Ministers have announced a 9.2m cash pot to encourage councils to team up in delivering front line services. Leading a Commons debate on local government finance, local government minister Brandon Lewis said the new Transition Challenge Award was inspired by the success of the West London tri-borough initiative.
Plans for a £75,000 cap on the amount the elderly will have to pay for social care in England will give people “greater peace of mind”, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said.
Steven Howell, senior policy officer at Localis, was quoted in an MJ article on commissioning skills across the public sector.
MPs have launched an enquiry into the role played by skills provision in local economic growth plans amid pressure for funding and decision making to be devolved to the local level.
Data shows 185 councils are yet to adopt local plans, despite 1 April deadline
As the current prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, once remarked: ‘Borders cannot be redrawn, but we can work towards making them irrelevant ? towards making them just lines on a map.’
The government must establish mechanisms for dealing with widespread financial failure in local authorities, the National Audit Office has warned in its first assessment of the sectors financial robustness.
Passengers will not have to pay premium ticket prices to use the high speed rail network as the Government promised the service will available to everyone.
Councils have made combined 263m savings from shared service initiatives, the Local Government Association (LGA) has reported.
Nearly nine out of 10 councils are due to lose funding for ‘early intervention’ services such as nursery places and Sure Start centres, despite a government pledge to boost their budgets, LGC analysis shows.