For many people, mention of parish councils leads inexorably, if unfairly, to thoughts of The Vicar of Dibley.
More than 95% of local authorities want more control over business rates, according to a survey by local government think-tank, Localis.
Local authority leaders and chief executives almost unanimously want greater financial autonomy for their councils, according to a survey carried out for think-tank Localis.
Almost all councils in England (99.5%) want more fiscal autonomy, according to their chief executives and council leaders a new survey from the localism focused think Localis has revealed.
Ministers should allow councils to buy themselves out of the national business rates system and retain local tax revenues to encourage authorities to stimulate economic growth, a thinktank has proposed.
After debate stretching at least 35 years, it can only be the most optimistic who are confident that we are at last ready to seriously address the nagging issues of how we fund local services; incentivise good government and clarify just which set of elected representatives is responsible for what.
All of a sudden, local government finance is a hot topic, so it is good news that Localis has an in depth report out on Monday. The punningly titled The Rate Escape, which has been produced in partnership with Ernst and Young, will advocate that councils should be allowed to retain more of their locally collected business rates, cutting the apron strings from central government to once again let local authorities see real benefits from growing their local business rates base.
Eleven urban areas around the country, including London, have been named as enterprise zones with a further ten to be created following a competitive bidding process, the chancellor has announced.
A ministerial group tasked with boosting the community budgets programme has been launched, as documents obtained by LGC revealed the extent to which a turbulent spending review period has hampered the programmes progress.
Local Government Chronicle argues that the current state of fractious central-local relations must improve to benefit both sides