Home owners face paying more council tax simply for enjoying nice views or having a patio or off-street parking. Officials have secretly assessed more than 11million homes for ‘desirable features’ as Labour prepares for a revaluation of council tax after a General Election. Ministers admit the Valuation Office Agency is building a huge database of all 23million homes in England.
The think tank Localis have produced a paper on the theme Revitalising Local Democracy: Ideas for improving turnout and participation. I contributed a piece (not with a big idea but a shopping list of small ideas), as did Ken Richie, Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society. But I was most struck by the suggestion from the third contributor Peter Facey, Director of Unlock Democracy, that Councils should have referenda more often.
Local government leaders have criticised proposals to expand councils scrutiny role as lacking ambition.The plans were part of a wider reform package put out for consultation on July 21 by Communities Secretary John Denham.
Hundreds of building projects will be cut to fund Gordon Browns £1.5billion social housing programme, The Times has learnt. Furious council leaders have demanded an urgent meeting with ministers after being told that their plans are in jeopardy because there is no new money to pay for the Prime Ministers policy, which was announced ten days ago.
Alistair Darling, chancellor, named Manchester and Leeds in the Budget as ?pilot? city regions that could negotiate for devolved powers from the government. This week John Denham, communities secretary, heralded ?the biggest single transfer of power to local government in a generation? as he outlined some of the plans.
A Lords inquiry has issued the latest in a series of official reports calling for the scrapping of the controversial 30-year-old funding mechanism for the UK nations. But replacing it will not be easy.
The LGC and iMPOWER held a joint survey assessing the current economic climate and the approach that they have taken. The survey also looks into efficiency savings and service delivery.
LGA claims that one suggested funding model in the just-published social care green paper is at odds with the personalisation agenda have been called into question
Communities secretary John Denham is set to repeat his desire to see councils empowered to play a leading role in the fight against climate change.
Combined Heat and Power (CHP) capacity should be extended, as this could potentially provide as
much power as the new range of nuclear reactors combined, says a new report from Localis, the
local government and localist think tank.