Hinterland - rural intelligence from behind the headlines (w/e Fri 14 Jan 2011)

Weekly summary - 21 January 2011

This week's Hinterland is all about change. The Government has outlined proposals to change means-tested benefits and the national curriculum.

'And finally' explores the misery of 'detox January' and asks if you are sticking to your New Year resolution(s)!

Other articles look at opportunities around providing offshore wind, broadband and rail services in rural and coastal communities.

Ivan Annibal
ivan.annibal@roseregeneration.co.uk

Are you entitled to benefits?

(Link: Daily Telegraph, 20 January)
This article states that more than 34.2 billion of means-tested benefits go unclaimed by older people each year. It is thought this is because at least every 12 months the Government is revising old benefits and introducing new benefits, thus deterring people from checking their entitlement and/or completing complex forms.
Last week the Government's new Pensions Bill received its first reading in parliament. Under the new legislation, women's state pension age will reach 65 by November 2018; and the rise from 65 for both men and women will begin in December 2018 and reach 66 by April 2020. Age Concern - a charity concerned with the needs and interests of old people - has expressed optimism that auto-enrolment will lead all workers to have a right to a pension contribution from their employer (unless they decide to opt out); and concern that the proposed changes will hit the poorest hardest as they can be more dependent on state pensions.
This reminds me of a benefits take up campaign I visited in Cornwall two years ago. Organised by the Citizens Advice Bureau with funding and support from the local authority, the campaign helped more than 400 local pensioners claim £1,127,473 in extra benefits to which they were entitled. According to the poverty site and Joseph Rowntree Foundation almost half of workers in rural places do not have a current pension. For older people - no longer active in the labour market and therefore no longer accruing a pension -increased benefit take-up can offer a way out of poverty.

National curriculum review
puts emphasis on facts

(Link: The Guardian, 20 January)
Yet more revising old systems and introducing new ones by Government, this time in education.
Michael Gove (the Secretary of State) has announced a review the national curriculum. His proposals include slimming down the curriculum - from its current 12 subjects - and concentrating on facts and academic knowledge. Gove cites examples where actual content has been removed from the curriculum so teachers could teach more flexibly: apparently geography does not identify any continents, rivers or mountains outside Europe and in history figures such as Winston Churchill have been cut!
With proposals to scrap the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), public demonstrations over the rise in tuition fees, young people living in rural areas are often disproportionately affected by these changes as they experience difficulties learning online (no broadband) and accessing education (limited public transport).

Thousands of jobs created
in Hull turbine plant plan

(Link: BBC News Online, 20 January)
Siemens and Associated British Ports (ABP) are developing plans to build an offshore wind turbine manufacturing plant in Hull.
The scheme could generate up to 10,000 jobs and Hull Council Leader Carl Minns has described the project as "a new era of prosperity for the region". Offshore wind encourages renewable power generation, creates jobs and helps the UK to meet its carbon emissions cuts. Rural and Coastal England can and is playing its part to make a meaningful contribution towards renewable energy supply. Although RenewableUK, the wind industry trade body, has found that a wind turbine in the UK generates 50% more electricity than the same wind turbine in Germany; Germany has 21,315 wind turbines installed compared to just 3,000 in the UK.
Even more depressing, in a statement by the Climate Change Minister Chris Huhne, the UK is 25 out of 27 in the EU league table on renewable energy with only 3% of power coming from renewable sources like wind and solar, against a target of 15% by 2020. On the one hand there are huge opportunities here to attract turbine manufacturers, on the other hand there are challenges to be overcome in rural and coastal settlements where wind energy projects need to be sensitively designed and on a scale that is appropriate for the local landscape.

Yorkshire returns to the age
of steam for commuter service

(Link: The Independent, 20 January)

This story charts plans to re-open the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (epitomised in the film The Railway Children).

If it were to re-open it would be the first branch line to do so since the Beeching cuts in the 1960s. It is estimated that the return of regular services between Keighley and Oxenhope could take hundreds of cars off the road, providing commuters with rail links to Bradford, Leeds and Manchester every 45 minutes. With rural campaigners arguing that the beauty and tranquillity of the countryside will be destroyed by the planned high speed rail link between London and Birmingham; and Beeching style cuts now threatening local bus networks; the Keighley example illuminates how rail and joined-up rural transport can make a contribution towards economic output, quality of life and mitigating carbon emissions.

Recently I have been watching an excellent travel documentary on the BBC called 'Great British Railway Journeys'. Presented by former MP Michael Portillo, the series follows him as he travels the length and breadth of the country by train, using Bradshaw's Railway Guide from 1939 as a starting point.

Broadband price cut proposed
for three million rural homes