The Fabian Society has been asking the Labour leadership contenders some rather interesting questions. They are asked to include replies tagged on to the end of grandly titled "essays." One question is: What spending cuts should Labour support? The only one with anything specific to say was Diane Abbott. She said she wanted a 50/50 […]
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 […]
The Health Secretary Andrew Lansley includes in the NHS White Paper plans to abolish the Primary Care Trusts. Most of their budgets would be to GPs but the element for promoting public health will go to the local councils. The White Paper says: PCT responsibilities for local health improvement will transfer to local authorities, who will […]
Dominique Lazanski of Direct Democracy campaign says we have only had Government planned referendums – they need to come from the bottom up Eric Pickles had an excellent piece in the Guardian website’s Comment is Free section on Tuesday. Mr Pickles discusses his continued push for freeing local government from red tape. There is no doubt […]
Interesting speech by Cultrue Secretary Jeremy Hunt the other day on how a flourishing local media could be encouraged. He said: As many people here will know, I have long believed that the lack of high quality local TV is one of the biggest gaps in British broadcasting. Why? Because, ironically, in an age of […]
Dominique Lazanski says giving local government more budgetary responsibility would make them budget more responsibly We have recently heard – to no great surprise – that in spite of Eric Pickles’s announcement of £1.166 billion in local government cuts, councils are still hiring for a wide variety of jobs, to put it politely. Some of […]
Glyn Gaskarth says localism is key to reducing the budget deficit – if Canada can, we can Britain has a huge and rising public deficit, a weak currency and a level of Government spending which is now unsustainable. Each of these features was present in early 1990’s Canada. George Osborne seems to view the Canadian […]
Dominique Lazanski on the role of the Direct Democracy campaign As Tim Montgomerie recently reported, a new campaign called Direct Democracy has been launched. The campaign is based on the book Direct Democracy, the localist papers, and The Plan, all by Douglas Carswell MP and Dan Hannan MEP and it aims to shift governmental powers back […]
Mark Wallace of the Taxpayer's Alliance welcomes early signs that the new Government will stop meddling This column, being about local government, is often dedicated to exposing the wrongdoings or praising the good work of particular local councils. That’s understandable, given the subject matter. However, it would be wrong to look at only one side […]
Included in The Queen's Speech is the axing of Regional Spatial Strategies. This is another piece of evidence that the new Government is serious about reducing top down targets and restoring local democracy. Councils will be encouraged to allow more housing through incentives. A flexible approach that leaves planning power with the councils – rather […]
The Direct Democracy group – established by Tory parliamentarians Douglas Carswell and Dan Hannan – has welcomed the moves towards 'people power' that are widely expected to be announced in today's Queen's Speech: Directly elected police commissioners by local communities. Devolution of powers to local councils and communities. Yesterday the Chancellor announced that most ringfencing […]
Mark Wallace of the Taxpayers Alliance urges Home Seceretary Theresa May to reject the vested interests and press on with her plans Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at the Police Federation conference in Bournemouth. It was a privilege because of the admirably straight-talking, good-humoured nature of the audience and because of the […]
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles commented on Twitter: My first meeting meeting as Communities Secretary was with Dame Margaret Eaton from the LGA to talk about giving more power to Councils. Now the Local Government Chronicle gives us a clue as to what they were talking about. Dame Margaret proposes saving £4.5 billion by sweeping away Quangos, […]
A Cabinet Office paper entitled Building the Big Society includes the following passage on local government: Transfer power from central to local government We will promote the radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy to local government, including a full review of local government finance. We will give councils a general power of competence. […]
Mark Wallace of the Taxpayers Alliance urges complete abolition of the Regional Development Agencies After their initial agreement that “neither of us are Gordon Brown”, the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have spent the last few days searching for policy areas where they agree in more detail. Raising the income tax threshold and scrapping ID cards […]