Three London councils have announced plans that could see them merge all their services and create the UK’s first “super-council”.
Alex Thomson, Chief Executive of Localis, sets out the guiding principles of Localis’s latest research project on local government finance
Central government funding to councils will fall by ?around 26% over the next four years?, the spending review has confirmed.
Alex Thomson said Tax Increment Financing which would allow local authorities to borrow against predicted growth in business rates to fund capital projects was not a cure for all ills.
So-called “community budget” arrangements, which will allow councils to pool budgets, will be rolled out in 16 areas from next year, the chancellor has announced in his spending review.
Council chiefs have made a last ditch plea for inspection to be slashed following research revealing some 74,000 pages of rules and instructions have been foisted on local government from Westminster in the past decade.
Following the Localis event ‘Total Place or Total Waste?’ at the Conservative Party Conference, Bob Neill spoke with Alex Thomson about some of the issues raised during the discussion
Discusses the potential of Social Impact Bonds, which aim to attract private investment to fund solutions to previously intractable social problems
Localis argues in our Total Neighbourhood report that, while putting local budgets funds under the control of a strong, locally elected lead will reduce duplication, re-centre the focus on service users, and help to tackle social issues through prevention rather than (much more expensive) cure, it is by linking local funds to the benefits that community involvement and ownership can bring that we will truly revolutionise public service provision.
Birmingham City Council’s community-led early intervention programmes show local authorities how to deliver cheaper and ?radically better? services, according to thinktank Localis.