| Statutory Instrument | |
 | |
| Citation | SI 2024/869 |
|---|---|
| Introduced by | Emma Reynolds, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Pensions |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales, Scotland (revocations only) |
| Dates | |
| Made | 22 August 2024[1] |
| Laid before Parliament | 22 August 2024 |
| Commencement | 16 September 2024[1] |
| Other legislation | |
| Amends | Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 2000 |
| Made under | Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 Social Security Administration Act 1992 Social Security Act 1998 Scotland Act 2016 |
Status: Not yet in force | |
| Text of the The Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 2024 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. | |
The Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 2024 is a statutory instrument of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The regulations reformed the Winter Fuel Payment, making eligibility means-tested rather than universal.
Background
editThe Winter Fuel Payment was created in 1997 by the Blair government to help pensioners with the costs of heating their homes in the winter.[2] The payments are tax-free and worth between £100 and £300, with the higher amount available to pensioners who receive other benefits.[2] In 2022/23, 11.4 million pensioners received the payment.[2] Due to the cost-of-living crisis, extra payments were paid to the poorest pensioner households in 2022/23 and 2023/24.[2]
Pensioners living in the European Economic Area or Switzerland with a "genuine and sufficient link to the UK" can also be eligible for the payment.[3] In 2018/19, over 40,000 recipients lived abroad.[4]: 5
The Winter Fuel Payment is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland and Scotland.[5]: 15 The scheme in Northern Ireland is overseen by the Department for Communities and is administered in the same way as in England and Wales.[5]: 15–16 In Scotland, certain social security benefits are devolved under the Scotland Act 2016.[5]: 16 The Scottish government had planned to replace the UK government's Winter Fuel Payment in 2024/25 with a new benefit called the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment (PAWHP).[5]: 16 Since the UK government announced its plans, the Scottish government announced in August 2024 it had been "left with no choice" but to postpone the PAWHP due to its funding being cut by up to £160 million.[6][7]
References
edit- ^ a b "Introduction - The Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 2024". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
- ^ a b c d Hilary Osborne (30 July 2024). "What are winter fuel payments and who will lose and keep them?". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
- ^ "Winter Fuel Payment - If you live abroad". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 9 September 2024. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
- ^ Djuna Thurley; Rod McInnes; Steven Kennedy (5 November 2019). "Briefing Paper: Winter Fuel Payments" (PDF). House of Commons Library. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
- ^ a b c d Andrew Mackley; Frank Hobson; Steven Kennedy (9 September 2024). "Research Briefing - Changes to Winter Fuel Payment eligibility rules" (PDF). House of Commons Library. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
- ^ "UK Government decision ends universal fuel payments". Scottish Government. 14 August 2024. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
- ^ "Social security - heating cost help". Scottish Government. Archived from the original on 10 September 2024. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
TW Logistics Ltd v Essex County Council
edit- https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2018-0234.html
- https://www.burges-salmon.com/news-and-insight/legal-updates/planning-and-compulsory-purchase/village-green-risk-supreme-court-confirms-threat-of-dual-use-scenarios
- https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/23818319.mistley-residents-plead-essex-county-councils-help-fence/
- https://www.harwichandmanningtreestandard.co.uk/news/19086534.supreme-court-rules-freeing-picturesque-quayside/
- https://www.building.co.uk/comment/village-greens-are-for-work-and-play/5111686.article
- https://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/property/404-property-news/46179-supreme-court-upholds-registration-of-land-in-working-port-as-town-and-village-green
- https://ukscblog.com/case-comment-t-w-logistics-ltd-v-essex-county-council-another-2021-uksc-4/
- https://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/legal/news/supreme-court-unanimously-upholds-registration-of-commercial-port-land-as-a-town-village-green-t-w
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-56040857
- https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2018/2172.html
- https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2021/4.image.pdf
- https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2017/185.html
- https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2021/4.html
- https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2021/4.html
- https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2018-0234-judgment.pdf
- https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2018-0234-judgment.pdf
Moody's report
editFollowing Birmingham's Section 114 notice in September 2023, Moody's released a report warned that several other local authorities were close to having to issue notices due to high inflation, rising interest rates, the falling value of commercial property investments, and increases in social care service demands. The report also detailed the top 20 most councils with the most debt relative to their income:
| Council | Total borrowing | Borrowing to income ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Spelthorn | £1.1 billion | 86.9x |
| Woking | £2.0 billion | 62.0x |
| Eastleigh | £522 million | 41.1x |
| Runnymeade | £643 million | 23.4x |
| Worthing | £204 million | 14.4x |
| Surrey Heath | £170 million | 13.7x |
| Rushmoor | £120 million | 10.6x |
| Cherwell | £188 million | 10.3x |
| Uttlesford | £302 million | 10.0x |
| Warrington | £1.8 billion | 9.9x |
| Brentwood | £226 million | 9.7x |
| Mole Valley | £103 million | 9.6x |
| East Hampshire | £120 million | 9.5x |
| Thurrock | £1.5 billion | 7.5x |
| Adur | £165 million | 7.1x |
| Epsom and Ewell | £64 million | 6.8x |
| Broxbourne | £58 million | 6.3x |
| Guildford | £295 million | 6.0x |
| Chorley | £78 million | 5.9x |
| Warwick | £268 million | 5.9x |
Key concepts
editNew towns were the product of many key concepts.
Neighbourhood units
editBackground
editThe idea of the neighbourhood unit was based on the work of Clarence Perry, an American town planner who wrote a book on the concept.[1]: 63 Perry's neighbourhood units were residential areas which met the needs of families and possessed local characteristics.[1]: 63–64 This would be created by giving each neighbourhood unit its own community services like libraries, local shops and schools; neighbourhoods would surround the town centre which would have services for the entire town.[1]: 64
The concept had previously been touched upon by Ebenezer Howard, who in Garden Cities of To-morrow had written of that in his ideal garden city, residential space would be divided into six 'wards' separate from the town centre.[2]
Use in new towns
editNeighbourhood units became the norm for the early phase of new towns thanks to the fact it was in fashion in British planning culture at the time and because the Reith Committee which reported on the proposed new town legislation did not have time to consider alternatives.[1]: 66 According to Andrew Homer, the use of neighbourhood units for the first new towns was "a foregone conclusion" and was adopted without any real discussion, despite committee member Frederic Osborn's privately expressing doubt about the idea's feasability.[1]: 67 The idea was strongly supported by Reith himself and by Gordon Stephenson, who was responsible for the design of Stevenage.[1]: 67–68 The Ministry of Town and Country Planning put forward its view on neighbourhood units in a 1947 report, regarding them as a way of recreating village life within the new towns though warning that they should not be seen as "a panacea for all urban planning problems".[1]: 68
The neighbourhood units in the early new towns were designed so that different income groups would live together and to preserve relatively low housing density.[1]: 69–71 The concept was used most consistently in first phase of 'mark one' new towns; of the 14 new towns designated before 1952, 11 used the neighbourhood unit in their design.[1]: 70 In 1952, a survey of the chief planning officers of English and Welsh local authorities found that 78.8% of planners had used the concept in developments which they created.[1]: 70
Decline
editNeighbourhood units fell out of fashion through the 1950s. Sociologist Leo Kuper conducted a survey of Coventry, finding that housing arrangement did not create neighbourliness and that in some instances it could cause antagonism.[1]: 71 A study of Middlesbrough by Ruth Glass refuted the idea that the neighbourhood unit would create village life in towns.[1]: 71 They were harshly criticised by J. M. Richards, the editor of The Architectural Review, who wrote a 1953 article saying new towns had turned into suburbs and lacked "the urban qualities required of them".[1]: 71
By the start of the 1960s, neighbourhood units were no longer used by new town planners.[1]: 71 Cumbernauld, the first of the 'mark two' new towns, rejected the low-density, spread out neighbourhood units in favour of high-density housing with shops and facilities concentrated in the town centre.[3] Cumbernauld's schools were purposely built around the edges of the town to maximise the centralisation of housing.[3]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Andrew Homer (2000). "Creating new communities: The role of the Neighbourhood unit in post-war British planning". Contemporary British History. 14 (1): 63–80. doi:10.1080/13619460008581572.
- ^ Ebenezer Howard (1898). To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform. p. 14.
- ^ a b Lewis Wotherspoon (6 January 2019). "Cumbernauld: Town for Tomorrow". Medium. Retrieved 27 July 2023.