Westminster City Council has called for a set of reforms to give councils powers over everything from police budgets to streetworks. Leader Colin Barrow (Con) said the council faced more than 600 new regulations and 11 pieces of primary legislation every year.
Localis and KPMG have last week produced a new report, called The Bottom Line: A vision for local government. James Morris, Chief Executive of Localis, discusses the report as he urges for a stronger local government
Elected politicians with a remit for community safety must be able to remove police chiefs who are not focusing on and delivering the outcomes they desire, writes James Morris for Local Government Lawyer
Demand to build council homes is far exceeding government expectations, putting pressure on the Treasury to release extra cash as part of the spending review next month
Households in Britain are paying £4.5billion extra in tax so that local authorities can produce paperwork to prove they are hitting centrally-imposed targets, research shows
Residents should have the right to take over post offices, libraries, swimming pools or pubs threatened with closure, Conservatives said yesterday. Voluntary groups should have the right to buy when valued businesses and facilities are lost, they added.
A city once wreathed in smoke and deafened by shipyard steel-hammers, has transformed itself into the greenest in Britain, according to the country’s most comprehensive sustainability audit.
Young professionals struggling to get on the property ladder are being offered knock-down rents in some of London’s most sought after neighbourhoods.
There is still a place for shared services in helping local government avoid having to make swingeing cuts to both staff and services, says Paul Bettison in Accountancy Age
The Local Government Association has called for the government to take an axe to public sector inspectors in a bid to safeguard councils’ position ahead of the impending public spending squeeze.