Local Government Chronicle

Tees Valley – a natural MAA: Local Government Chronicle

 
Tees Valley – a natural MAA
 
 
It was natural for Tees Valley’s five unitary authorities to favour the multi-area agreement approach – they have been working together in a similar way for more than a decade. It was back in 1996 that the unitary authorities of Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and Stockton-on-Tees set-up the [...]

Bringing Greater Manchester back together: Local Government Chronicle

 

Bringing Greater Manchester back together
Greater Manchester’s ability to operate beyond the boundaries of a single local authority has been clearly proved. The 10 metropolitan authorities together own and run a particularly successful regional airport and they have come up with a radical proposal for a peak-time congestion charge that is even more ambitious than that [...]

Bringing order to statistics: Local Government Chronicle

The creation of the UK Statistics Authority aims to put an end to controversy surrounding statistics. By Paul Gosling
A new body is bringing a breath of fresh air to the often fusty atmosphere of national statistics. Gone is the discredited ministerial oversight of national statistics. In its place, a new and more independent body has been [...]

Councillors must get stuck in with investments: Local Government Chronicle

Councillors urged to get more involved in fund investment decisions
By Paul Gosling
Local government administration of pension funds is strictly regulated. But does this drive councils’ pension fund committees to concentrate on what the regulations tell them to do, at the expense of the big picture?
A recent survey by fund advisors Mercer found that almost [...]

Injecting Democracy: Local Government Chronicle

 
Making the NHS locally accountable
 
by Paul Gosling
 
Councils’ health overview and scrutiny committees were supposed to act as a system of local NHS accountability and improve co-ordination between local NHS bodies and council services. But a series of just published reports casts doubt on whether this working effectively.
 
A Health Commission formed by the Local Government Association [...]

Improvement needs strong financial management: Local Government Chronicle

 
Council improvement rests on strong financial management
 
by Paul Gosling
 
Moving from crisis management to strategic management can be worth a lot – going from being in the highest 2% to the lowest 20% of council tax charges in the case of St Helens MBC.
 
For years members and senior officers believed that St Helens council provided good [...]

Everyone profits: Local Government Chronicle

 
Everyone Profits
 
When Phil Hope – the minister for the third sector – addresses Thursday’s ‘LA Connecting London 2008′ conference on social enterprise and local government, he can expect an optimistic audience. There is a feeling both within local government and inside the social enterprise sector that there is about to be a major expansion in [...]

Councils face a new future in Northern Ireland: Local Government Chronicle

 
Councils face a new future in Northern Ireland
 
by Paul Gosling
 
Local government has played a central role in the modern history of Northern Ireland – but not an honourable one. The failings of local authorities in the 1960s were a major factor in the onset of the Troubles, in which over 3,700 people died. So the [...]

Taking stock of funding options: Local Government Chronicle

Taking stock of funding options 
By Paul Gosling
 
Local government administration of pension funds is strictly regulated. But does this drive councils’ pension fund committees to concentrate on what the regulations tell them to do, at the expense of the big picture?
 
A recent survey by fund advisors Mercer found that almost half of European companies’ pension funds [...]

Reforming social care: Local Government Chronicle

 
Reforming social care
 
by Paul Gosling
 
“Doing nothing is not an option.” The warning to local authorities came from the Department of Health in its recent ‘Transforming Social Care’ circular. Radical restructuring of adults’ and children’s services is obligatory.
 
Just why is easy to see. While local government settlements are bearing down painfully, social care demands are relentlessly [...]