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Most people will have heard the phrase ‘There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damn lies, and statistics’. It’s ironic the quote is typically attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, as that itself has no basis in fact. Yet, the point remains a good one: just because someone uses numbers to back up their argument, doesn’t mean…
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Pensions aren’t the most exciting topic to write about. Most pensions stories focus on their affordability with an ageing population and longer lifespans. They talk about the retirement age increasing, benefits from company pensions reducing, and people not saving enough in private pensions, where they have them. This is a huge problem and it’s not…
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Eligible businesses can now apply for the latest round of business grants but Crawley Borough Council says the funding is not nearly enough. Despite Crawley being responsible for 25 per cent of the economic output in West Sussex, it has been given some of the lowest grant funding in the county. The government has given…
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This is Living Wage Week, the annual awareness-raising event run by the Living Wage Foundation informing employers of the benefits of paying employees a ‘real’ Living Wage. Benefits there certainly are, with employers who’ve made the shift experiencing increased productivity and higher retention rates balancing out the cost of paying workers enough to live on.…
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For the last six years, Crawley Borough Council has bucked the trend. Despite huge cuts to local government funding, every year we have managed to generate enough new revenue to make up for the cuts without having to put council tax up above inflation. Due to the pandemic, that streak has come to an end.…
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Today you will see various local government accounts tweeting #CouncilsCan, as part of an annual day-long effort co-ordinated by the Local Government Association to highlight the work that councils do. Over recent years we’ve seen practically every cause allocated a ‘day’, ‘week’, ‘month’, and even ‘year’ dedicated to raising awareness or encouraging activity around a…
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Today is Remembrance Sunday. In any other year, this morning would see a packed service at St John’s, large numbers gathering to lay wreaths at the war memorial, coupled with a parade through the town centre and refreshments at the TA Centre. Despite the New Town not having been built at the time of the…
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Despite the government’s claim no one could have predicted we’d need a second lockdown, we are going back into lockdown, as everyone else predicted. By this point there was little alternative, all restrictions have been driven by the need to ensure the demand for intensive care beds doesn’t exceed supply. The UK has only 6.6…
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This week is ‘Youth Work Week 2020’, a week dedicated to recognising the important contribution youth workers make to our community, providing young people with the support and encouragement they need to realise their potential. Unfortunately, youth work is to a large extent now a career in decline, as councils balance their budgets by cutting…
Peter Lamb for Crawley 