Spending, geology, employment and paternity
A varied newsletter this week
It’s the Spending Review today and a unique chance for the Chancellor to disappoint almost everyone on the same day.
There’s been lots of the usual early news on big projects and spending, and the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had been holding out over the weekend, but No 10 are now saying that a deal has been done.
The overall story seems to be boosts to capital spending - like the spending on Northern transport which has already been announced - but with cuts to core budgets which cover the actual running of services. Policing cuts were the main sticking point for the Home Office, for example.
New stuff is nice, but without well-funded public services it does tend to get rubbish again pretty quickly - new schools need teachers, new hospitals need doctors, new roads need maintaining.
Anyway, we'll see what happens and if there's anything interesting announced I'll write about it next week.
A missing £140bn?
IPPR North have a core bit of research which they recycle at least once a year where they look at transport spending per head in the North compared to London.
Their latest estimates London received 2.43 times as much spending on transport as the North. That's £1,182.52 per person per year, compared to £486.20.
The Elizabeth Line is responsible for a lot of that difference, but I don't really want one of those in the North East (just the metro extension we're already getting), but IPPR have pre-empted that and have written about buses too.
I don't know much about geology
But the British Geological Survey do, and they say the North East is an area with the right geology for several different types of net zero energy project.
That includes carbon capture and geothermal energy, with the possibility of unlocking £40bn of annual investment across the North.
They talk about spatial planning reform for the netherworld, and the need to be strategic about our geology as an asset - which is the kind of thing geologists would say.
I'd suggest if we can't be strategic about the stuff on top of the earth, we'll definitely it be very good at being strategic about the stuff under the surface, but yeah, maybe.
Employment down, inactivity up
The North East has the worst employment and economic inactivity rates in the UK, in the latest ONS labour market figures.
Employment is at 68.2% of 16-64 year olds.im the region, the next nearest is Yorks & Humber on 72.1%.
The region's economic inactivity rate is 28.1%, and the next nearest is Yorks & Humber again on 24.3%.
Our region's figures have shifted by around 2 percentage points in the wrong direction since the Nov 24-Jan 25 time period.
This is becoming a bit of a crisis - although if you know how to fix it, NECA have an active call out for economic inactivity trailblazer programmes. That closes on 20th June.
Equality Committee calls for better paternity leave
Not specifically North East related, but the Women and Equalities Committee has published the report on it's inquiry into paternity and shared parental leave.
That's a pet topic of mine, having taken shared parental leave with our first born (and then been ineligible for it with our second as I'm now self-employed).
I think getting it right would help address the gender pay gap, and may even help.witg tackling economic inactivity by making it easier for those with caring responsibilities to get back into work.
The committee recommends increasing statutory pay, extending paternity leave, and reforming the underused shared parental leave system.
On the cutting room floor
I was interviewed recently by BBC Radio 4 as part of a documentary which was looking at the rise of exclusions in schools.
I spoke about suspensions, but they decided not to use the interview as they focused the documentary on permanent exclusions instead.
So, here's a clip of me talking about the stigma of suspensions and how that stops us making progress by keeping the actual issues out of sight and off the table.
Working with me
You can reach me on arlen@arlenpettitt.co.uk - I'm currently booking in work for early July, but will then be keeping things fairly light from mid-July through August to allow for school holidays.