Local Government Chronicle
10 May 2012
View all stories from this issue.
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‘This downturn feels very different’
Amongst the welter of daily statistics about the global economy, I was particularly struck by the news that the annual rate of growth in China has slowed to ‘only’ 8.1% in the first quarter of this year. How George Osborne and Danny Alexander must long to have such tricky problems on their desks. -
Clark: not the end of the road for city mayors
The elected mayoral model for cities is not off the table, local government minister Greg Clark has insisted - despite it being rejected by nine out of the 10 cities voting on it last week. -
Councils clearly want to be on the frontline of digital transformation
With the launch of the Future Fund from O2, local government has demonstrated that it is ready to rise to the digital challenge and innovate. -
District decisions set to send counties’ welfare bills soaring
County councils are set to be hit with multi-million pound welfare reform bills as a result of decisions made by their district counterparts. -
Feel-good factor often overlooked
Yoghurt pots and street parties remind us of something important. A couple of things we’re doing in Sutton have reminded me of the difference between excellent service delivery and improving people’s quality of life. -
How CCGs will be judged
He was an elderly chap who wanted to know more about clinical commissioning. He used services regularly, and valued a particular local service which involved social care, community nurses and traditional medical services. -
Inside Out - Council Housing
Even before the housing benefit cap, one London borough was sending its homeless people to Liverpool, so the news that more boroughs are sending people from their waiting lists up north came as no surprise. -
Labour retakes crisis-hit Wirral
The new leader-elect of Wirral MBC has pledged to continue with the council’s LGA-backed improvement drive. -
Labour surpasses election ambitions
Labour exceeded expectations in last week’s local elections increasing their number of councillors by more than 800 seats and taking control of more than 30 councils including Birmingham City Council and Cardiff Council. -
LGC View - Local elections 2012
A month or so ago, I wrote a blog post that attempted to set some realistic targets as to what constituted a good or bad showing for each of the parties in the local elections. -
Local democracy is changing
Director, Greater London Group, London School of Economics -
Media Column - Are you talking or just broadcasting?
The title of this column is Mediawatch. What do we understand by the term ‘media’? For most of us it means the press, radio and TV, or industry magazines - the traditional broadcast (one-to-many) type channels with a predominant one-way flow of information. -
New market raises client side queries
Let’s face the truth, the shape of local authorities in five years will be radically different to what we have today. -
New ways of working: councils rise to the grant reduction challenge
Reduced central government funding presented councils with the challenge to ‘do more with less’. East Midlands Councils, the East Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnership and Capita researched how they have delivered these savings. -
Partnerships key to wider care offer
We all have to look at new ways of delivering services and in Hertfordshire we’re using innovative solutions and ever-closer partnership working to make the most efficient use of resources while delivering better outcomes for our citizens. -
Put your digital vision into practice…
The launch event of the Future Fund challenge from O2 attracted representatives from almost 50 councils. -
Showing leadership on social care
The starting point is the Dilnot report. The government should not throw the baby out with the bathwater -
Support changes are ‘seismic’
It was surreal watching Conservatives and Liberal Democrats reading from virtually the same script when finding explanations for disappointing election results. -
Targets ‘correct’ for pupil premium
I’m puzzled by the low-key nature of discussion on the use of the Pupil Premium. -
Welfare pilots fail to allay funding concern
The government has published details of how councils can test run the introduction of universal credit - but questions remain over funding.
