DRAFT: 2012 local elections information and predictions
This May around 5000 council seats will be contested in 127 councils in England, 32 Scottish local authorities and 22 Wales. The local elections will be held on Thursday 3 May, the same day as Mayoral contests in Liverpool and Salford and referendums on whether to adopt the Mayoral model in 10 cities. There is…
Guardian Q&A
Last week I took part in very interesting Q&A session on the Guardian’s Local Government Network. Here’s a link to the whole debate – or if reading all 128 comments seems a bit daunting, here’s a nice summary of what was discussed –
#localgov twitter lists
We’ve spent some time during the last week building up the LGIU’s following list and now that we are networked to over 1,300 profiles it’s quite clear that things need a bit of organisation. We are therefore going to experiment over the festive period building some nice twitter lists. So far, the plan is to create…
The localism bill: the key points for councils
This article was origianlly publish on the Guardian website A massive piece of legislation announced alongside a huge cut in funding for local government, the localism bill will have a big impact on local councils and communities. Looked at carefully, it’s clear the bill provides practical reasons to believe that the relationship between citizens and…
*seminar* The ‘Online’ Councillor: behaviours for online collaboration & community engagement
The expectations are growing on councillors to engage, work openly, be more accountable and move quicker on issues – and social media represents an extraordinary opportunity to do this – Andy Gibson, Sociability.org.uk The LGIU has been working alongside its members, analysing the new forms of online political participation and taking positive steps to embed…
C’llr awards – nominations deadline extended
There is still time to send in nominations for this year’s C’llr Achievement Awards. The deadline for sending in nominations is now 5pm Friday 7 January 2011. These awards are designed to highlight and celebrate the dedicated effort that councillors put in throughout the year to strengthen local democracy and help improve the lives of citizens. As always,…
Debating localism, and today’s other top local stories
Localism is dead – long live localism. Simon Parker has identified a major trend in the Localism Bill: empowering communities. He reckons that this approach is “heavily shaped by the former philosophy don Oliver Letwin” and “seems to emerge from a philosophical hybrid of Hayek (markets), Schumpeter (creative destruction) and Amartya Sen (capabilities)”. I’m not…
Tough settlement: oh yes, it is
This article was originally published on the Public Finance blog In the 36 hours since the local government finance settlement was announced I’ve heard accusations of ‘spin’ by the government, and ‘whingeing’ by councils. Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles claims that the maximum funding reductions are 8.9%. But in this season of pantomime, councils are…
c’llr Achievement Awards 2011
It’s not long now until we reach the deadline for this year’s c’llr Achievement Awards. These awards are designed to highlight and celebrate the dedicated effort that councillors put in throughout the year to strengthen local democracy and help improve the lives of citizens. As always, entry to these awards is absolutely FREE, anyone can…
Localism Bill – LGIU in the press
The Guardian’s Patrick Butler has just featured LGIU in his ‘Society daily’ page. He very kindly said that “There’s excellent coverage by the Local Government Information Unit thinktank blog, including roundups of reaction, tables of winners and loser, and a good off the cuff post last night by its chief executive Andy Sawford, too” LGIU…
