Councils are to be given new legislative powers to establish mutual insurance companies in light of the recent London Authorities Mutual Limited (LAML) court judgement, Local Government Minister Rosie Winterton announced today.
Two things that were not mentioned consecutively in David Cameron’s speech to the party conference yesterday were the words ‘local’ and ‘government’. Instead, he spoke at length about the need for people to take more individual responsibility, the destruction of ‘big government’ and about providing ‘power to people’.
Policy Exchange and Localis released their report, Can localism deliver?, at the Conservative conference on October 7. It focused on the City Region Partnership project, currently being piloted in Greater Manchester, which grants additional powers to groups of councils that pool their resources on strategic policy areas.
Town halls will need to hold a Conservative governments feet to the fire to ensure it stays true to its localist pledges, the shadow minister for the Cabinet Office has admitted.
Malcolm Prowle rightly calls for an end to top-down command and control techniques via an empowered local government. This would enable Whitehall to harness the innovation and efficiency of town halls.
A group of London councils are pooling their legal resources in a move which they claim will save millions. The councils, Camden, Harrow, Hammersmith & Fulham, Hillingdon and Hounslow LBCs and Kensington & Chelsea RBC, say the move will eventually save £1.4m a year.
Senior local government figures are calling for urgent talks with the Department of Health amid fears that Labours proposed National Care Service will commit councils to future funding burdens that are impossible to quantify
The Audit Commission is preparing a last-ditch attempt to prevent the comprehensive area assessment (CAA) from being abolished under a Conservative government.
Conservative council leaders are increasingly confident they will be able to convince a Tory government to adopt a new inspection model within its first year in power.
The report ‘Can Localism Deliver’, published today by Localis and Policy Exchange, is an important contribution to the debate on city regions. It is vital that policymakers take into account the lessons learnt from Manchester if we are to move forward into a new era of localism.