FULL BRIEFING

The riots: the response and implications for local authorities The government has announced a series of practical measures to support local communities and individuals affected by the riots. This briefing sets these out. It also begins to consider the policy implications for councils that are emerging. Support for communities and businesses The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, in a written Commons statement (Public Disorder local response and support) on 11 August set out the measures the government were taking to support local communities. Further details of the Recovery Scheme and High Street Support Scheme are imminent.
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Affected local authorities will continue to be eligible for the Bellwin scheme to meet immediate and sizeable recovery costs. However, the thresholds in the existing scheme mean that most councils would only receive assistance above costs in excess of around l million, which would mean many affected local authorities may not benefit. A new recovery scheme was announced of up to 10 million, allocated to councils via Section 31 grants. Councils will be able to claim back the costs directly incurred in making areas safe, clean and clear again. This fund can also be used to support councils who use their powers to offer council tax discounts or council tax relief to those whose homes have been damaged but are still habitable. The government is also willing, in these exceptional circumstances , to meet the immediate costs of re-housing those made homeless by these disturbances. This will be done under established homelessness funding processes. There will be a new multimillion-pound fund to help the local economies in the areas of London affected in a joint venture between the Treasury, the communities department and the London mayor. Seriously damaged domestic and business properties will be taken off the respective valuation lists, and the Valuation Office Agency has been asked to do so as promptly as possible. This removes any liability for council tax or business rates. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Communities and Local Government will provide an additional 20 million for a new High Street Support Scheme. The scheme will be aimed at supporting the specific streets and areas where businesses suffered most as a result of the disturbances. Local authorities will be able to use it to fund the proportion of hardship relief from business rates tha t would otherwise fall to them, and to help affected firms to get back up and running quickly, for instance if assistance is needed with business clear -up, replacement of equipment, or costs of temporary accommodation. A quarter of the cost of hardship

rate relief is normally borne by local authorities and three quarters by central Government. The High Street Support Scheme will help reimburse councils for this cost, to facilitate immediate and real financial help to be given to small and medium firms to rebuild their local businesses. Any individual, home owner or small business that has suffered damage to or loss of their buildings or property as a result of rioting can seek compensation under the Riot (Damages) Act. This compensation is paid to the uninsu red too. It is normally the case that claims must be received within 14 days, but to give people more time to submit these claims the period is to be extended to 42 days. The statement said that the government are working closely with forces to ensure they have the funds they need to meet the costs of the operation itself and any claims that they may receive under the Riot (Damages) Act.

Inquiries Nick Clegg has announced there is to be an independent Communities and Victims Panel. It will not be a public inquiry, as it will not be established under the Inquiries Act but it will serve as a way in which victims and communities can have their voice heard . It is intended to report in six to nine months. The Home Affairs Select Committee has set up its own in quiry, which has already started taking evidence. Issues that the committee is interested in include police relations with the communities where violence took place before the riots including similarities with and differences from previous public disorder events; the role of social media in spreading disorder and in the response to it; the role of organised groups in promoting disorder; the techniques used by the police to quell the rioting; and whether the age of many of the rioters constrained the police in their use of anti-riot technique. Organisations and individuals interested in making written submissions are invited to do so by Friday 9 September 2011. Submissions must be no longer than 2,500 words. Policy implications The debate around the causes of the riots and the solutions to the deep seated problems they have highlighted, has now begun in earnest. What issues could be of most significance for local government? Police The riots and the initial police response ine vitably raised the issue of cuts to the police budget to the top of the political agenda. The government has, however, remained firm on the need for the 2 billion of cuts. Theresa May has said that: "police budgets can be cut without affecting the ability of the police to do the job that they want to do, that I want them to do, and that the public want them to do."

Senior police officers, the London Mayor Boris Johnson, Labour leaders and numerous MPs (including some conservatives) in the debate on the ri ots in parliament have called on the government to reconsider the cuts. The Chancellor has stressed that the government remained committed to the budget cuts, describing them as a "reform" to improve the police service and make it more visible. There has been a more nuanced debate about elected police commissioners, but the tensions between the police and the government over the distinction between police policy and operational control has brought the issue back onto the agenda. Elected police and crime commissioners will be implemented as part of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill which is nearly at the end of its parliamentary process. In answer to a question from David Miliband that criticised the proposal for elected police commissioners, the Prime Minister implied that the response to the riots reinforced the need for them: We are not proposing to make chief constables stand for election; what we are proposing is to have police commissioners stand for election, replacing police authorities . The point that I would make is this: yes, we have independent police chief constables and, yes, they have to be responsible for their judgments, but in recent days the argument that it is important that they are accountable politically and there is a discussion that can take place between politicians and police chiefs is a thoroughly good one . The government is currently discussing with the police possible new powers for dealing with public order. They have asked the police whether they need any other ne w powers, such as on facemasks, where currently they can only ask for them to be removed in a specific geographical location and for a limited time. The police will be given the discretion to require the removal of face coverings under any circumstances wh ere there is reasonable suspicion that they are related to criminal activity. On dealing with crowds, ministers are also looking at the use of existing dispersal powers and whether any wider power of curfew is necessary. The Prime Minister also suggested in the Commons debate that the police should have the power to shut down social networks: Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were organised via social media. Free flow of information can be used for good, but it can also be used for ill, so we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality . Housing and benefits sanctions David Cameron and ministers, including Eric Pickles and the housing minister, Grant Shapps, have repeatedly raised the question of extending existing powers to evict social tenants and their families that have committed anti-social behaviour: "The people who rioted and looted over the past few days need to know that there are consequences to their actions. So they should wake up and listen to this clear message: if

you live in a social home and you are caught rioting, your one night of madness could have disastrous consequences for the rest of your lives. Social housing is a precious resource, and the hard working taxpayers who subsidise it will be rightly wondering why anyone involved in trashing and looting our country sho uld expect to enjoy the benefits of a social home. Councils and housing associations already have powers to evict social tenants if they are involved in antisocial behaviour or criminal activity. I urge them to consider using those powers. I am proposing to strengthen the powers so that tenants can be evicted for serious antisocial behaviour or criminal activity beyond their local neighbourhood. (Grant Shapps). Grant Shapps has already written to councils to announce he is extending the current consultation which was announced on 3 August regarding powers to seek possession for criminality and anti-social behaviour. The proposal for a mandatory power of possession for serious housing related anti-social behaviour is unchanged, but the government is now consulting on a proposal that the existing discretionary ground for possession is broadened so that behaviour that occurs beyond the immediate neighbourhood is taken into account. The Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has been talking about the pos sibility of removing benefits from people convicted, but not jailed, for taking part in the riots. On the BBC s Today programme he said: "We already accept that if people who are receiving benefits do not, are not prepared to seek work, take the work that's available to them, we take the benefit off them. And if you go to prison we take your benefit off you. So what we're looking at is, for criminal charges, should we take the benefit? And the answer is yes." He said he would prefer it that such an approa ch, if adopted, was carried out by the courts and not the government. The welfare secretary said he would like to see a system in which benefits were removed as part of the judicial process. He has also suggested that benefits of those involved could be co nditional on them attending a rehabilitation programme including regular checks on behaviour. Dealing with gangs David Cameron has focused on the role of gangs in the riots: This is not about poverty; it is about culture - a culture that glorifies violence, shows disrespect to authority and says everything about rights but nothing about responsibilities. At the heart of all the violence sits the issue of the street gangs. Territorial, hierarchical and incredibly violent, they are mostly composed of young boys, mainly from dysfunctional homes. They earn money through crime, particularly drugs, and are bound together by an imposed loyalty to an authoritarian gang leader. They have blighted life on their estates, with gang-on-gang murders and unprovoked attacks on innocent bystanders. In the past few days, there is some evidence that they have been behind the co -ordination of the attacks on the police and the looting that has followed.

We have already introduced gang injunctions, and I can announce today that we will use them across the whole country for children and for adults . The Prime Minister has asked the Home Secretary to work with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on a cross-government programme of action to deal with this gang culture and to report to Parliament in October