The Government recognises that increasing the representation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) women starting up social enterprises will potentially enable many groups of ethnic minority women, such as Pakistani and Bangladeshi women who are under represented in the workplace and in society, to become more economically independent and participate more fully in communities. There are at least 55,000 social enterprises in the UK which contribute £8.4 billion pounds to the UK economy, but evidence suggests that BAME women are underrepresented as social enterprise owners. A report published today, Social Enterprise: Making it Work for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Women identifies new ways to progress forward in encouraging and supporting BAME women into starting social enterprises.

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© Policy Dialogue International 2005-08

22 August 2008

Sharia law must be taken into account when drawing up HR policies concerning prayer breaks, dress code and food or alchohol. Firms must take sharia law into account when drawing up HR policies, a leading law firm has warned. Employers who allow smokers to have cigarette breaks can hardly complain about Muslim employees slipping out several times a day for prayers, Norton Rose associate Adrian Hoggarth told delegates at a seminar in London this month on the subject. “The Muslim Council of Britain says it takes 10-12 minutes for a devotee to go through their prayers, which is about the time it takes for a smoker to get through a large cigarette or small cigar,” Hoggarth said. But he added that providing a prayer room was not a requirement and providing one purely for Muslims might be discriminatory to other faiths. It should be easy to provide halal or vegetarian options where food was offered, and monetary alternatives if alcohol was used as a prize or incentive, Hoggarth said. On the issue of dress code, Paul Griffin, a partner at Norton Rose, said the legality of policies hinged on whether dress impeded a person’s ability to do the job. Recent case law found it was reasonable to ask a teaching assistant to remove a veil, but not for a hairdresser to remove a headscarf.

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1 July 2008
© CIPD

Our new report ‘Rural Financial Poverty: Priorities for action’ shows that the proportion of rural households in relative poverty rose from 16% to 19% between 2004 and 2007 - the equivalent of 1.6 million people in 2007. Around 20% of children and pensioners in rural areas were living in poverty in 2007, as well as one in six working-age adults. The increasing proportion of children living in poor working households and the dramatic rise in the proportion of pensioners living in poverty are particularly striking. ‘Rural Financial Poverty: Priorities for action’ provides a rural perspective to help inform policy makers and practitioners working to reduce financial poverty. It presents the latest statistical evidence of the scale and depth of rural financial poverty and recommends priorities for action to guide their work. Download as PDF: http://www.ruralcommunities.gov.uk/files/CRC%20Rural%20Financial%20Poverty.pdf

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16 July 2008
© Commission for Rural Communities

The raft of measures on housing announced today (Wednesday) will fail to address rural concerns. This is the response of countryside campaigners (CPRE). Measures include a new round of Growth Points across the country, identifying locations where significant increases in housing provision are proposed; new measures to support first time buyers; and further funding for affordable housing. Kate Gordon, CPRE’s senior planner said: ‘We welcome some of the new measures, including funding to buy unsold stock from housebuilders for affordable housing. But this funding should not be used to acquire sub-standard homes of a poor quality that are expensive to maintain.
We are concerned by the lack of safeguards in this package to ensure that the countryside is not put in jeopardy by an approach which seeks housing development regardless of the cost – to communities and the environment.’

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16 July 2008
© CPRE

Young people are being encouraged into community work with the promise of an exclusive gig - but does it really count as volunteering? “We hear so much bad stuff about knife crime and today’s ‘youth’ that we forget that most of them aren’t like that,” says Penny Spencer indignantly. Spencer is seeing it first-hand, having watched 40 young people clear the roof of her Islington school and plant a vegetable garden for nothing. Well, not entirely nothing. The volunteers – who range from 16 to 26 – were there on the promise of the gig ticket of a lifetime courtesy of Orange RockCorps, a new scheme launched in the UK this month which seeks to reward community spirit. For just four hours’ volunteer work young people engaged on the scheme will receive a ticket to a televised concert at the Albert Hall on 26 September, featuring rock, hip-hop and R&B stars, including legendary rapper Busta Rhymes. There is no way to win or buy a ticket, the only way to get there is by helping. The 50 volunteer projects in and around London before September are conducted in collaboration with charities such as educational charity Envision, volunteering organisation Young Timebank and community performance space Hoxton Hall. The events are focused on a range of service projects including the environment, school and playground renovation, park regeneration, food distribution, issues around HIV/Aids, poverty and homelessness. Orange RockCorps will also be organising other projects in Manchester, Newcastle, Cardiff and Southampton for the Royal Albert Hall show, and will be organising concerts in other cities across the UK during 2009 and 2010.

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16 July 2008
© Volunteering Merseyside

NCVCCO and NCVYS, as part of the Speaking Out initiative, have published new research mapping the size and scope of the children and young people’s voluntary and community sector. The research was undertaken by a team from the University of Hull led by Professor Gary Craig and finds that the sector employs one in three of the total voluntary sector workforce and generates income in excess of £15billion a year. The report calls on the Government to invest in further research to better understand the changing nature of the children and young people’s voluntary and community sector, to prioritise support for smaller organisations who often work with those most in need and to provide sustained investment in workforce development. Read the executive summary (PDF, 870KB): http://www.ncvcco.org/UserFiles/File/Speaking%20Out/Executive%20summary%20-%20July%202008.pdf?PHPSESSID=37fc3c584b25a55422adeb44f0f391da

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16 July 2008
© NCVCCO

Wildlife rich green spaces must be at the heart of all new development for the benefit of the natural environment and people’s health and wellbeing, said Natural England today (16 July 2008) as 20 new Growth Points around the country are announced by the Department for Communities and Local Government. Speaking in response to today’s announcement, Dr Helen Phillips, Chief Executive of Natural England outlined five green points against which all new developments should be measured. Helen Phillips, said: “All new developments must pass a simple green test. Developers would never contemplate leaving out grey infrastructure, such as sewers and mains water from developments, so why should it be acceptable to leave out green infrastructure when it’s proven to improve people’s health and quality of life?”
Natural England wants to see networks of parks, open spaces and wild areas in all areas of significant growth and regeneration. To set developers on the right path, Natural England today sets out its ‘Green Test’ for all new developments.

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16 July 2008
© Natural England

A series of further measures and reforms designed to help alleviate the current challenges in the housing market and to support the vital delivery of more homes over the long-term, are being announced today by Housing Minister Caroline Flint. The measures are part of a new update, published today, on progress to delivering more homes, helping first time buyers, supporting existing home owners, assisting the industry which is currently facing tougher conditions, and ensuring that the right foundations are in place for a recovery in new build starts. Housing Minister Caroline Flint said: “The package being announced today will both help people facing difficulties right now, and lay the foundations to help meet the long term housing needs of the country. That means being ambitious, but also practical and realistic, acknowledging not only the difficulties faced by individuals and families, but for those who work in the house building industry.

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16 July 2008
© Communities and Local Government

The CLA today launches a campaign to call for Rural Proofing – starting with Vehicle Excise Duty. The rural economy experts say that the additional Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) announced at the last Budget mean those who are struggling financially in the countryside will be hit hardest by the tax. The CLA still believes it should be entirely rurally proofed with a rural tax credits system in England and Wales – regardless of what concessions the Government ends up making to Britain’s hard-hit motorists as a whole. CLA President Henry Aubrey-Fletcher said: “If you are, say, an uplands farmer and struggling financially, Chancellor Alistair Darling’s suggestion that you avoid higher Vehicle Excise Duty by buying a new car is clearly ludicrous. As the Commission for Rural Communities pointed out in its Monitoring Rural Proofing report last year, the Government made a ‘clear and continuing commitment to rural proof its policies and programmes’ eight years ago but that commitment is ‘not being delivered consistently’. We believe a rural proofing system with rural tax credits to off-set extra VED costs is the fairest answer to this problem for people working in the rural economy.” The CLA President added: “The proposed changes in VED represent an ill-advised tax and would hit many in the countryside very hard indeed. Furthermore, it is not even green. The proposals would not make a substantial difference to CO2 emissions. Indeed, Greenpeace has described it as ‘the kind of measure that gives green taxes a bad name’.”

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16 July 2008
© CLA

A court case has set a precedent that charities should be able to make use of VAT saving schemes when renovating property. Under the decision, made by a London tax tribunal, Whitechapel Art Gallery will be able to spread the payment of the VAT liable on its £10 million regeneration project over ten years. Before now, HM Revenue & Customs has judged that such schemes are only available to charities purchasing or building new premises or buildings. Debbie Jennings, VAT Director at accountants PKF, described the decision as encouraging, saying that paying for construction and regeneration projects can be the biggest outlay for charities. She added: “Having to pay all of the VAT upfront can push the overall costs into the realm of un-affordable.”

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16 July 2008
© CAF