Innovation | LocalGov


Wrexham saves £32,000 with smart water sensors 06/01/2025 Sensors that detect how much water flowerbeds need have saved Wrexham County Borough Council £32,000 over seven months, according to a report.
Rural transport schemes win £1.2m 06/11/2024 Eight small businesses from across the UK have won a share of £1.2m to improve transport in rural areas.
Reform required to unleash preventative approach, says report 21/05/2024 Central government reforms are needed to help innovation in preventative services at a local level, a report has found.
First-of-kind ‘health neighbourhood’ gets go-ahead 29/04/2024 A multi-million pound ‘health innovation neighbourhood’ has received outline planning permission from Newcastle City Council.
London borough trials pothole repair machine 06/11/2023 Redbridge Council is trialling a spray injection patching machine to fix potholes across the borough.
South Cambs issued Best Value notice over four-day week 03/11/2023 The Government has issued a non-statutory Best Value notice to South Cambridgeshire District Council ‘following concerns about its trial of a four-day working week’.
New pilot to monitor care home infections 31/10/2023 A national surveillance study initially set up in response to Covid-19 has received government funding for a pilot scheme to monitor infections in care homes.
£42m boost for social care innovation 25/10/2023 The Government has announced £42.6m to fund innovative local approaches that improve the quality and accessibility of adult social care.
Government pledges £60m innovation investment 04/10/2023 The Government has pledged to invest £60m into an innovation fund to support universities in areas with lower levels of research and development investment.
Perth & Kinross in global first 31/08/2023 Perth & Kinross Council has become the first place in the world to use spiral-flow battery technology to reduce its carbon footprint.
Balancing safety and innovation after Grenfell 27/07/2023 Jonathan Pearson, director at Residentially, looks at how developers and councils can work together to drive innovation and improvement in housing.
Minister criticises council’s four-day week trial 03/07/2023 South Cambridgeshire DC has requested a meeting with local government minister Lee Rowley after receiving a letter urging it to stop the four-day week trial.
Future Forum North: Build individual relationships with mandarins 02/12/2022 Councils need to build individual relationships with Whitehall civil servants if they want to achieve positive outcomes, a former senior mandarin has advised.
Council chiefs welcome call to embed ‘culture of evaluation in social care’ 23/11/2022 Council leaders have welcomed a call to embed a 'culture of evaluation in social care’ and to build on the the children’s social care innovation programme.
Cornwall Council set to host first UK space launch 13/10/2022 Cornwall Council’s leader has welcomed the arrival of a Boeing 747 which will soon take off from Newquay Cornwall Airport in the first UK space launch.
Number of local business incubators double 06/09/2022 Business incubator and accelerator programmes in local areas have nearly doubled in number over the last five years, a new study reveals.
Liverpool City Region primed to become ‘innovation powerhouse’ 27/04/2022 Mayor Steve Rotheram yesterday unveiled a multi-billion-pound plan to turn Liverpool City Region into an ‘innovation powerhouse’.
How councils can harness the power of 'collective intelligence' 14/02/2022 Can councils use collective behavior to ensure that policy translates into effective action? William Eichler investigates.
Digital innovation could bring over £1 trillion to local economies by 2030 says report 11/10/2021 Local and regional authorities should be given greater capabilities to facilitate digital innovation in their area, to bring more than £1 trillion of added value to local economies, according to a new report.
Village hall to be used to house homeless 10/09/2021 A village hall will be converted into homes for the homeless in a scheme that is thought to be a first in the UK.
Pilot phase launched for government-backed 'value toolkit' 29/04/2021 The Construction Innovation Hub has launched the pilot phase for its 'Value Toolkit', designed to drive better social, environmental, and economic outcomes in the built environment.
London councils awarded £150,000 for digital projects 17/02/2021 Two local authority digital projects in London aimed at making smarter use of data have been awarded £75,000 each.
Councils need funding to maintain data innovations, says report 04/02/2021 Local government needs increased investment to ensure recent data-driven innovations are maintained, a new report has argued.
More than ever, UK businesses require help to be innovative 09/09/2020 Jessica Antley explains why Worcestershire County Council has set up a new platform to drive crowd innovation across the county.
Fostering innovation in UK local councils 08/07/2020 Giles K Bailey and Dr Ali Ahmad call on councils to bring the brightest and best minds together in order to develop creative solutions to the challenges they face.
Luton forced into unavoidable cuts 17/06/2020 Luton BC’s boss has said the council has done all it can but has no other choice than to cut 365 jobs and frontline services.
Whitehall announces £3.4m investment in wireless charging tech 17/01/2020 The Government has announced that it is investing £3.4m in wireless charging technology trials at taxi ranks in Nottingham.
Half of local government workers worry about redundancy as a result of cuts 14/11/2019 Around 50% of local government workers worry that they could be made redundant by technological innovation or Government cuts, a survey has revealed.
Is innovation too risky for local government? 24/09/2019 Professor Stephen P Osborne examines the role of ‘risk’ in public service innovation.
Future of work survey to inform thinking 19/08/2019 Local government workers have been invited to take part in a new survey on the future of work.
Councils urged to apply for £7.5m digital innovation fund 19/08/2019 The Government has invited local authorities to apply for funding to help explore how digital technology can boost frontline services.
Three UK cities up for European Capital of Innovation 2019 07/08/2019 Three UK cities have made the shortlist for receiving the title of European Capital of Innovation 2019.
Over £1m awarded to ‘innovative data projects’ 09/04/2019 The winners of a competition designed to find the most innovative data projects out there will receive a share of a £1.5m fund, the Government has announced.
Review finds lack of due diligence over council's commercial workspace project 21/03/2019 King’s Lynn & West Norfolk BC should ‘build on the lessons learned’ from the construction of a state-of-the-art commercial workspace, the council’s chief executive has said.
Should councils embrace 'disruptive innovation'? 03/08/2018 Mark Whitehead considers if local authorities should appoint 'public entrepreneurs' to help drive forward innovation in the sector.
Innovation: time to match words with action 10/07/2018 Stephen Smith calls on local authorities to challenge businesses to innovate, rather than buying products based purely on cost and availability.
A BT first: see Baron Heseltine in action 02/07/2018 A BT first: BT recently co-hosted the inaugural Chamberlain Lecture, featuring a keynote speech by The Rt Hon. the Lord Heseltine CH.
£1m social care digital fund announced 14/05/2018 Councils who come up with innovative uses of digital technology in the delivery of adult social care will be able to apply for a share of a new £1m fund.
Projects training women to be community leaders awarded £600,000 11/04/2018 Over £600,000 has been awarded by the Government to eight schemes, including projects that train women to become leaders in their communities.
Councils urged to adopt a ‘changemaking’ approach 04/01/2018 A think tank has warned that a radical cultural shift is needed in local government rather than the rigid redesign of structures.
Are councils really afraid to innovate? 02/10/2017 Is local government really too risk-averse and cautious to be truly transformational? William Eichler investigates.
Hull named ‘most enterprising place in Britain’ 22/09/2017 Birmingham has had to give up its crown as Hull replaces the west Midlands city as the most enterprising place in Britain.
Public health teams urged to join ‘design thinking’ programme 17/08/2017 Forward thinking councils are being urged to apply for the Design in the Public Sector programme to help tackle public health challenges.
Funding announced to foster innovation in public services 10/08/2017 A community gardening scheme, improvements in ambulance services and a plan to tackle the effects of climate change are among projects aimed at fostering public sector innovation in Wales.
Local authorities should not be ‘embarrassed by failure’, think tank argues 29/03/2017 Councils should make more use of pilots and trials to test innovative policy ideas and not be embarrassed about sharing failures, report says.