Maintaining performance
The 15 strongest performing councils in adult social care have been highlighted in IMPOWER’s latest productivity INDEX. Ralph Cook looks at the results.
Councils overspent £3bn on children's social care in five years
21/02/2020 Demand and funding pressures have forced councils to overspend on children’s social care budgets by more than £3bn in the past five years, new analysis has revealed. |
Councils demand extra planning powers
19/02/2020 Councils have called on the Government to use its White Paper to give them powers to take action on unbuilt land that has planning permission. |
Councils sent back to drawing board on SEND
28/01/2020 Councils have been sent back to the drawing board after a quango ripped apart their plans to recover massive special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) deficits. |
Seven out of 10 councils overspend on homelessness
28/01/2020 Seven out of 10 English councils overspent their homelessness budgets in 2018/19 by a combined total of nearly £115m, Local Government Association (LGA) analysis has found. |
Core Cities' £28bn Shared Prosperity Fund warning
26/09/2019 The proposed UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) must be worth at least £28bn over seven years if the UK is to deliver its devolved policy objectives, a leading sector body has warned. |
New rules to increase housing deal transparency
02/09/2019 Councils will be legally required to publish deals with housing developers after new rules were introduced. |
Councils face more funding uncertainty
14/08/2019 ‘Indicative numbers’ for the amount councils will receive in 2020/21 will not be published before next month’s Spending Review, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has admitted after it missed a self-imposed deadline. |
EXCLUSIVE: Victory on variation
26/06/2019 The Treasury’s view of children’s services has been dealt a further blow after research linked 70% of spend variation to factors outside councils’ control. |
Brokenshire moves to boost local government accountability
09/05/2019 Brokenshire moves to impose fresh conditions on ‘top slice’ cash |
Concern over councils' ability to cope with polls
17/04/2019 Council chiefs have raised concerns with Government about the sector’s capacity to run EU elections so close on the heels of local polls. |
Call for inspection pause in case of Brexit hit
10/04/2019 Council chiefs have urged Whitehall to be ready to ease pressures on the sector for up to six months if Brexit threatens to stretch capacity. |
LGA urges chiefs to challenge children's services directors
03/04/2019 Chief executives should confront directors to ensure children’s services are well delivered, fresh guidance published by the Local Government Association (LGA) has suggested. |
Council makes 'significant progress' after standards issues
01/03/2019 Sandwell MBC has made ‘significant progress’ following an independent review last year. |
Sector fumes over lack of pre-Brexit briefing
21/02/2019 Councils have threatened to walk away from Government attempts to engage with them on Brexit amid growing frustrations about the response to their concerns. |
MPs pile pressure on Government over business rates reform
21/02/2019 MPs have urged ministers to assess specific proposals for reforming business rates by the autumn. |
Labour would create local government commission
11/02/2019 Labour would create a new commission that would allow councillors to influence every decision that affects local authorities if they won a General Election. |
Councils accused of not doing enough to prepare for Brexit
04/02/2019 Councils are not doing enough to prepare for Brexit and need to step up their game, the concerned Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has told sector figures. |
Brokenshire gets Brexit breakdown from chiefs
31/01/2019 Chief executives have told communities secretary James Brokenshire Whitehall needs to be more joined up between departments and in its communications with councils over Brexit. |
LGA faces financial headache
25/01/2019 Smith Square has acknowledged the financial challenges it faces as it freezes subscriptions while grappling with declining Government grants and a pension scheme deficit. |
Auditors bid to explain real cause of difference in councils' spend on kids
23/01/2019 A nine-fold variation in spending on children’s social care could largely be down to ‘differences in characteristics’ between councils, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) study. |
Brokenshire in shared prosperity fund threat
15/11/2018 Communities secretary James Brokenshire has threatened to withhold the shared prosperity fund (SPF) from areas that fail to remove local enterprise partnership (LEP) overlaps. |
Councillors silenced on secret fiscal devolution report
31/10/2018 Senior councillors have been warned not to talk about a secret Local Government Association (LGA) report that models what fiscal devolution might look like, The MJ has been told. |
No-deal Brexit disruption warning
31/10/2018 Local authorities have been warned to prepare for up to three months of disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit. |
Ministry moves on Brexit
24/10/2018 Senior Marsham Street officials have stepped up their preparations for Brexit after complaints from frustrated councils that they were being shut out of the process. |
Whitehall demands in-year cuts to improvement programme
19/09/2018 The sector’s ability to respond to crises such as a care provider failure could be hit after Whitehall demanded cuts to a key improvement programme, senior councillors have been warned. |
LGA defends bonds agency support
07/09/2018 The Local Government Association (LGA) has defended its support of the struggling UK Municipal Bonds Agency. |
LEPs told to improve ahead of EU funding changes
06/09/2018 Fresh concerns have emerged about local enterprise partnerships (LEP) as the Government considers whether to use them to funnel UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) cash. |
Crunch time for municipal bonds
23/08/2018 The struggling Municipal Bonds Agency has pleaded for councils to ‘pull behind us’ amid warnings it could run out of money before issuing a bond. |
Hawthorne: Local industrial strategies could go same way as devolution
04/07/2018 Parts of the country could be left behind when Whitehall rolls out its local industrial strategies, a senior Local Government Association (LGA) figure has warned. |
Brokenshire announces Northamptonshire commissioners
09/05/2018 New local government secretary James Brokenshire has today announced the two commissioners appointed to help rescue troubled Northamptonshire CC. |
Labour outlines housing policy
19/04/2018 Labour would scrap right to buy, and give councils new borrowing freedoms and central funding in a bid to kick-start house building, the party said today. |
IFS implores action over growing social care funding chasm
20/03/2018 The Government will need to scrap its funding reforms, significantly boost top-ups or centralise care if it is to plug the social care funding gap, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned today. |
Javid orders review after second council payment error
20/03/2018 The Government has ordered a review after being forced to admit a second mistake in as many months in the way it calculates council payments. |
Mandatory reporting calls rejected by Government
05/03/2018 Ministers today rejected calls for the mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse – claiming an effective case for a new law has not been made. |
Whitehall's local government finance cover-up is exposed
20/02/2018 Key Whitehall departments involved in attempt to bury changes to provisional finance settlement data. |
EXCLUSIVE: Finance settlement 'shambles' after provisional data wrong
18/01/2018 The local government finance settlement has descended into a shambles after it emerged allocations in the provisional document were wrong, The MJ can exclusively reveal. |
Inspectors sent in to probe Northamptonshire Council's finances
09/01/2018 Local government secretary Sajid Javid has ordered a best value inspection of Conservative-led Northamptonshire CC amid continuing concerns over its financial management and corporate governance. |
Social care funding plea amid NHS crisis
04/01/2018 Social care directors have warned delays to operations and hospital admissions will continue without a long-term sustainable funding solution for their sector. |
LGA attacks 'counter-productive' cut
21/12/2017 A cut to councils’ public health grants has been criticised by the Local Government Association (LGA) for being ‘short-sighted and extremely counter-productive’. |
Chief executive suspended after elections review
27/11/2017 Newcastle-under-Lyme BC has suspended its chief executive and monitoring officer after an independent review into problems faced by voters at the General Election. |
Budget 2017: Housing Revenue Account cap lifted for some
22/11/2017 The Housing Revenue Account cap will be lifted for councils in ‘high-demand areas’ and stamp duty will be scrapped for most first-time buyers, chancellor Philip Hammond announced in his Budget speech today. |
Council work highlighted ahead of Budget
21/11/2017 Local authorities have used this year’s 24-hour tweet-a-thon as an opportunity to showcase the huge range of services they provide ahead of a crunch Budget. |
This issue of Public Property examines how public sector organisations can unlock the hidden value in their land, and why a new approach to construction could help boost the outcomes of the Government’s One Public Estate programme.
The December issue also considers why learnings from ancient cities could provide the key to promoting wellbeing in the modern built environment. It also contains a case study on how the London Borough of Westminster has provided high quality care for the elderly alongside a block of luxury apartments.
