I am pleased to see the Government are taking a further step in abolishing unelected regional government in England, with proposals ending regional statistics. The consultation states: “The primary focus of statistical data collection in the Department is at a local authority level. However when publishing data we usually provide statistics at a range of […]
It is stories like this one in the Daily Mail which are prompting a growing majority of the British people to favour withdrawal from the European Union. Play equipment at the Allergate play area for breaching European Union safety standard EN 1176. It followed an annual safety audit by Labour-run Durham County Council. The Daily […]
Any of you who haven't yet got around to reading the Transformational Change paper for Stoke-on-Trent's cabinet meeting on Thursday are missing a treat. The Sentinel reports some of the highlights. Vanguard management consultants were paid £200,000 (one off) and have come up with savings of £600,000 a year by streamlining bureaucracy. So well done […]
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport plan to reduce the red tape involved in putting on live entertainment. In the foreward to the consultation the Minister for Tourism and Heritage John Penrose says: At the moment, the law and regulations which require some (but not all) types of entertainment to be licensed are a […]
The Information Commissioner's Office have made an absurd demand that each councillor should pay a fee to register as a data controller under the terms of the Data Protection Act. The guidance says that while councillors can rely on the notification of their local council or political party for some of their work this does […]
The Independent reports that allowing councils to scrap by-laws without permission from Whitehall is having a practical benefit for cyclists. Local Government Minister Grant Shapps says: “There have been some crazy by-laws in place from the year dot stopping cycling from taking place. This should enable local people to scrap laws stopping people from getting […]
Further to the recent post about Rod Liddle's criticism of "non-jobs" at Conservative councils some of the Council leaders have now responded. This was the list produced by Liddle: Havant District Council (Conservative-controlled) Workplace travel co-ordinator (£22,000+) Herefordshire County Council (Conservative-controlled) Gypsy Romany liaison officer (£26,700+) Rugby District Council (Conservative-controlled) — Family Lifestyles officer (what that? […]
Professor John Seddon says councils should reject DWP guidelines and serve benefit claimants wih people not computers Plans for the Universal Credit will create the same failures as we are seeing in HMRC: millions of unanswered calls, backlogs and errors – costing the taxpayer billions. The proposals – a website service and a national call […]
Glyn Gaskarth welcomes the Government review of council's stutory duties and urges them to scrap those that are non-essential In March 2010 I blogged on this site asking for a Government review of the statutory duties of local authorities. Statutory duties are those actions a public body must do, not those it can choose whether […]
Laurie Thraves, Policy Manager of the Local Government Information Unit, is disappointed Francis Maude didn’t go further The quango cull that David Cameron promised before the election had two purposes. The first, and most important given the parlous state of the public finances, was to save money. As Christopher Hope has pointed out in The […]
The Local Government Association have added up how many pages of instructions and guidance have been imposed on Town Halls in the last decade and come up with an estimate of 74,000 pages. That's 40 pages each day Parliament has sat since 2000. The LGA reckons that compliance puts £2.5 billion a year on our Council […]
Lots of coverage today for the Government's announcement that it is cancelling Labour’s plans for a council tax revaluation in England, saving families up to £320 a year in local tax hikes. An independent review will also for the first time seek to rein in intrusive snooping by council tax inspectors, defending civil liberties. Tax […]
Hammersmith and Fulham Council has sent the Government a rather long list of bureaucratic burdens that we propose should be lifted. If the changes were made we estimate the council would save a minimum of £500,000 or £200 million across the country. Nine million council officer hours a year would be saved across Britain not […]
Local councils are to be allowed to get rid of outdated by-laws without having to gain specific consent from Whitehall. Local Government Minister Grant Shapps says: "It should not take a rubber stamp from central government to scrap outdated local laws. "That's why I want councils to use this new power I am offering them, […]
By Jonathan Isaby Another day and another initiative from Eric Pickles, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, who has by all accounts had a very busy August. As the BBC reports: People wanting to hold street parties or summer fetes will find it easier to do so, ministers say, after councils agreed to cut the […]