VE Day: Council duties under the Armed Forces Covenant
As we mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Geoff Wild, Legal & Governance Consultant, looks at the duties of councils under the Armed Forces Covenant.
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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Is innovation too risky for local government?
24/09/2019 Professor Stephen P Osborne examines the role of ‘risk’ in public service innovation. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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£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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
