Latest news with #AndrewJamieson
BBC News
24-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Norfolk County Council's care home plan 'complete shambles'
A council will struggle to find providers to take over its care homes, an opposition leader has Norfolk County Council has said it was looking for other parties to run 17 homes currently managed by the private company it owns, Norse Labour's Steve Morphew said the situation was "a complete shambles" and accused both the council and Norse of failing to properly invest in the council said three of the sites run by Norse had "received significant investment", but more was needed to modernise other homes. The authority said it was "seeking to secure investment to support the transformation of its care estate in Norfolk to meet residents' needs both now and in the future". A report for the council's cabinet said, with Norse's contract coming to an end next March, the authority had begun testing the waters with other report said the level of interest was "very positive" with some parties looking at taking on all the homes, and others only some. But Morphew repeated previous concerns raised over a lack of investment in the homes and said "nobody is going to want to take over the whole of that contract all at once"."It will be broken up – some of it will be sold off. "The residential care provision from the county council as we've known it for decades will come to an end, there will be a fire sale to get rid of the liabilities,""It's a thoroughgoing mess, a complete shambles," he Leader Andrew Jamieson said three homes had been modernised since the Norse contract began in 2011, but further work was stalled by the Covid said interest rate increases after that made borrowing to fund improvements too expensive, but deals with new providers could lead to investment."We must keep pace with Norfolk's increasingly complex care needs and the expiry of this contract in March 2026 gives us a fresh opportunity to look at how we do that," he council said it was also looking for other providers to take over Norse's contract for housing with care services – which ends next March – and its contract for independent living services, which ends in October 2027.A spokeswoman for Norse Care said the firm had been investing in the modernisation and safety requirements of its homes."Over £20 million has been invested in the development of two new care homes and major refurbishment work on two further homes," she added. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
18-02-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Norfolk County Council set to cut homelessness spending by £2m
Concerns have been raised about plans by Norfolk County Council to cut support for homelessness services by £ Conservative-controlled authority is expected to approve a reduction in its annual spending of £4.7m, which provided accommodation to more than 1,100 people in the last financial the proposal, Liberal Democrat councillor Dan Roper said "bad things happen" to people when council leader Andrew Jamieson said district councils were overall responsible for homelessness and some were due to receive extra money through a second homes tax to help them out. A report for councillors said in 2023-24 there were 838 people accommodated by the county council's homelessness services, and 309 young people (aged 16-25) in funding was also used by other authorities to help people at risk of becoming homeless and to reduce rough sleeping in the council said it was looking to cut spending due to its overall budget gap of £44.75m for the next financial report said the savings could lead to a drop in the number of beds available or a reduction in the support people received in hostels. Challenging the plan at a meeting of the authority's scrutiny committee, Roper warned that less support for people could lead to more problems in the future, and any savings could be "a false economy"."Homelessness tends to come about because bad things have happened to people," he said."Bad things happen while they're homeless. And human distress and trauma create inevitable demand on our services of Norfolk County Council." Jamieson told him that homelessness services were not a legal obligation for the council and Norfolk's district authorities would receive money from a new council tax on second that deal, councils in Great Yarmouth, North Norfolk and West Norfolk would share an additional £2.89m to spend on housing and homelessness services."We have to make savings, and some of those savings are not popular," he added."Obviously we seek to mitigate, wherever we can, the impact of the proposals."Councillors are expected to vote in favour of the saving at a meeting later, as well as an increase of 4.99% on council tax. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
