As Nick Clegg has recently noted, there needs to be a ‘gear shift’ in infrastructure spending. Whilst George Osborne dots the i’s and crosses the t’s on his third budget, it is worth considering how such a ‘gear shift’ may be enacted.
Communities secretary Eric Pickles has urged councils to start preparing the ground for the next Spending Review.
A new report calls for the establishment of a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) to spur economic growth in infrastructure projects.
Localis Research Fellow, Steven Howell, took part in a Guardian online debate on Wednesday 7th March regarding the delivery and design of public services.
The Guardian’s Local Government Network has named Localis’ ‘Credit Where Credit’s Due’ report as their Pick of the Web.
Local government pension funds should plough money into infrastructure investment both to boost their own returns and to support essential projects, a think-tank has said.
Councils should consider using new homes bonus funding to set up schemes to help first-time buyers get on the housing ladder, according to an influential think tank.
Metropolitan councils have urged the Government to transfer responsibility for local rail services to them.
It is , on the face of it, a difficult trick to pull off. As this month’s Budget will testify, the Government has pinned its growth agenda on securing 250bn of public and private sector investment in Britain’s creaking infrastructure over the next five years.
The study from local government think tank Localis and Lloyds Banking Group makes the new bank a key recommendation among proposals to kickstart the Coalition’s planned 250bn of infrastructure spending over the next five years.