LGA conference - councillors shut out?

Hazel Blears' imminent speech in which she will announce ten participatory budgeting pilots, is according to the Local Government Association at least, rather a non-story. Several councils have already been doing pilots around this so it's not really new.

The more interesting issue here is to what extent government wants councillors to get involved in its participatory budgeting vision. The LGA's ideal is that 'frontline' councillors are given the funds but then consult with communities. It appears the government's ideal is that more final decision-making lies more in peoples' hands, and that they vote on where to spend the money.

There is obviously a difference in the power balance depending on which model you go with. Putting too much power in people's hands obviously throws up scrutiny issues. There is the argument that people have power anyway by appointing a councillor in the first place to make the decisions for them.

This is another announcement from Brown's new government which appears interesting but, when taken with the recent regional news, adds to the murk about where central government thinks local governent should fit into the devolutionary future. Will it end up getting the short end of the stick whereas communities and regions walk away empowered?

Added by Nina Lovelace live from conference

LGA Conference - Sub-national review report could be imminent

At first listening, new local government minister John Healey’s take on councils is no different to that of his predecessor, Phil Woolas. The tone may be slightly less laconic but the familiar themes are all present and accounted for. Tight settlements, the importance of local accountability and, underpinning everything, the local area agreement as the answer to councils’ woes.

As he took the lectern to address the Local Government Association’s annual conference this afternoon, Mr Healey warned his first speech should be treated as a work in progress. The same certainly applied to the answers he gave to questions from the floor. Urged to abandon local government reorganisation, fully fund concessionary bus fares and reform the grant distribution system, all on his second day in office, he understandably pled the fifth.

But if there was one thing to prick the ears of the delegates, it was the revelation the Treasury’s sub-national review of economic development and regeneration was completed last week. It is this piece of work that will reveal what steps Gordon Brown plans to take to enable councils to grow their local economies. Supplementary business rates? Super-LABGI? Regeneration bonds? All will be revealed.

Mr Healey refused to elaborate on when the review will see the light of day but the word on the lips of some in Birmingham was that it could be as soon as ten days’ time.

The only signs of discontent in the audience came when he spoke of the tough settlement to come for councils. But for most this has become a familiar theme.

He finished off by telling the conference “I will consult you, I will challenge you, I will make some decisions you won’t like but I will remain completely committed to local government”. An intriguing start.

Added by Daniel Drillsma-Milgrom live from conference

LGA conference - Sir Simon talks tough

Well it appears Sir Simon Milton (Con) has marked out his opinion clearly on the efficiency debate at the first day of the Local Government Association conference.

As readers well know, government is very keen on local government making savings by ‘transformation’, that lovely bit of jargon which essentially means councils changing the way they deliver services rather dramatically to make them more customer-focused and, frankly, cheaper. Shared services and shifting more transactional services online are two such options as to how.

However in his first speech as new LGA chair, delivered around an hour ago, he has said: "Innovation and efficiency cannot make up for an inadequate funding settlement that fails to deal with the real cost pressures in adult social care and waste. We cannot let government pile more costs onto the council tax."

I think we can expect there to be a few tough words between government and local government over the issues of funding pre and post- comprehensive spending review. The thing is, like most issues, this is not black and white. It is probably safe to say there are councils out there who have not investigated all their options to ‘transform’ in these key pinch point areas, and for as long as they stay that way, government will have an argument to turn the screws.

Another interesting quote from the new chair was: "There have been reports that the prime minister wants to create an independent board to run the health service. But I say these services should be run closer to the people not further from them. We should develop a local health service alongside the National Health Service. So I am inviting the group leaders today to establish a cross-party commission to examine the practicalities of this approach and produce an initial report in time for our next conference."

There has been much chat of late in some local government circles about basically decentralising some aspects of the health service, and indeed some are quite keen on the idea of decentralising it pretty much altogether, such as councils taking over primary care trusts. Considering the political importance of the NHS this seems unlikely to happen any time soon, although interestingly new communities secretary Hazel Blears recently wrote in LGC how keen she was to see elected members on PCTs.

LGC launches 2008 Awards

LGC launched its 2008 Awards last night on the eve of the Local Government Association conference in Birmingham, and with it some exciting new categories for the best councils out there to enter.

For example, a new category this year is one for Health and Wellbeing which is a growing area of interest for local government, especially in terms of partnership working with the NHS. The full details about this and all the categories will be made available later this week on the LGC Awards 2008 website.

Another change happening this year is that we're going to ask shortlisted entrants to come and present to the judges for their category. This is because LGC, its awards judges and sponsors are all keen to ensure the quality of awards entrants and winners continues to improve, although obviously they are already of an extremely high standard!

Goodbye Sandy, welcome Simon

Well, it's the end of an era. This week sees Lord Sandy Bruce-Lockhart step down as chairman of the Local Government Association, and as exclusively revealed by LGCnet on Friday, Sir Simon Milton will be taking over.


Lord Sandy has been, in LGC's opinion, an extremely effective chair and is obviously well respected in both in central and local government circles. LGC's political editor Nick Golding interviewed Lord Bruce Lockhart ahead of him stepping down, which readers can see in detail in the forthcoming July 5 issue. Without giving too much away however Lord Bruce Lockhart had some strong words to say about how the government handled the publication of Sir Michael Lyons' report.

He said: "When they've commissioned a report that had taken five years of work and a very large amount of people's time, to reject the bulk of its recommendations with 24 hours is, I think, disgraceful."

Meanwhile, what do we know about Sir Simon Milton? He set out his stall on what he wanted to do as chair exclusively in LGC last month, which is archived online for LGCnet subscribers. For non-subscibers however here is a summary of his three main priorities:

"We must have a relentless focus on council performance in terms of service quality and value for money. Nobody should be able to claim that councils aren't up to the job. I would look to create a performance board at the LGA with a commissioning role that would lead to a significant reshaping of the currently confusing array of support bodies.

We must take responsibility for generating local solutions to problems rather than waiting for Whitehall guidance. Collectively, as a sector and across the political parties, we have some of the best brains in public service. I want to make better use of them as one-size-fits-all Whitehall solutions rarely work.

Finally, we need to promote and celebrate the importance of local democracy and not just local services. We need to re-connect local democratic institutions with the people they serve. That means listening to the public on issues like weekly rubbish collections."

Nick Golding is interviewing Sir Simon on Monday however so we hope to have some more detail then on how he now intends to go about achieving these, working in partnership with chief executive Paul Coen.

Added by Nina Lovelace