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Good morning LGIU members! Grab your morning brew ☕ as we catch you up on everything happening in the world of local government today.

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TRANSPORT

Prime Minister expected to scrap HS2 to Manchester

The Telegraph has reported that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will use his keynote speech at the Conservative Party conference to cancel the Birmingham-to-Manchester leg of HS2, and will claim that more than £10bn in funding will be freed up to invest in Northern Powerhouse Rail and to fund improvements to major roads, new bus routes, and work to fix potholes across the region. Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, made a last-minute call for a rethink, warning Mr Sunak he would be turning his back on a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to level up the North and Midlands. Northern Powerhouse Partnership chief executive Henri Murison said it is "madness to leave what was meant to be the UK's flagship infrastructure project like this". Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said: "If you scrap HS2, you are scrapping the possibility of a new east-west line across the north of England any time soon. We will not accept vague commitments about improving east-west links - we really won't - because people here have waited far too long for a functional railway and we are not going to sell our own residents down the river."
BBC News   Financial Times   Daily Express   Daily Mirror   I   The Daily Telegraph   The Guardian   The Sun   The Times

Attacks on 20mph zones 'unlikely to succeed'

Roger Harrabin at the Guardian warns the Prime Minister that he is "unlikely to succeed in his battle against 20mph zones" in the long term. "The reason is simple", he writes, "once people have experienced the benefits of slower speeds in their area, such as less noise and aggro and more child independence and cycling, they typically don't want to bring the speed limits back up." Further, he adds, if Rishi Sunak "aims to curb local councils' power to set their own limits, he will be pushing against advice from his own Department for Transport that traffic authorities should consider the introduction of more 20mph limits and zones - and against the Tory tradition of valuing localised decision-making".
The Guardian

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MIGRATION

Minister suggests immigration rules will be tightened

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick has told a Policy Exchange event at the Conservative Party conference that current high levels of net migration are due to "decisions made after we left the European Union, which turned out to be significant liberalisations of the present system, and in some cases quite naïve about the consequences". Mr Jenrick said there are "reforms to be done which will unwind some of that", suggesting that the points-based system's salary threshold could be increased, while more restrictions could be coming on care visas and family visas for workers from overseas. Mr Jenrick also said the Government should "encourage more families to have children" to help cut demand for migrant workers.
Daily Express   I   The Daily Telegraph   The Sun   The Times

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ENERGY

Restrictions on rooftop solar panels to be relaxed

Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho has told the Conservative Party conference that planning regulations are to be overhauled to make it easier for businesses to install rooftop solar panels - saying installing panels on the roofs of industrial buildings, warehouses, car parks and factories will reduce the need for large solar farms, while "saving businesses up to £3bn a year".
Daily Express

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EDUCATION

SEND education demand driving Bristol budget deficit

A report to Bristol City Council's schools forum has revealed that the council's schools budget could face a deficit of more than £58m by March due to soaring demand for education for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The council has revealed that it received 626 requests for education health and care needs assessments in 2019, rising to 1,001 last year. Director of children and education transformation Vanessa Wilson said the council has also seen the area's population increase, and warned that the "funding from central Government has not matched the needs that we're all seeing".
BBC News

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FINANCE

Council tax for care leavers scrapped in North Devon

North Devon DC has announced plans to scrap council tax for care leavers until they reach the age of 25 - with the change to come into effect later this month. Cllr David Worden, proposing the measure, said it is "a very difficult time for young people who leave their care provision and become independent". Councillors have approved funding for the measure until March 2024, after which it will be covered by the council's existing exceptional hardship policy for council tax.
BBC News

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PLANNING

Village votes to ban second homes

The members of Burnham Market Parish Council in north Norfolk have voted to call for a ban on the construction and sale of new second and holiday homes in the area. The village of Burnham Market has become known as "Chelsea-on-Sea" due to its popularity with Londoners, with an estimated one in four properties currently a second home, and the number of full-time residents having fallen 20% in the last 20 years. The vote will be taken into consideration by the Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk when it makes planning decisions.
Daily Express   The Daily Telegraph

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ECONOMY

BoE rate-setter says rates may remain permanently higher

Catherine Mann, a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, has reiterated her position that the Bank's interest rate hikes have only just started to reap the sort of restrictions on inflation that are needed and that a tighter monetary policy stance is required to keep a lid on rising prices. Speaking on Monday at an event hosted by Redburn Atlantic and Rothschild, Ms Mann added that policy makers are facing a "world where inflation shocks are likely to be more frequent" with stronger price growth meaning interest rates will need to be permanently higher.
Bloomberg

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AND FINALLY...

Council honours Windrush generation

An extraordinary general meeting of East Staffordshire BC has seen the council award the Freedom of the Borough to local members of the Windrush generation, with the honour coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the first arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush in 1948. Cllr Monica Holton said the honour is a tribute to a generation "whose culture is embedded and influential in every part of the UK", and paid tribute to her own parents, who came to the UK from Jamaica after World War Two.
BBC News

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NEW BRIEFING

Heath, public health, and social care round-up: September 2023

Round-up | 11-min read ⌛

The health, public health and social care round-up summarises new policy, research and publications that are relevant to elected members and officers interested in health and social care. It is intended to be a digested read and provides links to the source documentation of major reports for further consideration. The round-up is organised into the following categories:
- comments on significant development in September
- health and social care reform and finance
- public health
health and social care quality and practice.

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