Get blog posts by email
Download C’llr magazine
Member policy briefings- Reform of 14-16 Performance Tables from 2014 (date: 13/02/2012)
- A good education for all: Ofsted consultation on amended inspection arrangements (date: 15/02/2012)
- Delivering the free entitlement to education for three- and four-year-olds: NAO report (date: 10/02/2012)
- Education and training – Raising the Participation Age – consultation on policies that will form regulations (date: 07/0...
- Building Engagement, Building Futures : 16-24 year olds in Education, Training and Work (date: 25/01/2012)
- High Speed 2 rail infrastructure project (date: 13/02/2012)
- Health Select Committee report on Social Care (date: 20/02/2012)
- Public car parking and local government: key trends and developments for 2012 (date: 16/01/2012)
Upcoming events
Tag Archives: conservatives
Highlights from the party conferences
This briefing highlights and comments on the key announcements and debates for local government and reflects on what the conferences may tell us about how the leadership of the political parties view local government.
Cameron on local government and decentralisation
There is an interesting article from the Prime Minister in today’s Observer, setting out progress and plans for decentralisation. In the paragraph on local government David Cameron hints at local government finance reform amongst other things. Note the sequencing… power to neighbourhoods, then ‘after that’ power to local government. “We’re giving more power to neighbourhoods. Neighbours will be [...]
Tags: conservatives, council tax, councils, David Cameron, localism |
Government announces £6.2bn cuts, looks to local government for 20%
Chancellor George Osborne and Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws have today announced measures to make £6.2 billion of savings in 2010-11. The package includes £1.165 bn of savings to be made in Local Government by reducing grants to Local Authorities. This means that local government will have to contribute 20% of the cuts. [...]
Electoral reform – will Conservative MPs vote for the referendum?
This is an interesting illustration from the Electoral Commission showing the likely effect of different voting systems on the General Election outcome. Not good news for the Conservative Party. The last minute concession to a referendum on AV was probably needed to seal the coalition deal, but will Conservative MPs defy the whip and refuse [...]
Tags: conservatives, democracy, Electoral Reform, liberal democrats |
Council tax and local government finance reform
The agreement struck by the partners in the new coalition government makes a bold commitment to promote devolution of power and financial autonomy to local government. This includes a ‘full review of local government finance’. The LGiU will make a full submission to this review. In the meantime I have an efficiency saving idea for [...]
Tags: conservatives, council tax, democracy, Eric Pickles, liberal democrats |
LGiU commentary on the new Conservative – Lib Dem government coalition agreement
The Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties have published a statement outlining the agreement they have reached on a range of issues where they have previously advocated differing policies. What does it mean for local government? The LGiU fully supports political and democratic reform where this will lead to a new settlement between government and the [...]
Conservative manifesto: local government key points
The Conservative Party General Election manifesto is published today. This is an at a glance guide on the key points for local government and local public services. “We believe that if you decentralise power, you get better results and better value for money. So the plans set out in this manifesto represent an unprecedented redistribution [...]
Tags: conservatives, council tax, councils, democracy, localism, regions |
Conservative local government and localism proposals
The all time most popular post on this blog was this one on the Conservative’s localism green paper where we summarised Conservative policies. The LGiU has welcomed the commitment to localism but we have been pushing hard for a wider perspective on what real localism is. Our papers on primary justice – localising the criminal justice system, [...]
Tags: conservatives, criminal justice, elderly people, localism, policing |
Local elections – ones to watch – councils most likely to change control
As promised in my recent post detailing all the councils with elections on May 6th, these are my predictions of the 20 councils that are most likely to change political control, based on marginality of current control, and factoring in the current national (and therefore unreliable!) opinion polls, with any other local indicators. As ever, we [...]
Tags: conservatives, Councillors, councils, democracy |
The awesome Westminster Council
Cllr Colin Barrow, Leader of Westminster City Council invited me to an interesting event this morning. A gathering of mainly Westminster public service and community leaders, with a few outsiders like me, including Caroline Spelman. Colin did a speech and q&a about Westminster’s future plans. It was exciting to hear about plans for the iconic parts of the Borough [...]
Tags: conservatives, education, Innovation |
Unitary councils for Exeter and Norwich
The government has announced today that plans will proceed for new Unitary councils for Exeter and Norwich. The Ipswich/Suffolk question will be subject to further review. Champagne corks will be popping in Exeter and Norwich town halls, whilst the lawyers and politicians will be preparing the resistance at the County Hall in Norfolk and Devon. What [...]
Tags: conservatives, John Denham, unitaries |
Labour changes Leader: where next for LGA Labour
UPDATE on 2nd March: Dave Sparks has been elected. Original post below Talk of a Labour leadership contest, with all the backbiting, plots, and attempted coups, centres on a position that is not, at present, vacant. But while Gordon Brown stands firm, a vacancy has arisen for the position of Labour’s leader in local government. Jeremy Beecham is [...]
Tags: conservatives, Councillors, Labour, LGA |
Democratise the House of Lords
A list of names of potential Tory peers is floating around the web today following a story on the PR Week website. If the Conservatives win the next election, or perhaps even more significantly (in terms of the Lords role) in the event of a hung parliament in which the Conservatives are the largest party, David Cameron [...]
Tags: conservatives, Councillors, David Cameron, democracy, House of Lords, localism |
Local Democracy Bill passed
After a marathon third reading debate in the Commons yesterday the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill was passed. It now goes briefly back to the House of Lords, which should be a formality, and is due to receive Royal Assent before the end of the month. The Bill includes the new duty [...]
Tags: communities, conservatives, councils, democracy |
Or subscribe to this site by RSS