Kirklees Council commended for Apprenticeships

Recognition for apprenticeships

Kirklees Council has been highly commended as a large employer at Apprenticeship4England’s awards, which coincided with National Apprenticeship Week. Speaking of the achievement by the council, which supports 92 apprentices.

Cabinet member Councillor Graham Turner said: “Apprenticeships are an essential part of the Kirklees Council recruitment programme, they ensure that we have access to highly motivated employees with the right skills for our future.”

The Telegraph & Argus

Homescape Programme

Last week (6.2.17) an announcement claimed that Sheffield would be delivering 1000 new homes by 2021.

This includes some new build through Sheffield Housing Company.  This was something they set up 3 or so years ago in partnership with Keepmoat.  It covers acquisitions as well as new build.  They have delivered 352 of which 301 are acquired properties and 51 new build. 

This is similar to our Homescape programme which was launched back in January 2015. It consists of a wider range of initiatives including council new build, some specialist housing provision for vulnerable groups, market sale and rent to buy.  We have also proactively offered some small sites to small and medium builders to build new homes.  In total there are currently 880 new homes in the development process of which approximately 267 are affordable rent, 138 are market rent, 49 are rent to buy.  The total investment into district will equate to £100m (based on average build costs).  This is total expected investment including some grant funding and private finance.

Cllr Naheed Mather, Cabinet Member for Housing and Enforcement Management

Watch the Labour Group speeches made at the February 2017 Budget Council



Watch the Labour Group speeches made at the February 2017 Budget Council

 

Kirklees Budget 2017: Proposed, Seconded, Backed

At the Kirklees Council Budget meeting, February 2017, a budget proposal was put forward by the Labour administration.

Cabinet Member for Resources, Cllr Graham Turner, proposed the budget. The Deputy Leader, Cllr Shabir Pandor, stood to second the budget proposal. The Leader of the Labour Group and Council, arose to give his backing.

You can see all three speeches here:

 

Kirklees Council Budget Meeting - LIVE

Conservative Government’s dangerous underfunding of Social Care and the NHS

At the Kirklees Council Meeting to take place on 18 January 2017, the Labour Group will be tabling the following motion. You will be able to watch the webcast of the meeting and see the debate on this motion here. Below is the motion itself:

Motion submitted in Accordance with Council Procedure Rule 14 to address the Conservative Government’s dangerous underfunding of Social Care and the NHS 

This council is extremely concerned about the on-going crisis in Social Care and Health (via the NHS). This has been caused by unprecedented demand, and unprecedented, chronic underfunding by this Conservative Government. 

Starving our social care system of resources puts lives at risk and destroys the quality of life of countless residents of Kirklees.  

As local representatives it is our duty to stand up for Kirklees residents and express our deep concern.  

The motion asks that the leaders of all our political groups sign a joint letter to the relevant Secretaries of State, and campaign through local MPs and the LGA, for an adequate funding of social care and the NHS.

Accommodating Syrian Refugees in Kirklees - Cllr Shabir Pandor

At the Kirklees Council meeting of 7 October 2015, Cllr Shabir Pandor, Cabinet Member for Kirklees Council, delivered a speech imploring that more be done nationally and locally to address the devastating humanitarian issue that is the Syrian Refugee Crisis.

 

Kirklees Council: Devolution and West Yorkshire

Following the 2015 General Election, the Chancellor gave a speech in which he highlighted the approach of the government towards devolution:

“A central part of our Queen’s Speech will be a bill to enable a radical new model of city government.”

He went on to emphasise greater control over local transport, housing, skills and health care, and stated that:

“The levers you need to grow your local economy and make sure local people keep the rewards,” were on offer. However, he also insisted that “with these new powers for cities must come new city wide elected mayors who work with local councils.”

You can see Kirklees Council's Leader, Cllr David Sheard, present the latest information of what this means for Kirklees, at the Council Meeting of 2 September 2015.

No Silver Bullet: Doing more to support our lower paid workers

 Cllr Karen Rowling, speech to Council, June 2015

"I am very pleased to see this report come to council and to see the work that is being carried out across the Leeds City region and here at Kirklees council to tackle the issue of low pay.

"This report lays out some very good recommendations on how to work with employers and drive up work and pay conditions. This work alone though is not enough, and we must push for more to be done at a government level to tackle this growing issue.

"Before the election, David Cameron told everyone he was on the side of working people and now, less than 2 months on, he is discussing cutting the in work benefits of our lowest earners. The same people he promised to protect.

"There is an argument that people shouldn’t be reliant on in work benefits such as child and working tax credits but the reality is that in this age of low pay and zero hour contracts, it’s these benefits that ensure families and children are not living in severe poverty. Cameron says it makes no sense to tax these people and give it back in tax credits. What he fails to realise is that the majority of people claiming tax credits don’t earn enough to pay tax. Tax credits are given to the lowest paid in society whereas even the richest millionaires benefit from a rising basic rate tax threshold, so the lowest paid are losing money and the richest gain once more.

"What we really need to see is a commitment from the government to drive private sector businesses to pay the living wage in a way that mirrors the good work being carried out across the Leeds City Region and here at Kirklees Council. Sadly, there is absolutely no commitment from the Tories to do so. As the Child Poverty Action Group points out, the governments child poverty strategy last year didn’t even mention the living wage – until campaigners intervened.

"It’s reported that the four biggest supermarkets in the UK, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons alone are costing just under 1 billion pounds a year in tax credits and extra benefit payments. We are all, in effect, paying a huge sum of money so that companies can continue to underpay 22% of workers who are earning below the living wage. The only possible beneficiaries are the business owners, and so we continue the spiral of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer with the divide growing year on year.

"This report also talks about guarding against inappropriate use of zero hours contracts. This is definitely something that needs to be tackled and I welcome the commitment to ensure our own workforces and also our commissioned services are not using these exploitative contracts. Contracts that leave people living in fear from day to day as to whether they can pay the bills and feed their children from one week to the next.

"It is our duty to do everything possible to ensure that the people of Kirklees and across the Leeds City Region are paid a wage that allows them to live with dignity but it is also the duty of the opposition councillors in this chamber to lobby their government to stop this rising tide of low pay, tax credit cuts and zero hour contracts that have and continue to, push so many people in our borough into poverty."

 

Low Pay

No Silver Bullet Answer to Combat Low Pay

Tonight the Council will be asked to endorse the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Low Pay Charter.

Obviously this is a strategy to combat Low Pay where ever possible but also to alleviate it where not.
The Charter has been drawn up by the Lower Paid Workers Group established last year. The Silver Bullet reference refers to the fact that, whilst it is an admirable aim and something we were proud to achieve in Kirklees, the Living Wage is not a Silver Bullet, it does not eliminate low pay or the problems faced by low pay.

The paper makes 10 recommendations as to the next steps and I am sure the Cabinet agreed to to recommend to Council that our  officers be taxed to investigate all these recommendations with an aim towards implementation.

The importance of tackling Low Pay is not only an issue for the low paid, or even for those (obviously not in the Conservative Party,) who have a conscience, or any degree of empathy. It is also an issue for the Super Rich and the Newspapers who support them, even though they have managed to "con" (what an appropriate word) the majority of the population to believe the nonsensical "trickle down theory", it obviously does not work. The Rich just want to get richer.

A "Trickle Up" theory is obviously much easier to demonstrate, any money given to the poor is in the main spent locally and as such becomes a boost to the local economy, making everyone, including the rich, richer.

Lib-Dem Priorities

Kirklees Lib-Dem Group confused!

At the Kirklees Council meeting of 15 January, the Lib-Dems took the option to debate a motion on Fracking over that of the LDF (Local Development Framework).

Despite issuing press releases about the importance of their proposal to Council on the LDF, the Lib-Dems combined with their coalition partners, the Conservatives, to stop the council debating the issue.

Cllr David Sheard, Deputy Leader, commented: "It is hard to understand the move Kath Pinnock, Lib-Dem leader, took to vote to continue the debate on Fracking, leading to the council running out of time to debate the LDF, an issue she and her group had so vehemently suggested was of great importance."

It was not clear whether Cllr Pinnock realised, as the potential debate approached, that she and her Lib-Dem colleagues had been complicit in agreeing the original LDF submission in the first place, as the reason for sticking with the debate on Fracking. 

 

Kirklees Council Leader, Cllr Mehboob Khan: Moving on...



As many people in Kirklees will now be aware, I will be stepping down as Leader of Kirklees Council. The Labour group, as the largest party in the council, will elect a new leader during that time.

I will stay on as a Greenhead Ward, Labour Councillor until the local elections in May 2014.

I feel the time is now right to move on as I have had a fantastic time as leader of a large council in a time of immense change for local government.

My new post in London will be an exciting challenge, working with council leaders, the Mayor of London and Westminster.

But I have no doubt that my successor, once that person is in place, will have a strong platform to build from and lead Kirklees through its most difficult financial challenges in its history.

While this has been a very difficult decision for me personally, my new role is an exciting challenge at the right time. You can only do such a high pressure role as council leader for so long while being as effective as possible, and I am confident that whoever my successor is, they will be able to take the council through the new challenges it is facing.

However, until I stand down, it is business as usual for all of us, with the most important decision on the next budget being taken next month.

It has been a privilege to work on behalf of the citizens of Kirklees over the last few years.

Related Article:
"Mehboob has dedicated his life to serving the community where he was born" - Cllr David Sparks, LGA Chair

Kirklees Council Meeting: Motion to consider destitution amongst refused asylum seekers

At the Full Council meeting of 15 January 2014, we have submitted the following motion to be considered regarding destitution amongst refused asylum seekers:

 

Kirklees Council welcomes the initiative taken by councils such as Glasgow, Bristol, Sheffield, Leeds and Bradford Councils to highlight concerns about refused asylum seekers and the lack of support for them in the UK.

Furthermore, Kirklees Council shares the concerns of groups working locally with refused asylum seekers about the levels of destitution they face in the Kirklees area and the associated problems that this creates. In 2013 in Kirklees, there were 33 destitute asylum seekers and 300 supported by The Home Office.

Kirklees Council therefore resolves to:

 

·       Formally write to the Minister of State for Immigration in order to make clear Kirklees Council’s opposition to the use of destitution as a policy tool with which to force refused asylum seekers to leave the UK, whilst they pursue their case for a haven safe from persecution.

·       Request that the Home Office guarantees to continue its provision of financial support and accommodation whilst an individual negotiates a safe return, leaves the UK or is granted leave to remain and that good quality legal advice is provided at all stages of the asylum process.

·       Formally write to the Government in order to seek a change of policy that would allow local authorities to assist refused asylum seekers at risk of destitution by providing emergency provision in line with provision available to any other homeless person.

·       Endorse the Children’s Society call for reform of asylum seeker support systems.

·       Join the national campaign, Still Human Still Here, which proposes

-        the restoration of free access to health care for all asylum seekers whilst in the UK;

-        the granting of permission to work for asylum seekers whose case is not resolved within six months or if they have been refused but are temporarily unable to return through no fault of their own;

-       improved decision making to ensure all those in need of protection receive it.  

Related Articles:
Sheffield Council Takes Stand Against Asylum Destitution
Bristol City Council stands up for destitute asylum seekers
A harsh place for asylum seekers (Glasgow)
Leeds Dignity for Asylum Seekers