The Government has today announced the fourteen areas that will pioneer new Community Budgets. This announcement is good news today for everyone involved. Congratulations to all the councils who will have the opportunity to develop new approaches that could save money and improve services. The variety of bids put forward by local government to address…
This post was first published by Public Finance. Crystal-ball gazing about what 2012 holds for local councils is not an exact science. But we can be sure of one thing – the going will get even tougher Looking beyond Christmas can be gloomy. January is the month of diets and abstinence, dark days and cold nights. But…
Here’s some information on how we plan to cover this year’s local elections. Here is a full list of the Local Government Elections taking place in 2012, provided by the Department for Communities and Local Government. Shire District Councils Electing By Thirds (67) 1. Amber Valley 2. Basildon 3. Basingstoke and Deane 4. Bassetlaw 5.…
In these challenging times I had not expected ‘optimism’ to emerge as the main theme of our Localism and Austerity Summit yesterday. A year ago we brought people together to discuss the emerging new environment for local government and local public services. The mood then was one of apprehension amid a fog of uncertainty –…
This blog series is composed of Andy Sawford’s Powerful Ideas lecture. The speech looks at where localism comes from, what it means, in the world we live in and, by commenting on current reforms, sets out how localism can help us meet the challenges we face now and in the future. The second post explores…
The Powerful Ideas lecture series is designed for high profile thinkers to engage with sector leaders from across civil society. Andy Sawford's lecture was entitled "Localism will lead to the emancipation of local government and give much- needed power back to the people"
As Jonathan pointed out in TotalPolitics today, the Localism Bill is currently going through the House of Lords. Proposals for elected Mayors to be created in the 11 largest cities outside London (excluding Leicester, which has an elected Mayor) are highly controversial. In particular, there has been opposition from the Lords to proposals for current…
Andy Sawford made a whole bunch of predictions about the local elections on Wednesday night. Below in red you can see all the results so far and have a check on how well he’s doing. We’re still bringing in results from around the country on @LGIU Birmingham, the biggest local authority in England, is currently run by…
With about a third of results in, the main headlines of this election are already emerging: – disastrous night for the Lib Dems, – pretty positive for the Conservatives with, at time of writing, three additional councils falling under their control and ten council seats gained; # – for Labour progress but perhaps slightly mixed…
Yesterday, Andy Sawford wrote his predictions for ‘50 councils to watch‘ in today’s elections. The map below provides a quick visualisation of where these key battle grounds are. The full image can be found on OpenHeatmap here. Follow us throughout the night on the blog and @LGiU.