By pursuing innovative operational models, councils could invest resources in local social and environmental enterprises, helping the local economy recover faster.
As long as Brown and Cameron refuse to trust communities to run their own affairs, people will rightly scorn their efforts to rebuild faith in national politics.
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has become the first council in the UK to launch a scheme that rewards residents who recycle. Householders will be able to claim money off at shops and restaurants.
Only a radical overhaul of the current funding system will help to recover an overcentralised country, and the main political parties need the courage to take steps to make local government independent again
English councils spending rose by £10bn to £154bn in 2007-08, according to a National Statistics publication. The annual Local Government Financial Statistics showed three-fifths of gross income in 2007-08 came from central government, a fifth of it from redistributed non-domestic rates
Government has failed to deliver a bold devolution of powers to local authorities, with Whitehall and Westminster slowing moves to localism, the local government minister John Healey has admitted
Almost 60% of lower-tier authorities felt the governments new target for local government to make £5.5bn of efficiency savings by the end of 2010-11 was unachievable, according Localis
Local government minister John Healey has warned councils to get a grip on the number of councillors receiving additional allowances. He added that there was no evidence of abuse however.
Confusion over the failings of the current social care system and a reluctance to look after elderly relatives could hamper public debate on the governments impending Green Paper, a survey has warned
Len Collinson, leader of Private Sector Partners which represents 100,000 firms in the region, said the government’s decision to put the partnership between 10 Greater Manchester authorities on a statutory footing, ?risked undermining 10 years’ hard work on the north-west region’s economy?