The Department for Communities and Local Government has opened up its books by publishing payments to suppliers over £500.Well done, Eric. I hope the Prime Minister will insist other Government Departments follow suit. If the DCLG can do it, why not the rest? Of course there was a special reason for the DCLG to proceed. […]
Conservative-run Trafford Council is now publishing details of expenses claimed by Trafford Councillors online, with claim forms now available for the public to see on the Council website. The information for each member who has made a claim will be provided from 1st April 2010 and will be updated each month. As well as member's […]
Hammersmith and Fulham Council has become the first Council (unless you know different?) to publish its register of property assets. Hundreds of buildings – cafes, restaurants, shops, sports centres, a snooker club, a laundry, the Lyric Theatre, Riverside Studios…. We are planning sell some buildings – including Fulham Town Hall. It's a splendid building but […]
The Conservatives are now in opposition on Harrow Council. But they are making their presence felt. They have called for spending transparency. Labour have rejected the demand. Of course they won the vote but they lost the argument. As a result of their obstruction the residents of Harrow will have to wait a few months […]
Double congratulations to the new Conservative Council for Richmond upon Thames. They have started putting spending online for payments to suppliers over £500. They have also announced there will be a Council Tax freeze next year. Cllr Nicholas True, Leader of Richmond Council says: “We promised we would do this – now we are fulfilling […]
The Waltham Forest Guardian reports a victory for local Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith against the Labour-run Council. Information Commissioner Christopher Graham has upheld a complaint by IDS over the council’s refusal to publish a report into private contractor EduAction. The council between 2004 and 2006 paid the company £240,000 from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) to […]
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has done it. Windsor and Maidenhead has done it. Northamptonshire has done it. I am proud to report that Hammersmith and Fulham Council has today embraced spending transparency. There is still some way to go in getting the data fully intelligible and including the cost code for our internal budgeting. But payments […]
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has written to councils calling on them to publish all spending over £500 and also a range of data including: Information on senior salaries, names and job descriptions Councillor allowances and expenses; minutes and papers of council meetings Job vacancies that will enable people to see why council wage bills are so […]
It was the Conservative-controlled Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead which blazed the trail on transparency in local government when it voted last year to publish all expenditure over £500. Now, with the Government leading the way on opening up data about spending and salaries, Tory-controlled Northamptonshire County Council is the latest authority to herald […]
Liam Maxwell is the Lead Member for Policy and performance at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead on how his council is telling residents where their money goes. In 2009 Windsor and Maidenhead started to publish the half-hourly readouts from our energy meters online. This small change led to a radical change in behaviour: as soon as […]
Good point is madeby the magnificent Conservative councillor in Ealing, Phil Taylor, on his blog, about the transparency requirements of the coalition policy statement which I detailed yesterday. Phil says: I am not very pleased though to see central government getting away with a £25,000 threshold whereas local government has to work with a £500 […]
It's difficult to keep up. This morning I was wondering what would be happening on spending transparency and now the full coalition programme offers more detail. The Government believes that we need to throw open the doors of public bodies, to enable the public to hold politicians and public bodies to account. We also recognise […]
Mark Wallace of the Taxpayers Alliance rejoices the Scottish Parliament has backed spending transparency – but despairs that on Quango bonuses the Parliament is a cow'rin tim'rous beastie. Events in the Scottish Parliament in the last few days have thrown some interesting light on the political battles that are to come – for local and national […]
Cllr David Meikle, a Conservative councillor in Glasgow, says that after all the media reports of Labour cronyism in his City a full investigation is needed. Steven Purcell's resignation as Glasgow Council leader was officially due to "stress and exhaustion" partly caused by the recent expenses scandal involving Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT). We now […]
In his speech this morning to the Consevative Councillors Association in London, David Cameron explained how a conservative Government woould make Town hall spending transparent. The ruuneration packages of staff earning over £58,000 will be made public, as will councillors exppenses and all spending over £500 Caroline Spelman, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and […]