Six local councils representing over 1.4 million people and a police authority have signed up the 10:10 climate change campaign. The new sign-ups, which include Cambridge, Nottingham and Coventry, boost the number of councils to 16, while Cheshire police is the first of the UK’s police forces to join the campaign.
In Westminster and town halls across the country, revolution is brewing. It threatens riots, possibly on the streets, certainly in cyberspace. Riots of protest, perhaps, and definitely a riot of information.
Cllr Edward Lister, the Conservative leader of Wandsworth Council will present a report to Hammersmith and Fulham Council’s Value for Money Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday. Here is a sneak preview.
An innovative approach to refurbishing hundreds of council homes is being claimed by Brighton and Hove City Council. The council is in talks with a major high street bank to provide up to £45m to a local delivery vehicle (LDV) – said to be the first time a local authority has leased its own housing to a charity.
Essex County Councils new social care trading company could earn the authority upwards of £3m a year in dividends and may take over the running of some local PCT services, bosses have revealed.
A Conservative government will have much to learn from the way the party runs councils, shadow chancellor George Osborne is expected to say. In a speech to local authorities, he will say councils have dealt well with budget “constraints” similar to those to be faced in Downing Street.
Reform of Council tax remains a taboo subject in Westminster. Tom Shakespeare explains how the Conservatives could implement much needed reform without causing a poll tax style backlash.
Councils in North Kent, the West Midlands and the West of England are today being given new freedoms and powers to work together to improve employment, skills, housing and transport in their regions, announced Communities Secretary John Denham.
A Whitehall report provides strong evidence that the weakest and most vulnerable are likely to suffer first from spending cuts. The restrictions mean that by next spring about 600,000 elderly will have lost the right to free home help since 2006
Almost 4,000 homes will be paid for every kilogram of recyclable waste that they place in the correct bin. Rather than fining or lecturing people who do not recycle, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is taking the alternative approach of rewarding those who do.