Across Europe there has been a rise in the number of people who feel excluded from mainstream political decision-making. With this in mind, we explore ‘direct democracy’ and question whether this could be a tool for local authorities to build more representative, trusted and cohesive models of governance.
This report, from the Social Metrics Commission, provides both a detailed overview of the extent and nature of poverty in the UK today and original analysis that shows how this has changed since the first year where the data for the Commission’s measurement framework is available.
LGiU ran a survey of chief executives of all UK local authorities, asking them about how their council is preparing for Brexit. The survey ran throughout September 2019, receiving 63 responses (15% of chief executives) covering councils in all regions and all tiers.
The House of Commons Transport Committee has recommended that the government ban parking on pavements in England. How realistic is this?
The health, public health and social care round-up summarises new policy, research and publications that are relevant to elected members and officers interested in health and social care.
Mid-September saw the political parties hold their now annual “autumn think-ins” ahead of the return of the Dáil on Tuesday 17th September. This briefing covers what happened at these think-ins and what each party has planned for the upcoming year.
The fund supports adopted children and their families in England and is administered by local government. The DfE and an APPG have produced reports on the fund in the light of it needing to be renewed as part of the forthcoming spending review.
This briefing covers a report published by an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in July 2019 on Universal Credit (UC). The report makes a large number of recommendations for reform and its conclusions are consistent with a range of expert opinion.
Local authorities play a vital role in mitigating the decline of their town centres by working in partnership with others and making use of funding streams available to create more sustainable community centres. This briefing summarises what councils can do to help with this.
The Scottish Parliament Information Centre published its annual briefing of useful financial statistics in July 2019. This Swift Read aims to summarise the briefing and to pick out some key statistics to help to identify how the financial landscape is changing and how Scottish councils are being affected.