Coronavirus: Home Insulation 'Could Create Cheap Jobs'

Making people's homes cosy is the cheapest way to create jobs as the UK prepares to fight recession, a report says. Its authors say a job insulating homes would be much cheaper than creating a road maintenance job, for example. Jobs in building roads are more costly to create, as the work is heavily mechanised. The figures will be sent to the Treasury, which is reviewing a package of job stimulus measures for July. The report's authors say a job in home insulation can be created for £59,000 - that's far less than a road maintenance job, which is estimated by the government to be more than £250,000. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52999337

Devolve Funding To Increase Building And Job Creation

£23bn of growth funding is spread out across 70 funding streams managed by 22 government departments and agencies. Councils warn this is creating a maze of complexity that is hurting the economy by creating significant delays in delivering projects and generating frustration.

Research shows that:

·         In most areas over 63% of the funding streams have little or no connection to local efforts to drive growth and create jobs

·         Areas with devolved deals fare better with influence or control over 47% of funds

·         Each fund comes with its own objectives, timetables and rules. Local leaders, working with business leaders are best placed in understanding the needs of their local economies and creating the conditions for jobs and future prosperity.

Read more on the LGA website.

Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Emma Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many (a) homes and (b) affordable homes have been completed under the Get Britain Building scheme to date; and what estimate he has made of the number of jobs created by that scheme.

Brandon Lewis: From 2012-13 to September 2014, there have been 12,293 dwellings started, against the target of 12,000. The scheme is primarily aimed at unlocking stalled market housing, and is not an affordable housing programme as such; however, there have been 1,397 affordable starts which have been unlocked as part of wider schemes. Completions lag behind starts due to the time it takes to build out a site, but 4,890 dwellings had been completed to September 2014, and this figure will continue rising.  We estimate that the Get Britain Building programme is supporting between 1 to 2 jobs per unit, which suggests that up to 24,586 jobs have been supported so far.  [Edit]

Deal Will Lead to Thousands of New Housebuilding Jobs

Tens of thousands of new housebuilding jobs and apprenticeships will be up for grabs for years to come under a deal struck between ministers and the industry. Government-led efforts have got Britain building – in the last year alone planning permission has been granted on 230,000 new homes and private housebuilding starts are at their highest for 7 years. But leading housebuilders have made clear that a lack of skilled labour is one of the key problems facing their industry, and that they need a range of building skills as well as site managers, surveyors, planners and designers. The plan will ensure young Brits leaving school or our Armed Forces benefit from this turn-around but it will also help former builders to consider a return to the industry. Read more on the CLG website.

Most of Regional Growth Fund Unspent

More than three quarters of a government fund set up to boost regional economies remains unspent, according to a new report. The National Audit Office (NAO) also says the cost of creating new jobs via the fund has increased. Its progress report says that of the £2.6bn allocated via the Regional Growth Fund (RGF), only £492m has so far actually reached projects. The NAO also says the number of jobs created or protected since the fund was set up in 2012 had increased by 22,100 to 44,400. But it reports the average cost of creating each additional job now stands at £37,400 - an increase of 13% since the fund started. Around half of those jobs, the NAO says, were covered by just five of the 291 operational schemes. Read more on the BBC website.

Bedroom Tax Is Creating a False Economy

The ‘bedroom tax’ is creating a “false economy” that is harming local growth Wakefield and District Housing’s (WDH’s) chief executive Kevin Dodd has warned.  The northern economy has put forward a more workable solution in local job creation schemes he said which can save the Treasury almost twice as much each year as the spare room subsidy. “WDH invest £3 million each year in employment initiatives, as it is good business to reduce benefit dependency. Last year over 300 people have been found employment opportunities by WDH, which is over 25 people per month. Work such as this by registered providers is pro-rata, on a par, or better than the Government’s ‘Work Programme’ targets on a regular basis,” said Dodd.  “Having more local people in work saves the Treasury nearly £6 million a year, which in turn boosts the local economy by around £18 million a year just in the Wakefield district.”  Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Residents Offered Jobs to Help Them Keep Homes

A London council is offering jobs to residents who are at risk of losing their home due to welfare cuts. Greenwich Council is offering full and part-time jobs to some of the families in its area who are being hit hardest by the cuts. They will be paid the London Living Wage – which amounts to £8.55 an hour – or more, and employed in teams covering parks and open spaces, street cleansing, recycling, enforcement, and in town-centre management.  The council said it is the first in the country to launch such a scheme, and it will be taking on the first 31 recruits this month. Read more on the Royal Borough of Greenwich website.

Council Backs Stalled Housing with Cash

Walsall council is pumping £770,000 into a series of stalled developments which can now deliver more than 200 new homes and 380 jobs. The council is using cash from the New Homes Bonus to issue loans and grants to four construction companies on five sites with a combined value of £20 million. Developers had to satisfy a range of criteria and also have part-built developments or schemes with planning permission which had not yet begun, before they could get the cash. The loans will be repaid by the developers and reinvested in other schemes to help create new jobs and homes. Read more on Walsall Council’s website.

Jobs Supported Through the Decent Homes Programme – PWA

John Healey MP: What estimate has been made of the number of jobs supported through work on the Decent Homes programme in each of the last five years? Has the Department made a recent estimate of the number of jobs created per £1 million of funding allocated for the refurbishment of existing homes?
Andrew Stunell MP: The Department has not made a specific estimate of the number of jobs supported through work on the Decent Homes programme in each of the last five years. However, the Department has estimated that, in 2009, every £1 million of investment in home refurbishment supported 17 net jobs for a year. This figure takes account of direct jobs supported in the industry and indirect (supply chain) jobs. It also takes account of displacement effects, where increased investment in housing refurbishment takes investment (and associated jobs) away from other parts of the economy.