Sharpening the commercial edge
The case for well-managed council commercial activity is one that needs to be defended if we want a mature and sustainable local state, argues Jonathan Werran.
Government announces £16m for virtual school heads programme
17/06/2021 The Government today announced that more than £16m is now available to councils to ensure there is a local champion for children with a social worker in every local authority in England. |
Sunak announces launch of UK Infrastructure Bank
17/06/2021 Chancellor Rishi Sunak today announced the launch of a UK Infrastructure Bank which the Government argues will help level up the country by funding infrastructure projects. |
Government announces £220m fund to support children in school holidays
16/06/2021 Parents are being urged to sign up to a Government programme which aims to ensure children have access to healthy food and activities during the school holidays. |
Council invests over £1m in mobile household recycling centres
16/06/2021 Birmingham City Council has invested £1.4m in a pilot project that will see a fleet of mobile household recycling centres (MHRCs) rolled out across the city. |
Boroughs call for ‘fit for purpose’ fire safety regime
15/06/2021 London boroughs marked the fourth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire yesterday by calling on the Government to put in place a fire safety regime that is ‘fit for purpose’. |
Councils receive extra COVID support as lockdown easing delayed
15/06/2021 The Government has announced additional support to help Birmingham, Blackpool, Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Liverpool City Region and Warrington tackle the Delta variant of COVID-19. |
Councils called on to create new programmes to close skills gap
14/06/2021 Local authorities should create skills programmes to train workers in their areas as part of the effort to tackle the UK’s engineering skills shortages, a new report argues. |
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award gets £3.4m boost
14/06/2021 The Department for Education has announced a £3.4m funding boost for The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in order to help more young people access volunteering and extra-curricular learning. |
Cornwall Council closes Brussels office
10/06/2021 Cornwall Council has started the process of closing down its Brussels office in response to the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. |
MPs call for councils to be given more powers to tackle ‘land banking’
10/06/2021 Local authorities should be granted more powers to act where developers are too slow in completing sites they have planning permission for, MPs say. |
Sexual harassment ‘normalised’ for children, Ofsted warns
10/06/2021 Sexual harassment, including online sexual abuse, has become ‘normalised’ for children and young people, Ofsted has found. |
DWP launches 110 hubs to help young jobseekers
10/06/2021 The Department for Work and Pensions has announced the launch of 110 new Youth Hubs aimed at helping young jobseekers. |
More training needed to identify child sexual abuse ‘swiftly’, council chiefs say
09/06/2021 Council leaders call for more training to be given to those working with children and young people so that victims of child abuse can be identified ‘swiftly’. |
PM told to invest more in pandemic recovery measures for children
09/06/2021 Government urged to ‘reconsider’ pandemic recovery measures for children as researchers estimate it has committed to spend only one-tenth of what is needed. |
Thousands at risk of losing legal status as EUSS deadline looms
09/06/2021 A number of charities have written to the PM urging him to extend the EU Settlement Scheme deadline to prevent thousands of children from losing legal status. |
Council chiefs call for long-term funding to boost post-pandemic resilience
09/06/2021 County council leaders argue that local authorities need a long-term funding settlement to invest in organisational resilience. |
COVID cases on the rise in Greater Manchester and Lancashire
09/06/2021 Additional COVID-19 measures, including surge testing, tracing, and isolation support, are to be deployed across Greater Manchester and Lancashire. |
London’s first detox unit for homeless people announced
09/06/2021 London’s first dedicated detox unit for people who are homeless is set to open on 14 June to help those suffering from addiction off the streets. |
WMCA makes top 10 of most inclusive employers in the country
08/06/2021 The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has been announced as the seventh most inclusive employer by the National Centre for Diversity. |
BCP Council agrees to check past payments to foster carers
08/06/2021 BCP Council has agreed to check whether it has paid friends and family foster carers properly over the past five years following an investigation. |
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.
