Preston City Council

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CDR854-2013_00_00_TRA_TCD

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EU local and regional authorities contributing to the

Mid-term review of Europe 2020

Assessment of the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion flagship initiative

Over two years after its launch, the Committee of the Regions will take stock of the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusionflagship initiative at a conference to be held on 29May 2013 in Brussels. This conference will be the fourthin a series of CoR events and monitoring initiatives surrounding the mid-term review of Europe 2020 in 2014. More news on this conference can be found on the CoR website[1].

By participating in this survey, you will:

ensure that your views are taken into account in the debate held during the conference;

contribute to the fourth CoR Monitoring Report on Europe 2020, to be published in October 2013;

contribute to the CoR's consultative activity in this field over the coming months;

contribute to the mid-term review of Europe 2020 in 2014.

If you wish to participate in this survey, Please complete this questionnaire in any eu language, using the spaces provided, and return it in text format to:

by 22April 2013

For more information on this survey and for details on how to join the

Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform, go to:

The questionnaire is available on this website in all official languages of the EU

Contributor information[2]

Name of sender: / Tamar Reay
Contact details:
(address, telephone, email) / Town Hall, Lancaster Road, Preston PR1 2RL
+44 (0)1772903409

On behalf of:
(name of local or regional authority) / Preston City Council
Type of organisation / City/Town/Municipality Region
County/Province
Association of local and/or regional authorities
Other (please specify)
Country: / UK
Member of the EUROPE 2020 Monitoring Platform: / YesNo

Policy challenges and responses at regional and local level

BOX 1 – European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion: basic information
This is the first time ever thatthe objective of reducing poverty has been identified as aquantitative targetunder an EU strategy. The aim of the Europe 2020 flagship initiative, theEuropean Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion,is "to ensure economic, social and territorial cohesion in order to raise awareness and recognise the fundamental rights of people experiencing poverty and social exclusion, enabling them to live in dignity and take an active part in society"[3].In particular, itoutlines actions to help Member States reach the EU target of reducing poverty and social exclusion by at least 20 million by the year 2020[4].
Althoughthe average at-risk-of-poverty-and-social-exclusion rate in the EU has remained relatively stable in recent years, it varies significantlyamong different age groups and between the Member States. It has significantly increased in a number of countries over the last three to four years[5]: while the rate is under 20% incertain Member Statessuch as Denmark, Germany and Luxembourg,it recently increased to 47% in Bulgaria, 40% in Latvia and 31% in Greece (2011). Furthermore, considerable differences exist between differentregionsin theMember States[6].
Today, the inhabitants of around one fifth of the EU's regions are particularly exposed to risks of poverty and social exclusion.
The European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion feeds into the Europe 2020 objective of inclusive growth along with the Agenda for New Skills and Jobs flagship initiative. It will also help to achieve the other objectives of smart growth (alongside the Youth on the Move flagship initiative). In particular, it contributes to the objective of achieving the Europe 2020 headline target to lift at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty and social exclusion.
The main objectives and lines of action of the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion are highlighted in Box 2 below.
EU regional and local governments are responsible for about one fifth of total government expenditure for social protection and services and therefore play an important role in helping to achieve the objectives of the flagship initiative[7].
You can find more information on the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion, as seen from thelocal and regional authorities' viewpoint, on the European Commission's Europe 2020 portal[8] and in the Committee of the Regions' publication Delivering on the Europe 2020 Strategy. Handbook for Local and Regional Authorities[9]. General information on Europe 2020 can be found on the strategy's official website[10] and on the website of DG Employment.[11].
1)What are the main challenges currently facing your region/city in terms of (i) preventing child poverty (ii) providing decent housing conditions and (iii) combating the social exclusion of vulnerable groups?
The main challenges facing Preston are the fragility of the economy which has led to higher unemployment and under-employment of its residents; the changes to the Welfare Benefits and Housing Benefits systems which are currently being introduced; rising rents; and constraints placed on Preston City Council’s budget. These are all impacting on Preston residents in terms of the risk of increasing child poverty, ensuring there is sufficient affordable housing, and combating social exclusion.
2) Please briefly describe what type of policy programmes/actions are being implemented in your city/region in the policy areas covered by the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion, highlighting their specific contribution to the above targets (see Box 1).
A number of policy actions are being implemented within the City of Preston:
a) Preston City Council is an accredited Living Wage employer – all its employees receive a Living Wage which is €1.5 an hour higher than the National Minimum Wage hourly rate. The Council seeks to secure the Living Wage through its procurement processes, and has carried out a major campaign across the city to encourage other employers to pay the Living Wage to their staff. This contributes to combating poverty through paying people a decent wage.
b) The Council is promoting worker co-operatives to increase the amount spent on goods and services in the local economy, and through this create a number of new worker owned businesses. In particular it is exploring a market co-op with local market traders as part of its investment in a new markets facility. This contributes to combating poverty by ensuring goods and services are affordable, providing employment, and recycling money through the local economy.
c) The Council is exploring ways of re-establishing a credit union within the city to enable its residents to access cheaper loans as a credible alternative to payday lenders. This will encourage financial literacy and numeracy amongst residents who lack confidence / ability in managing their own finances, and combat rising levels of debt and indebtedness.
d) In terms of renewable energy, Preston City Council is investigating installing District Energy Systems within the city, and has committed funds from its Capital Programme to set up a test wind turbine in the Docklands area of the city which if successful will result in 3 large wind turbines being erected. This will generate electricity to thousands of homes, and the income will be invested back into the city for the benefits of its residents.
e) Collective energy switching has become more popular in the UK due to increasing energy bills. A collective energy switching scheme (PeoplePower) has just been piloted in Preston and across Lancashire (see section 3 for further details). The aim of this scheme is to encourage residents to reduce their energy bills by switching providers. This aims to help those experiencing high fuel bills and where possible reduce fuel poverty.
f) Through its planning policies, the Council is requiring 30% affordable housing on developments of 15 units or more. This will ensure that residents in need are able to access housing at affordable rents. In addition the Council has reviewed all the land in its ownership with a view to finding productive use – mainly through the transfer of small scale plots to social landlords to develop for affordable housing; or asset transfer to the community / communities themselves. For example, the Council is looking to develop an 11 acre site which it owns in the centre of the city into 150+ 2/3 bed homes of which around 50-70 would be for affordable sale / rent.
The council is also in the process of negotiating a City Deal with the UK Government. If the City Deal is approved, there will be significant investment in infrastructure which in turn will release stalled housing sites which would otherwise not come forward. If this happens, there is also potential for the development of 3,000 additional housing units over a 10 year period of which around some 900 (equivalent to approximately half the current housing waiting list) would be for affordable sale or rent.
g) The Council has a small fund for community grants which is targeted at community and voluntary sector organisations which deliver services to combat poverty and social exclusion in its deprived neighbourhoods, e.g. homelessness, jobs clubs, etc;
h) Through its Community Engagement Officers, the Council works with specific deprived wards within the city. Their work covers all kinds of activities, from supporting environmental projects like a community garden, to helping a new community group write their own constitution or submit a funding application.
i) Food banks – a number of voluntary / community organisations within Preston have set up food banks to support people who are having to turn to food banks for help.
j) The Council together with other partners has recently set up a Social Forum. The aim of the Forum is to enable a two-way dialogue between Preston City Council and forum members concerning equality. It will be independent of the Council and will be able to campaign and lobby for its ideas to become a reality across Preston and elsewhere.
3)Are any of the policy programmes/actions described in the above questioncarried out in partnership with different tiers of government and/or withother stakeholders (regional or local NGOs, representatives of the social partners, the business sector or service providers). If yes, please state (a) the administrative levels involved (b) the practical arrangements taken to manage such joint action (c) who the main partners were and (d) how you worked with them (work organisation and time).
PeoplePower Collective Energy Switching Scheme:
a)the administrative levels involved were the 13 District Authorities within Lancashire together with Blackburn with Darwen unitary authority and Lancashire County Council, the sub-regional authority
b)the joint action was managed through the Lancashire Energy Officers group who jointly applied for funding to promote the project, liaised with the energy broker and organised the training of staff who would promote the scheme on the ground.
c)The main partners were as described in a) together with iChoosr who acted as broker for the auction with the energy providers
d)iChoosr provided the training for the staff from the Lancashire authorities who were promoting the PeoplePower scheme, both at the start of the campaign and after the auction with the energy providers was held. The Lancashire authorities promoted the scheme through the web, in the local press and radio, local neighbourhoods, etc; assisted people to register who did not have access to the online facility, and contacted people post auction.
e)It was then the individual household’s decision whether to switch to an alternative energy provider.
4)Ensuring effective access to and participation in cultural activities for all is an essential part of promoting an inclusive society. In what way can participation in cultural and creative activities be instrumental for helping people and communities overcome poverty and social exclusion? Please refer to specific examples and existing initiatives.
Participation can raise aspirations, extend skills and learning opportunities and tackle social inequality through partnership work. It can also encourage creative communities. Through joint practical working across different communities within society it can encourage under-represented groups to get involved; and grow understanding about different cultural and interest groups through cultural inclusion.
There are many arts and cultural organisations active within Preston. One example would be TheyEatCulture (TEC). TEC is an innovative arts organisation in Preston which seeks to make a direct intervention in the cultural life of Preston and Lancashire. It is undertaking a number of projects which focus on engaging with local communities. These include:
-Then The City (TTC)
This project focuses on geographical/ interest-based communities to understand their (non) engagement with arts and culture through co-programming touring performance and co-commissioning art/design solutions around community issues in their spaces.
-Foxton Lives (FL)
Working in partnership with Foxton Centre (which works with the homeless, rough sleepers, young people, etc), Foundations, relevant housing associations, to embed close-up creative community development into Avenham through co-designed participatory work, residencies and quality art projects, effecting life changes.
-Cinema Around The Corner (CATC)
Working in disengaged communities to produce co-programmed short-run cinema (film culture) projects (e.g. 7 day pop-up cinema), aiding community cohesion.

How is the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion relevant to your city or region?

BOX 2 -European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion: main objectives and actions
The specific objectives of the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusionare[12][13]:

• to support theeradication ofchild poverty. Over 20 million children are at risk of poverty in Europe today. This risk rises to 25% for children who live in large families and is over 30% in the case of children who live in single parent families;
• to promote the active inclusionin society and on thelabour market of the most vulnerable groupssinceunemployment is the principal cause of poverty among the working-age population. The risk of poverty for the unemployed is more than five times greater than in the case of people inemployment;
• to provide decent housing for everyone. Homelessness and housing exclusion represent one of the most extreme forms of poverty and have increased in recent years. Fuel poverty, which risks depriving households not only of heating or air conditioning but also hot water, light and other essential domestic necessities, is another example of severe deprivation;
• to overcome discrimination and increase the social integration of people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, immigrants and other vulnerable groups. For example, older people face a higher risk of poverty compared to the overall population; moreover, in some countries older people are at particular risk of material deprivation;
• to tacklefinancial exclusion and over-indebtednesswhich arisefrom a lack of access to basic banking services, a situation which has been aggravated by the recent crisis. It can also be an obstacle to finding a job and thus lead to persistent marginalisation and poverty;
• to promote the integration of Roma. Certain ethnic minorities, of whom Roma are the largest group, and migrant people in general, are disproportionately affected by multipledeprivation.

The specific actions and tools at EU level are structured as follows[14][15]:

• improved access to work, social security, essential services (healthcare, housing, etc.) and education;
• better use of EU funds to support social inclusion and combat discrimination;
• social innovation to identify smart solutions in post-crisis Europe, especially in terms of more effective and efficient social support;

• new partnerships such as those between the public and the private sector;
• enhancedpolicy coordination among the Member States;
• provision of food to the most deprived people, as well as clothing and other essential goods to homeless people and materially-deprived children[16].

5)Which of the objectives and lines of action of the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion(listed in Box 2) are most relevant for the current situation in your region/city? To what extent have they encouragedyou to set more ambitious policy goals at regional/local level? Please explain your answer.
Preston City Council’s current administration’s manifesto has the aim of promoting equality in Preston. Therefore the actions described in section 2 are part of their ambitious policies to create more equality amongst Preston’s residents. These in turn link with the objectives and actions of the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion.
The actions which are most relevant are the eradication of child poverty; promoting active inclusion and helping people access the labour market; providing decent housing; tackling financial exclusion and over-indebtedness, and overcoming discrimination.
The tools which are most relevant for Preston are improved access to work, better use of EU funds to support social inclusion, social innovation and developing new partnerships both between the public and private sector, and the public and community / voluntary / social enterprise sector, and provision of food, and other necessities to the most deprived people, including children.

BOX 3 –Social Investment Package[17][18]:

The Social Investment Package (SIP) aims to give guidance to Member States on more efficient and effective social policies in response to the significant challenges they currently face such as financial distress, increasing poverty and social exclusion,unemployment, especially among young people. These are combined with the challenge of ageing societies and smaller working age populations, which test the sustainability and adequacy of national social systems.

The Social Investment Package includes a Commission recommendation against child poverty, calling for an integrated approach to child-friendly social investment. Investing in children and young people is especially effective in breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty and social exclusion and improving people's opportunities later in life.

The Social Investment Package is an integrated policy framework which takes account of the social, economic and budgetary divergences between Member States. It focuses on: