Stormont's housing targets could be hit by decline in building of social homes
In June Communities Minister Gordon Lyons revealed budget constraints meant work on only around 1,000 social homes will begin this year — far short of the 2,000 needed to meet a Programme for Government commitment to start work on at least 5,850 by 2027.
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Belfast Telegraph
3 days ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Stormont says it has no money for Belfast Culture Night this year
Elected representatives at a recent Belfast City Council committee meeting received an update from officials stating that Stormont would not be helping with the bill for the popular cultural event, which has not been held since 2021. Green Party councillor Áine Groogan, who has led the charge to reintroduce the event at City Hall, expressed disappointment after responses from both the Infrastructure Minister and a representative from the Department for Communities. The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) gave no confirmation that Translink would offer a night service for Culture Night 2025, while the Department for Communities (DfC) said it would provide no funding for the event this year. In April it was announced Belfast Culture Night would return this year, but will be taken 'off the streets,' with a new look, led by money from City Hall. Councillors then agreed to launch a public procurement exercise to deliver the 2025 Culture Night programme up to the value of £150,000, considerably more than Belfast Council previously contributed, when the Cathedral Quarter Trust led a partnership which delivered the hugely successful event annually in September. The new Culture Night will not programme street-based events and will concentrate on venue-based events across a wider space in the city, with more community involvement. The event will aim to move away from street drinking and concentrations of crowds, and will require organisations to prove they are paying artists. The pandemic resulted in the suspension of the event in September 2020, with a digital version staged instead. That year the Cathedral Quarter Trust and Belfast City Council co-commissioned a review which said 'the existing model for Culture Night has become problematic'. In 2022 organisers said that the event had 'become too big and unwieldy' and the original intention of providing a platform for artistic and cultural communities to connect with a much wider audience 'had been lost'. Culture Night ran in Belfast in 2021, but did not return. In 2023 the Cathedral Quarter Trust announced it would cease day-to-day operations after Stormont funding was ended. Financial pressures facing Stormont's Department for Communities were reportedly behind the decision. In May, the council wrote to the Infrastructure Minister and Translink requesting that consideration be given to the operation of late-night public transport services on Culture Night. The council also wrote to the Communities Minister requesting that consideration be given to the provision of funding to support the 2025 Culture Night programme, and also going forward. At the August meeting of the council's City Growth and Regeneration Committee, elected representatives were given an update on plans for this year's event. Councillors learned a representative for the Department for Communities, led by DUP MLA Gordon Lyons, replied stating: 'In respect of any funding support, I am sorry to advise that the Department does not have any funding streams available, which I appreciate will be disappointing. I also checked with the Arts Council who advised they have been consulted and advised on application routes through its open programmes.' The letter from Sinn Féin MLA and Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins replied: 'I understand Translink are working with the City Council to develop a support plan for the event and welcome that both organisations are continuing to work together to ensure that people will be able to travel to and from the event by public transport. 'On a wider basis, I remain committed to finding a solution which will enable the extension of late-night public transport services, not only for one off events in the city, but on a year-round basis and will continue to build on my recent positive engagement with the Economy Minister and representatives of Belfast City Council in this regard.' Councillor Áine Groogan said at the City Growth and Regeneration Committee meeting: 'Unfortunately it is disappointing, but not surprising, (in terms of both of) these responses.' She added: 'I have written in my own personal capacity to the Minister for Infrastructure around night time transport, and not just for culture night, because it should be a long term thing. But I think Culture Night gives us something to work to. It would be an incredibly positive thing for the Minister and the city as a whole to run night time services on that night.' She added: 'Time is short for 2025, we can appreciate that, and maybe it is not something to budget for this year. We can give them a bit of grace on that, but I would propose that we write now asking for engagement in 2026, for investment in Culture Night.' Councillors unanimously agreed to her proposal. An officer said: 'Translink did come back to us, but it wasn't a substantive response. It was indicating that they continue to liaise with the department in relation to funding.'
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Sturgeon: I did not appreciate factors behind attainment gap
She said that when she promised to eradicate the gap between the educational performance of pupils from rich and poor areas, she 'probably [did not] appreciate' the full extent of the factors that influence it. In a speech in 2015, Ms Sturgeon said: 'My aim, to put it bluntly, is to close the attainment gap completely. "It will not be done overnight, I accept that. But it must be done. "After all, its existence is more than just an economic and social challenge for us all. It is a moral challenge. Indeed, I would argue that it goes to the very heart of who we are and how we see ourselves as a nation.' READ MORE Sandie Peggie: NHS Fife admits breaking law over trans doctor's use of changing room GERS: Can the SNP still afford the social contract? National Library accused of 'cowardice' over exclusion of gender-critical book In their 2016 manifesto, the SNP said 'closing the gap in attainment between young people from our most and least deprived communities will be the defining mission of the SNP in the next parliament.' Ms Sturgeon then said her government would push to substantially reduce the attainment gap by 2026, writing in that year's Programme for Government document that elimination of the gap was 'a yardstick by which the people of Scotland can measure our success'. However, exams results last week revealed that despite some progress, the rate of the attainment gap remains substantial. The National 5 rate dropped from 17.2% to 16.6% while Higher saw a small dip from 17.2% to 17.1% and Advanced Higher from 15.5% to 12.8%. The gap in the number of pupils achieving an A also reduced slightly at all levels, but remained substantially higher than the A-C rate. In National 5, the rate fell from 27.6% to 27.5%, 22.1% to 22% in Higher and 18.7% to 18.3% in Advanced Higher. Asked about the failure to eliminate the gap during the book festival event, Ms Sturgeon said: 'This is possibly one of my biggest regrets. At the time, I made the promise of probably not appreciating as much as I quickly came to do the factors that would influence that. 'And that was not just about issues around the curriculum in schools, but what is the driving cause of the poverty related attainment gap in our schools? It's poverty, it's the conditions children grow up in, outside school." "So some of the things that I am proudest of are the Scottish Child Payment, the doubling or early years education, the baby box. "These are things that are lifting children out of poverty, and I believe in time will make a difference to the Scottish Government." Ms Sturgeon added: 'I think Scottish education is good. I don't believe it is in the terrible state that many say. I believe we saw in the exams results last week that the attainment gap is starting to close. 'I'm not really sitting here saying I don't regret that it didn't go further.' She added: 'On this particular issue, and again, I'm being frank about it, it was probably a lack of appreciation of what you had." Ms Sturgeon said initiatives and putting money into education was not enough. "All of that is right, but unless you're changing the conditions kids are growing up in, then you're not going to have the impact. And that's what I learned along the way."
Daily Record
3 days ago
- Daily Record
Nicola Sturgeon claims baby box will help reduce child poverty attainment gap 'in time'
The former first minister pledged in 2015 "to close the attainment gap completely" but latest exam results show it remains at 17 per cent. Nicola Sturgeon has claimed the introduction of the baby box in Scotland will help reduce the poverty-related attainment gap. The former first minister today admitted it was her "biggest regrets" that secondary school pupils from the poorest backgrounds continue to perform more poorly in exams than those from the richest. Sturgeon used a keynote speech in 2015 to promise her government would "close the attainment gap completely" over the next decade - a policy ministers formally adopted a year later when John Swinney was serving as education secretary. But exam results published this month show the SNP Government is now on course to miss that key target next year, after it became a policy commitment signed off in 2016. Higher and National 5 results out show the richest 20 per cent of pupils continue to significantly outperform the 20 per cent of kids from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. Sturgeon was pressed on the issue when appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival today to promote her new memoir, Frankly. Asked by host Kirsty Wark why the attainment gap was still there, Sturgeon said: "This is possibly one of my biggest regrets, and it comes from not delivering it, but also the time I made the promise. I was probably not appreciating, as I quickly came to do, the factors that would influence that. "That was not just about issues around the curriculum in schools, but what is the driving cause of the poverty related attainment gap? It's poverty, it's the conditions children grow up in outside of school. "Some of the things that I am proudest of, are the Scottish Child Payment, the doubling of early years education, the baby box - these are things that are lifting children out of poverty and I believe, in time, will make a difference to the attainment gap." In the 2016 Programme for Government, Sturgeon claimed her government would push to substantially reduce the attainment gap by 2026, saying it was "a yardstick by which the people of Scotland can measure our success". The latest figures show some progress on the previous year in terms of overall attainment and a slight narrowing of the attainment gap. But by most measures the attainment gap is largely unchanged compared to pre-pandemic levels, and the attainment gap in the Higher pass rate has widened since 2019. Speaking at the book festival event today, Sturgeon added: "I think Scottish education is good, I don't believe it's in the terrible state that many say. The attainment gap is starting to close. "I won't sitting here and say, I don't regret it didn't go further. You'll have to judge me when you read the book, but I won't shy away things that went wrong, I try to explain what wrong, why did I get that wrong. "On this particular issue, unless you change the conditions kids are growing up in, you're not going to have the impact - and that's what I learned along the way."
