Sutton Council's IoT pilot project
David Grasty, head of digital strategy & portfolio for Kingston and Sutton Councils, outlines how in-home sensors have improved the safety of vulnerable residents living in social housing.
£3bn gap looms for councils
24/08/2021 Councils in England, Wales and Scotland are grappling with huge budget deficits totalling more than £3bn for the next financial year, according to research published by trade union Unison today. |
Scottish union to hold nationwide strike ballot
24/08/2021 Councils in Scotland have been put on notice as Unison ballots members over industrial action. |
Strike action at Ealing ends
05/08/2021 There will be no return to the picket lines after an agreement has been reached between the Unite trade union and outsourcer Serco. |
Unions urge pinged staff to isolate
02/08/2021 Unions have urged waste and recycling staff to stay at home if ‘pinged’ by the COVID-19 app despite several councils having to reduce or suspend services. |
Vaccinated social care staff no longer required to self-isolate
19/07/2021 Health leaders have been left divided by the Government’s announcement that fully vaccinated social care staff and NHS workers who have been told to self-isolate will be allowed to continue working. |
Scale of council deficits due to pandemic is revealed
14/04/2021 Councils are facing a budget deficit of nearly £1.2bn by the end of the financial year due to the impact of COVID-19, research has revealed. |
Unions reject Scots pay offer
06/04/2021 Trade unions in Scotland have formally rejected employers’ pay offer of an £800 lower-rate pay rise for 2021, dismissing the sum as an unacceptably poor response to staff efforts during COVID-19. |
Unison call for election safety measures
01/03/2021 The Government needs to implement strict measures in May’s local elections to keep staff safe, trade union Unison urged today. |
Employers branded a 'disgrace' over council pay delay
26/02/2021 Council employers have been branded a ‘disgrace’ after they said they would not respond to a union pay claim until after the May 6 elections. |
Unions call for 10% pay rise for council staff
16/02/2021 Three local government unions have called for a wage increase of at least 10% for all council and school workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. |
Councils face funding shortfall for self-isolation schemes
03/02/2021 Funding for council schemes supporting people forced to self-isolate due to COVID-19 do not go far enough, according to new research. |
Scots union calls for urgent meeting to address funding
30/10/2020 Unison Scotland has called for an urgent meeting with Scottish finance secretary Kate Forbes in a bit to address the growing finance crisis. |
Public sector exit cap signed into law
15/10/2020 The £95,000 cap on public sector exit payments was signed into law last night and will come into force on November 4. |
Local government pay deal agreed
21/08/2020 Local government has accepted a 2.75% pay increase, it has been confirmed, despite objections from Unite. |
Union in industrial action threat over large-scale council job losses
09/07/2020 Trade union Unite has warned it could launch industrial action unless Nottingham City Council removes its threat of large-scale redundancies. |
Rejection of coronavirus bonus a 'slap in the face'
19/05/2020 A top union official has branded English councils’ refusal to rally behind a campaign for a workers’ coronavirus bonus as a ‘slap in the face’. |
Unite expected to urge council pay offer rejection
11/05/2020 Trade union Unite is expected to recommend that its members reject the employers ‘final’ 2.75% pay offer at a national committee meeting later this week. |
Local government pay summit to go ahead
30/03/2020 Negotiators hope to keep local government pay discussions on track despite the difficulties posed by the coronavirus crisis. |
Union calls for Sanctuary Care homes to be brought ‘back in-house’
14/01/2020 Unite is urging councils who have contracts with Sanctuary Care to bring them ‘in-house’ after a criminal investigation was launched into one of its homes. |
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. |
Library strike ‘longest-running employment dispute of modern times’
13/11/2019 A strike by library workers in Bromley, south east London, is set to enter its sixth month. |
A pay rise for local government workers?
25/07/2019 Local government workers are doing overtime on 'an industrial scale’. Mark Whitehead looks at what unions are doing to address this. |
Scottish councils ‘delighted’ at new pay deal with unions
05/03/2019 Council workers have welcomed a new pay deal that is set to deliver cost of living increases over the next few years after a decade of stagnating wages. |
Birmingham refuse strike called off
04/03/2019 Unions called off a planned strike by refuse collectors in Birmingham today after the city council lost a bid to have the action declared illegal. |
Hundreds of Birmingham refuse workers to strike ‘weekly’
05/02/2019 Over 300 refuse workers have announced they will begin two days of strike action a week in an escalation of the ongoing industrial dispute with the council. |
At least 160 youth centres have closed since 2016, FOI reveals
03/12/2018 At least 160 youth centres have closed since 2016, a report based on Freedom of Information Act requests by Unison claims. |
Reading council considers ‘huge scale privatisation’
13/08/2018 Reading Borough Council plans to undertake a programme of ‘huge scale privatisation’ that will affect thousands of council workers, union warns. |
Union blasts Somerset CC for ‘financial incompetence’
10/08/2018 A union has accused Somerset County Council of ‘financial incompetence’ after the authority proposed staff take two days of unpaid leave. |
Union rejects Scottish councils' pay offer
20/06/2018 Members of the GMB Scotland trade union have rejected the Scottish local government pay offer, potentially sparking industrial action. |
Unison calls for windfall tax on PFI corporations
19/02/2018 Trade union Unison has backed a Labour MP’s call for a windfall tax on private companies delivering public services. |
Code of conduct for private companies ‘urgently’ required, union says
08/02/2018 The Government needs to establish a new code of conduct for the delivery of public services by private companies, says public service union. |
Council called out on bullying and harassment
30/01/2018 Cheshire East Council has a bullying and harassment problem, the Local Government Association (LGA) has concluded. |
This issue of Public Property examines how how flexible workspaces can lead the way in regeneration for local authorities, Why local authority intervention is key to successful urban regeneration schemes and if the Government’s challenge of embracing beauty is an opportunity for communities.
The March issue also takes a closer look at Blackburn with Darwen Council's first digital health hub to help people gain control over health and care services.
