While the debate continues endlessly in Whitehall about who’s responsible for the state of the economy, and which levers of power should be pulled, pushed ? or just caressed ? the fact remains that, out in the real world, most people just want to have a job.
Councils should be given new powers to tackle land banking by developers including ‘use it or lose it’ planning powers, according to think tank Localis.
The pace of change in local government is beginning to increase rapidly. Most dramatically, there is strong support for a quantum shift towards real localism.
There are local authorities who are savvy and brimming with ideas who do want and deserve more control over policymaking, such as Manchester. Manchester has caught the eye of Chancellor George Osborne for being an experimental authority, and I look at its worker bee ethic in my Telegraph column today.
Localis’s Steven Howell took part in a Guardian Local Leaders live discussion on where next for public health?
There are many questions still to be answered about the reforms to the healthcare system. Fully integrated healthcare is a game successive governments have tried and failed to win. In order to achieve more effective integration, Localis’ report recommends a presumption in favour of data sharing, and a review of the Health and Wellbeing Boards to give them greater clout.
At first glance, the findings of the latest report from thinktank Localis could be dismissed as head-smackingly obvious. According to analysis of the transition of public health from NHS to council control, 96% of local authorities believe they will be able to improve the health of local residents. In short: councils think they do a good job. Well I never.
Using the form, councils can benchmark their boards against what it describes as four stages of board development: the ?young?, ?established?, ?mature? and ?exemplar? health and wellbeing board.
A change to freedom of information laws could present a significant revenue opportunity for councils, a former adviser to the Information Commissioner’s Office has claimed.
As Parliament returns, local authorities’ attention naturally turns to the next strategic review and the challenges it will bring. For all of us involved in the sector it seems clear the challenge to do more while spending less will remain uppermost.