Pledges
Be honest about the downsides
Infrastructure owners and clients should focus on implementing energy efficiency and demand management measures
Town halls need more freedom
Give authorities the freedom – and support – to develop innovative solutions
Combine cash sources into single fund
“Combine the six pots of money for creating greener homes into a single fund”
Schools should provide energy data
Schools should be required to provide data on energy consumption to councils on a monthly basis
Building a low-carbon UK must take priority
Authorities are already considering the impact of climate change on every service: this requires co-operation rather than duplication
Give cash according to locally-led prioritisation
“Give smaller cities greater financial flexibility to realise their economic potential by allocating infrastructure funds based on locally led, cross-boundary prioritisation”
Enact general competence for local authorities
“Give local authorities and city regions the power to establish Accelerated Development Zones”
Reduce inflexible bureaucracies with additional costs
“Reduce the inflexible bureaucracies that impose additional costs on cost-saving partnerships in the form of audits and fees”
Look across the Atlantic for local government
“Be more like US local government - autonomous and empowered”
Disband the many tiers of extraneous quangos
“Remove the extra tiers of spending without accountability”
End the carry-on in the shires over two tiers
“Clarify leadership locally, join up services and give new freedoms”
Don't waste time on elected mayors
“Stop making councils waste time and money on addressing the agenda of elected mayors”
Devolution - but with sufficient resources
“Ensure that services continue to be delivered more efficiently through organisations that are accountable to their communities.”
Scale back the overbearing Whitehall
“Cut both the volume of legislation and the number of MPs in half, and give councillors a prominent role in a reformed second chamber”
Replace compliance with responsibility
“Give local authority managers the freedom to choose methods and measures”
Meet carbon reduction targets
“Do what is required at both national and local levels to meet carbon reduction targets”
Democratise PCTs, community policing and local transport policymaking
Unpicking the stranglehold in which the frontline of our constitution finds itself requires a series of reforms
Reduce targets and inspection burdens
“Good governance is less about systems and more about relationships, shared values and culture”
Legislate for a strong integrated transport planning
“The quality of lives, the strength of economies, and our responses to climate change are all deeply dependent on well-managed transport systems”
Transfer DWP and LSC functions
“We would encourage all political parties to harness the potential of local government”
Move away from tick-box targets
“Authorities serving rural areas should not be penalised on the basis of a tick-box approach that uses criteria or indicators inherently relevant to urban areas”
Modernise health and social care with partnerships
“The commissioning functions of PCTs should be folded into their corresponding local authority”
Abandon two-tier government
“The case for two-tier local government anywhere in the country has always puzzled me”
Supported By...
Open to new thinking
‘The top five manifesto pledges are very revealing and shine a light on the real issues faced by everyone in local government’
Analysis
The minds behind the three manifestos
Dan Drillsma-Milgrom considers the political profiles of the main parties’ policymakers
Reports
Manifesto pledges: the final five
Red tape, inspection, local decision making and partnership with health agencies are the top priorities for the political parties to address, according to LGC readers
The final line-up: it's time to set the agenda
Inspection, quangos and bureaucracy are among the top concerns that readers would like to see tackled by the next government, suggest early indications from the voting for LGC’s Localist Manifesto.
Vote now on localism
Voting has opened for you to help decide the five pledges to be included in LGC’s Localist Manifesto 2010
Ed Miliband backs LGC manifesto project
The man drafting the Labour Party’s raft of election promises throws his weight behind LGC’s localist manifesto project
Your final chance to submit a pledge
There is one more week to contribute to LGC’s Localist Manifesto before voting begins
LGA backs LGC manifesto project
The Local Government Association lends its support to the LGC Localist Manifesto project
Parties urged to act on care and inspection
The main political parties should commit to handing primary care trust commissioning responsibilities to local authorities, LGC readers suggest
