Devolving tax-raising powers to London? Phil Baker, The Evening Standard, May 10, 2013

Demanding devolved powers to claw back control of tax revenues and developing independent access to credit, with a few modifications the Commission’s recommendations could actually benefit everyone – but only if every UK city region adopted something similar.

Devolving tax-raising powers to London?
photo credit: jp3g
Further spending cuts expected May 10, 2013

The LGA’s warnings echo and reinforce NLGN’s own findings last month. There is a clear consensus in the sector that almost every non-statutory function that councils currently deliver is threatened.

Further spending cuts expected
Photo credit: Chrisdonia
Dangerous ideas within local government May 3, 2013

The sheer scale of the challenge facing councils means that while we need lots of good small ideas, we also need more really big ones. The point of a dangerous idea is that, while it sounds completely impractical, it might just work.

Dangerous ideas within local government
photo credit: kirtapatrik
Integrating care April 28, 2013

Local government will hopefully provide public health strategies centred on local need and supported by local capacity . Whether this is enough to transform healthcare in a time of declining resources and increasing demand, however, remains to be seen.

Integrating care
photo credit: brykmantra
Social care for elderly will be the first to go in the council cuts April 17, 2013

Recent weeks have seen social security cuts ignite passions and viscerally polarise politics. Benefits reform lit the touch paper for disputes on the future affordability of the welfare state. But pensioner benefits, over half of the total welfare spend, are curiously off the table for discussion.

Social care for elderly will be the first to go in the council cuts
photo credit: myfuture.com
Local cuts: innovate to survive April 17, 2013

While budgets are being balanced in the short term we know that further welfare reforms and spending cuts are just around the corner. Councils need to urgently pick up the pace of change and pilot new financial models that secure community investment for the long term.

Local cuts: innovate to survive
photo credit: Mike_tn
Why art pays off April 12, 2013

Campaigns against local authority arts cuts, such as ‘My Theatre Matters’ are growing in momentum. They argue that the arts is more than the sum of its parts; that the Arts, done successfully, can make place.

Why art pays off
photo credit: Chris Devers