Laming’s Latest Review
Thursday, March 12th, 2009Perhaps the most important issue raised by the Laming Review this morning has been the recruitment and retention of Social Worker. Surely it is now time to elevate the Social Work Profession from its honorary position as ‘cinderella’ of the public sector professions?
Elected Mayors Agghhhh!
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009Now Dave is at it. The Tories, if elected to power, will explore the notion of an elected Mayor in each of the twelve biggest cities in the UK.
I don’t want to go over the merits of the elected Mayor again. But what puzzles me is this lingering love of the ballot. The people can [...]
Insolvent Councils?
Monday, February 2nd, 2009Still on local government there are strong rumours that this calendar year will see a large council English Council go into insolvency.
This seems extraordinary and nobody is really sure what will happen if insolvency occurs. Under-pinning this set of affairs is a financial management system that has fallen to bits, councillors who have failed to [...]
Bonus Culture and Local Government
Monday, February 2nd, 2009Local Government Chronicle are carrying a fascinating story on the front page of your current edition, looking at a weird development in senior executive pay.
“The Audit Commission removed politically explosive references to chief executives’ bonuses from a flagship report following Local Government Association lobbying, an LGC investigation has revealed.”
The pay and remuneration of Chief Executives [...]
Thank God for Eric Pickles!
Friday, July 4th, 2008In just 24 hours this week Eric Pickles - the shadow minister for Communities and Local Government - demonstrated the hypocrisy of the Tories in seeming to talk up local decision making but re-enforcing central control and command.
On Tuesday Pickles me with Tory local government leaders to tell them that they wanted Tory councils to [...]
Message from Bury
Friday, July 4th, 2008The latest attempt to introduce an elected mayorship in local government has failed dismally. Yesterday the people of Bury voted in a Mayoral referendum that was triggered following an 8,000 strong petition.
In the event the people of Bury voted 2 to 1 against introducing a Mayoral system. The turnout for the ballot was just 18%.
This [...]
A Mayor For The Rest of Us?
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008There was an interesting and provocative piece by Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian yesterday, dealing with Ken’s campaign in London and thinking about the implications for local government more widely.
I write a long-ish response to the article and it’s been suggested that I should publish it here. (Surely there aren’t people who read this bu [...]
Housing - The Issue That Won’t Go Away
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008Last night’s rebellion by a group of Labour MPs (including five ex-Ministers) put social housing back in the spotlight, at least for a little while. I’ve felt for a long time now that social housing is simply the forgotten area of public policy.
During Labour’s Deputy Leader contest Jon Cruddas made housing a central plank [...]
Cameron’s Centralising Conservative Con
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007You’ve got to hand it to the Tories. They’re taking their chances following Labour’s late summer collapse. Their media management is far, far, better than it was a few months ago. But their policies are not getting the scrutiny they deserve.
Today’s initiative is about local government, and more specifically the Council Tax - understandable that, [...]
