Housing and Regeneration News March 2008

• The Centre For Cities has published a survey sent to businesses and local authorities in England. Financial Devolution For Local Growth showed that nearly nine out of ten respondents backed the use of local funding tools to pay for crucial local infrastructure. 86% supported the use of a supplementary business rate and 92% agreed that businesses need to have a say in how to tackle local transport and housing problems. The report is available from our publications section
  
• The National Audit Office has published a report claiming that the government should do more to bridge the gap between unemployment rates in the ethnic minority population, currently 60%, and those for the general population which stands at 74%. The report says that the key barriers to employment are lack of work experience, lack of skills, education or qualifications, poor English language skills, lack of childcare provision and discrimination. For more information see Department for Work And Pension: Increasing Employment Rates for Ethnic Minorities in our publications section
  
• The Welsh Assembly government has announced plans to establishe a fund to provide investment for small and medium sized enterprises. The Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises (JEREMIE) has been devised by the European Investment Bank and the European Commission. It allows member states to use their European Structural Funding in the form of investment loans rather than traditional grants. The long term idea is for enterprises to borrow from the fund and then pay it back over time as they grow.
  
• The Competition Commission has published its findings on UK groceries retailing. Its main recommendation is a “competition test”, where a store of more than 1000 sq metres would be blocked where it would give the retailer 60% or more of large store space in the area. Another recommendation is to make grocery retailers release existing restructure land covenants. For more details see Groceries Market Investigation – Provisional Decision on Remedies on our publications section
  
• The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory reform has launched a nationwide competition to find the most enterprising place in the UK. Enterprising Britain is in its fourth year and is a key part of the government’s drive to increase rates of entrepreneurial activity in the UK. See www.enterprisingbritain.org/about
  

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