Councils – rather than Whitehall – should commission new partnerships, argues a new report. These should focus on mutual interests along with pre-determined meaningful outcomes – which can be achieved through the use of fluid budgets.
Councils should set self-imposed targets to reduce expenditure by around 20 per cent by 2011, a report from Localis and KPMG recommends. Local authorities must reassess their priorities against cost and innovate if they are to achieve the expenditure reductions demanded by 2011.
Shadow communities secretary Caroline Spelman has raised fundamental questions over the future of local area agreements (LAAs), after stating they ?will probably be eclipsed? by the Total Place programme.
The BBC’s Giles Dilnot talks to the leader of Barnet Council, Mike Freer, about a ‘no frills’ model of council services where the council provides every local resident a core set of services but where residents get a discount for not using certain services or pay extra for additional services.
The main problem with the current system is that community services do not touch most of the elderly until they see a GP or are admitted to hospital with a serious illness
Council tax bills in England could rise by an average of 1.6% next year – the lowest increase for more than a decade, according to a survey. The Local Government Chronicle magazine asked councils what they were planning, although budgets have yet to be set.
In the unlikely event of a film being made about the experience of the public sector over the next four years, we can pretty much assume it will be called There Will Be Cuts
An overhaul of the £1bn free bus pass scheme for people over 60 will leave some councils out of pocket, local authorities have warned, after the government ruled out increasing the fares subsidy.
Total Place is a new initiative to examine how cutting out duplication in public service delivery can improve quality and reduce costs. But is this really a ‘magic bullet’ solution?
Boris Johnson is looking to set up a housing company to help cut costs when local authorities in the city bring land forward for development. The Mayor says the capitals developers and housing investors are facing numerous difficulties including raising finances to build and falling house prices and land values making many housing schemes no longer viable.