Lifeline youth club under threat

A youth club that has played a key role in transforming an estate once dubbed the “car crime capital of Europe” is in danger of folding.

Every week for the past six years, Pennywell Youth Project has packed more than 600 children into its Petersfield Road base, getting them off street corners and into activities such as music and DJ workshops, football and out-of-school clubs.

But the club is fast becoming the latest victim of the recession. Grants are drying up, staff are working on a voulntary basis and the lights are being turned off to save funds.

“Jobs have been lost and more could go,” said project manager Gordon Langley. “We could last six months, three months, two months – I just don’t know.”

Taken from Sunderland Echo

More than 300,000 homes “lying empty”

More than 300,000 privately owned homes have been lying empty across England for lengthy periods while millions of families stagnate on lengthy housing waiting lists.

According to new figures released by high street bank Halifax, the number of empty homes in England reached its highest level for five years during 2008.

But when homes that have been empty for less than six months are added the real figure is double this.

A huge number of private homes have been left empty despite the four million people in the country on the housing waiting list – a figure the Local Government Association expects to increase by another million in the next two years.

The figures were released as TUC general secretary Brendan Barber called for an empty property tax of five times the usual council tax – an average of £5,875 – on up to a million homes left vacant by absentee landlords to help meet the costs of the financial crisis.

Mr Barber said: “It’s a scandal so many homes are standing empty when the queue for social housing is growing and a chronic housing shortage is pushing prices well above their pre-recession levels and out of reach of many potential home owners.

“These empty properties, often bought for purely speculative purposes or as a vehicle for tax avoidance by overseas landlords, contribute to our housing crisis and fiscal deficit.”

Economist Suren Thiru said the number of empty homes had increased recently following several years of decline.

“In many cases, high levels of long-term empty homes reflect relatively high levels of deprivation, low average earnings and high unemployment,” he said.

A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government added that councils must do more to deal with empty homes and have strengthened their role so they can work with owners to bring properties back into use.

Where no alternative can be reached, councils have a last resort – empty dwelling management orders (EDMOs) – to allow councils to get empty homes occupied without forcing a change of ownership.

Taken from Morning Star

Lone parents told to work – or face fine

Hard-hearted Welfare Reform Minister Jim Knight has steamrollered ahead with plans to fine lone parents who refuse “work-related activity.”

Despite a revolt by 22 Labour MPs, Mr Knight pushed through a harsh proposal to curb benefit payments to single parents whose youngest child is three years old or over.

Labour MP John Grogan attacked the tough new rule as “mean-spirited” as he joined rebels backing a Lords amendment to the bitterly controversial Welfare Reform Bill.

Mr Grogan urged the minister to relent “even at this late stage and in the spirit of Christmas, which is soon to be upon us.”

Wide-ranging workfare-style measures and benefit cuts proposed in the Bill are now certain to pass into law.

Tuesday night’s backbench revolt was a last stand by Labour opponents in the final stages of the Bill, but the government won the vote by 286 votes to 236.

Rebels backed an amendment to raise from three to five the age that children must reach before their parents are liable to benefit sanctions for failing to undertake work-related activity.

Labour MP Diane Abbott remarked acidly that ministers should be grateful that “nowadays the proceedings of the House of Commons are not properly reported.”

She added: “If ordinary Labour members and supporters could hear Labour ministers talking about imposing financial sanctions on women with three-year-old children to get them into notional jobs in the middle of a very real recession, they would be shocked and unhappy.”

Mr Knight insisted that parents would not be required to take up actual employment until their youngest child was aged seven.

Those with children over three years old would be required to undertake activities such as training and help with literacy and numeracy.

Taken from Morning Star

Parents pack school hearing

Anxious parents vented their anger as they attended an 11th-hour meeting to save their school.

Schools Adjudicator Brian Slater hosted a meeting to help him decide the fate of Gillas Lane Primary School in Houghton.

The primary school was earmarked for closure earlier this year as part of Sunderland City Council’s proposals to tackle huge number of surplus places, but parents have been campaigning against the plans.

After a lengthy debate in the summer, Sunderland Council’s school organisation committee agreed to defer a decision.

Members were asked by education officials to give the final go-ahead for the axe to fall in August 2012, but they voted four to one in favour of deferring the decision into the hands of the Schools Adjudicator.

At last night’s meeting held at the school, Mr Slater heard views from the local authority, campaign group, Gillas Lane Action to Support Schools (Glass), and residents.

Speaking at the meeting, Glass chairman Dave Coulbeck said: “As parents and carers, we believe we have had a raw deal in this process. Our views and wishes have been sidelined.”

He claimed the proposal had been “misleading” and “poorly executed”.

Those fighting to save the school say its small class sizes are key to giving pupils a good grounding in life.

Earlier this year the authority announced plans to shut Gillas Lane and transfer pupils to nearby Bernard Gilpin Primary School.

Fighting back the tears, Gillas Lane headteacher Terry Hambleton, told the meeting: “What I firmly believe is that there is scope and room for two good schools in the area.

“We know their names, their families, what happens on a weekend, their strengths, what makes them tick.”

Parents and staff are worried about pupils going from a school of 130, with a nursery, to one of more than 400 without a nursery.

Representing the council, Keith Moore, deputy director of Children’s Services, said: “We absolutely understand as a local authority the difficulties and sensitivities of the proposal we are making and we want to acknowledge the excellent work of the school.

“But we have a responsibility and a duty to balance this with the clear duty to manage surplus places.”

Mr Slater will now consider all views before making a decision.

Taken from the Sunderland Echo

Unemployment Levels in Sunderland, North East and the UK

The Guardian has given a detailed database of benefit claimant figures today, so I thought I would highlight some of the statistics relevant to Sunderland and compare them to regional and national levels. No Surprise that Sunderland has a higher rate than both of these. Please note, that the figures are for benefit claimants and not unemployed people as a whole, otherwise the figures would be far greater.

The UK in total has 1,145,989 people who claim benefits, making up 4.2% of the working population. This is a 1.6% (612,276) increase in the last year.

The North East has 85,231 people who claim benefits, making up 5.3% of the working population. This is a 1.7% (27,890) increase in the last year.

Sunderland North has 3,103 people who claim benefits, making up 6.2% of the working population. This is a 2% (997) increase in the last year.

Sunderland South has 3,503 people who claim benefits, making up 6.9% of the working population. This is a 2.1% (1,084) increase in the last year.

This obviously shows that there is a lack of decent job, training and education opportunities in the Sunderland area, and that when the recession hit, that it has had most effect on working class and neglected areas like Sunderland. Despite this, it has been revealed this week that, there are going to be massive cuts to training schemes nationally.

Apparently the unemployment rate is slowing, but unemployment is still increasing and pay rises are now the lowest on record. And to add to this, after the next general election, all the major parties have promised big cuts the public sector, meaning many more job losses to come.

I would like to add that there are going to be huge benefit cuts in the months to come, in the form of the Welfare Reform Bill. This is likely to distort statistics like this, as these only detail people claiming benefits. So there will be many ‘hidden’ unemployed people who are ignored.

The overall picture does not look too good, despite much of the media spin things are getting better. They are not getting better for the average working class person, the single parent families, and those who rely on unsecure low paid jobs and benefits.

Government prepares to slash training schemes

Tens of thousands of apprenticeship places could be axed under plans to claw back £340 millon from England’s further education and skills budget, a leaked government document has revealed.

The document proposed to axe at least 133,000 training places – some for the most deprived areas in the country.

Adult apprenticeship budgets and further education college places are also being ear-marked for cuts.

University College Union general secretary Sally Hunt said it was particularly unfortunate that the leaked document had come to light during a week celebrating the work of colleges.

“If the plans to slash funding and sack staff are put into practice then the reality will be very different from the warm rhetoric and back slapping,” she said.

“The government has rightly identified education as a key driver of social mobility. To make swingeing cuts to the further education sector now would be an outrageous affront to the millions of people it has promised it would not let down.”

A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills spokesman claimed that the government was just consulting on how best to make efficiency savings.

Taken from Morning Star

Parents’ last chance to save Gillas Lane Primary School

Battling parents are calling on the community for help in a last-ditch bid to save their school.

The Schools Adjudicator will be holding a meeting next week to help decide the fate of Gillas Lane Primary School.

The Houghton primary school was earmarked for closure earlier this year as part of Sunderland City Council’s proposals to tackle huge number of surplus places. Angry parents have been campaigning against the plans.

After a lengthy debate in the summer, Sunderland Council’s school organisation committee agreed to defer a decision on the closure.

Members were asked by education officials to give the final go-ahead for the axe to fall in August 2012, but they voted four to one in favour of deferring the decision into the hands of the Schools Adjudicator.

Now, Brian Slater, the adjudicator appointed to look at the case, will be holding at meeting in the school next Tuesday at 5.30pm to hear the views of those involved.

Anna Watson, a parent governor at Gillas Lane, said the campaign group, Gillas Lane Action to Support Schools wants as many people as possible to attend the meeting and show the strength of feeling.

She said: “There is still very strong support for the fight to prevent the school from closing. But this is our very, very last chance to save Gillas Lane. If it doesn’t go our way there is nothing else we can do.”

Earlier this year the authority announced plans to shut Gillas Lane, which has been rated as outstanding by Ofsted inspectors, and transfer pupils to nearby Bernard Gilpin Primary School.

The proposed move is part of a citywide shake-up, which would see the closure of seven primary and two nursery schools.

As well as closing Gillas Lane, over the next five years the council aims to build three new schools. One will replace Hetton Primary, Hetton Nursery and Eppleton Primary. Another will replace Bexhill and Town End Primary and the third will replace Hylton Red House Primary, Hylton Red House Nursery and Willowfields Community Primary.

Taken from Sunderland Echo

Billions for banks – dole for workers

The jobs of thousands of low-paid finance workers are on the line despite the government throwing another £40 billion of public money at the banks.

Chancellor Alistair Darling announced that an astonishing £33.5bn in cash and debt guarantees will be given to the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) – on top of the £20 billion the taxpayer has already handed over – to make the RBS bailout the costliest bank rescue in history.

The government has also found another £5.7bn which will be presented to directors at Lloyds to add to their earlier £17bn state handout, with the only concession being that bonuses for executive directors due this year will be deferred until 2012.

Together, the value of yesterday’s bailouts to just two banks amount to the total cost of building more than 1,500 schools or 70 hospitals.

But the colossal injection of public cash, which takes the government’s ownership of RBS to 84 per cent and of Lloyds to 43 per cent, comes at a deadly price to the jobs of the public sector’s newest workers.

Insisting that “the government does not want to be in the business of running banks,” Mr Darling demanded that RBS sell off 318 high street branches and that Lloyds hive off another 600 local banks to private buyers in order to comply with a ruling by the European Commission.

Finance workers’ union leaders reacted with disbelief at the government offering bailouts to wealthy executives while risking the jobs of “thousands of loyal workers in bank branches throughout Britain.”

Unite national officer Rob MacGregor pointed out that RBS bosses had already announced huge cuts to front-line bank staff which will mean 3,700 people losing their jobs.

“The employers and the government have a duty to these long-suffering staff to ensure that opportunistic buyers of local high street branches are not permitted to asset-strip these institutions, leaving thousands of staff facing a bleak future,” he insisted.

“While the government is saving the banks, it should also save the workers.”

Left Economics Advisory Panel co-ordinator Andrew Fisher accused the government of “yet another business-as-usual bailout.

“The government is rescuing the banks and protecting profits and bonuses, but it is providing no guarantees for the workforce or mortgage holders struggling to make repayments,” he stressed.

“This is not nationalisation, but simply welfare for the corporate sector, which will be paid for by cutting welfare and public services for the majority.”

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray urged the Edinburgh-based RBS to work with the finance workers’ unions to try to avoid the job cuts, insisting that, “if there are any job losses that are not voluntary, RBS must fully justify them.”

Taken from Morning Star

Graduate unemployment increases 44% in one year

Graduate unemployment has increased by 44% in 12 months and is now at its highest for 12 years, according to research released today.

Some 7.9% of students who left university in 2008 were out of work in January, the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU) found, up from 5.5% the previous year. HECSU warned the picture could be even worse for those graduating this year. The last time levels of joblessness were so high was in 1995-96.

The research found that recruitment in the public sector bucked the downward graduate employment trend, with the number of graduates entering healthcare, teaching and social work increasing.

But architecture and building graduates were particularly badly hit, reflecting the slump in the construction industry, with unemployment nearly tripling from 2.9% in 2007 to 8.5% for those who left in 2008. The proportion of civil engineering graduates without a job increased from 2.4% to 7%.

The proportion of graduates employed in business or financial work fell to 7.5%, compared with 8.7% the year before. And the number working as financial and investment advisers or mortgage consultants dropped 19%, with only 1,700 of the 220,065 graduates surveyed getting that kind of job, compared with 2,100 in 2007.

Among those who revealed how much they earned, the average salary was £19,677 – up 2% from 2007. But Scotland saw a rise of 5.6%, to an average of £19,953 – higher than the £19,561 reported in the south-east, traditionally the highest-paid region after London.

Mike Hill, the chief executive of HECSU, said: “We’re now starting to see the extent of the impact the recession has had on graduate employment. Despite unemployment increasing, for those who have found a job, salary levels are holding up.”

The research comes as Lord Mandelson’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills prepares to publish a 10-year higher education strategy featuring a food labelling-style system to highlight each course’s employment rates, drop-out rates and amount of teaching time. The framework, published tomorrow, will also identify how universities can work more closely with business to jump-start employment.

Taken from guardian.co.uk