From Hull to Bath and Wolverhampton to the Wirral, communities up and down England are set to benefit from a government cash boost that will protect thousands of homes from flooding, enhance the environment and bolster economic growth and tourism.

Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey has today (Tuesday, 27 March) announced that 25 new schemes will receive a share of £36 million announced in the Autumn Statement to improve flood protection.

One of the biggest beneficiaries is Hull, where £12 million will improve the defences along the River Hull to protect homes, businesses, infrastructure and areas of cultural importance within the city. The funding will support the second phase of the project which started in 2016 and has so far seen 39 sections of defence improved over a 7.5km stretch of river.

The main pier at Seahouses, Berwick-upon-Tweed, protecting 140 properties and the town’s picturesque harbour, will be regenerated thanks to an extra £2.9 million.

Rivers will be restored and habitat improved in Gloucester, where £1.2 million will go to projects to protect 370 properties along the Sud Brook and River Twyer.

In Derby, more than £300,000 will help create new wetlands and flood reservoirs to not only protect 110 homes from flooding but also enhance biodiversity in residential areas.

Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey said:

This funding will benefit projects across the country from Hull to Gloucester, from Wolverhampton to the Wirral, that need an extra boost for flood defences to help our communities continue to prosper and grow in the future.

Not only will this investment make places more resilient against flooding, but it will help the local economy, enhance the natural environment and protect important areas of culture – whether it is the homes, businesses and cultural sites in Hull to the pier in Seahouses or the natural environment in Gloucester.

The government has worked with the Environment Agency to prioritise the areas that would get the most benefit – the schemes will not only protect an additional 3,000 properties from flooding but will contribute to wider benefits for the community.

Sir James Bevan, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, said:

In the face of challenges like a changing climate, rising sea levels and more severe weather, the Environment Agency is working hard to protect people, homes and businesses from flooding.

As with every project we undertake, we’re also striving to improve our environment and this additional funding will not only help us build flood defences, but restore vital habitat and bring nature back to some of our urban communities.

The additional £36 million funding was initially set aside for new projects in the Autumn Budget. The £33.8 million funding allocated today will go towards 25 flood schemes over the next three years, in addition to the £2.2 million given to 13 projects in Cumbria and Devon at the end of last year.

In the Autumn Budget, the Chancellor announced £76 million to be spent on flood and coastal defences – £36 million for new schemes and £40 million to boost local regeneration in deprived communities at high flood risk.

This brings the total investment in flood defence to £2.6 billion by 2021, when more than 1,500 flood defences will have been built to protect 300,000 homes up and down the country.

Over the past two years, the Environment Agency has completed more than 350 new flood schemes to protect 100,000 homes. In addition to building hard defences, it has improved its response by investing in new technology and equipment like temporary flood barriers, pumps and 6,500 trained staff across the country.

The Environment Agency’s free flood warning system also reaches more than 1.2 million people to give them vital warning when flooding is expected. You can check your risk and sign up to receive warnings on GOV.UK here or by calling 0345 988 1188.

We’re developing an online filing service for community interest companies (CICs), so you can file your annual report and accounts online.

If you’re a CIC, or agent who files on their behalf, you can help us by answering a quick survey about online filing.

We also need your help to take part in user-testing at our Cardiff office. User-testing during development will help us make our new service fit for your needs.

The testing will only take around an hour, and we’d be grateful for your help.

 What CICs are for

If you’re thinking of starting a business, but want to provide a benefit to the local community, then a CIC might be for you.

A CIC is a company for people wishing to set-up a business as a ‘social enterprise’. This means the business will trade with a social purpose, or carry out other activities for the benefit of the community.

Many social enterprises and community organisations are already incorporated as companies. They’re usually limited by guarantee, without shares. Others, such as co-operatives, are registered societies. Many are less formal, with assets held on their behalf by trustees.

A CIC is suitable if you want the freedom of a limited company, without either the private profit motive or charity status. They’re more flexible than some other legal forms, and there’s a variety of capital options to meet your needs. CICs aren’t strictly ‘not for profit’, but returns to investors must be balanced and reasonable, to make sure community benefit is always its purpose.

How to form or incorporate a CIC

The basic legal structure for CICs is the limited liability company. They can either be incorporated as a new company or converted from an existing company.

Creating a CIC has significant legal implications, such as the ‘asset lock’. This means the assets of the CIC (including any profits or other surpluses it makes) are used for the benefit of the community. This is a permanent step, which cannot be reversed.

To register as a CIC, a company must adopt articles that comply with The ‘CAICE’ Act and CIC Regulations 2005. Existing companies must make changes to their articles and a change of name. A CIC’s name must end in either, ‘CIC’ or ‘community interest company’, and not ‘limited’ or ‘ltd’.

 The CIC Regulator

Another feature of a CIC is that they report to the Office of the CIC Regulator. The regulator’s job is to make sure the CIC is genuinely a social enterprise, and isn’t abusing the trust the public expects to put in a CIC.

By making the CIC report to the regulator, the directors can clearly show that the company is a genuine social enterprise venture, and not for private profit.

If you need further help, the regulator has produced a list of do’s and don’ts when completing an application to incorporate a CIC.

Deciding to form a CIC is a major step and professional legal advice is recommended.

We have published an information leaflet today for parents of children in years 2 and 6 about national curriculum assessments (commonly called SATs).

The leaflet is to help parents understand more about the end of key stage assessments that will take place in primary schools throughout May.

For pupils at the end of key stage 1, typically aged 7, teachers will judge the standards at which they are working. To help teachers inform those judgements, pupils will take tests at any time throughout May in:

• mathematics
• English reading
• English grammar, punctuation and spelling (optional test)

Pupils at the end of key stage 2, typically aged 11, will take tests on set days in the week beginning 14 May in:

• English grammar, punctuation and spelling
• English reading
• mathematics

Videos about SATs at key stages 1 and 2

We have also published 2 videos for parents, providing more detail at each key stage about:

• the purpose and format of the tests
• when tests will take place
• how parents can best support their child
• how results will be reported

The leaflet and videos may be useful resources for schools to share with parents, or to use during conversations with parents about primary assessments. We have provided a text only version of the leaflet for ease of printing.

Local Government Minister Rishi Sunak has welcomed the progress made by the Troubled Families Programme over the past year to help families with multiple and complex problems improve their lives, to reform local services and to reduce pressure on the public purse.

The second Troubled Families annual report published today (27 March 2018) details how the programme is working with families as a whole to provide the stability and practical support they need to overcome complicated issues including ‘worklessness’, uncontrolled debt and truancy.

This programme of whole family working has achieved significant progress with:

• more than 90,000 families meeting the improvement goals agreed with local services against each of the problems they need to overcome – up more than 48,000 on the previous year
• almost 14,000 of families where progress has been achieved, 1 or more adult has succeeded in moving into continuous employment – an increase of over 4,800 since last year
• reduced demand on children’s social care services; the programme’s focus on preventative services is starting to show positive results with families getting the type of help they most need, including reducing the number of cases that need to be escalated to children’s social care

Local Government Minister Rishi Sunak said:

This report details the hard work that’s been happening across the country over the past year to help families with a variety of challenging problems improve their lives, reduce their dependency on local services, and in doing so deliver better value for taxpayers.

Adults who were once far from the job market are now moving into work. Children are getting the right support they need and local leaders are encouraging and challenging all services working with children and their families to act early and offer whole family support, to stop their problems becoming worse.

Rather than responding to each problem, or single family member separately, assigned Troubled Families key workers champion working with the whole family. This means they receive support from coordinated services working together to identify and solve their problems as early as possible, rather than merely reacting to crises.

Since the current programme began in 2015, local authorities and their partners have worked with 289,809 eligible families. This compares with only 2,000 families who had received whole family support in England between January 2006 and March 2010.

In addition to working successfully with families struggling with a variety of chaotic issues in their lives, the report outlines how the programme is also driving real long-term change across local services including police, housing, social care and Jobcentres. Services and professionals are now better connected and working in partnership.

Rather than circling around families with multiple and separate assessments and appointments, local authorities are using the programme to work across organisational and cultural boundaries to achieve better lives for the families in need and produce savings for the public purse.

Following a review of the programme’s funding model, the annual report also sets out how a new payment structure will be piloted in 11 selected local authorities, with upfront payments made to help support families and accelerate change across local services. This new ‘Earned Autonomy’ model builds on the existing Payments by Results system in which local authorities are paid for each family who either achieves ‘significant and sustained progress’ or moves into continuous employment.

Case study

Staffordshire’s local Troubled Families Programme has driven service reform and reduced demand on children’s social care services. Since 2015, of the 891 families that have achieved continuous employment or significant and sustained progress through the Troubled Families Programme (up to 31 January 2018), 15 families – less than 2% – required further early help intervention and just 12 families – required any future children’s social care intervention

This is the second annual report of the current Troubled Families Programme and meets the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s statutory duty to report annually on performance. See Supporting disadvantaged families: annual report of the Troubled Families Programme 2017 to 2018.

The current Troubled Families Programme was rolled out in England in April 2015 and replaced the first programme which had been in place since 2012. The programme will continue support for disadvantaged families with complex problems and will work with up to 400,000 families by 2020.

The annual report confirms that the programme continues to reach families with complex and multiple problems. In the year before starting the programme, troubled families had the following characteristics compared to the general population:

• children were nearly 8 times more likely to be classified as a Child in Need
• adults were 7 times more likely to have a caution or conviction
• adults were 5 times more likely to be claiming benefits
• children were nearly 3 times more likely to be persistently absent from school

In addition:

• over two fifths of troubled families had a family member with a mental health issue
• just under a quarter of troubled families had a family member affected by an incident of domestic abuse or violence

The 11 areas that will pilot the new Earned Autonomy funding model are: Barking and Dagenham, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Camden, Cheshire West and Chester, Durham, Islington, Kent, Leeds, Liverpool and Staffordshire.

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