LGA Conference Update
The localism agenda seems to be overtaking central Government. Ruth Kelly's speech talked of deregulation and lots of devolution, but insisting at the same time that local Councils devolve further to communities. In partcular she has announced a review of Performance Management regime in order to cut out unnecessary reporting - highlighting that 80% of reporting by local Government is done to serve Central Government and only 20% to serve local need.
If she delivers on this agenda it will be very welcome, but I remain a sceptic. It also seems that she has got the message about re-organisation and is suggesting that any reorganisations will be voluntary and gave a further commitment about retaining two tier structures in Counties.
On a slightly lighter note, the Labour Group stand has obviously not been vetted by the Government Spin machine; it has a banner with the slogan "Power where it should be" one of the pictures above this is of Brent Town Hall which, of course, the Conservatives have taken control of.
If she delivers on this agenda it will be very welcome, but I remain a sceptic. It also seems that she has got the message about re-organisation and is suggesting that any reorganisations will be voluntary and gave a further commitment about retaining two tier structures in Counties.
On a slightly lighter note, the Labour Group stand has obviously not been vetted by the Government Spin machine; it has a banner with the slogan "Power where it should be" one of the pictures above this is of Brent Town Hall which, of course, the Conservatives have taken control of.
posted by Martin Curtis at 2:55 PM
1 Comments:
Martin,
Small point but, if you're going to be against spin, an important one. Brent isn't controlled by the Conservatives, it's a Liberal Democrat/Conservative coalition with six Liberal Democrat Executive members (including the Leader), and four Conservative Executive members (including the Deputy Leader).
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