London Assembly Member James Cleverly raised the scope of police bureaucracy at last month's Mayor of London's Question Time. He said: I recognise and applaud the measures that have been taken recently to reduce the bureaucracy but there is one area in particular that I would like to explore and that is the book of […]
Mark Wallace, senior account manager at Portland Communications and author of the Crash! Bang! Wallace blog hails the abolition of the Audit Commission as Eric Pickles' finest hour. The abolition of the Audit Commission has attracted a lot of comment. This is natural for a body that has been so high profile, and it is certainly one […]
London Councils’ Conservative Group Leader, Cllr. Edward Lister, has welcomed the announcement by Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government, that the Audit Commission is to bescrapped. Cllr. Lister said: “The scrapping of the Audit Commission is extremely welcome news. Eric Pickles’ announcement will help our town halls reduce their annual […]
Excellent news from the Daily Telegraph that in an interview tomorrow with the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles: The abolition of the Audit Commission is to be announced. More details here. It spend £200 million a year and has been a curse to local government with its bureaucratic, nanny state, box ticking culture. The tyranny of […]
Further to the post below on Russell Burt blamelessly taking tame owls for a walk the Council leader in Plymouth, Cllr Vivien Pengelly posted a comment. It was a very good comment. She didn't blame her officers – although, of course, she could hardly have been consulted about the matter before hand. However she did […]
Lots of coverage today over a decision by Conservative run Plymouth City Council to ban Russell Burt taking owls from his aviary out for a walk. Apparently a member of the public complained that taking them out in the daylight was a breach on animal welfare. Not so – while owls have excellent eyesight at […]
John Seddon says the Government must go further in scaling back Audit Commission meddling Well done, Eric! Giving local authority managers the freedom to innovate is a good, and essential, step. Pickles’ insistence that the well feeding the flood of central guidance has dried up is excellent news. The compliance with his New Labour predecessors’ […]
There is lots of dross on the Your Freedom website. But there also some gems. What about this one from Nurd444? Lots of regulations (concerning uptodateness, best practice, safety) mean well but come with a requirement to be 'updated' every year – typically an inspection by a tradesperson, a council officer or some other activity. […]
Today is the day of the Big Lunch where street parties are being encouraged around the country to promote neighbourliness. Wandsworth Council have got the right idea as shown by this exchange between Jane Ellison, the Conservative MP for Battersea and Cabinet Officer Minister Oliver Letwin in the Commons on Thursday: Jane Ellison: "All over […]
Decentralisation Minister Greg Clark dumped 3,000 pages of documents on the despatch box at DCLG Questiions in the Commons yesterday. They related to the now dead South East Regional Plan. He says: "It weighs two stone the document we've replaced it with is six pages and weighs an ounce." Regional plans and their centrally imposed building […]
The Government is freeing councils to improve how they are run without holding expensive local talking shops. Laws passed in 2007 mean that all councils have to choose whether to have a locally elected mayor or a council leader, but are required to consult their residents before any changes can be made. District councils are the […]
A radical plan to banish nonsense red tape and repeal unnecessary laws was unveiled by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles. Eric says: "Too much power has been sucked out of communities into Westminster eroding trust in politics, and sapping responsibility and initiative with stifling bureaucracy. "More often than not over legislating simply lead to bureaucrats ticking […]
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has launched a Government website called yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk. It invites proposals for regulations that should be scrapped and strikes me as an excellent initiative. Rather than just some corporatist initiative where only special interests and civil servants take part it has been opened up to the public. Anyone can post a […]
The Sunday Times this morning reports on the £72,614 spent on green grass walls to provide soothing light for a tranquillity suite in Government offices shared by the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Government Equalities Office. The paper says the cost was part of a £2.4 million of work on the building signed […]
Councils will no longer have to work thousands of man hours or waste millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money reporting back to Government, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles announced today. Today Eric has written to council leaders to tell them that he has instructed the Audit Commission and five other local government watchdogs to stop costly […]