A Lords inquiry has issued the latest in a series of official reports calling for the scrapping of the controversial 30-year-old funding mechanism for the UK nations. But replacing it will not be easy.
The LGC and iMPOWER held a joint survey assessing the current economic climate and the approach that they have taken. The survey also looks into efficiency savings and service delivery.
LGA claims that one suggested funding model in the just-published social care green paper is at odds with the personalisation agenda have been called into question
Communities secretary John Denham is set to repeat his desire to see councils empowered to play a leading role in the fight against climate change.
Council housing finance reform can be sped up if councils achieve a consensus on change, housing minister John Healey said on Monday. Mr Healey said that while he would plough ahead with primary legislation to scrap the housing revenue account subsidy system.
The government today gave the go-ahead for the construction of four eco-towns, offering 10,000 homes overall, which, it hopes, will showcase environmentally friendly living in the UK.
The use of council tax to fund local social care services could be banned as part of proposals to end postcode lotteries in the governments long-awaited social care green paper.
A paper from the excellent Localis think tank Giving the Green Light: Policy Ideas for a Model Environmentally Sustainable Council includes a section on staff travel. Instead of fleet cars it suggests car sharing. Also more working from home. It suggests phasing in green vehicles over time.
Combined Heat and Power (CHP) capacity should be extended, as this could potentially provide as
much power as the new range of nuclear reactors combined, says a new report from Localis, the
local government and localist think tank.
First in David Cameron’s quango-firing line should be the Audit Commission. An instrument of the reform regime, the Audit Commission fosters compliance rather than improvement; and compliance with bad ideas to boot.