Facts on Flooding and Austerity

Simon Wren Lewis published some facts on flooding and austerity last month.  David Cameron et all should have a look at them and decide whether to reverse course.

Alisdair Gray

I have been reading some of the short stories of Alasdair Gray.  Despite his cantankerous public persona, his stories are remarkable.  Some of them remind me of Kafka.  I recommend them to anyone who hasn't tried them.

Take over the Tricycle Theatre

Young people take over the Tricycle Theatre here.  This is just the kind of thing that Brent Council should encourage in terms of community involvement.  The Tricycle does a great job of keeping Kilburn High Road as a thriving urban centre and the arts can do this for all sorts of places and society in general.  This is the kind of thing that the Labour Party is now examining here.

Public Realm Contract Follow Up

I have already covered the Public Realm Contract in a number of posts.  This is is one of the most important contracts of the past four years and the negotiating process took years to get to the present outcome.

Bin Collections
I had the opportunity to talk to one of the senior officers about it a few days ago, and was pleased to find that my concerns about curtilage collections seem to have been misplaced.  These are an important part of the financial savings since they allow fewer bin men to be employed.  They got a soft start in November, and a fuller enforcement in January.  So far, compliance is in the region of 98%, which greatly exceeds my expectations.

Communications
The same conversation allowed me to find out more about the eventual communication arrangements.  Responsibility for communications will pass from the Council to Veolia, who are hugely increasing the budget available.  This was apparently very important to Veolia during the competitive dialogue.  Their argument was that effective communications are crucial to making the contract work in terms of reducing waste, upping recycling and so on.  Those who, like Eric Pickles, think of Council communications as just waste or at best a frippery that can be easily disposed of, should think about that.

London Living Wage
The final element that the conversation covered was the assurance that all the contractor's employees will be paid London Living Wage or above.  The cost of this is about £55k a year, which is a fairly modest addition to such a big contract.  Some campaigners say they have found this information difficult to obtain.  I would have thought that if Brent Council is serious in achieving LLW it has to map out where it is being paid and where not.

Public Ownership and Regulation

I was interested in seeing this plea for public ownership.  It seems the debate always seem to assume that there is a sharp divide of public ownership (meaning total control) or private ownership (leading to no public control.  I think the answer is much more interesting.

Public ownership seems to be assumed to give the politician at the top automatic control over what goes on in the organisation.  I think it gives more control, but you just have to look at the NHS to realise that big organisations need people capable of follow through for changes to happen.  In other words, nationalisation can simply mean that governance is in the hands of a set of anonymous unelected managers.

What I find more interesting is the potential of regulation to control private business.  Of course, all companies are already subject to various legal restrictions and regulations.  These are often said to be too intrusive, although attempts to strip away say planning powers can cause problems of their own.

The big gap in this debate seems to me to be the lack of oversight of the former nationalised industries.  Given the governance mechanisms were all set up by the Thatcher government, it is not surprising that they were designed to limit political interference, but there are legitimate questions about the direction of some of these industries that should be the subject of debate.  In the water industry for instance, should companies aim primarily for the lowest cost to consumers, supporting British industry through procurement and training, becoming national champions, reducing pollution and raising water quality or simply maximising profits?  There are legitimate arguments for each of those objectives, and one might expect a regulator to take an interest in them.  Why shouldn't the public and elected representatives also have a say?

The odd thing is that this kind of thinking is quite old.  Harold Wilson, in his bonfire of controls days, was much more sophisticated than modern politicians. 

George Galloway Hatred

How revolting to see this latest attack by George Galloway on Muslim candidates in Hampstead and Kilburn.  The man just hops from area to area whipping up hatred.  A repulsive spectacle.

David Cameron and the Green Crap

David Cameron's pledge to rip up green regulations really brings out my inner cynic.  The Guardian chronicles the long term move away from pledging the "greenest government ever" to wanting to remove the "green crap".  It is ironic that this latest attempt to reduce environmental protections comes as climate change denialist Owen Paterson gets told by the people of Somerset what the real cost of ignoring environmental protection is. 

Aside from ignoring the damaging effects of climate change, David Cameron appears not to understand the potential role of environmental regulations in potentially boosting the economy.  For instance, a major investment in cutting the emissions from the UK's notoriously draughty housing stock could create lots of jobs in the building trades, investing in alternative power generation could help fuel exports, or investing in flood defences could create direct jobs and sellable services for other countries.

Instead, we have the tired Tory ideology that assumes all regulation is automatically bad, coupled with Cameron's studied vagueness as to what he wants to cut.  David Cameron's previous record of half baked announcements makes me wonder whether this latest speech is more than a headline grabber.  It may be that it is possible to streamline, say, Conservation standards for homes, but has anyone in the Government really looked through the details to think what the costs and upsides actually are?

ALMO Developments

Red Brick raises ALMOs (Arms Length Management Organisations).  Brent was an early adoptee of the ALMO model, back around 1999/2000. From what I recall, the argument was purely pragmatic.  The then Labour government was offering lots of money to Councils that adopted the ALMO model to bring housing up to "decent home" standards.

Unfortunately in some authorities, notably Camden, the whole issue became enormously controversial.  The government refused the money unless ALMO status was adopted.  The local council, partly under the influence of a fierce campaign against "privatisation" by the Camden New Journal, refused.  After bitter conflict, there was no Camden ALMO, and no money to go with it. As a result, Council housing in Camden remains in a poor state.

By 2010, the financial incentives has run out.  Councils like Islington and Brent considered taking their authority housing back into a "traditional" model.  Islington did so.  Brent did not.  As part of this process we were shown analysis of how different kinds of governance worked in different authorities, and there seemed to be little difference between the different models, so we kept the existing ALMO structure.  It all makes the debates in Camden seem a huge misdirection of energy and resources.

Red Brick's blogpost is prompted by an ALMO manifesto being published.  This has a number of ideas for future changes, including managing private properties and building more homes, but as always there are severe financial restrictions.

Liberal Democrat Sex Scandal

Less noticed than the Rennard case is another with allegations of sexual impropriety down in Portsmouth.  Local MP Mike Hancock is holding on to his seat in the Portsmouth Executive (He is also a councillor).  It illustrates how hard it can be to bring a senior councillor to book for wrongful behaviour.

The Limits of Localism

Localgovernmentlawyer has a brief survey about the use of the new "community" provisions of the Localism Act.  The magazine feels that there are very few examples of these provisions are being used.  It is as if the government had just passed measures for the sake of newspaper headlines without regard to them being actually implicated.

Jan Gehl Meets Dave Hill

Dave Hill has an interview with Jan Gehl here.  Jan Gehl is one of the leading advocates of making urban areas less car dependent and more for the benefit of people.  He points out that London is struggling to meet these ideals.  one of the things he doesn't mention is that many councillors are highly resistant to his way of thinking and still think of the car as the answer.

Library Buildings and Services

 A row has broken out about the right count of library buildings in the UK.  The campaigners are right that it is rather strange for a government department supposedly superintending libraries in local authorities not to keep any figures of its only, but only rely on the goodwill of an individual writing Public Libraries News.  The DCMS should surely pay its Civil Servants to do some proper monitoring themselves.

However, I think they are mistaken in concentrating on buildings rather than services.  The risk of that approach is that you end up with what we are increasingly seeing of buildings being kept open in nominal terms but only as hollowed out libraries.

The most obvious way in which this seems to be done is via volunteer libraries, where the volunteers (with the best will in the world) just can't provide the same range or quality of services as paid staff.  One might also suspect that the hard grind of trying to routinely provide some sort of library service will eventually dishearten even the most dedicated volunteer.

Where libraries are kept inhouse or contracted out to someone like Greenwich Leisure, there can also be a hollowing out process.  This may be subtler _ shaving off opening hours, reducing bookfunds, allowing PC software to go out of date without upgrading, even failing to maintain the building or interior decoration _ but it will have an effect just the same.

I think that means that you have to pay attention to the outputs you want.  I say outputs rather than inputs (i.e. money spent) because measuring the money you put in or the number of staff by itself might just inefficiency.  For example, suppose a library service got a really good deal on bookstock and was able to buy 10% more books with the same amount of money as its neighbour.  If you are only looking at budget levels you will see no difference, but in fact the authority buying the cheaper books has managed to run a genuinely more efficient service that enhances the library for the users.

Output measurements like number of visitors, book loans and so are more explicitly targeted at what is good for the users.

Government Policy and Volunteer Libraries

CILIP have criticised the government for using its web site to promote volunteer libraries without explicit ministerial sign off.  I find their concern a little strange, as there is no doubt that volunteer libraries are what Tory ministers want.  They have apparently even stopped meeting those who represent paid library staff, and they don't seem interested in the quality of the library service.

It is quite easy to see this as an example of how the government is dismantling public services, following a stage by stage and self reinforcing process.  Namely:

1) Denigrate local government staff as lazy, overpaid etc. (just the pronouncements of Eric Pickles give you plenty of examples)
2) Replace high quality professional services (such as Brent's library service) with underfunded poorly designed services staffed by volunteers who inevitably don't have the same skills as permanent staff.
3) Attack the resulting poor quality services as not worth taxpayers money, and therefore reduce funding still further.
4) Return to step one and begin again.

Resisting such a cycle means being strong minded in defining what the service is and how to measure its quality, not getting sidetracked.  In other words, defending value for money as opposed to the cheapest option.

Do We Really Need Water Cannon

The ACPO request for water cannon strikes me as more a bureaucrat led demand for money in the manner of the suggested national ID card scheme.  Three possible uses in a decade sounds pretty flimsy usage for such big and I presume expensive equipment.  I also multiple vehicles would have to be deployed in different parts of the country so that they could be called up for supposed need.  It also seems that technology has outpaced this solution.  The student protests in 2011 came together and dispersed far too quickly for water cannon to have been effectively brought to bear.

Poverty and Brent Labour Party

The recent Council meeting saw Labour Councillors pushed to support a Council Tax Support scheme we would not do in ordinary circumstances.  We had a number of usual suspects attacking us in a way I have described previously. We also had the Tories joining in, in an act of daring hypocrisy given their eternal austerity priority.

My own view is that we have to have a Poverty Fund in the way other Councils are doing.  It looks like Crisis Payments are being abolished by the Tory Government.  I think it sensible to try to pool various grants in one scheme to protect the poorest.  While that could make use of the residue of the crisis payment scheme, it would need some ongoing funding

I envisage such a source of funding being a rise in Council Tax.  Granted some people regard this as automatically beyond the Pale, but Brent has not had a Council Tax rise since 2010.

Whereas the previous Liberal Democrat administration promised to freeze the Council tax and in fact raised it. I don't think that had anything to do with their election defeat.  They were just unpopular for more general reasons.

I think a lot of ordinary voters would be quite sympathetic to a fund targeted to people in real need.

Comments welcome.

Right to Buy Housing Disaster

I am a bit late in coming to this report by Tom Copley which analyses what a disaster Right to Buy has been for housing in London.  The taxpayer has paid for the homes to be built, paid for them to be sold at a discount, lost the rental income, and all too often now pays the rents of homeless families renting it from the beneficiary of Right to Buy.

That system makes no kind of sense from the taxpayer's point of view.

Brent Council Shambles

Last night's Full Council meeting descended into a shambles.  As has happened before, a small number of individuals in the public gallery were so disruptive that the entire Council meeting removed  to another room.  I imagine the individuals concerned, who numbered not more than ten, congratulated themselves on this result.  They seem to think shouting other people down is democratic, although I think it is rather the opposite.

I have long thought that the debates in Brent Council are of extremely poor quality, with little or nothing of substance being said, but that does not justify the anti-social behaviour involved.

UPDATE

I referred to shouting other people down because you disagree with them as undemocratic, which it is.  The various figures were all in front of councillors in the reports of the meeting (I wonder whether any of the protesters read these? They are on the Council web site).  I also wonder why the protesters did not attend the original meting that passed this scheme back in December 2012, or contribute in any way to that consultation (The January 2014 meeting was simply an annual review).  I have described the decision making process here.

Mosaic in Furness Pocket Park

Kensal Green Streets is promoting an event supported by Brent Council Ward Working at St Marks Church on 25 January in St Marks Church Hall between 10.30am and 3.30 pm.  Volunteers (minimum age five) are wanted to do work on a mosaic in Furness Pocket Park.  I think this is a really lovely scheme that helps unite our community and improve our local park so I hope as many people as possible can make it.

An experienced artist, Debra Collis, will oversee the work.

Street Lighting Savings

Edinburgh is claiming that it can save substantial amounts through improved street lighting.  They reckon they can get a saving of up to 40% on their street lighting bills.  The proportion of saving is likely to go up over time since the carbon taxes Councils have to pay are only likely to go up, and the price of electricity is widely feared to be on the rise.  Brent's very success in reducing its carbon emissions through the new Civic Centre means that a bigger and bigger proportion of carbon emissions come from street lighting.

Birmingham and Automatic Library Cards

Birmingham is considering an automatic library card system for school children, according to the Birmingham Post.  Good as this sounds in theory, the practice is rather harder.

After reading a blog by Michael Rosen, I was enthused by this idea, and Brent became one of the pilot schemes for the concept.  The various schemes are listed here.  The Brent one emphasised not only giving children cards, but also actively promoting the service to them.  It is actually very hard to get schools to look outside their own boundaries.  I have also found this with other areas such as use of study space or sports facilities.  I understand the reluctance to involve the non-school community in the use of school facilities, but I find the library example puzzling.  I think the lesson to draw, is make sure you are measuring the actual success, rather than making assumptions.

This is one of the reasons I distrust Ed Vaizey's promotion of volunteer libraries.  He doesn't seem to have any evidence that they perform as well as Council run libraries, or even that they cost less.

Still I wish Birmingham every success.