Hammersmith & Fulham Council and its leader, Stephen Greenhalgh, have self-consciously made the case for radicalism within a single local authority. Ever since the Conservatives promised a 3 per cent per year cut in council tax at the time of the 2006 local elections, the council has been in the news.
Councils will be freed to make or revoke byelaws without government permission, communities and local government secretary John Denham has said. Byelaws would instead to be scrutinised locally before taking effect.
Tenants who receive local housing allowance to pay their rent will be able to choose to have their money paid directly to their landlord if the Conservatives win next year’s general election.
The main political parties should commit to handing primary care trust commissioning responsibilities to local authorities as part of their election manifestos, LGC readers have suggested.
Rules forcing English councils to publish chief executives’ salaries are to be introduced by the end of 2009. Minister Rosie Winterton said it would affect 2,500 officials and people had the right to see the full picture.
Barnet LBC is proposing to place half its budget in the hands of residents, reveals a report setting out the latest stage in its groundbreaking plans to personalise all council services.
A new bank that could help fund community groups and stimulate a stronger civil society is being examined by ministers as part of a drive to give more power to local communities, Liam Byrne, the Treasury chief secretary, will say tomorrow.
London Councils has singled out managing chronic care, worklessness and anti-social behaviour as key themes for its Total Place-style mapping exercise of the £73.6bn worth of public expenditure in the capital.
Assessment cannot be about collecting and shuffling data together to create a mountain of ‘information’. Assessments have to be about prioritisation, analysis and exploration of how this evidence relates to, and in practice works with strategy and policy. In short assessments need to be intelligence ‘rich’.
The LGA has said it is disappointed not to have been consulted over a sale of publically-owned assets to be announced by the Prime Minister. Margaret Eaton, chair of the Local Government Association, said the sell-off could have serious ramifications for the state of (councils) tightly managed budgets.