HM Government

With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a statement on the latest stage of our work to fix this country’s broken housing market.

As I told the House in February when I published our Housing White Paper, successive governments, all the way back to the Wilson era, have failed to get enough new homes built.

We’re making some progress in tackling that – 189,000 homes delivered last year and a record number of planning permissions granted.

But if we’re going to make a lasting change – building the homes we need to meet both current and future demand – we need a proper understanding of exactly how many homes are needed and where.

The existing system for determining this simply isn’t good enough.

It relies on assessments commissioned by individual authorities according to their own requirements, carried out by expensive consultants using their own methodologies.

The result is an opaque mish-mash of different figures that are consistent only in their complexity.

This piecemeal approach simply doesn’t give an accurate picture of housing need across the country.

Nor does it impress local people who see their area taking on a huge number of new homes while a town on the other side of a local authority boundary barely expands at all.

If we’re going to get the right number of homes built in the right places we need an honest, open, consistent approach to assessing local housing need.

And that’s exactly what we’re publishing today (14 September 2017).

Objectively assessed need

The approach we’re putting out for consultation follows 3 steps.

The first uses household growth projections published by the Office of National Statistics to establish how many new homes will be needed to meet rising need.

I should add at this point that these projections already take into account a substantial fall in net immigration after March 2019.

But this number simply shows the bare minimum that will be required in order to stand still.

If we only meet rising demand in the future, we will do nothing to fix the broken housing market – a situation caused by the long-term failure to match supply with demand.

So the second step increases the number of homes that are needed in the less affordable areas.

In any area where the average house prices are more than 4 times average earnings, we increase the number of homes that will be planned for.

The assessment goes up by 0.25% for every 1% affordability ratio rises above 4.

Of course, the state of the housing market means that there are some areas where this would deliver large numbers that go well beyond what communities have previously agreed as part of their local plans.

That’s we’ve added a third stage.

A third stage of the assessment sets a cap on the level of increase that local authorities should plan for.

If they have an adopted local plan that’s less than 5 years old, increases will be capped at no more than 40% above their local plan figure.

If the plan is not up-to-date the cap will be at 40% above either the level in the plan or the ONS projected household growth for the area, whichever is higher.

These 3 steps will provide a starting point, an honest appraisal of how many homes an area needs.

But it should not be mistaken for a hard and fast target.

There will be places where constraints – for example, such as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, national parks or others – mean there’s not enough space to meet local need.

Other areas may find they have more than enough room and are willing and able to take on unmet need from neighbouring authorities.

Statement of common ground

That kind of co-operation between authorities is something I want to see a lot more of.

To the frustration of town planners, local communities are much more fluid than local authority boundaries.

People who live on one side of a line may well work on the other.

Communities at the edge of a county may share closer ties and more infrastructure with a community in the neighbouring county than they do with another town served by their own council.

And so on.

Talking to the people who live in these kind of communities it’s clear that they get frustrated by plans being based on lines on a map rather than day-to-day, real-life experience.

Planning authorities are already under a duty to co-operate with their neighbours, but that duty is not being met consistently.

So today we’re also publishing a requirement for a “statement of common ground”, a new framework that will make cross-boundary co-operation more transparent and more straightforward.

Under our proposals, planning authorities will have 12 months to set out exactly how they are working with their counterparts across their housing market area to meet local need and fill any shortfalls.

Impact

The methodology that we’re publishing today shows that the starting point for local plans across England should be 266,000 homes per year.

Nationwide, this represents a 5% increase on the upper end of local authority estimates, showing that the local planning system is broadly on target.

For almost half of the authorities we have data for, the new assessment of need is within 20% either way of their original estimate.

Nearly half, that’s 148, actually see a fall in their assessment.

They go down by an average of 28%.

In the 156 areas where the assessed need increases, the average rise is 35%.

But in most cases the increase will be more modest.

Seventy-seven authorities see an increase of more than 20%.

We are not attempting to micro-manage local development.

(political content removed)

It will be up to local authorities to apply these estimates in their own areas.

We’re not dictating targets from on-high.

All we are doing is setting out a clear, consistent process for assessing what may be needed in the years to come.

How to meet the demand, whether it’s possible to meet the demand, where to develop, where NOT to develop, what to develop, how to work with neighbouring authorities and so on remains a decision for local authorities and local communities.

Infrastructure

But new homes don’t exist in a bubble.

New households need new school places, new GP surgeries, greater road capacity and so on.

That’s why, earlier this year, we launched our new Housing Infrastructure Fund.

Worth a total of £2.3 billion, it ensures essential infrastructure is built, alongside the new homes that we need so badly.

We will also be exploring bespoke housing deals with authorities that serve high-demand areas and have a genuine ambition to build.

And we are providing further support to local authority planning departments with a £15 million capacity fund.

Conclusion

So those are our proposals, Madam Deputy Speaker.

(political content removed)

These measures alone will not fix our broken housing market.

I make no claim that they will.

As the White Paper made clear, we need action on many fronts.

This new approach is one of them.

On its own, it will simply provide us with numbers.

But taken with the other measures outlined in the White Paper it marks a significant step in helping to meet our commitment to deliver a million new homes by 2020 and a further 500,000 by 2022.

And it’s so important that we fulfil that commitment.

Because the young people of 21st century Britain are reaching out, in increasing desperation, for the bottom rung of the housing ladder.

For the comfortably-housed children of the 50s, the 60s, the 70s to pull that ladder up behind them would be nothing less than an act of inter-generational betrayal.

One that our children and grandchildren will neither forget nor forgive.

If we’re going to avoid that, together, all of us, if we’re going to avoid that, if we’re going to fix the broken market and build the homes the people of this country need and deserve, we must start with an honest, open, objective assessment of what is needed and where.

Today’s publication provides the means for making that assessment, and I commend it the House.

read more

The MAC will attend regional events around the UK to meet and take evidence from stakeholders on EEA and international migrant workers.

read more

In my statement to the House on 17 July, I set out my Department’s plans to increase spending on schools by £1.3 billion over the next two years, on top of our existing plans.

I informed the House that this would mean that we could press ahead with introducing a national funding formula for schools and high needs from April 2018 that would provide a per pupil cash increase in respect of every school and every local area, and maintain the overall budget in real terms, per pupil. And I promised to return to the House in September to set out the Government’s final decisions on introducing fairer funding in full. Today I am doing just that.

This is an historic reform. It means, for the first time, the resources that the government is investing in our schools will be distributed according to a formula based on the individual needs and characteristics of every school in the country.

Not only will the national funding formula direct resources where they are most needed, helping to ensure that every child can get the high quality education that they deserve, wherever they live. It will also provide that money through a transparent formula, providing greater predictability. And, by clearly setting out the sums that we are directing to different aspects of the formula – to the basic amount per pupil, or to children with additional needs – for the first time it allows for properly informed debate on this vital topic: something the existing, opaque system has held back.

The need for reform has been widely recognised across this House, and beyond. The National Association of Head Teachers says, and I quote, “a revised funding formula for schools is essential” . The Association of School and College Leaders believes that, and I quote, “the way in which funding has been distributed to schools has been flawed for many years… Reform of the school funding system is vital” .

The case is so strong because of the manifest unfairness when Coventry receives £510 more per pupil than Plymouth despite having equal proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals; or Nottingham similarly attracts £555 more than Halton – near Liverpool, in Cheshire.

Addressing these simple but damaging inequalities will represent the biggest improvement in the school funding system for decades. It is a step that previous Governments have failed to take for far too long.

In making such a significant reform, it has been vital to take account of a broad range of views. Our wide-ranging consultations, in both 2016 and earlier this year, allowed us to hear from over 26,000 individual respondents and representative organisations. I am grateful to everyone who took the time to share their views and to respond to the consultations, including many members from across this House. We have carefully considered them all.

As I said to the House in July, I am putting an additional £1.3 billion into core funding for schools and high needs so that the overall budget will now rise by around £2.6 billion in total, from almost £41 billion in 2017-18 to around £42.4 billion in 2018-19 and £43.5 billion in 2019-20. So, building on this firm foundation, I can today set out the final funding formulae we will introduce, which, over the next two years, will mean we will deliver on our manifesto pledge to make school funding fairer and ensure that we do deliver higher funding in respect of every area and school.

Building on our consultation proposals, as I set out in the House prior to summer recess, I am:

• Increasing the basic amount of funding that every pupil will attract.

• We recognise the challenges of the very lowest funded schools so will introduce a minimum per pupil funding level. Under the national funding formula, in 2019-20 all secondary schools will attract at least £4,800 per pupil. Today I can announce that all primary schools will attract at least £3,500 per pupil through the formula in 2019-20. And the formula will provide these levels of funding quickly: secondary schools will attract at least £4,600, and primary schools £3,300 in 2018-19; and then the full amounts the following year.

• I will also provide a cash increase in respect of every school. Final decisions on local distribution will be taken by local authorities, but under the national funding formula every school will attract at least 0.5% more per pupil in 2018-19, and 1% more in 2019-20, compared to its baseline.

Many schools will, of course, attract significantly larger increases under the formula – up to 3% per pupil in 2018-19 and a further 3% per pupil in 2019-20. And the minimum per pupil funding level will not be subject to this gains cap – delivering particularly fast gains in respect of the very lowest funded schools.

Our consultation confirmed the importance of funding for additional needs – deprivation and low prior attainment. We know that these factors are our best way to identify the children who are most likely to fall behind, and to remain behind, their peers, and it is only right that we provide the greatest resources to the schools that face the greatest challenges. As I said in July, we will protect the funding the formula will direct towards additional needs at the level proposed in our consultation, and I can therefore confirm today the total spending on additional needs will be £5.9 billion.

But, as we proposed in December, we will distribute that funding more fairly, in line with the best available evidence. We will use a broad measure of deprivation to include all of those who are likely to need extra help. And we will increase the proportion of additional needs spending allocated on the basis of low prior attainment, to give additional support to those who may not be economically deprived but who still need help to catch up. I can also confirm today that, as we proposed in December, the national funding formula will allocate a lump sum of £110,000 for every school.

For the smallest, most remote schools, we will distribute a further £26 million in dedicated sparsity funding. Only 47% of eligible schools received sparsity funding in 2017-18 because some local authorities chose not to use this factor. Our national funding formula will recognise all eligible schools.

And, our formula will rightly result in a significant boost directed towards the schools that are currently least well-funded directly. Secondary schools that would have been the lowest funded under our December proposals will now gain on average 4.7%. Rural schools will gain on average 3.9%, with those schools in the most remote locations gaining 5.0%. Those schools with high numbers of pupils starting with low attainment will gain on average 3.8%.

As I set out in my statement in July, to provide stability for schools through the transition to the national funding formula, each local authority will continue to set a local formula which will determine individual schools’ budgets in their areas, in 2018-19 and 2019-20, in consultation with local schools.

So, this means that the school-level allocations from Government I am publishing today, alongside this announcement, are notional allocations which we will use to set the total funding available for schools in each area. As I have set out in the House, schools’ final actual funding allocations for 2018-19 and 2019-20 will be based on that local formula agreed in their area by the local authority and schools will receive that allocation ahead of the financial year as normal. I will place copies of both documents in the House of Commons library – and the Lords.

Our objective to provide the best education for every child places a particular focus on the support we offer to the children who face the greatest barriers to success, and on the high needs budget that provides that support. The case for reform of high needs funding is every bit as strong as the case for school funding reform, and therefore the move to a national funding formula every bit as important.

We set out full proposals for the introduction of a high needs funding formula last December, alongside our schools formula. And I am today confirming that we will proceed with those proposals.

And thanks to the additional £1.3 billion investment that I announced in July, I can increase funding for high needs so that I will also be able to raise the funding floor to provide a minimum increase of 0.5% per head in 2018-19 and 1% per head in 2019-20 for every local authority. Underfunded local authorities will receive up to 3% per head gains a year for the next two years to help them catch up.

That is a more generous protection than we proposed in December, to help every local authority maintain and improve the support it offers to some of our most vulnerable children. It means that local authorities will see a 4.6% increase on average in their high needs budgets.

The additional £1.3 billion we are investing in schools and high needs means that all local authorities will receive an increase in 2018-19, over the amount they plan to spend in 2017-18. Local authorities will take the final decisions on distributing funding to schools within local areas, but the formula will provide for all schools to see an increase in funding compared to their baseline.

In conclusion, the new national funding formulae will redress historic inequities in funding that have existed for too long, whilst also maintaining stability so that schools and local areas are not disadvantaged in the process.

After too many years in which the funding system has placed our schools on an unfair playing field, we are finally making the decisive and historic move towards fair funding.

The national funding formulae for schools and high needs and the increased investment we are making in schools will help us continue to improve standards and create a world-class education system. No one in this House, Madam Deputy Speaker, should accept the system as it has been. It has perpetuated inequality and that is unacceptable. I am proud that it is a Conservative Government that is now putting this right. And, on this firm foundation, we will all – government and schools, teachers and parents – be able to build a system that finally allows every child to achieve their potential, no matter what their background, or where they are growing up.

read more

Jacky is currently employed by Microsoft Corporation as Corporate Vice President, Core Platform Engineering, and is well known in the industry as a senior executive who is a transformational global leader and innovative technologist. Jacky is notable in the wide range of recognitions she has received for her work in technology and diversity, both within and external to her work.

The appointment was formally ratified by the Prime Minister and is the result of an extensive recruitment exercise in which candidates were considered from across the Civil Service, the public and private sectors, and internationally.

HMRC Chief Executive, Jon Thompson said:

I’m delighted to welcome Jacky to HMRC as our new Chief Digital and Information Officer. Jacky was an exceptional candidate and this appointment marks an exciting new phase for us as we continue towards our vision of becoming a world-class organisation.

Jacky is a seasoned commercial leader with ‘best in class’ credentials, globally. Balancing strong operating experience with a record of driving innovation, Jacky is widely recognised for her contributions to technology and diversity. Her influence as a technology leader and as a champion for the role of women and BAME in industry, is a major win for this organisation.

This builds on a year of real progress and innovation under the leadership of interim CDIO, Mike Potter, who has done a fantastic job of pushing digital delivery for HMRC and its customers.

Jacky Wright said:

There could not be a better time in the history of technology to demonstrate the power of technology innovation at an organisation such as HMRC. I am really excited to be joining the UK’s tax authority at such a pivotal time in its history. I am passionate about the impact innovation can have in truly transforming services for people and businesses in a positive way and want to continue the great work being done within HMRC and across the Civil Service at this time. I am proud to represent women and BAME in technology and will continue to promote the vital role of diversity within our industry and more broadly.

Jacky will take up her role on 16 October 2017. Mike Potter will leave CDIO to take up a new role as Director for Future Borders.

1. Jacky Wright was appointed to her current role as Corporate Vice President, Core Platform Engineering in 2011. Her previous posts include:
   • CIO/Vice President, BP Plc (2008-11)
   • CIO, Momentive Performance Materials (2006-08)
   • CIO, General Electric Corporation (2000-06)
2. Follow HMRC’s Press Office on Twitter @HMRCpressoffice
3. HMRC’s Flickr channel can be found here

Edward Rowley Tel: 03000 585 028 Email: edward.rowley@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

Out of hours Tel: 07860 359544

read more

Education Secretary Justine Greening today (14 September) confirmed details of a new fairer funding system for schools in England, putting an end to the historic postcode lottery that saw huge differences in funding between similar schools in different parts of the country.

The National Funding Formula (NFF), the biggest improvement to the school funding system for decades, will ensure that for the first time funding is based on the individual needs and characteristics of every school in the country. The publication of the final NFF for 2018-19 and 2019-20 in Parliament today follows two major consultations, generating more than 26,000 responses, and the Education Secretary’s announcement in July of an additional £1.3billion boost to the front line schools budget.

The NFF will provide funding gains for schools across England, allocating:

• an increase in the basic amount allocated for every pupil;
• a minimum per pupil funding level for both secondaries and primaries to target the lowest funded schools;
• a minimum cash increase for every school of one per cent per pupil by 2019-20, with the most underfunded schools seeing rises of three per cent per pupil in 2018-19 and 2019-20
• a £110,000 lump sum for every school to help with fixed costs, and an additional £26million to rural and isolated schools to help them manage their unique challenges

Education Secretary Justine Greening said:

Standards are rising across our school system and a fairer funding formula will ensure we can build on that success. It will replace the outdated funding system which saw our children have very different amounts invested in their education purely because of where they were growing up. That was unacceptable and we have now made school funding fairer between schools for the first time in decades.

It’s a long overdue reform and our £1.3 billion extra funding means every school can gain.

The introduction of the NFF from April 2018 means the Government is delivering on a key election commitment Figures published today show regional and school-level allocations under the new formula, although local authorities will continue to decide individual school allocations up to 2020. The Education Secretary’s oral statement on school funding from July is available here.

Further information:

• The core funding for schools and high needs will rise from almost £41.0 billion in 2017-18 to £42.4 billion in 2018-19. In 2019-20 it will rise again to £43.5 billion.
• On the ground, the formula will result in a significant boost directed towards secondary schools that would have been the lowest funded under our December proposals, which will gain on average 4.7%, rural schools, which will gain on average 3.9%, with those schools in the most remote locations gaining 5.0%, and those schools with high numbers of pupils starting with low attainment, which will gain on average 3.8%
• Alongside the formula published for schools today, the government also confirmed reforms to funding for children and young people with high needs. Every local authority will see a minimum increase of 0.5% per head in 2018-19, and 1% per head in 2019-20 . And underfunded local authorities will receive up to 3% per head gains a year for the next two years. Overall, local authorities will gain 4.6% on average on their high needs budgets.

read more