Sir Merrick Cockell (Con) has this week called for a fresh start in relations between the sector and ministers, as the new Local Government Association chairman set out his plans to guide the group through a pivotal period.
DCLG : ‘greater localism’ needed on community budget pilots
23 June 2011 | By Allister Hayman, James Illman
Ministers are set to announce a new push on community budgets amid fears that sluggish progress and lack of Whitehall buy-in could stymie early ambitions.
It is an oft-repeated truism that, in a time of austerity, local authorities must be innovative.
Alex Thomson is chief executive of Localis.
But, in a policy platform, published by Localis this week, a distinguished group of local government experts argue that a golden opportunity in the form of councils trading powers is being, for the most part, overlooked.
London’s ‘easy council’ Barnet has set up a Big Society Innovation Bank and is inviting residents and not-for-profit community groups to bid for funding local projects.
The Big Society has garnered more than its fair share of headlines over the last couple of years, but what does it mean for local government? In the first of a series of pamphlets, Localis is publishing ‘Barnet’s Big Society’.
The government has admitted it cannot force councils in England to provide weekly bin collections.
Alex Thomson, Chief Executive of Localis, spoke to the BBC’s Politics Show (London) about the reorganisation of London’s boroughs.
Plans are to be drawn up which would see the auditing of councils’ accounts outsourced to the private sector.
Councils are to be encouraged to reinstate weekly bin collections with the lure of financial incentives, it was reported over the weekend.
There is always something of a pendulum effect in local politics as those in government at Westminster lose seats locally but the recent local election results show it is swinging in a most unusual fashion. Come the morning after the night before, the two halves of the coalition both woke up with sore heads, but for very different reasons.