Broadband scheme to be extended

3 July 2011 Last updated at 08:45 GMT Communities with 'slow' broadband will be able to apply for Welsh Government grants to improve it A scheme to help rural communities tackle broadband "notspots" in Wales is to be extended.

The Welsh Government's broadband improvement project offers up to ?1,000 for people who only have a dial-up-speed connection to buy an alternative.

The ?2m scheme will now be rolled out to areas where connectivity is better but still less than 2Mbps, BBC Wales' Eye on Wales has learnt.

The lack of fast internet access in rural areas has been criticised.

The Welsh Government has pledged to bring 'next-generation' fibre optic broadband connections to every business in Wales by 2016, and to every home by 2020.

The Broadband Support Scheme currently allows those in areas where broadband connection speeds are less than 512Kbps, to access funding for satellite or wireless alternatives.

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It was affecting my business - I struggled along as best I could on a dial-up connection but I can do so much more now”

End Quote Jackie Morris Artist Until June, the scheme had approved 800 applications, unlocking ?600,000 in grants from the original ?2m.

Eye on Wales understands that an announcement on Monday will extend the scheme to areas where connectivity is less than 2Mbps.

It will be welcomed by people like John Snowden from Cilgerran in north Pembrokeshire.

He found the limit of 512Kbps hit his efforts to sign up enough people to make the favoured wireless solution viable.

Wireless broadband

"There are some in the village that will be marginally over the top of 512Kbps and may not qualify for the money, which is a real handicap because we need a reasonable number of people to come on to the scheme to make it worth while," he said.

"But as it stands at the moment if they get more than 512Kbps then they will not qualify for the grant money for the installation, so they'll have to spend up to ?1,000 themselves for the installation. That's a real drawback."

Monday's announcement will open the door for Cilgerran and other communities to follow the example of Treleddyd Fawr on the St David's peninsula in Pembrokeshire.

In January it pooled its grants to buy in wireless broadband from Neyland-based firm, TFL, delivering download speeds up to 10Mbps for ?20 a month.

TFL's clients around Treleddyd Fawr now include the RNLI lifeboat station at nearby St Justinians, Shalom House hospice in St David's, and artist Jackie Morris.

'Time was wasted'

She said: "It was affecting my business. I struggled along as best I could on a dial-up connection but I can do so much more now."

"As an artist you have to blog, you have to have Facebook, you have to get your work out to as many people as possible."

"I was finding that more and more of my time was spent trying to up-load photos. You'd get half-way through then the dial-up connection dropped."

"So much time was wasted trying to work on the internet, less time at the drawing board, which is where I like to be most."

Eye on Wales is broadcast at 1300 BST on Sunday 3 July on BBC Radio Wales.

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New back to work scheme launched

10 June 2011 Last updated at 11:07 GMT Employment Minister Chris Grayling described the Work Programme as revolutionary The government's new work scheme has begun, with ministers promising it will give 2.4 million unemployed people help to find jobs over the next five years.

Under the scheme, approved providers, mostly private companies, will try to find work for claimants in the UK.

Seven-year contracts have been agreed and are on a payment-by-results basis.

The Work Foundation said there was a danger private contractors would cherry-pick parts of the country where they were more likely to get results.

The scheme replaces existing employment support schemes - the New Deal, Employment Zones and Pathways to Work.

BBC home affairs editor Mark Easton said the government was investing billions in the Work Programme, but arguing that ultimately it would save the taxpayer money by getting people off benefits.

But he added that the payment-by-results aspect had led some to speculate that suppliers might pressurise vulnerable people into unsuitable jobs or ignore those who need the most support.

'Dating agency'

Outsourcing giants Serco and G4S are two of the private firms involved, while the voluntary sector groups signed up include Mencap, the Citizens Advice Bureau, the Prince's Trust and Action for Blind People.

The total value of the contracts awarded is likely to be between ?3bn and ?5bn.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said the programme was "probably the biggest payment-by-results scheme in the world" and would offer "specialised, personalised support" for the unemployed.

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They may be debt issues or housing issues or problems within the family”

End Quote Andrew Dutton Chief executive of A4E, one of the Work Programme providers Over 25-year-olds will become eligible when they have been out of work for 12 months and under 25s after nine months. Some younger people in certain circumstances, like young offenders, will be eligible after a shorter period of time.

"They're with the providers for up to two years," Mr Grayling told the BBC.

"The best way of describing it is almost like a giant employment dating agency, trying to motivate the long-term unemployed and match them to a job in which they have a good chance of staying.

"It's no longer Whitehall that decides how you do it. We say to the providers, 'You decide how best to help people and we'll pay you for doing it.'"

Mr Grayling said providers would be paid in instalments over a period of up to 27 months, which would give them an incentive not just to get people into work, but also to keep them there.

Andrew Dutton, chief executive of A4E, one of the companies involved, said it would look at removing the barriers that had been keeping people out of work.

"They may be debt issues or housing issues or problems within the family, legal issues around housing, but often very much around supporting them to really gain confidence," he told the BBC.

'Not big enough'

The Work Foundation research group has warned the programme would do little to improve job prospects for people living in economically weaker areas of the UK.

Neil Lee, the group's senior economist, said: "As the Work Programme is based on payment by results, contractors carry the initial risk.

"There is therefore the danger that private contractors will focus on investing in places where they are more likely to get people into work to secure a return on investment."

Mr Grayling, however, said the government had seen "intense competition" for the contracts right across the country, not just in economically better-off areas.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne said Labour supported the principles of the Work Programme but was concerned it was not big enough to help all those struggling to find jobs.

He also said an extra tax should be levied on bankers' bonuses to raise money for the scheme.

According to the latest statistics, UK unemployment fell by 36,000 in the three months to the end of March to 2.46 million.

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City councillor pay scheme to end

3 June 2011 Last updated at 14:38 GMT A number of Glasgow councillors are paid extra for work on arms-length bodies Councillors at Scotland's biggest local authority are being banned from getting extra pay for sitting on the boards of council-owned organisations.

Finance Secretary John Swinney raised concern that 40 Glasgow City Council members were sharing an extra ?260,000 for their work with arms-length bodies.

He now plans to end the arrangement from 1 July by bringing new regulations before parliament.

Mr Swinney said some members were effectively being paid twice.

The Scottish government published details of the legislative change it intends to put before MSPs.

In an initial statement, a Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "We haven't seen the detail of this proposal."

The spokesman later clarified that the local authority had yet to look at the detail of the Scottish government's plan.

Several Scottish councils have set up arms-length external organisations to provide services normally delivered by the local authority itself, like leisure facilities.

But a recent review by the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC) found only Labour-controlled Glasgow City Council had a policy on making extra payments to elected members who sit on their boards.

Mr Swinney said: "It can't be right that a limited number of councillors can receive additional payments to help deliver broadly the same services as delivered by their own councils - in effect, some councillors are being paid twice.

"The Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee report highlighted that only Glasgow City Council had a policy to pay additional monies and confirmed that 40 councillors were sharing ?260,000 in additional payments for serving with boards of arms-length bodies.

"I agree with SLARC that this completely undermines the principles of the existing councillor remuneration scheme, and that's why I have today laid regulations to stop the practice."

The regulations brought forward by Mr Swinney, which require parliamentary approval, mean any councillors in Scotland sitting on arms-length bodies are limited to claiming expenses.

The finance secretary had previously criticised Glasgow City Council for not ending the payments voluntarily.

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