ROOF Blog

Communities secretary John Denham has announced a £70 million migration impact fund, funded by a levy on migrants, that will be used to tackle illegal working practices and reduce local pressure on public services. Nearly 200 projects will receive funding with every region benefitting, but the amounts each receives will be weighted towards areas where migrants have had the greatest short-term impact. Funding in housing is being targeted on cracking down on rogue landlords.

The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) has claimed that designing eco-towns to be more inclusive would cost no more if it was factored into the planning process early on, and has produced guidance on how to it. It says that eco-towns should provide for all inhabitants regardless of age, disability, faith or gender, and avoid creating barriers that prevent them from becoming part of their communities. A spokesperson for TCPA said it was essential for each town to be socially as well as environmentally sustainable.

A new website has launched showing how people can work together to legally borrow empty properties from their owners and return them to use. The site shows how to get hold of and borrow the empty properties from the owners, and where to go for funding, how to arrange repairs and how to turn renovating a property into a training opportunity.

New research from the National Housing Federation reveals north England’s rural population has been ‘overlooked’ by policy makers, while facing the dual challenge of ‘staggeringly’ high house prices and ‘crippling’ low incomes. The research found that 86 per cent of the north’s most expensive house price districts are predominantly rural and almost 66 per cent of England’s most deprived rural areas are in the north. The federation has called for the government to create a ‘northern rural way initiative’ to combat the current economic crisis.

A report commissioned by the Howard League for Penal Reform has called for a reduction in the number of prisoners and the closing of some jails. The report said that prison and probation funding should be diverted to tackling the causes of crime, and suggested that short-term prison sentences be replaced with community-based responses. The report said that overcrowding threatened to ‘bring the penal system to its knees’ with the prison population doubling in the past two decades to an all time high of around 84,000.

Home secretary Alan Johnson has pledged to revive the use of antisocial behaviour orders (asbos) in the most extreme cases of intimidation and harassment. In a package of measures designed to turn around the 30 per cent drop in new orders issued, he promises to cut delays of up to two years in getting the courts to issue an asbo, make it easier for problems to be reported and provide more counselling support for victims. He admitted that the government had been ‘to a certain degree, complacent’ in recent years on this issue.

A website offering legal advice on environmental problems to help communities know their rights and responsibilities has been set up. It covers the main areas of environmental law and explains where to go for help.

Communities minister Hazel Blears told parliament yesterday that economic recovery rested in giving local people more say in the decisions that affect them. She said it was vital that councils had the freedom, flexibility and ability to support local communities. Her comments came as she announced the release of a progress report into last July’s White Paper which aimed to give communities control over local decisions. 

Residents of a street in south Yorkshire have clubbed together to change the name of their street, after spending years being the butt of jokes. Butt Hole Road in Conisborough is being renamed Archers Way after residents putting up with years of tourists baring their erm… all, beside the street sign for photos, while delivery drivers refused to believe the street existed.

And in related news, a House of Commons communities and local government select committee says councils should have more autonomy to shape the development of their communities. The MPs found that large city and county councils feel that they are not being given sufficient scope to develop their role, and called for central government and its agencies not to intervene in local issues as quickly.