EDUCATION AND CORNWALL

Three pieces on education in Cornwall.

Individual school funding
First, the 2010/11 funding of individual schools in England has been published by the Guardian here. (I cannot see this yet on the DfE website; on the Guardian site click on Get the data then School spending). I looked at the 2009/10 figures for schools in Cornwall in this post; they showed a vast range across schools as do the latest figures. I explored this topic fully in that post. I hope that Cornish nationalists do not repeat the nonsense of last year about these figures.

Deprived pupils
Second, the education department has published the GCSE results for secondary schools in England. They are here for each school (click on the school name) though not on a comparison spreadsheet for all schools. The tables also show how well and poorly pupils from deprived homes do. There is a press release summarising the dismal findings for too many deprived pupils.

Cornwall EMA
Thirdly, good news from Cornwall Council. A year ago Cornwall MPs voted in support of their Tory Libdem government’s abolition of the educational maintenance allowance (EMA) in England which in December 2010 was helping 7294 young students in Cornwall. This England EMA has been replaced by a bursary scheme for much reduced numbers of students. Students in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland can still get the EMA as it has not been abolished there.

The Tory Independent majority on Cornwall Council wishes to introduce what in effect is a local Cornwall EMA, a supplementary scheme to the England bursary scheme. The details are here. The council’s funding realities mean that it isn’t intended to replace the England EMA, nor to help seven thousand students in Cornwall as the EMA did; its scope is much narrower, the numbers to be helped smaller, and its financing after 2013/14 is unsure. It is called the Cornwall bursary scheme.

Nevertheless, I think it is welcome news that the unitary council is introducing a local supplementary provision. All in all, a very commendable and progressive policy from the Tory Independent council, trying to mitigate the reactionary abolition rather than improvement of the England EMA by the Tory Libdem government.

However, it suggests, does it not, that the Tories in Cornwall have little faith in the adequacy of the replacement England bursary scheme of their own government. They are right about that. At least the local Tories recognise by their actions the failure and inappropriateness of the Tory Libdem abolition of the England EMA and the need to redress that as far as they responsibly can with the funds available to them.

On one point the Libdems and others are right. Around five hundred students resident in east Cornwall but doing a Devonwall and crossing the river Tamar for their college studies are excluded from the scheme. I understand the administrative difficulty but the exclusion is unacceptable and they should be included.

Let me say it plain on the Cornwall bursary. The Tories here have got it right. The Libdems here have got it right. I’m going to lie down now.

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HOW CORNWALL PEERS VOTED

This is how members of the House of Lords associated with Cornwall voted on what I see as five defining amendments to the Welfare Reform bill in the last few days. The members are: Tony Berkeley, Brenda Dean, and Paul Myners (all Labour); and Judith Jolly, Matthew Taylor, Robin Teverson, and Paul Tyler (all Libdem).

The first three amendments (36a, 38, and 38a) to clause 51 were to the rules for the length of receipt by groups of the contributory employment and support allowance (ESA). The last two (58d, 59) to clause 94 were listing exemptions from the benefit cap.

The detailed wording of the amendments and the arguments around them and the voting records are in Hansard.

Amendment 36a 11 January 2012 (disabled young). Won by 260-216.
Voted for the amendment: Berkeley, Myners, Taylor
Voted against the amendment: Jolly, Teverson, Tyler

Amendment 38 11 January 2012 (two year period). Won by 234-186.
Voted for: Berkeley, Myners
Voted against: Jolly, Taylor, Teverson, Tyler

Amendment 38a 11 January 2012. (cancer patients). Won by 222-166
Voted for: Berkeley
Voted against: Jolly, Teverson, Tyler

Amendment 58D 23 January 2012 (exemptions from the benefits cap for people who qualify as, or are because of the cap in danger of falling into, homelessness). Lost by 250-222.
Voted for: Berkeley, Dean, Myners, Taylor
Voted against: Jolly, Teverson, Tyler

Amendment 59 23 January 2012 (excludes child benefit from the cap). Won by 252-237.
Voted for: Berkeley, Dean, Myners, Taylor, Tyler
Voted against: Jolly, Teverson

The successful amendments may well reappear in the Commons and MPs will be then given an opportunity to vote on them.

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RCHT FUTURE

The future of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT), which runs the hospitals at Treliske Truro, West Cornwall Penzance, and St Michaels Hayle, became clearer with the publication of the “tripartite agreement” which sets out what the RCHT must do to reach the standard required for foundation status by April 2014.

The tripartite agreement is here.

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CORNWALL COUNCILLORS’ PAY

Once more Cornwall Council is considering councillors’ pay, called allowances. I shall revisit my post of 27 July 2010 when I suggested linking Cornwall councillors’ pay to average pay in Cornwall.

First let me say that I think Cornwall councillors should be paid more than they are. If we wish people who are not wealthy or retired to be able to join those two groups in undertaking the role, we should pay them enough as councillors to live on decently. The pay scheme should aim to enable the widest possible range of people stand for council.

The present basic pay scheme links Cornwall councillors’ pay to national male white-collar median wage. I think this is the wrong link.

The pay scheme should be related to
– the median pay of all employees not just males; and be based on
– the median pay in Cornwall, the county where the councillors serve.

Median pay is more representative of the wage reality in Cornwall than mean average pay as it excludes distortion by extremes. Half the workers earn more and half less than the median pay. There are various ways of measuring it as the ASHE tables show but I think the most representative is the one for all fulltime employees whose place of work is in Cornwall.

Many councillors are women and I certainly think we should go for ‘all employees’. This produces a lower figure than for only male employees; the council should be encouraged to understand the gap between male and female pay. Using the ‘all employees’ yardstick will be a reminder of the gap and the need to tackle it.

There are positive psychological and political reasons for this average-local-pay approach. If councillor basic pay were a to-be-decided percentage of the appropriate median pay of all employees in Cornwall that would relate it directly to the pay of the people the councillors serve. That strikes me as a valuable link, rational and comprehensible, tying the councillors to the local economy, and possibly a mild incentive to councillors to promote policies that increase Cornwall’s prosperity. It gives councillors a stake in the wages of Cornwall as it were; linking councillor pay like this is an argument for solidarity between councillors and people in Cornwall.

There are various ASHE median pay figures for Cornwall and it would be for debate which was the most appropriate. I think the figures for fulltime, men and women, gross annual pay by place of work (table 7.7a) are the most relevant ones. In 2011 this was £21 510 (provisional) for Cornwall: see here. 75 percent of that median would put councillor basic pay at £16 133 a year and that strikes me as a reasonable benchmark.

Rises in councillors’ pay would be automatic once the particular ASHE pay data and the percentage to be applied, along with the timing of any increases, have been agreed; councillors would play no part in deciding their pay.

If we link councillors’ pay to the ASHE Cornwall average pay figures everyone in Cornwall will readily understand the link and see how it works, which I think will help to build acceptance and support for the pay scheme.

Councillors with designated special responsibilities such a cabinet members should continue to be paid additionally through a system of multiples or percentages of the basic pay.

A pay panel of non-councillors is to be convened. I hope it will ask people in Cornwall for their views.

If Cornwall were to shift from a cabinet to a committee structure, we should of course have to look at pay again.

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CORNWALL DATA

CLICK FOR LATEST ADDED Unemployment: JSA claimants in Cornwall December 2011

In this ongoing post I shall bring together data about Cornwall from various sources so that they are more readily accessible. Much is already posted at scattered places on this blog of course. All the data refers only to Cornwall and its parts (and sometimes includes and sometimes excludes the Isles of Scilly). Sources are given in square brackets; I have also included some website addresses, though these may change, so that you can explore the data for yourself. Explanatory notes with the original data are important for understanding. Other data will be added to this current post and data will also be updated and each version of Cornwall data is dated.

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CLICK INDEX
Abortions | Average pay | Cancer services | Children born in Cornwall | Civil partnerships | Cornwall Council pay | Cornwall Council employment | Cornwall disability services cuts | Cornwall health spending | Cornwall MPs’ expenses and allowances | Deprivation in Cornwall |Education maintenance allowance(EMA) | Empty dwellings | Free school meals | Fuel poverty | GDP AND GVA | Housing benefits | House repossessions | Housing waiting lists | Landfill in Cornwall | Land use in Cornwall | Life expectancy in Cornwall | Looked-after children in Cornwall | Miscellaneous | National lottery in Cornwall | Not in education, employment, or training | Pensioners in Cornwall | Place survey 2008 | Population of Cornwall | Pupil funding | School place appeals in Cornwall | Schoolteachers | Second homes | Sure Start | Teenage pregnancies in Cornwall | Unemployment: JSA claimants | Uncollected domestic and non-domestic local taxes | University College Falmouth: socio-economic background of students | Wind farm capacity factor in Cornwall 2009 |

ABORTIONS
The Department of Health has published the abortion statistics for England for 2009. Read them in detail at the Department of health website here – you can also see the data for previous years on the DoH site.

For Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly primary care area there were 1077 abortions in 2009 (Table 10a), a rate of 13 per 1000 women here aged 15-44 (Table 10b). For England for 2009 the rate was 17.6 per 1000.

AVERAGE PAY
£22 068 at April 2011
median, annual, gross, fulltime, all workers, by Cornwall and Scilly residence, at April 2011 [ONS, ASHE 2011, Table 8.7a].

There are various ways of measuring average pay, eg mean and median average, male and female and both, fulltime and part time, by place of work and by place of residence, by local authority and by constituency, weekly pay and annual pay. Figures for median average pay tend to be less than for mean average.

ASHE Annual survey of hours and earnings 2011 (published November 2011) here .

CANCER SERVICES
The second annual report on some cancer services and outcomes was published by the Department of Health on 1 December 2009. It includes data for Cornwall and Isles of Scilly primary care trust and the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT) on pages 29, 46, and 67.

CHILDREN BORN IN CORNWALL
The ONS publishes the details for England and Wales of the numbers of live births to mothers who themselves were born in the United Kingdom or born outside the United Kingdom in each year. The figures for Cornwall (excluding the Isles of Scilly), with much lower percentages than for England as a whole, for the first and last years of the series are:

2008: 5423 live births, 92.4 percent of which were to mothers born inside the UK
2001: 4463 live births, 94.5 percent of which were to mothers born in the UK.

In 2010 there were 5558 live births in Cornwall: see table 1a ONS here.

The data is in tables 3a-3h on this ONS website which also gives separate figures for each of the former districts in Cornwall. [ONS]

CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS
Civil partnerships became possible in Britain with the coming into force of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 on 5 December 2005. Between that date and the end of 2009 376 people entered civil partnerships in Cornwall and Scillies: see Lords Hansard 6 June 2011 column WA 15-16.

CORNWALL COUNCIL EMPLOYMENT
The number of people employed by Cornwall Council was 20 994 (31 December 2009) and 16 367 (30 September 2011) [Graham Smith's blog 20 January 2012 here.]

CORNWALL COUNCIL PAY
Some details of the total pay of the council’s employees getting at least £100 000 pa are summarised in Town hall rich list by the Taxpayers Alliance, 17 March 2011. Table 3 shows thirty two employees of Cornwall Council getting £100 000 pa or more in remuneration, including employer’s pension contributions, in 2009/10. This makes Cornwall, with Newcastle on Tyne, the council with the highest number of employees over this benchmark for the year.

CORNWALL DISABILITY SERVICES CUTS
A survey by Demos and Scope of how 152 local authorities in England are handling cuts to disability services puts Cornwall Council at 11th out of 152 (where 1st is best).

CORNWALL HEALTH SPENDING
In 2011-2012 the total revenue funding of Cornwall and Isles of Scilly (CIOS) primary care trust is £916.136 million. This is an increase of 3.1 percent over 2010-2011. The CIOS percapita funding is £1687 pa for 2011-2012. For England trusts as a whole the percapita spending is £1693, an increase of 3 .0 percent over 2010-2011. [See Department for health Exposition book 2011-2012. (scroll to the Exposition book). Also seeHansard 5 April 2011 column 829W for net data.]

CORNWALL MPS’ EXPENSES AND ALLOWANCES

These are now published by the Independent parliamentary standards authority (IPSA) .

Expenses from the recent past are readily accessible at this Guardian website http://mps-expenses.guardian.co.uk/liberal-democrat/andrew-george. The last name in the url should be changed as appropriate to colin-breed, daniel-rogerson, julia-goldsworthy, or matthew-taylor.

Expenses/allowances, published December 2009, are available here, along with historic ones:
Cornwall MPs’ expenses

Again, change the last name to colin-breed, dan-rogerson (not daniel-rogerson as above), julia-goldsworthy, matthew-taylor.

DEPRIVATION IN CORNWALL
There are several ways of measuring deprivation. The Index of multiple deprivation (IMD) is a major one.

The IMD of 2007 show Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly at 69th out of 142 ‘counties, cities, and London boroughs’ in England, where 1st is the most deprived. The IMD puts the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly primary care trust (CIOS) area at 74th out of 152 trust areas where 1st is the most deprived.The IMD of 2010 show Cornwall unitary authority at 110 out of 326 local authorities (rank of average score).

The IMD 2007 give these results for the former districts of Cornwall out of 354 districts in England, the score 1st is the most deprived: Penwith 36th, Kerrier 86th, Restormel 89th, North Cornwall 96th, Carrick 120th, and Caradon 156th. The IMD 2010 do not include the former districts of Cornwall, by then abolished.

IMD deprivation varies vastly across Cornwall and the measurements for 32 482 subwards in England which are available show this clearly.

See the IMD 2007 here.[EDIT September 2011: new link inserted for IMD 2007 as old one ceased] The IMD 2010 are here.

The Health Observatory website here has some deprivation data for Cornwall too. Also look at the data above for free school meals in Cornwall.

The estimate of the End Child Poverty campaign for mid-2010 was that 19 percent of children in Cornwall live in poverty, below the England average: read their definition. Data for Cornwall wards is given.

EDUCATION MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCE
At August 2011 there were 7647 recipients of education education allowance (EMA) in Cornwall. This is for 16-18 year olds to encourage them to stay on at school or college. EMA has since been abolished. [Source: Young people's learning agency]

EMPTY DWELLINGS
There were 9522 empty dwellings in Cornwall at 5 October 2010. Figures for previous years were October 2009: 9407; October 2008 for the six districts: 9012. [Hansard 14 May 2009 columns 998W-999W; Empty Homes Agency]

FREE SCHOOL MEALS
Eligibility for free school meals is an indication of income deprivation and is an influence on educational achievement.

Percentage of primary and nursery pupils eligible for free school meals, January 2011:
England 18.0 (2010: 17.3)
Cornwall 14.1 (2010: 13.0)

Percentage of secondary pupils eligible for free school meals, January 2011:
England 14.6 (2010: 14.2)
Cornwall 10.8 (2010: 10.3)
[Scroll on the Education department web page to the
free school meals tables .]

The relationship of eligibility for free school meals and not gaining any GCSEs above grade D is given in DEP 2009-0918 of 19 March 2009 (Parliamentary Library).

Also see the data for deprivation below.

The percentage of pupils in individual schools eligible for free school meals at January 2009 is given in the Parliamentary Library deposited papers at DEP 2010-0089 for 11 January 2010. Cornwall LA number on the data sheet is 908.

FUEL POVERTY
The Department of energy and climate change (DECC) publishes data for households in fuel poverty. There are statistics for the numbers of households in fuel poverty for the six constituencies and 327 subwards in Cornwall in 2009.

Fuel poverty is defined as having to spend more than ten percent of income on a satisfactory heating regime: more details on the DECC website.

In Cornwall as whole in 2009 around 60 000 households were classed as in fuel poverty, about 26 percent of all households.

GDP AND GVA
The latest GVA data for Cornwall and the Scillies was published by the ONS on 14 December 2011. Cornwall GVA perhead, current prices by workplace, was £13 129 in 2009. (£13 256 in 2008, £12 681 in 2007) which is 65.6 percent of the UK mean average (64.5 percent in 2008, 63.6 percent in 2007). Details from the ONS for 2009 are here (NUTS 2 subregions).

HOUSING BENEFITS
In July 2010 there were 39 710 people in Cornwall claiming housing benefit of which 12 840 received local housing allowance, the housing benefit for people not in social/council housing but private rented accommodation. Note that the recipients are ‘benefit units’ who might be a single person or a couple. [Table 2 in DEP2010-1938 of 4 November 2010 in House of Commons library]

HOUSE REPOSSESSIONS
There was a total of 505 mortgage repossession claims in Cornwall (unitary authority, excludes Isles of Scilly) in 2010. The figures for England was 70 170.
[Ministry of Justice: http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/statistics-and-data/civil-justice/mortgage-possession.htm]

HOUSING WAITING LISTS
There were 17 650 households on housing waiting lists in the six former districts of Cornwall at April 2008. In 1997 the number was 8043. The details from the Department of communities, by district and by years 1997-2008, are here.In October 2010 the Cornwall unitary council waiting list numbered 16 687 [thisiscornwall website 27 October 2010].

LANDFILL IN CORNWALL
Cornwall 2007/08:
Total municipal waste 324 480 tonnes
Total municipal waste sent to landfill 210 386 tonnes (64.84 percent of total municipal waste)
The average proportion of municipal waste sent to landfill for the 121 unitary and waste disposal authorities in England was 54.42 percent.
[Hansard 26 October 2009 column 50W-54W]

LAND USE IN CORNWALL
Details of land use in Cornwall are available for the six former districts and for wards. The categories are given in square metres for domestic buildings, nondomestic buildings, domestic gardens, roads, rail, paths, greenspace, water, other, and unclassified. The tables are at Census ward levels GLUD 2005 tables. GLUD means Generalised land use database. An explanatory document of the GLUD statistics is here.

LOOKED-AFTER CHILDREN IN CORNWALL
In the year ending 31 March 2011 there were 475 (to nearest five) children under eighteen who were in the care of Cornwall local authority. This was 45 per 10 000 of all children in Cornwall under the age of eighteen. The figures for England were 65 520 (to nearest ten) and 59. The data is in Hansard column 70W based on Table LAA1 here.

LIFE EXPECTANCY IN CORNWALL
Life expectancy in Cornwall 2008-2010: Males 79.3 years, females 83.1 years. The England averages are males 78.6 years and females 82.6 years.

MISCELLANEOUS
Statistics for Cornish towns is a booklet produced by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The revised version is dated September 2009. It contains data about deprivation, the number and size of businesses, unemployment, and population. Read it through the South West Observatory here.The South West Observatory website also has other data.

South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) (now abolished) published in October 2009 Economic profile: issue 8 which discusses Cornwall’s economy in the recession on pages 20-25. Read it here.

NATIONAL LOTTERY IN CORNWALL
Since the National Lottery began in 1995 and up to September 2011, £265.745 million has been distributed in Cornwall.
Source: Department for culture, media, and sport

NOT IN EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, OR TRAINING
The number of young people aged 16-24 in Cornwall who are not in education, employment, or training (NEETS) was 6000 for January-December 2009. This was 12 percent of the age group. The Cornwall percentage is the 23rd lowest of the 148 local authorities listed. For the reliability of the figures, see the original. [Hansard 20 July 2010 column 303W]

PENSIONERS IN CORNWALL
There are about 137 000 old age pensioners in Cornwall (males aged 65 and over, females 60 and over, mid-2010). The full figures, including for both the county and the former districts, are in this zip file on the ONS website. [ONS]

PLACE SURVEY
A survey in 2008 by the Department for Communities and Local Government looked at people’s views of the locality and local services. Question 5 asked people how strongly they felt they belonged to their immediate neighbourhood. In the Cornwall area 66.5 percent said fairly or very strongly. This was 53rd out of 353 council areas, the largest percentage being at number 1.
[Department of Communities and Local Government Place survey 2008]

POPULATION OF CORNWALL
The estimated population of Cornwall in mid 2010 was 535 000. About 431 000 (81 percent) were aged eighteen or over. The full figures, including analysis for gender, ages, and districts, are in the zip file on this ONS website. [ONS]

PUPIL FUNDING
The per-pupil dedicated schools grant (DSG) for 2011-12 includes various other grants and is now known as GUFS, guaranteed units of funding. For 2011-12 GUFS include the 2010-11 DSG at the same cash level plus the other grants. For 2011-12 Cornwall per pupil GUF is £4663.54, made up of £4042.72 DSG 2010-11 and £620.82 other relevant 2010-11 grants.

Details are here at the excel file GUFS 2011-12.

In terms of per pupil funding for 2011-12 Cornwall is 134th out of 151 authorities (that is at the 12th percentile); seventeen authorities have lower GUF funding than Cornwall. The average England per pupil GUF 2011-12 is £5082.53. Any pupil premium for individual pupils and students is additional to GUF.

The dedicated schools grant (DSG) began in 2006/07 and earlier per pupil allocations are not directly comparable. Before 2006/07 schools were funded largely through the formula grant which, apart from the DSG, is the main grant from central government to local authorities.

SCHOOL PLACE APPEALS IN CORNWALL
In 2007/08 there were 277 appeals by parents against the non-admission of their child to their preferred primary school in Cornwall; 75 were successful. For secondary schools in Cornwall the figures are 405 and 151.

8183 children were admitted to Cornwall primary schools September 2007-January 2008 and 6514 to secondary schools in the same period.
[Department for children, families, and schools: here (scroll to table 3)]

SCHOOLTEACHERS
The number of fulltime-equivalent schoolteachers in Cornwall maintained at January 2010 was 2190 in secondary schools and 1930 in nursery and primary schools and 120 in special schools: total 4240 (including 170 unqualified teachers). There were 1490 secondary teaching assistants and other secondary support staff and 2000 primary ones. The school workforce data is here. The cost of employing teachers in Cornwall Council maintained schools for 2008-2009 was £18.87 million and for teaching assistants £4.646 million (Hansard 27 October 2010 column 364W-368W). The average teacher salary in Cornwall in £36 000 in 2009 (website above). All the figures are for fulltime-equivalent staff.

SECOND HOMES
Second homes in Cornwall (excluding Scillies) totalled 14 095 in 2010, 5.6 percent of the housing stock, based on council tax [House of Commons Library DEP2010-2186 of 6 December 2010]. In 2004 there were 13 509 second homes. The DEP data gives district totals and percentages for 2004-2008.

In terms of numbers of second homes in 2008 North Cornwall was 7th out of 354 England authorities, Penwith 15th, Carrick 24th, Caradon 26th, Restormel 30th, and Kerrier 47th. These positions represent numbers of second homes not percentages of housing stock.

SURE START IN CORNWALL
At the end of October 2009 there were thirty seven Sure Start Centres in Cornwall.
[ Hansard 14 December 2009 column 702W]

TEENAGE PREGNANCIES IN CORNWALL
In 2009 there were 292 conceptions to under-18 girls in Cornwall, 30.5 per 1000 girls in Cornwall aged 15-17. In England the average was 38.2 per 1000 (45.5 per 1000 in 1997 in England). [Source: Hansard 12 December 2011 column 517W which gives the data for every primary local authority]

UNEMPLOYMENT: JSA CLAIMANTS
All JSA claimants in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly December 2011: 10 226, 3.1 percent of the resident population aged 16-64 (November 2011: 9637, 2.9 percent. December 2010: 8933, 2.7 percent) [ONS Nomis].

Cornwall and Scillies youth claimant count (resident population aged 18-24) December 2011: 3455 (November 2011: 3225. December 2010: 2885) [ONS Nomis]

From April 2011 the contribution-based jobseekers allowance (JSA) broadly is £67.50 a week for people over 25 and £53.45 a week for people under 25. For details see here.

The jobseekers claimant count is not a measure of unemployment but of people claiming the benefit who must be, inter alia, available for work and actively seeking work.

This website gives details of jobseeker claimant counts over time for Cornwall:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1967128581/subreports/jsa_time_series/report.aspx

This website gives details of the youth claimant counts over time in Cornwall:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1967128581/subreports/jsaad_time_series/report.aspx

Claimant and other labour data by constituencies and wards is here:
http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/Default.asp

These are general labour statistics for Cornwall and Scilly:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1967128581/report.aspx

The latest labour force survey data, a measure of unemployment, is for October 2007-September 2008: http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/la/1967128581/subreports/ea_time_series/report.aspx

UNCOLLECTED DOMESTIC AND NON-DOMESTIC LOCAL TAXES
For 2009/10 the total of uncollected council tax in Cornwall was £5.967 million (2.5 percent of the total due) and uncollected non-domestic rates £3.635 million (2. 9 percent) [GMB union 22 July 2010]

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE FALMOUTH: SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND OF STUDENTS
Socio-economic data about first degree students entering University College, Falmouth in 2008/09 has been published by the Higher education statistics agency (HESA). It is available at the Guardian here: Falmouth is number 35 in the second table or scroll to Download the full spreadsheet where Falmouth is number 44.

31.6 percent of the first degree Falmouth entrants were working class, that is the occupation of the senior working parent was in a routine or manual occupation (groups 4, 5, 6, and 7 in National Statistics: socio-economic classification). The mean average for all England universities was 32.4 percent. The working class made up about 37 percent of the UK population (ONS).

WIND FARM CAPACITY FACTOR IN CORNWALL 2009
The nine wind farm developments in Cornwall in 2009 had an average output of 22.37% of their capacity.
[Michael Jefferson, professor of International Business and Sustainability at the London Metropolitan Business School cited here and here.]

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General sources

These data and research pages on the website site of Cornwall unitary council carry very much societal data about Cornwall.

ASHE Annual survey of hours and earnings (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statBase/product.asp?vlnk=13101)

DEP Deposited parliamentary papers (http://deposits.parliament.uk)

Hansard (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoday/cmdebate/home.htm)

ONS Office for National Statistics

Teachernet (http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/docbank/index.cfm?id=12222)

A useful website for understanding local government language is: http://localgovglossary.wikispaces.com/

Cornwall Council publishes a monthly report on the local and national economy:
Economy monthly monotoring update( http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page 22498)

Health and welfare data for Cornwall is available from Public Health Observatories here.

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CORNWALL AND A THAMES TUNNEL

The first attempt to build a tunnel under the Thames in London was from Rotherhithe to Limehouse and made little initial progress and in 1807 the Thames Archway Company employed Richard Trevithick from Cornwall to lead the work on the pilot tunnel, a driftway. Trevithick, in a letter to Davies Giddy, said that he had sent for miners from Cornwall to come to help the people already digging.

In very difficult circumstances with a varied and volatile river bed – not at all like the hard rock the Cornish miners were used to – and with several floodings, they reached within two hundred feet or so of the high tide mark on the northern foreshore of the Thames when in 1808 the company called a halt. The tunnel was abandoned.

Marc Brunel eventually built a tunnel westward of Trevithick’s, opened in 1843, which is still used by trains.

Trevethick and his men did outstanding work. In 1807 technology and engineering were not yet up to the job.

Who built Thebes of the seven gates?
There seems to be no extant record of the names of the Cornish and other tunnellers and the location of the entry shaft, long filled in, seems to be unknown but was possibly about a hundred yards from the river in the area of what was Lavender Lane. Two hundred years ago the south London streets hereabouts and river side would have buzzed with many Cornish voices.

Notes
Who built Thebes of the seven gates? From a poem, A worker reads history, by Bertolt Brecht about the anonymity of workers in history. A copy in translation is here.

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THE SHAME OF THE LIBDEMS

This was the Libdems’ most shameful day. Nothing else they have done since May 2010 matches this wrong.

On Wednesday the Liberal Democrat party sank. In two hours and three votes in Parliament it shredded any fragile claim to be a party of progress and reform and liberalism.

The House of Lords was debating primarily three amendments to the non-means-tested contributory Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) provisions in clause 51 of the Welfare Reform bill of the Tory Libdem government. You can read the debate and see the votes here (Lords Hansard 11 January 2012 column 152-176). ESA is the successor from October 2008 to invalidity benefit and income support on grounds of incapacity.

There is a need to reduce the deficit, to ensure services are efficient, and to spread the pain of reduction fairly across society with the broadest shoulders carrying the greatest load. None of that requires us to penalise those who are among the most vulnerable in our country, but that is what the unamended bill proposed.

Let me explain very briefly what is explained more fully in the Hansard record of the debate. The three amendments, 36a, 38, and 38a, sought to mitigate the pain for the vulnerable. They kept automatic contributory eligibility for ESA for people severely disabled or impaired from birth or from a young age, young people so severely disabled that they have never had, and will never have, the chance to earn a living, in the words of the independent crossbench peer Molly Meacher who moved the amendment (36a); they extended the time which someone who had worked and paid into the system could receive contributory ESA from one year to at least two years (38); they exempted cancer patients from the one-year ESA limit (38a). Under the unamended bill a cancer patient would have stopped receiving contributory ESA support after fifty two weeks and while perhaps still in treatment or recovering from treatment.

These amendments did not propose additional costs; they opposed cuts in present spending for the seriously disadvantaged. Saving money seemed to be the government’s main concern; but arguments about cost are always at bottom about priorities.

It was an impressive debate and several members made telling speeches which expertly explored the technical issues and laid bare human suffering. The civilising amendments were carried by large majorities by Labour and independent crossbench peers and with a number of Libdems that you can count literally on the fingers of one hand; the government was defeated. Tory and Libdem peers who voted did so in bulk against them. Some Libdem peers seem to have abstained.

This was the Libdems’ most shameful day. Nothing they have done since May 2010 matches this wrong. Remember this, remember this, remember this: the Libdems voted to cut financial support for very vulnerable people.

Notes

The House of Lords debated these issues in Grand Committee on 8 November 2011. Read the debate here. At times the real life examples given are searing.

The House of Commons debated clause 51 in committee last May. See here (Hansard 3 May 2011 column 628-656). The Commons gave the bill a third reading last June.

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CORNISH NATIONALISM AND THE RUB’ AL KHALI

Cornish political nationalists want an autonomous Cornwall separate from England and with its own assembly or parliament. The wording varies and I use autonomy as a catch-all. Ten years after a Mebyon Kernow petition for a Cornish Assembly the party is trying to cry it up. I shall look at the assembly and petition in a later post but perhaps I can focus now on a difficulty that I see in the nationalist argument. I can put it in the form of a simple question: Who gets to pay for this separate Cornwall?

That question is in danger of being lost in the Rub’ al Khali, the empty quarter of nationalism.

The funding question is linked to the form of autonomy and nationalism appears to be divided on that though most seem to look for arrangements short of independence outside the United Kingdom. What happens in Scotland’s eventual vote on secession and independence may well influence how Cornish political nationalists see Cornwall’s future constitutional status.

Present funding arrangements for Cornwall
At present public services in Cornwall, stuff like old age pensions, the NHS, schools, benefits, and much affordable housing are funded directly or ultimately by the UK government from pooled national taxes paid by individuals and companies across Britain, including Cornwall. Industrial and commercial grants are also funded by the UK government from pooled national taxes. The EU returns some of the net funds the UK gives it to projects across the UK including Cornwall; these might reasonably be seen as recycled UK taxes. Local levies such as council tax and car parking charges fund only a small proportion of public spending here – as in any county. The amounts made available from the national pool to Cornwall and other local authorities are at bottom decided by the UK central government and indeed many decisions on local spending are in effect made by the central UK government.

Future funding arrangements
There are two possible ways that an autonomous Cornwall could be funded: from funds generated wholly within Cornwall or from pooled UK funds with some local levies.

Cornwall pays for itself
Is the nationalist intention that an autonomous Cornwall would wholly pay its own way (apart from externals like defence perhaps)? This means that whatever we need inside Cornwall would be paid for by taxes raised only in Cornwall and not elsewhere; and a nationalist Cornwall would take its own decisions using only its own locally-raised money. It would set and collect its own income and corporate tax rates, for example.

Such a self-financing Cornwall would effectively be independent.

However, I doubt that this self-financing is feasible. I do not believe enough money could be generated from within Cornwall to pay for a twenty-first-century state.

Barnett dependency
More likely is the funding of Cornwall based on the Barnett scheme or some such. The expectation would be that taxpayers outside Cornwall would subsidise our devolutionary fling; that is, taxpayers in the UK, largely England and largely London and along with the EU, pay us more from the common pool than we put in. Suppliant devolution, eh; you pay, we spend autonomy. Some destiny that, and vastly unattractive and unpersuasive.

The 2001 petition did not detail funding and the 2009 parliamentary bill for an assembly seemed to envisage Cornwall largely funded by a redistributed pool arrangement. However, the Barnett scheme is increasingly contentious because the three devolved areas of the United Kingdom are seen by many to get unfairly larger per head shares of public spending compared to England (including Cornwall). I think that the present Barnett formula is unsustainable and remains only because UK politicians fear to stir devolutionary waters.

The Cornish political nationalists should tell us exactly what they have in mind financially for their separated Cornwall; and give us their arithmetic. It is not credible to talk about autonomy, devolution, semi-independence, and so forth, and not detail funding; without a published funding scheme nationalism is showering us in hot air and cannot be taken seriously.

Notes
Some recent comments about the Barnett formula are here (letter headed Celtic cash cow) and here (Council taxpayers in England losing out).

English and Cornish devolution 6 September 2011

Hokey-kokey devolution 14 December 2009

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CORNISH NATIONALIST BLUES

It’s the start of 2012 and I have taken a quick look at what I’ll broadly call Cornish political nationalist petitions though they may attract support from people who are not nationalists. Remember, there are about 420 000 adults in Cornwall.

There are two petitions on the government site, signable by residents in Britain and British citizens overseas. One calls for the recognition of the Cornish as a national minority; it has 793 signatures.

The one calling for a Cornish Assembly has 137.

On Cornwall Council website there is an e-petition calling for a public holiday in Cornwall on St Piran’s day. This is signable by people resident or working in Cornwall. Running since February 2011, it has 311 signatures. An earlier petition on this on the government website ended in January 2008 with 1193 signatures.

Keep Cornwall Whole launched a petition on 31 October 2011 calling on MPs to reject the Devonwall proposals (www.keepcornwallwhole.org/?m=201110). There was no closing date for the petition and I cannot see any information on its progress.

As I have said before, of course a petition does not capture every supporter of the proposition; not everyone knows about it and not every supporter wishes to sign. However, petitions are a public advertisement of a cause and a measure of its support among the public and if these nationalist petitions had thousands of signatures I have no doubt we should be told that reflected reality on the ground.

I think that the numbers signing these public petitions should be compared with the “up to 5000 people” who physically demonstrated for West Cornwall hospital in Penzance in December 2011 (Cornishman 8 December 2011).

Early day motions
An early day motion in the Commons (EDM 2532, 12 December 2011) calling for a Cornish Assembly has ten signatures, three from Cornwall MPs and four from MPs for seats in Wales. An early day motion (EDM 1525, 2 March 2011) calling for a government-made public holiday in Cornwall on St Piran’s day got twenty signatures, three from Cornwall MPs and six from MPs for seats in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

Some earlier posts on petitions
Devonwall revisted 15 November 2011

Cornish nationalism’s thin joys 19 October 2011

Cornwall isn’t signing: update 13 September 2011

Cornwall border (petitions against Devonwall) 24 November 2010

And Cornish tick box on 2011 census (ended January 2011 with 639 of the required 1000 signatures)

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SATANIC MALLS OR PARADISE ROW? SHOPPING IN CORNWALL

Hannukah and Christmas are gone, the seasons of lights and goodwill are done with, it’s a new year and back to blogging.

Andrew Wallis, an independent unitary councillor, had an evidence study made of the impact of the Tesco and Sainsbury supermarkets on the shopping in the centre of Helston.

Seeking evidence
I am much heartened by Wallis’s looking for evidence and thoroughly congratulate him on his approach while I acknowledge that evidence-based policy has its limitations and questions.

The study suggests that the impact of the supermarkets on the town centre shopping has been discernible but manageable though I think the period under study is necessarily short. Do read the report for yourself.

Questions
Anyway, this has prompted me to ask some wider questions about town centres and shopping everywhere and generally and well outside the Helston study.

Town centre experiences
Is it desirable to try to keep town centres full of 9-5 shops and the focus of shopping in an area? Why yes, why no?

Is shopping in or ambling around a town centre with a variety of non-chain shops, sitting places, cafes, and open spaces and opportunities to meet friends an attractive experience that adds to an individual’s happiness and indeed to the sum of human happiness?

Can these experiences be had only in vibrant town centres?

Do such town centres draw in people who would not otherwise visit the area and thus help the local economy through employment and the churning of goods and money?

Do town centres have to be morgues after six in the evening and rowdy after ten?

The effects of life changes
Have life and shopping habits changed significantly and in a way that makes town centre shops inherently much less financially viable? Have cars and mothers working – a big change from the fifties for example – made out-of-town supermarkets and shopping malls a better deal for foot customers all round: generally, more choice, pretty much one-stop shopping for most daily stuff, easier car parking, and lower prices.

For most people have the days of shopping in small parcels through the week in town centres and by bus been replaced by one big shop once a week by car at an easy supermarket?

How does expanding online shopping affect town centres? Is it making the present town centre shop an outdated and expensive model, especially for white and technical goods?

Even in Cornwall do vast undercover shopping malls have a role in foot shopping that challenges the town centres of small traders?

Intervention 1
Should we intervene to help town centre shopkeepers and their employees to continue to earn a living in the same way and same place? For example, should we subsidise town centre car parking and manipulate rents/rates to help town centre shops compete with out-of-town supermarkets; and should we use the planning system to intervene to try to keep town centres viable? (Incidentally, more or less some of the points of the recent Mary Portas report as far as I can see.)

If town centres are part of human happiness (see question two), should we subsidise them in some way if that is necessary for their continuance?

Are not subsidies an argument to be made not a claim to be asserted, a point I raised in this post.

Intervention 2
Is the only legitimate role for councils and government to promote competition and variety in shops, leaving the rest to customer choice?

How do we keep competition flourishing to benefit customers and the economy? Are town centre shops an essential part of the competition? How do we encourage innovation and efficiency?

New retail models
Is the idea of the retail town centre obsolescent? Are councils trying to keep a corpse alive? Why not let customers, what economists elsewhere call the market, decide: town centre, supermarket, shopping mall, online, a mix? What would happen if we did stand back?

Actually, might we be witnessing the migration of town centres to alternative out-of-town, new, and often weather-proof retail centres that include supermarkets and small, individual shops, and such useful facilities as libraries and post offices?

Should we be planning for this?

Are supermarkets naturally evolving into large general stores selling not only food but also mobile phones and clothes? Is this a change to be welcomed or resisted?

Could we individualise large out-of-town shopping centres while retaining their efficiencies?

Finally
Should the default be to manage change or resist it?

Is spitting in the wind ever a good idea?

There are no universally agreed answers (apart from the spitting one) and I’m not giving mine here. You’re on your own with this.

Oh, and here’s a story about a supermarket getting it very right.

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