The role of local government in the Big Society
Posted by Cllr Merrick Cockell, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea on August 6th, 2010
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The Big Society will provide a wider and more challenging role to local government. Councillors will need to be engaged with all the services delivered in their area. They will need to listen to the views of residents and be willing to devolve appropriate decision-making to residents. But they will also need to ensure that they carry out their democratic functions on behalf of residents, challenging and scrutinising all public services delivered in an area to ensure residents receive an excellent and good value service.

Government tries to give outsourcing a boost?
Posted by James Kirkland on July 28th, 2010
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The elephant in the room is the removal of the biggest financial barrier of them all: pensions. Lord Hutton’s commission is surely going to look at how this barrier affects the costs of outsourcing. James Kirkland, NLGN

Removal of entitlements creates opportunity for more localised public services
Posted by Luke Hildyard on July 5th, 2010
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NLGN’s report Making sense of entitlement: Improving public services without performance guarantees recommends a series of negotiated agreements between local authorities and central government, outlining the intended outcomes from public spending in their area based on the council’s knowledge of priorities on the ground, and the wider framework of national aspirations.

Thoughts on the local elections
Posted by Liam Scott-Smith, NLGN on May 26th, 2010
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The district council elections next year will provide a real test for all political parties but especially Labour who control only six district councils to the Conservatives one hundred and thirty five. If we see major inroads in 2011 then maybe its time to talk about ‘springboards’ and ‘success’ but until then we should remember that whilst Labour had a good night locally the Conservatives by no means had a bad one.

Innovation in protecting vulnerable children
Posted by Peter Gilroy, Chief Executive, Kent County Council on April 21st, 2010
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Good policy and best practice do not come on the back of reacting to the latest tragedy, so I have steered my recommendations away from so-called “improvements” to regulation, targets or performance management (the NSDU seems to have that well covered!). Over-regulation also diminishes personal responsibility and suggests – misleadingly – that “the state” can and should be responsible for everything.

The Living City Manifesto
Posted by Cllr Colin Barrow, Leader, Westminster City Council on March 17th, 2010
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The coming decade, with declining public faith in government and growing pressure on finance, will place greater pressures on all levels of government. To meet the challenge we must work more closely together, sharing our distinctive strengths to deliver our common goals of empowered, responsible, successful communities.

Supporting businesses and communities through the recession
Posted by Geraldine Smith, Researcher, NLGN on March 11th, 2010
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Gateshead Council has allocated £750,000 to stimulate business investment in Gateshead. The fund forms part of a wider package of support to help local businesses and communities to ride out the current recession, as set out in the Council’s £200 million 10 Point Plan for Economic Resilience. Geraldine Smith, Researcher