Information Bulletin

Summary of News and Publications from the Week ending 30 May 2014
JRF Activity

Blog from Julia Unwin If We Want Greater Prosperity, We Need To Think Cities And Think
Local.
Publication The Economic and Social Mobility of Ethnic Minority Communities in Northern
Ireland.
Blog from Helen Barnard - How Racism Contributes to Poverty in the UK.
Blog from Aleks Collingwood Whats driving Scotlands increasing ethnic diversity?,
talking about the new briefing on ethnic diversity in Scotland, published by the University of
Manchester, funded by JRF.

Poverty
By 2020, the number of children living in poverty in the UK could increase by 41% or 1.4
million, says a new report from Save the Children. It calls for a minimum income guarantee
for families with children under five and affordable childcare. It confirms that two thirds of
children in poverty now live in working households, a rise of 20% since 2003. A Fair Start for
Every Child.
A new report from the Nuffield Foundation recommends that new Early Years pupil premium
is used to increase the number of graduates working in nurseries, playgroups and
preschools. The report found a quality gap between private, voluntary and independent
nurseries operating in disadvantaged areas and those in more advantaged areas. The gap,
however, was found to be much smaller in nurseries employing graduates. 'Quality and
Inequality: do three and four year olds in deprived areas experience lower quality early years
provision?

Council Tax arrears were the most common debt problem for clients contacting the CAB in
the first three months of 2014, with cases increasing by 17% on the same period of 2013.

The amount the average UK household can save is expected to fall even further over the
next five years, according to research by Cebr for the Post Office. 22% of UK savers expect
to save a lower proportion of income this year than last.

In a pilot scheme operating in four areas, 16 and 17 year olds who are NEET can now
receive help from JobCentre Plus work coaches, to help find work or training.

HM Revenue and Customs has opened a consultation on the delivery of the childcare Tax-
Free Childcare scheme, set to launch in autumn 2015 and roll out to all families with children
under the age of 12 within the first year. The closing date for responses is 27 June 2014.



Place
In a survey commissioned by the National Housing Federation, 67% of those polled who are
affected by the bedroom tax are currently finding it difficult to afford their rent, while 46%
have borrowed money to help pay their rent since April 2013. 32% of respondents had cut
back on food and 26% on heating as a result of the tax.

The government has issued the final policy for 'Rents for Social Housing from 2015/16',
following a consultation. The 10 year rent policy includes an increase in social rents by CPI +
1% each year, compared to the current policy of RPI + 0.5%, from April 2015. The provision
for housing associations to increase rents by another 2 per week to help achieve
convergence with target rents will be abolished.

DCLG has published a working paper on its Affordable Rent to Buy scheme, due to be
piloted in 2015-2017. The 400 million fund is open to competitive bids from housing
providers, except local authorities. New homes built with investment from the fund must be
let at an Affordable Rent for at least seven years once the investment is repaid to the
government, providers can keep the property at an affordable rent, switch to market rent
rates or sell the property.

A call for evidence has been launched this week by a new independent commission, set up
to hold an inquiry into the economic and social future of non-city areas (non-metropolitan) of
England, which make up half of the population and economy.

Boris Johnson has launched the new London Rental Standard, a voluntary accreditation
scheme for landlords and letting agents, aimed at improving private rental standards.

First-time buyers in Greater London in the first quarter of 2014 were up by 29% compared to
the same period in 2013, according to statistics from the Council of Mortgage Lenders. First
time buyer numbers were also up in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, by 23%, 30%
and 33% respectively.

The price of the average property in England has risen from just above three times local
income in 1997 to almost ten times, according to data analysis by the Guardian.

Housing association Peabody, has plans for a 7,000 home garden city in south east
London.

A Guardian Housing Network article warns that dropping the affordable housing
requirements for small developments in rural areas would drive out younger people and
others on low incomes, leaving a growing ageing population.

An Ageing Society
A head of publishing its technology manifesto in June, the Policy Exchange estimates that
spending 875 million to educate the 6.2 million people who do not have basic digital skills
could help address issues of loneliness, isolation and therefore potentially make health and
care cost savings for older people. It could also save money by increasing the number of
digital rather than paper and telephone transactions.

Local cottage hospitals services should be expanded to offer community care for elderly
people, learning from the models in the US , the Netherlands and Sweden, says the new
chief executive of NHS England Simon Stevens.

Labour has revealed proposals to lower the threshold for automatic enrolment in the
workplace pension scheme from the current level of 10,000 to 5,772.

The Guardian previews a report, due out in June from ILC-UK and AgeUK, which shows how
local neighbourhoods must adapt to meet the needs of an ageing society with practical
ideas.

Article - Complaints to the ombudsman about social care have more than doubled in five
years, but is this a sign of worsening services or evidence that people feel better able to
make their voice heard?

This Information Bulletin is produced on a weekly basis as an update for staff at the Joseph Rowntree
Foundation (JRF) and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT) for the purposes of their work it is
not intended to be comprehensive but represents a selection of news and reports appearing in the
last week. The items contained in this Bulletin are for information only and do not necessarily reflect
the views of the JRF and JRHT.