olds. This funding is enough to triple participation in traineeships. For the first time ever, the government will fund employers who provide trainees with work experience, at a rate of £1,000 per trainee. The government will improve provision and expand eligibility for traineeships to those with Level 3 qualifications and below, to ensure that more young people have access to high quality training.
  • Immediate Payments and Incentives for employers who hire new Apprentices – The government will introduce a new payment of £2,000 to employers in England for each new apprentice they hire aged under 25, and a £1,500 payment for each new apprentice they hire aged 25 and over, from 1st August 2020 to 31st January 2021. These payments will be in addition to the existing £1,000 payment the government already provides for new 16-18 year-old apprentices, and those aged under 25 with an Education, Health and Care Plan – where that applies.
  • High value courses for school and college leavers – The government will provide £101 million for the 2020-21 academic year to give all 18-19 year olds in England the opportunity to study targeted high value Level 2 and 3 courses when there are not employment opportunities available to them.
  • Expanded Youth Offer – The government will expand and increase the intensive support offered by DWP in Great Britain to young jobseekers, to include all those aged 18-24 in the Intensive Work Search group in Universal Credit.
  • Enhanced work search support – The government will provide £895 million to enhance work search support by doubling the number of work coaches in Jobcentre Plus before the end of the financial year across Great Britain.
  • Job finding support service – The government will provide £40 million to fund private sector capacity to introduce a job finding support service in Great Britain in the autumn. This online, one-to-one service will help those who have been unemployed for less than three months increase their chances of finding employment.
  • Flexible Support Fund – The government will increase the funding for the Flexible Support Fund by £150 million in Great Britain, including to increase the capacity of the Rapid Response Service.22It will also provide local support to claimants by removing barriers to work such as travel expenses for attending interviews.
  • New funding for sector-based work academies – The government will provide an additional £17 million this year to triple the number of sector-based work academy placements in England in order to provide vocational training and guaranteed interviews for more people, helping them gain the skills needed for the jobs available in their local area.

 

Protecting Jobs in Key Sectors

The hospitality sector plays a vital role in UK life.

The VE and its component sectors are amongst the highest employing sectors across the UK, with over 2.4 million workers in hospitality, accommodation and attractions, equivalent to 8% of the entire UK workforce. They have also been among the hardest hit by the pandemic and necessary restrictions.

 

Workers in the hospitality sector are disproportionately young, with fewer qualifications, and therefore more likely to be unemployed for a long time if they lose their jobs.

 

Workers in hospitality are also more likely to be female or from a Black, Asian and minority ethnic background relative to the overall workforce. Supporting these sectors is therefore crucial to the government’s objective of preventing labour market scarring and ensuring opportunities for all.

 

To help the VE Sector, the Government is introducing:

 

  • Eat Out to Help Out – In order to support around 130,000 businesses and to help protect the jobs of their 1.8 million employees, the government will introduce the Eat Out to Help Out scheme to encourage people to return to eating out. This will entitle every diner to a 50% discount of up to £10 per head on their meal at participating establishments. The discount can be used unlimited times and will be valid Monday to Wednesday throughout August 2020.
  • Temporary VAT cut for food and non-alcoholic drinks – From 15 July 2020 to 12 January 2021, to support businesses and jobs in the hospitality sector, the reduced (5%) rate of VAT will apply to supplies of food and non-alcoholic drinks from restaurants, pubs, bars, cafés and similar premises across the UK.
  • Temporary VAT cut for accommodation and attractions – From 15 July 2020 to 12 January 2021, to support businesses and jobs, the reduced (5%) rate of VAT will apply to supplies of accommodation and admission to attractions across the UK.

 

Creating Jobs

A further feature of the Plan for Jobs is job creation. Accordingly the Government wishes to fund a range of measures designed to support job creation and employment growth, much of which is housing related.

  • Temporary Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) cut – The government will temporarily increase the Nil Rate Band of Residential SDLT, in England and Northern Ireland, from £125,000 to £500,000. This will apply from 8 July 2020 until 31 March 2021 and cut the tax due for everyone who would have paid SDLT. Nearly nine out of ten people getting on or moving up the property ladder will pay no SDLT at all.
  • Green Homes Grant – The government will introduce a £2 billion Green Homes Grant, providing at least £2 for every £1 homeowners and landlords spend to make their homes more energy efficient, up to £5,000 per household. For those on the lowest incomes, the scheme will fully fund energy efficiency measures of up to £10,000 per household. In total this could support over 100,000 green jobs and help strengthen a supply chain that will be vital for meeting our target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The scheme aims to upgrade over 600,000 homes across England, saving households hundreds of pounds per year on their energy bills.
  • Construction Talent Retention Scheme – The government is funding a Construction Talent Retention Scheme to support the redeployment of workers at risk of redundancy. This will help retain construction skills and match talented workers to opportunities across the UK.
  • Office for Talent – The government will create a new Office for Talent based in No.10, with delivery teams across government departments. The Office will focus on attracting, retaining and developing top research and science talent across the UK and internationally.
  • Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme – the government will invest £1 billion over the next year in a Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme that will offer grants to public sector bodies, including schools and hospitals, to fund both energy efficiency and low carbon heat upgrades.
  • Green Jobs Challenge Fund – The government will invest up to £40 million in a Green Jobs Challenge Fund for environmental charities and public authorities to create and protect 5,000 jobs in England. The jobs will involve improving the natural environment, including planting trees, restoring habitats, clearing waterways, and creating green space for people and wildlife.
  • Direct Air Capture – The government will provide £100 million of new funding for researching and developing Direct Air Capture, a new clean technology which captures CO2 from the air.
  • Automotive Transformation Fund – Building on the announcement last year of up to £1 billion of additional funding to develop and embed the next generation of cutting-edge automotive technologies, the government is making £10 million of funding available immediately for the first wave of innovative R&D projects to scale up manufacturing of the latest technology in batteries, motors, electronics and fuel cells. The government is also calling upon industry to put forward investment proposals for the UK’s first ‘gigafactory’ and supporting supply chains to mass manufacture cutting-edge batteries for the next generation of electric vehicles, as well as for other strategic electric vehicle technologies.
  • Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund – The government will establish a new Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund to help social landlords improve the least energy-efficient social rented homes, starting with a £50 million demonstrator project in 2020-21 to decarbonise social housing. This will mean warmer homes and lower annual energy bills for some of the lowest income households.
  • Affordable Homes Programme – The government has confirmed that the £12.2 billion Affordable Homes Programme announced at Budget will support up to 180,000 new affordable homes for ownership and rent in England. The £12.2 billion will be spent over five years, with the majority of homes built by 2025-26 and the rest by 2028-29. The Affordable Homes Programme will also include a 1,500 unit pilot of First Homes.
  • Short-Term Home Building Fund extension – The government will support small- and medium-sized housebuilders that are unable to access private finance by boosting the Short-Term Home Building Fund, providing an additional £450 million in development finance to smaller firms. This is expected to support around 7,200 new homes in England, boosting housing supply and adding resilience to the market. A proportion of this fund will be reserved for firms using innovative approaches to housebuilding such as ‘Modern Methods of Construction’.
  • Brownfield Housing Fund – The government will allocate a £400 million Brownfield Housing Fund to seven Mayoral Combined Authorities to bring forward land for development and unlock 24,000 homes in England. To allow authorities to begin delivering projects quickly, 90% of the fund will be allocated immediately on a per capita basis, with 10% to be allocated through a competitive process.
  • Planning reform – The government will introduce new legislation in summer 2020 to make it easier to build better homes in the places people want to live. New regulations will make it easier to convert buildings for different uses, including housing, without the need for planning permission. In July 2020, the government will launch a policy paper setting out its plan for comprehensive reforms of England’s planning system to better support the economy and release more land for housing in areas that need it most.

 

Accelerating investment

Government will bring forward investment in certain areas including:

  • FE estate funding – Building on the £1.5 billion commitment for FE capital funding made at Budget 2020, the government will bring forward £200 million to 2020-21 to support colleges to carry out urgent and essential maintenance projects. This will be the first step in the government’s commitment to bring the facilities of colleges everywhere in England up to a good level.
  • School estate funding – The government will provide additional funding of £560 million for schools in England to improve the condition of their buildings and estates in 2020-21. This is on top of the £1.4 billion already invested in school maintenance this year.40
  • School rebuilding programme – The government has announced over £1 billion to fund the first 50 projects of a new, ten-year school rebuilding programme in England. These projects will be confirmed in the autumn, and further detail on future waves will be confirmed at the Comprehensive Spending Review. Construction on the first sites will begin in September 2021.
  • Local infrastructure projects – The government will provide £900 million for shovel-ready projects in England in 2020-21 and 2021-22 to drive local growth and jobs. This could include the development and regeneration of key local sites, investment to improve transport and digital connectivity, and innovation and technology centres. Funding will be provided to Mayoral Combined Authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships.

 

LCR Taskforce and Youth Offer

The LCR Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) and DWP convened a meeting last week to set out its plans to support the city region’s young people aged 18+ who are unemployed or who are facing redundancy

As shown in our recent research and national studies too, younger people are most likely to be impacted by the downturn, especially 16 to 25-year-olds.

Accordingly, the LCR MCA and DWP want to help the 18-24 age group access appropriate information, advice and guidance. They wish to establish a network of physical hubs (across the LCR) to enable easy access, a virtual hub offering access to remote services and to produce a digital calendar of IAG activities.

They would like to know if members can assist by playing a role in

  • Encouraging young people to get involved with design and delivery by promoting the MMYAG?
  • Joining the LCR Youth Employment Task Force?
  • Delivering a virtual event for young people?
  • Promoting the Youth Offer once it is up and running?
  • Offering space that could host a physical youth hub regularly?
  • Providing staff that could work on an outreach basis from a youth hub?

They are also keen to pull together the digital calendar of IAG events to promote to young people. If you have any relevant activities planned, please complete the youth offer template and return it to [email protected] by Friday 17th July. It is the intention, I understand, to update this regularly and publicise the opportunities on a new LCRCA Youth Offer Portal. Hopefully, there will be an official launch on Monday 27th July.

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