Information Bulletin 25 January 2013

Information Bulletin
Summary of News and Publications from the Week ending 25 January 2013
JRF Activity
Films Three short JRF/BBC documentaries about poverty in the UK are now available on our website.
Holiday from Poverty tells the story of those for whom even having a holiday is an unaffordable luxury. The Car's Got to Go is a film about how the fall-out from the recession and the debt crisis is pushing people into poverty. Camden Calling, a musical documentary, shines a light on the pathways that can lead to being homeless.
Reports Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion in Scotland 2013 The number of people aged under 25 who are unemployed has doubled since 2008 and the number of people who are underemployed has risen by over 70%. Life expectancy for boys born in the most deprived 10% of areas, is eight years below the national average and 14 years below boys in the least deprived areas.
Reality, Resources, Resilience: Regeneration in a Recession - looks at how the recession is impacting upon disadvantaged communities in Scotland.
Blogs Reducing poverty must be central to the debate about Scottish independence blog from Tom MacInnes. Reality of UK Poverty captured in online BBC Storyville films - blog from film-maker Andy Glynne. What Cities Outlook 2013 tells us about how cities can promote economic growth Blog from Josh Stott.
Poverty
UK unemployment fell by 37,000 in the 2012 September to November quarter, giving an unemployment rate of 7.7%, 0.1% down on the previous quarter. Youth unemployment rose slightly, creeping up by 1,000, while the number of people who are long-term unemployed fell. As figures show a decline in average earnings growth in 2012 from 1.7% to 1.4%, economists are warning that further restrictions on family finances will hinder economic recovery.
The UK economy shrank by more than expected in the final quarter of 2012, falling by 0.3%. A new report from IPPR and the Resolution Foundation aims to inform the debate on the living wage. It calls for more living wage leadership in the public sector, using the procurement power of national and local government to extend living wage coverage and incentives for adopting the living wage among small and medium-sized enterprises. Beyond the bottom line: The challenges and opportunities of a living wage. Living wage zones could feature in the next Labour manifesto. Twitter: #livingwage Follow: @resfoundation, @IPPR, @LivingWageUK. The Scottish Minister for Welfare and Housing has listed six key demands aimed at the UK Government and the energy sector, to prevent more people falling into fuel poverty. The cost of raising a child until the age of 21 has reached 222,000, 58% more than ten years ago, according to Cebr. A new Policy Exchange report focuses on the lack of support for vocational training for young people. Social landlord Octavia Hill has launched an apprenticeship scheme for residents only across four different disciplines. Jules Birch blogs on Inside Housing - England is now the only home country planning to cut housing benefit in April. The New Policy Institute has calculated that 160 local authorities out of 326 have agreed a scheme so far, 77% of these will pass on the cut to tenants. An estimated 830,000 claimants in those areas will be adversely affected. The Demos project Squaring the Circle, about how to protect financial well-being through times of falling living standards and spending cuts, has produced the first of four publications. Duty of Care is from the employers standpoint, looking at how small businesses can help employees ensure their long-term financial protection. The Cost of Troubled Families is a new report from Department for Communities and Local Government which seeks to demonstrate how councils can make savings by intervening more effectively with troubled families. Guardian Datablog The Public health minister has linked obesity to poverty: what does the data show?
Place
84% of housing associations predict that rent arrears will go up by 51% on average as a result of the welfare reforms, according to an impact assessment of the welfare reforms on housing associations and tenants. Read the National Housing Federations Impact of Welfare Reform on housing associations 2012 baseline report. Create Streets is a new report from the Policy Exchange which argues that Demolishing high rise social housing blocks and replacing them with streets made up of low rise flats and terraced housing would improve the lives of thousands of people, including better outcomes for health and education. See also BBC news video. A new report from ESRC investigates the challenges the UK faces after the economic downturn. It explores a range of initiatives across education, business, housing, industry,
and innovation that could help kick-start growth and includes interviews with leading academics. Read Re-Igniting Growth. The Cities Outlook 2013 from the Centre for Cities, lists the ten cities where funds aimed at kick-starting housing would produce the most rapid results. All the cities, expect for Bristol, are in the South East of England. The report also identifies ten cities (all in the North of England or in Scotland) with lower levels of demand and higher vacancy rates, which would benefit from a mix of new homes and the funds to refurbish the existing housing stock. A Green Deal Hard to Reach Households Panel has been created and convened. The group will look at the barriers for low income and disadvantaged households in taking up the Green Deal and ECO and provide recommendations to ministers. DECC has published a pdf leaflet on Green Deal for Households the Green Deal launched on Monday. Another 20 million has been provided for the No Second Night Out rough sleeping initiative, adding another 23 charities to give a total of 85 schemes operating across 64 areas. A Government consultation has been launched to look at streamlining the planning application process. The consultation closes on 3 March 2013. The future of the affordable rent programme will be announced within months according to Housing Minister Mark Prisk. Cebr predicts that the price of a typical house in the UK in 2014 will pass the 2007 pre-crisis peak for the first time, with house prices expected to be 0.7% higher than in 2007. The Land Registry has produced its summary of property statistics and information for 2012, which revealed that the average house price in England and Wales was 161,490 compared to 160,040 in 2011. The Technology Strategy Board is making 4.5 million available for research into improving retrofit products to increase take up.
An Ageing Society
The Centre for Social Justice has published a checklist of problems with the current social care system, which it argues are the main priority for Government and which are not addressed by the Dilnot proposals. In an interview with the new head of the NHS Commissioning Board, Sir David Nicholson, he calls for a revolution in health service care for older people. He describes hospitals as "very bad places" to care for frail, elderly patients and calls for new ways to treat them in the community, in a smaller number of large, highly specialised centres. Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham has set out Labours vision for health and social care through the publication of a challenge paper 21st Century NHS and social care: Delivering integration and a speech at the Kings Fund. A report from the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, calls for a new ratings system for social care quality. More than half the people aged 50 or over who are out of work, have been unemployed for more than a year.
The Conservative, Plaid Cymru and Liberal Democrat parties in Wales have each appointed a spokesperson for older people, at the request of the Older Peoples Commissioner for Wales. Age UK is highlighting the case of an estimated 1.5 million older people in rural areas who are not on the gas grid and who are struggling to afford heating oil. Heating oil prices are unregulated in the UK and increased on average by 20% in the last 6 months of 2013. They are calling on competition regulators to monitor the industry and intervene and for the Government to prioritise energy efficiency for rural homes. Britains loneliness epidemic an article looks at some of the organisations and communities that are helping older people beat loneliness. The Government has proposed that the state pension age be raised to 67 years old in 2026. Under the current law, the state pension age will rise to 67 between 2034 and 2036.
People and organisations

The Housing and Communities Agency has appointed Richard Hill as their interim CEO and accounting officer.
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.

Information Bulletin 25 January 2013

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