LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNIONS OUTRAGED AT PAY FREEZE This e-mail is sent on behalf of Heather Wakefield to local government branches in England, Northern and Wales (Scotland – for information).   Dear Colleague   The Local Government Employers have today told the unions that there will be a pay freeze in 2010/2011 for NJC staff and for other local government groups.  This was announ...

Commenting on today’s Communities and Local Government Select Committee report, which claims that internal migration is putting strains on local services, Liberal Democrat Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, Julia Goldsworthy said: "The Government’s underfunding of local services can lead to rising tensions between neighbours. Until the Government recognises that its pol...

Chris Game (University of Birmingham, Institute of Local Government Studies): Every cloud, as the saying goes. It seems that one of the collateral victims of the global economic crisis may be the current round of English local government reorganisation.   Speaking at a recent Belfast conference of local authority chief executives, Communities and Local Government Secretary, Hazel Blears,...

An excellent article from Chris Game of the University of Birmingham Institute of Local Government Studies on how the Recession may just about save something of Local Government from the rapacious cluelessness of Hazel Blears' abolition package. Speaking at a recent Belfast conference of local authority chief executives, Communities and Local Government Secretary, Hazel Blears, claimed her de...

Local government employers offer just 0.5% (07/04/09) Local government unions expressed bitter disappointment yesterday at a 0.5% pay offer by the Local Government Employers.The employers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have said that the offer, which is for 2009-10, will not be imposed,...

By Michael Burke The Tory-led Coalition has announced its plans for funding of local government over the next 4 years. Tony Travers, LSE professor specialising in local government, described them as ‘apocalyptic’. Local government has already been in the firing line, shouldering £1.8bn of the first £6.1bn of cuts in the government’s ‘emergency’ measures an...

Labour is continuing to play its political games with local government in this country. The latest wheeze surrounds proposals to give people more access to information about how efficiently their local council is being run. It sounds like a great way to increase accountability. But what does this high-falutin sentiment actually mean? A short article in PublicNet explains: Local Government

Yesterday was an important day in local government as I and my ministerial colleagues were able to announce the two big planks of our approach to local government over the coming years – the Local Government Finance Settlement and the Localism Bill. They are huge milestones in the Coalition’s programme of reform, and will impact

Responding to the Local Government Finance Settlement, published yesterday, Cllr David Sparks, Leader of Labour Local Government, said: "This is the most dire financial settlement we have ever witnessed for local government, which will have stark ramifications for communities up and down the country. "Despite bluster that he has protected vulnerable communities, Pickles has still outlined a settle...

The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) has welcomed the Conservatives’ new green paper on local government, which propose greater powers for local people over council tax levels and the way councils are run, improved transparency in local government spending and the effective...