Local Government Chronicle
1 March 2012
View all stories from this issue.
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Apathy threat to transparency drive
Transparency is at the centre of the coalition government’s plans to transform public services. David Cameron has promised a ‘transparency revolution’. And many of the government’s ‘localist’ policies, from the Big Society to policing reform, rest on giving the public more information. What happens next depends on three things: technology, use and political support. -
Bolton ruling likely to set precedent for disclosure of business interests
Senior officers may be required to publish their personal shareholdings and other business interests following a ruling by the Information Rights Tribunal. -
Chiefs urge action on planning fees
Chief executives have urged the government to use the Budget to make good on its pledge to allow councils to charge more in planning fees. -
Council skills to drive health reform
The stuttering progress of the Health Bill too easily distracts from the huge impact it will have on local government behaviour and reputation. Two challenges will be critical to success. -
Councils budgeting for pay rises despite freeze bid
EXCLUSIVE: The prospect of unions ditching national pay negotiations moved a step closer this week, as LGC research revealed that a significant minority of councils may have budgeted for rises for staff next year. -
Dilnot catalyst for radical reform
Advocates for social care reform have needed a Tigger figure to balance their rather Eeyore tendencies. The ebullient Andrew Dilnot has reinvigorate the debate through the Commission on Funding of Care and Support and his crisp analysis of what he calls our national grubby little secret. He has also followed up his report with enthusiasm and determination since. -
Funding social care
Health improvement services are to be the responsibility of local government from 2013-14, for which funds will be transferred from the Department of Health. To help set the baseline, much feverish work from the DH has attempted to tot up the £2.2bn spent on public health in 2010-11. -
Home care plans to means-test property
Government officials are drawing up plans to include the value of people’s homes in the means test for home care for elderly and disabled people, LGC has learned. -
In times of adversity, look to innovate
ICT departments in local government want to, and can, enable transformational change, but some councils are not listening to or utilising the full scope of technology. That is according to research carried out by the O2 Local Government Futures Forum. -
Inside Out - Free collective bargaining
For all the bluster from the unions I think they know that the majority of their members will put up with another year of frozen pay. -
Labour eyeing an open goal
Labour is on course to make upwards of 500 gains and take control of several additional councils in May’s local elections. -
Labour plays down poll predictions
Labour has started the race to play down expectations over its performance in this year’s local elections. -
LGC View - Local elections
LGC’s correspondents have written elsewhere about the dark arts of expectations management (12 Jan, LGCplus.com/5040122.blog). When it comes to the main parties’ performance in local elections, there’s nothing particularly artistic about it. -
LGC View - O2 Future Fund
Councils across the UK are looking to transform their organisations - to improve productivity and efficiency, achieve culture change and develop new ways of achieving outcomes for residents while making savings. Technology has an enormous role to play. -
Local growth key to wider recovery
Budget setting season finds councillors embroiled in the minutiae of local government finance and with less money to go around, the battle lines are drawn over how we provide services, our priorities and what is affordable. -
New features for LGC mobile site
Accessing up-to-the-minute news and comment on LGC has become even easier following enhancements to our special website for mobile devices. -
One council in ten to reject tax freeze offer
About a tenth of councils look set to increase council tax next year after a survey of finance officers added to LGC research into the number of authorities planning to accept the government’s freeze grant. -
Retrofit rush raises quality concerns
Up and down the country, social housing managers are sweating over their carbon points. What’s different this time is that there is a short-term glut of private finance available for retrofitting that is pushing investment in increasingly perverse ways. -
Sleepwalking on pay negotiations
Unions have warned that joint pay bargaining could collapse after local government employers made no pay offer for the third year running -
Speed a priority in auditor appointment
When the Government published its latest proposals for the future of local public audit it certainly resulted in much discussion here at the Local Government Association. -
Time will tell on planning
Director, Greater London Group, London School of Economics -
Whitehall drags heels on pensions
Union leaders have described themselves as “frustrated” over Whitehall delays in the ongoing pension reform talks. -
Win up to £125k for a digital idea
Got a proposal for an inventive ICT project? Enter for a Future Fund from O2 award and you could win cash and consultancy expertise
