Archives for November 19th, 2003

COUNCILS SAY B&B TIME LIMIT FOR HOMELESS IS ‘PERVERSE’

Headlines, PublicNet: 19 November, 2003

Councils have described a government ban on local authorities using bed and breakfast hotels for homeless families for longer than six weeks as perverse. Following the announcement from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Local Government Association said councils were being put in an untenable position.Ruth Bagnall, who chairs the Association’s Housing Executive, said the move left authorities with no flexibility in dealing with individual cases and for circumstances outside their control. It was increasingly likely, she said, that the vast majority of local authorities would meet the government’s target next March, but some areas had not been so fortunate in receiving the same level of funding and resources from central government and might have experienced a higher rise in house prices.

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CALL FOR POLICIES TO TARGET LINKS BETWEEN DISABILITY AND DISADVANTAGE

Headlines, PublicNet: 19 November, 2003

There is a call today for urgent policy initiatives to target the links between disability and social disadvantage. It follows research that shows adults are more likely to become disabled if they are already living on low incomes.The study, published today, was carried out for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which says that while acquiring a serious health problem or other impairment is often thought of as a random misfortune, the results show this is far from being the case. Using data from a major national survey of 10,000 adults interviewed each year, it shows that a disproportionate number of people who become disabled come from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.

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LOCAL AUTHORITIES GET FREEDOM TO TRADE

Abstracts, PublicNet: 19 November, 2003

Local councils, police and fire authorities have been given the power to trade following the introduction of new legislation. They are able to provide discretionary services which are beyond their statutory obligations, and to recover the costs they incur. They may, for example, now provide and charge for advisory services, such as trading standards and fire safety. This new power gives authorities very broad discretion to provide additional services to meet the Government’s aim of encouraging authorities to provide more wide-ranging, new and innovative services for their communities.The new legislation does not override any existing legislation which prohibits an authority from charging for a discretionary service. Authorities need to ensure that when using the general charging power they fully comply with other complementary legislation such as the Competition Acts. Otherwise they may incur significant associated costs.

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