Greater Manchester will receive almost £3.8 million to develop a new city region-wide approach to preventing homelessness and reducing rough sleeping, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid confirmed today (12 October 2017).

The funding will be used to develop new services and resources across all 10 boroughs of the region. This will include making hub-based services open 24 hours a day across Greater Manchester, to provide high quality support for people when they need it the most, and the adoption of a social letting agency approach across Greater Manchester to help those struggling to find secure accommodation.

These measures will enable the 10 boroughs of Great Manchester to work better together with clear systems in place to prevent homelessness and rough sleeping from happening in the first place.

Visiting Manchester today, the Prime Minister Theresa May also announced that progress was being made on a housing deal with Greater Manchester to accelerate the delivery of new homes. This reaffirms this government’s commitment to the Northern Powerhouse.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said:

One person living on the street or without a home to call their own is too many. This package supports this government’s aims to transform the way we prevent homelessness and rough sleeping.

Greater Manchester has always been at the forefront of devolution and this is a landmark moment – the first devolved homelessness package.

I’m confident that the proposed plan will reach the needs of the city’s most vulnerable people and set a precedent for what other ambitious city regions can do.

The Greater Manchester package builds upon the government’s commitments to reducing homelessness and rough sleeping. These include:

• investing £550 million to 2020 for support and prevention programmes

• implementing the Homelessness Reduction Act, requiring local authorities to provide support earlier to prevent those at risk from becoming homeless

• investing a further £2 billion for affordable housing funding, bringing total investment to around £9 billion for a new generation of council and housing association homes

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester said:

We very much welcome this announcement by the government. This extra help is well-timed, much-needed and good news for Greater Manchester. It is a recognition of the innovative work underway here to help people sleeping rough, bringing together our public, private and voluntary sectors in a ground-breaking partnership.

This support from the government will help us go further and faster in achieving our goal of ending rough sleeping in Greater Manchester by 2020.

In addition to 24-hour hub services and a social letting agency, the package will:

• develop a shared ICT and database system – this will help to share data across the 10 local authorities so they can better able respond to homelessness and rough sleeping crises

• rollout the Greater Manchester Homelessness Action Network – this will support practitioners in the sector, connecting the many homelessness organisations across Greater Manchester

• build on the devolution agreement around health – this includes offering tailored health services for homeless people

The funding for the Greater Manchester homeless package will form part of the Greater Manchester Reform Investment Fund, the outcome of a government commitment to support Greater Manchester to establish an investment fund to support the vulnerable towards a brighter future.

The housing white paper committed to agreeing bespoke housing deals with authorities in high demand areas, which have a genuine ambition to build.

Greater Manchester has already been awarded up to £1.8 million as part of DCLG’s Social Impact Bond fund to provide personalised support for long-term rough sleepers on a payment-by-results basis.

Thank you Michel.

At the last round of talks we spoke of a new dynamic and Michel has referred to that.

Our negotiating teams have continued to work constructively together in a professional and determined manner this week.

And they have developed as Michel says, an increased sense of shared political objectives.

Now while there is still work to be done, much work to be done, we have come a long way.

And it is important to recognise the significant progress we have made since June.

Let me, as Michael did, take the issues in turn.

Citizens’ rights

On citizens’ rights, we have made further progress to give British citizens in the EU and EU27 citizens in the UK the greatest possible legal certainty about the future.

Our legal orders will, in the future, be distinct and different.

So this week we explored ways of making sure the rights we agree now will be enforced in a fair and equivalent way.

And in a way that gives citizens confidence that their rights will be upheld.

We have also explored ways in which we could fulfil the Prime Minister’s commitment to implement the Withdrawal Treaty fully into UK law which would give confidence to EU citizens living in the UK that they would be able to enforce their rights – as are set out in the Agreement – in UK courts.

And we have discussed ways of ensuring the consistent interpretation of the concepts of EU law that will underpin much of our Agreement.

While we have not yet arrived at a single model that achieves this we have explored creative solutions and are confident that we’ll reach an agreement soon.

We have also focussed this week on the other remaining issues on which we have not yet arrived at a solution and Michel referred to a few of them. These are:

• the right to bring in future family members;
• to export a range of benefits;
• to continue to enjoy the recognition of professional qualifications;
• to vote in local elections;
• to move within the 27 as a UK citizen;
• to leave for a prolonged period and yet continue to enjoy a right to remain or permanent right of residence on return.

These issues are not easy, but we have approached them with a shared spirit of trying to find solutions and both teams will now reflect further on that.

We are taking a pragmatic approach. As demonstrated by our offer of a guaranteed right of return for settled citizens in the UK in return for onward movement rights for UK citizens currently living in the EU. We look forward to hearing the European Union’s response to this.

I want to highlight one particularly productive area of our talks this week.

And I recognise that there has been some anxiety about EU citizens rights to settled status in the United Kingdom.

But today I can confirm that we want to reassure those European citizens living in the UK that their rights and status will be enshrined in UK law by the Withdrawal Agreement.

And yes, there will be a registration process but the administration process will be completely new. It will be streamlined, and it will be low cost.

And in addition to that any EU citizen in the UK already in possession of a permanent residence card will be able to exchange it simply for settled status in a simple way. They will not have to go through the full application process again.

And to reassure those affected I can confirm that the tests associated with this process will be agreed and set out in our Withdrawal Agreement.

We will also make sure that citizens rights of review of – and redress for – any errors will be quick, accessible and fair.

I will set out our position on ensuring citizens’ future rights in a statement for the Commission, a written statement, which they can share with the European Union 27.

And as a result of our productive discussions, the Commission is also able to offer similar guarantees in return for those British citizens in the European Union.

This is a very welcome clarification and has built real confidence that the rights of EU citizens in the UK – and British citizens in the European Union – will continue to be accessible in the most straightforward way possible.

In summary, I think that this week of talks has brought us even closer to a deal that gives citizens rights to the legal certainty that they deserve.

Northern Ireland

I welcome the advances too that we have made on the discussions on Northern Ireland and Ireland.

This week we developed the joint principles on the continuation of the Common Travel Area.

Our teams have also mapped out areas of cooperation that operate on a North South basis.

As Michel said, there is more work to do here in order to build a fuller picture of how we overcome the challenges to North-South cooperation once the UK has left the European Union.

But I’m pleased to say we have made further progress here.

We have also agreed, based on critical guiding principles which both sides recognise, we will start working on a common understanding on possible commitments and undertakings necessary to effectively protect the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement in all its dimensions.

I said last time that we were determined to tackle the unique circumstances of Northern Ireland by focusing creatively on specific solutions and we have begun to do so.

As the Prime Minister said in her statement to Parliament this week, “We owe it to the people of Northern Ireland—and indeed to everyone on the island of Ireland—to get this right.”

Financial settlement

On the financial settlement, we have continued in the spirit fostered by the Prime Minister’s significant statements in her Florence speech.

In line with the process agreed at our last round of talks, we have undertaken a rigorous examination of the technical detail where we need to reach a shared view.

This is not a process of agreeing specific commitments – we have been clear this can only come later.

But it is an important step, so that when the time comes we will be able to reach a political agreement quickly and simply.

Separation issues

On separation issues we have continued to work through the detail on a range of issues.

And while we have made good progress, particularly on those areas relating purely to our withdrawal, we believe these issues are dependent on discussions on our future relationship.

And as I’ve said before, we are ready and well-prepared to start those discussions.

Conclusion

So, our aim is to provide as much certainty as possible to business, citizens and the European Union.

And on this we are making real and tangible progress.

But I make no secret of the fact that to provide certainty we must talk about the future.

The Prime Minister’s speech set out the scale of our ambition for our deep and special partnership with the European Union.

And also laid out the case for a simple, clear and time-limited period of implementation on current terms.

As I said when I stood here last time, I hope the leaders of the 27 will provide Michel with the means to explore ways forward with us on that.

And to build on the spirit of cooperation we now have.

I have always been clear that we would enter these negotiations in a constructive and responsible way.

The work of our teams and the substantial progress that we have made over recent months proves we are doing just that.

As we look to the October European Council next week, I hope the Member States will recognise the progress we have made, and take a step forward in the spirit of the Prime Minister’s Florence speech.

Doing so will allow us to best achieve our joint objectives by turning the ideas we have explored into concrete shared proposals.

That’s the way that we’ll move towards a deal that works for both the United Kingdom and the European Union.

The South West-based traffic officers had set a target of covering 350 miles in a 24-hour spin bike challenge, equivalent to the distance of motorway and major trunk road they patrol in the region – all in aid of the Huntington’s Disease Association.

The team, receiving social media support along the way from the likes of actor and TV presenter Shane Richie and singer Tony Hadley, smashed that target by pedalling their way to a total of 502 miles over 24 hours at the South West Regional Operations Centre at Avonmouth.

The team of nine traffic officers, all based at Highways England’s Almondsbury Outstation, were Clarke Hobbs, Andy Watts, Lou Stout, Anthony Reeves, Alan Sludden, Barry Thomas, Jolene Britton, Alistair Steel and Lou Quinton.

Splitting the tasks in shifts, and aided by fellow Highways England staff, they reached their target, and more, between 4pm on Monday 9 October and 4pm on Tuesday 10 October – raising an impressive total of £1,640 in the process.

Pictured at the end of the challenge are, from left, Jeanette Allum, Linda Canby, Clarke Hobbs, Chris Caine, Anthony Reeves, Sean Dowding, Tom Bennett and Lou Stout

Avonmouth-based operations manager Sean Dowding said:

The Huntington’s Disease Association is a charity close to our hearts and we really wanted to do something to raise awareness of the disease.

We’re delighted to raise the amount we did, and also the support we received from our colleagues in the South West and further afield, and also from the the Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre, who kindly donated two of the bikes.

We tweeted updates over the 24 hours, which created a bit more interest, and it was really nice to get some social media support, particularly the retweets from Shane Richie and Tony Hadley.

Huntington’s Disease is a hereditary disorder of the nervous system that over time causes serious cognitive, emotional and psychological changes. It affects, on average, 12 people in every 100,000 in the UK. For more information go to the Huntington’s Disease Association website.

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• new proposals to develop a Knowledge Exchange Framework to compare how effective universities are at business engagement and knowledge exchange are outlined
• the Minister also announced the first successful projects from the £100m Connecting Capability Fund and the successful regions selected for the third wave of the Science and Innovation Audits

Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson today (12 October 2017) outlined his vision to secure the UK’s status as a pioneering nation and called for universities to secure more return from the research conducted by institutions across the UK.

Speaking at the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s (HEFCE) annual conference, Jo Johnson reinforced the importance of science and innovation in the Industrial Strategy and urged universities to deepen collaborative relationships with businesses to ensure the UK’s innovative strength has real-world and economic impact.

As part of this, new analysis published today by HEFCE of the Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey highlights the progress already being made in improving knowledge sharing between UK universities and the commercial sector, which has continued to grow in 2015-16, with income reaching a record £4.2 billion. Despite this progress, the UK still lags behind comparable countries like the United States in terms of intellectual property income per research resource and the number of successful spin-off companies.

Jo Johnson said:

Universities have a vital role to play in their local communities and in the national economy. Given the record levels of public investment in R&D, it is essential that universities engage with businesses and communities to make the most of their knowledge and research.

There are great examples of this across the country but the system needs to find a new gear. University income from business engagement is growing more slowly than the economy as a whole, with British universities producing fewer spin-outs and less licensing income per pound of research resource than US counterparts. As a greater proportion of R&D takes place in universities in the UK than in other countries, it’s especially important that we get this right.

To help close this gap, the Science Minister announced plans to ask Research England within the new UK Research and Innovation body to consult the sector on the development of a new, public Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) to benchmark the performance from university-business collaboration and knowledge exchange. This builds upon the work undertaken by the knowledge exchange steering group led by Professor Trevor McMillan, and complements his proposal that the sector should develop clear statements of purpose in order to increase the effectiveness of engagement with business and the wider community.

Alongside the Research Excellence Framework and the Teaching Excellence Framework, the KEF will act as a benchmark for universities to ensure they are making the most of the opportunities available and help ensure that the UK benefits from the research, skills and knowledge in the higher education sector.

Additional funding for the Rutherford Fund:

The Government has been clear on its ambition to foster greater international collaboration in science and innovation, recently signing a Science and Technology Agreement with the United States and outlining plans to seek an ambitious science and innovation agreement with the EU. Celebrating the important contribution international scientists and researchers make to UK innovation, the Science Minister pledged an additional £18 million for the Rutherford Fund budget to attract the brightest minds to the UK. The funding is on top of the £100 million the Government has already invested and will enable an additional 200 fellowships to start this year, ensuring the UK remains the go to place for innovation and scientific discovery.

Connecting Capability Fund:

Jo Johnson also announced the first four projects to receive funding from the £100 million Connecting Capability Fund. Focused on university collaborations to boost the commercialisation of research, the first round will see groups of universities from England share £20 million to address areas such as age-related diseases, access to finance for spinouts, and support for SMEs as they scale-up.

Science and Innovation Audits Wave 3:

Emphasising the value of greater collaboration to further innovation, Jo Johnson confirmed the next 12 regions that will undertake a Science and Innovation Audit (SIA) to map their local research, innovation, and infrastructure strengths. Now in its third wave, the SIA process has already brought together businesses, universities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and the Devolved Administration equivalents to identify the opportunities for inward investment and regional growth, and will explore strengths in a number of sectors and disciplines across the UK including the marine economy in the Highlands and Islands and applied digital technologies in the North East of England.

NOTES:

The twelve consortia that will be part of the 3rd wave of the Science and Innovation Audits are:

1. Cyber Resilience Alliance (led by Worcestershire LEP with support from The Marches, Gloucestershire and Swindon and Wiltshire LEPs)
2. Maximising the Marine Economy of the Highlands & Islands (Led by Highlands and Islands Enterprise)
3. North West Nuclear Arc Consortium (led by Bangor University with support from Welsh Government and North West England LEPs)
4. North West Coastal Arc Eco-Innovation Partnership (led by Lancaster University with support from North West England LEPs and the Welsh Government)
5. Northern Powerhouse Chemicals & Processing Science (led by Tees Valley Combined Authority with support from North East, Humberside, and Liverpool City Region LEPs)
6. Northern Powerhouse in Health Research (led by Northern Health Science Alliance and includes LEPs, universities and teaching hospitals from across the Northern Powerhouse)
7. The South Wales Crucible (led by Swansea University)
8. Upstream Space (led by UKSA/Scottish Enterprise comprising Scotland; Leicester; Belfast and a corridor between Cambridge and Portsmouth)
9. Precision Medicine Innovation in Scotland (led by the University of Glasgow)
10. Applied Digital Technologies (led by North East LEP)
11. Sustainable Airports (led by Brunel University, looking at Heathrow)
12. The Knowledge Quarter, London

The first four funding projects within the Connecting Capability Fund are:

1. East of England – Essex University, University of East Anglia and University of Kent will collaborate on a project which aims to address the region’s productivity challenges by supporting company development and entrepreneurial skills growth
2. North of England – Higher Education Institutions in Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield will collaborate on a project which aims to establish an investment fund to improve access to finance for university spinouts
3. South of England – this will be an extension of an existing collaboration between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey (the SETsquared Partnership) which aims to better support SMEs as they scale-up
4. The universities of Oxford, Birmingham and Dundee, and the Francis Crick Institute are collaborating on a project which aims to support the development of new therapeutics to tackle age-related diseases

Knowledge Exchange Framework:

Following the Innovation & Science Strategy 2014, HEFCE sought to increase the effectiveness of university knowledge exchange by establishing a knowledge exchange (KE) framework and steering group. The Vice-Chancellor of Keele University, Trevor McMillan, was asked to champion this within the sector. A number of tools and good practice guides for KE (such as “Good practice in tech transfer”) have already been developed and have been used by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) when developing their KE strategies.

Extensive data is already collected about universities’ KE performance via the Higher Education Statistics Agency’s (HESA) annual Higher Education Business Community Interaction Survey, and Research England will consult the sector as to how this data can be used to develop a balanced scorecard. Other recommendations from the McMillan Group are being taken forward, including the sector developing a set of common principles for effective KE, and the leadership of HEIs committing to adopting these principles.

The Health Secretary has today (12 October 2017) announced a package of measures to strengthen general practice.

From 2018, surgeries in hard-to-recruit-to areas will benefit from a new government-backed scheme – the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme – which will offer a one-off payment of £20,000 to attract trainees to work in areas of the country where training places have been unfilled for a number of years.

The Department of Health has also asked Health Education England (HEE) to make sure many of the 1,500 additional medical training places that will be funded from next year are located in priority areas, including rural and coastal communities.

Speaking at the Royal College of General Practitioners Conference in Liverpool, Jeremy Hunt focused on recruitment and retention across general practice, with other measures including:

• new flexible working arrangements, including the opportunity to take on mentoring and leadership roles, for GPs considering retirement

• a new international recruitment office set up by NHS England to help local areas to recruit GPs from overseas, with plans to expand fast-track routes into general practice for doctors trained outside the European Economic Area in countries such as Australia

• a consultation on the regulation of physician associates to provide further clarity on the scope of the role, and exploring how support staff can bolster healthcare teams across the country

Jeremy Hunt said:

Last month, the Care Quality Commission gave a glowing verdict on the state of general practice in England, but this should not distract us from the fact that the profession is under considerable pressure at the moment.

By introducing targeted support for vulnerable areas and tackling head on critical issues such as higher indemnity fees and the recruitment and retention of more doctors, we can strengthen and secure general practice for the future.

Our talented GP workforce is one of the reasons why we have the best healthcare system in the world, and our commitment of an additional £2.4 billion a year for primary care by 2021 will ensure this continues.