Home Secretary, David Blunkett to lead line-up of major speakers at NLGN Annual Conference

November 11, 2003

The New Local Government Network (NLGN) has this week announced a line up of senior Town Hall and Whitehall figures who will address its Second Annual Conference, to be held in central London on 22 January 2004.The conference, entitled Decentralising Government: choice, communities and the role of local authorities will see David Blunkett make a rare appearance in front of a senior local government audience. The Home Secretary, who last week announced a radical shake-up of the relationship between the police force and local communities – including the potential for direct elections to local police boards – will give the keynote address.Other key speakers at the conference include Audit Commission chief James Strachan; the IDeA’s Lucy de Groot; LGA Vice-Chairman and Kent leader Cllr Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart; and former Cabinet Minister, Stephen Byers MP.NLGN’s Second Annual Conference follows the success in January of this year of its first annual gathering. Taking place shortly after the announcement of the Balance of Funding Review, that occasion saw Treasury Chief Secretary Paul Boateng MP tell delegates: “local government is pushing at an open door”.This time around, the conference will play host to a ‘political round-table’ on the issue of ‘choice and local government’, featuring Heather Wakefield, UNISON’s national secretary for local government, and the MPs Francis Maude, Chris Mole and Ed Davey – Liberal Democrat shadow spokesperson for the ODPM.Delegates to the conference will also hear from deputy leader of the LGA Labour Group, Sally Powell, elected mayors Mike Wolfe and Steve Bullock; local authority chief executives Katherine Kerswell and Colin Sinclair, and senior political commentators, Peter Riddell, David Walker and Peter Kellner.NLGN director, Dan Corry who will ‘set the scene’ at the conference, asking “Where next for the modernist agenda?” said of the announcement:“NLGN’s annual conference is becoming the key event to hear about developments in the modernisation agenda. It is important that the Home Secretary addresses an audience of this nature at this time, as the very role of local authorities in a new decentralised world is being fought out”.“We are pleased to bring together at one event such a major set of speakers – from both central and local government and from across the political spectrum. Although the focus of our concerns is rather different, we’ve managed to assemble a quality line-up that would perhaps make Roman Abramovic envious”.

All NLGN enquiries to Ian Parker – 020 7357 0116

A full agenda for the conference can be found at www.nlgn.org.uk/conferences

Notes: The New Local Government Network (NLGN) is an independent think-tank, seeking to transform public services, revitalise local political leadership and empower local communities. Decentralising Government: choice, communities and the role of local authorities is taking place in central London on Thursday 22 January 2004. On-line bookings to: www.neilstewartassociates.com/sa156


Explore More