Prompt Payment

Those of you following my Twitter feed will notice that I was at a conference earlier in the week on procurement in the public sector.  It was hosted by Surrey Chamber of Commerce and the meeting received presentations from Surrey County Council, Epsom Borough Council amongst others, looking at options for small and medium sized businesses in public sector procurement.

The presentation started with a  justification from the Leader of Conservative-led Surrey Council Council (SCC) for inflicting a nearly 3% increase in council tax on its citizen – it was not entirely clear to me exactly how that was connected to the topic at hand – but the event started that way nontheless.

During the Q&A session the issue of payment terms was raised, particularly in the context of smaller companies working in a sub-contract basis for the main contract-holder.  One attendee reported that he was waiting longer than is appropriate for payment and that it is difficult to challenge a main contractor for fear of the commercial consequences.  Small companies fear that they will adversely affect their relationship with the main provider and perhaps not get work in future.

So I was interested to open my emails  and see that the Government and industry is calling on businesses and public organisations to pay suppliers on time and for small firms to pursue those who put them at risk of delaying.

The Business Minister Mark Prisk announced on 6 Feb, that a new working group of business representatives would examine issues behind late payment, while the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) published a new guide on prompt payment.

The Government is encouraging SMEs to:

• Proactively agree payment terms before delivering orders
• Sign-up to the Government’s Prompt Payment code, run by the Institute of Credit Management (ICM)
• Raise complaints over late payment from Code signatories
• Use legislation already in place to help companies pursue late payers.
• Use electronic invoicing where possible

There is a ‘Get Paid’ guide for small businesses has been published by the ACCA.  Evidently this guide contains valuable lessons from small businesses including advice on invoicing and developing a well-defined credit policy.

I would be interested to hear from local businesses on their experience of payments, particularly if they are working in the public sector.

Cheques are still essential and must be protected

Liberal Democrat MPs, Lorely Burt, Mark Hunter and David Ward are leading a campaign to prevent the phasing out of cheques.

Last year alone there were over one billion cheque transactions which shows just how widely used this form of payment still is.

Ahead of delivering a ‘save the cheque’ petition to No 10 today, Lorely Burt said:

“Our petition has received support from thousands of people from all across the country…. Today we’re calling on the Government to acknowledge that banks have a social responsibility to serve and protect their customers and that retaining cheques would mean little or nothing to banks but a great deal to millions of their customers who still rely on them.”

Let me know what you think.  Can you manage without cheques?  Do you think banks should be required to keep cheques?

A link to the e-petition, which was created by Mark Hunter, MP for Cheadle, can be found below:

http://www.markhunter.org.uk/en/article/2009/435901/save-the-cheque-e-petition-sign-now

Browne Review

The Independent Review of Higher Education & Student Fiance in the UI report (also known as the Browne Review) was published.

The key recommendations are:

• a new system called the student finance plan.  NO upfront costs, graduates will pay back their tuition once they start work and earn more than £21,000 a year (this is an increase on the current £15,000)
• the bottom 20% of earners would pay back less than they do today
• any balance remaining after 30 years is written off
• the threshold would rise in line with growth in earnings
• payments would be small – Browne says around 9% – for example someone on £25,000 would pay £7 per week
• if a graduate’s earnings fall, their payments fall or stop entirely if income falls below the threshold
• interest rates on loans are the same as the Government pays on its borrowing

The current cap on student fees, set at £3,290 per year, would be lifted.

• universities that charge more than £6,000 per year would have to pay a tapered levy designed to ensure that the most expensive universities contribute more to supporting the poorest students, for example though scholarships.
• universities that want to charge more would have to prove that they are improving teaching standards and operating a fair admissions policy

Annual loans available for cost of living whilst studying of £3,750.  Additional support for families with an income below £60,000 is available, up to £3,250 in annual grants.

Part-time students would have the same access to tuition support as full-time students.

What did the Coalition Agreement say ….

• We will await Lord Browne’s final report into higher education funding, and will judge its proposals against the need to: increase social mobility; take into account the impact on student debt; ensure a properly funded university sector; improve the quality of teaching; advance scholarship; and attract a higher proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• If the response of the Government to Lord Browne’s report is one that Liberal Democrats cannot accept, then arrangements will be made to enable Liberal Democrat MPs to abstain in any vote.

All Lib Dem MPs are conscious of the positions that we took on higher education and the policies we campaigned for at the last election.  The test of any new scheme for organising and funding education and training for those over 16 must be whether we improve quality, increase opportunity for young people of all backgrounds and ensure a fair and progressive way of meeting the costs.

Councils across Britain will be allowed to sell renewable electricity

Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Chris Huhne, announced today that from next week Councils across Britain will be allowed to sell renewable electricity to the grid.  He is sending letters to all local authorities.

At present only 0.01% of electricity in England is generated by local authority-owned renewables, despite teh scope that exists to install projects on their land and buildings.

At present, local authorities are able to put any renewable electricity generated to local use – and to benefit from the associated feed-in tariff for projects smaller than 5MW – but they are restricted from selling any excess into the grid.  The only exception being electricity generated from combined heat and power.   Evidently the restriction is a 1989 amendment to the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 which was put in place at the time of electricity privatisation to ensure the transfer of the electricity industry to the private sector.

I am pleased that the coalition government is committed to encouraging community-owned renewable energy schemes – where local people benefit from the power produced.   The coalition government  is actively working on proposals to allow communities that host renewable energy projects to keep the additional business rates they generate.

In advance of a visit to Working Borough Council, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary said: “This is a vital step to making community renewable projects commercially viable, to bring in long-term income to benefit local areas and to secure local acceptance for low carbon energy projects”.

Freedom Passes for tenants

The Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, announced last week that he wants to introduce a new National Affordable Home Swap Scheme.  This will give tenants the chance to see details of every council and housing association tenant looking to exchange homes – not just in their area but across the country.   He also announced that he will work with two London landlords to explore whether they can offer a new ‘Right to Move’ for tenants.  The London Boroughs of Kensington & Chelsea and Hamersmith and Fulham will look at whether they can develop a scheme under which some of their tenants could ask their landlord to find them a home in the area they want to live.   He wants to see tenants helped to move and threatened that if he doesn’t see improvements, he will take tough action to make it happen – including a ‘Right to Move’ for tenants in law.

I’d be interested to hear what residents think about this proposal.

£300m contract awarded for redevelopment of Bond Street Tube station

Transport for London (TfL)  announced on Friday that it intends to award the contract to upgrade Bond Street tube station to Costain Laing O’Rourke JV.

The main construction will get underway in 2011 and when completed in 2017, will deliver:

• a dramatic increase in station capacity ahead of the completion of Crossrail
• a new entrance and ticket hall north of Oxford Street to increase capacity and provide step free access to both the Central and Jubilee lines.
• new escalators and an additional access route to the Jubilee line to reduce congestion
• an improved interchange between Central and Jubilee lines
• step free access to the new Crossrail station
• improved pedestrian areas around the station with new seating and lighting

More than 155,000 passengers currently use Bond Street tube station every day – and TfL expect this to rise to over 225,000 with the arrival of Crossrail in 2017.

Northern Line Upgrade – closures

Transport for London (TfL) announced the cancellation of weekend closures for the Northern Line upgrade.

Closures planned for 7-8 August, 21-22 August and Bank Holiday Monday 30 August between Kennington and Morden, will now not take place.   The weekend closure for 14-15 August between Camden Town to Kennington, via Charring Cross will still take place as that closure is for upgrade work at Tottenham Court Road station.

TfL acquired Tube Lines, the Public Private Partnership (PPP), at the end of June.  London Underground (LU) is  reviewing the Northern Line upgrade programme, following the acquisition.

At the end of June, TfL cancelled the early evening closures originally planned by Tube Lines for the Northern Line.

The TfL press announcement says that the Northern Line upgrade is not part of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games travel plan and the Northern Line will run a full service for the duration of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.