Welcome to the April edition of Local Government Matters.
We have completed our Local Government Regeneration Masterclass series – with 11 separate webinars from our team and other experts covering all aspects of what makes a successful local government regeneration project. You can find a link in our newsletter to the full syllabus and well worth a watch given the excellent feedback the series has received.
Keeping up with the theme of regeneration we also include a link to our Rethinking Regeneration reports, prepared in conjunction with our partners Commonplace and EvaluateLocate, each regional report sets out the key ingredients of what makes a successful regeneration project.
There is no avoiding discussion about the new Procurement Act – which has now been confirmed as coming into force on 28 October 2024. We include links to our Jargon Buster and Notice Flowchart which is part of our growing library of procurement resources.
We also include a whole host of other valuable information including the issues associated with local authority temporary accommodation, the consequences of flexible working, the coming into force of the new Building Safety Regime and much more besides!
Click the links below to access the full articles:
Over the past 18 months we have been Rethinking Regeneration. Drawing on our expertise across the UK and exploring where regeneration has been delivered most successfully whilst helping the public and private sector execute it more effectively.
For the Rethinking Regeneration report we have brought together our insights from our experience, our roundtables and our data partners to determine nine key recommendations for those involved in regeneration.
Local authority Regeneration Masterclass series
The Public Sector continues to play a vital role in developing our towns and cities. As a local authority officer dealing with such large projects where do you start?
The Trowers & Hamlins team have completed our Local Government Regeneration Masterclass series. We now have 11 separate webinars from our regeneration lawyers and other experts covering all aspects of what makes a successful local government regeneration project.
The link takes you to the full syllabus and is worth a watch given the excellent feedback the series has received.
Temporary accommodation – can councils weather the storm?
There is nothing 'perfect' about the storm local housing authorities are facing – and at the eye of that storm is temporary accommodation. The scale of the problem is daunting and, quite apart from the human cost, the financial cost is staggering.
Scott Dorling, Ian Doolittle and Sarah Monaghan look at how could councils use these general strengths to help deal with the provision of temporary accommodation?
Webinar: Trowers Tuesday – National Minimum Wage and common pitfalls
In our latest Trowers Tuesday webinar, Emma Burrows, Nicola Ihnatowicz and Eleanor Clot discussed the largest ever increase in the National Minimum Wage in cash terms since it was first introduced in 1998 by the National Minimum Wage Act.
NMW compliance can often be a headache and trickier than it first appears, so we highlighted the common pitfalls and how to avoid these.
Are you prepared for the new building safety regime
New building regulations come into force on 6 April 2024, implementing the requirements of the Building Safety Act 2022.
Here's what you need to know to prepare for the changes.
Flexible working is here to stay
The right to request flexible working became a day one right on 6 April. Other changes mean that an employee no longer has to explain what effect they think their requested arrangement will have and how this should be dealt with.
They can also make two requests in any 12-month period, and an employer has two months to come to a decision on a request and can't refuse it unless the employee has been consulted with.
Government consultation on contractual controls
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DHLUC) has recently completed a public consultation on improving transparency on "contractual controls" over land to identify matters affecting land which can act as a drag on development.
In this article, Fiona Thomson, Dwynwen Lewis and Sam Folley look at this in detail, including, what is meant by contractual control, when may the new requirements come into force, and what are the proposed penalties for non-compliance.
Webinar: Demystifying Injunctions
Over the past few months, we ran a webinar series on demystifying injunctions, in which we've looked at 'newcomer injunctions', freezing injunctions and Employee competition injunctions (Springboard injunctions).
To find out more about these sessions and to watch the recording of these webinars, please click the buttons below.
- Part 1 on demand: Newcomer Injunctions
- Part 2 on demand: Freezing injunctions
- Part 3 on demand: Employee competition injunctions (Springboard injunctions)
PPN 02/24: Improving transparency of AI use in procurement
On 25 March 2024, the Cabinet Office published a procurement policy note on improving transparency of AI use in procurement.
Amardeep Gill and Rebecca Rees assess the risk of using AI in procurement and explore example AI disclosure questions in our article below.
Webinar: Trowers Tuesday - data subject access requests DSARS
In recent months we've seen an increasing number of DSARs being submitted to employers as employees and former employees search for that elusive 'smoking gun' as a precursor to litigation.
Emma Burrows was joined by John Turnbull and Sophie Miller to answer your questions on DSARs, employer obligations and how to respond to requests for data.
Procurement Act 2023 – Notices flowchart
With the increased flexibility under the Procurement Act 2023 (the Act) comes an enhanced transparency regime, and contracting authorities need to get to grips now with the new notices which underpin the enhanced transparency obligations.
We hope this will be helpful to those seeking to get to grips with the new transparency regime.
The Procurement Act 2023 – Why we need a jargon buster
Do you know your vertical arrangements from your horizontal arrangements? What about your pipeline notices from your planned procurement notices? Could you tell us the difference between a Competitive Flexible Procedure and a Multi-Stage Procedure?
Our Procurement Act 2023 jargon buster sets out some of the key terms under the Procurement Act 2023, what they were referred to under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, and in plain language what they are. We hope this will be useful to those new to procurement, as well as experienced practitioners.
