Recently in Local government finance Category

LibDem conference this week. Does anyone care? I normally look in at the party conferences if at all possible, but I am too busy in the day job this year. And last year it was all lobbyists and hangers on (like myself) at all the conferences. You see the same folk at all three, which is nice for me, but rather misses the point.

Farewell then, Olympians.  Leave us then. Leave us in this mess.  
 
What to say about planning reform today? Oh why bother? It's almost not worth commenting. Just let 'em all get on with it. It's all mad. And at this rate it's going to become even madder than last summer's exhausting and ill-informed furore over the NPPF. It's just a total free-for-all isn't it?  Why didn't they listen? And as ever, with planning issues, it's an all-out competition to see who can be the most self-interested. Honestly. Makes you yearn for a benevolent dictator (and I am a democrat, honest guv).
 


On the eve of the publication of the National Planning Policy Framework, UK Regeneration receives news of the most excellent denouement to the ongoing saga of the Lopen planning spat (see blogs for 9 and 23 February 2010 and then 8 and 30 March 2010): a press release stating that the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has found South Somerset District Council (SSDC) guilty of "maladministration in respect of its failure to adhere to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations".  

Put out the bunting.  Nottingham city council has been on the Bob Martins again. And hurrah for that!  A new economic plan for Nottingham was launched at a business summit in the city last Friday, putting the emphasis firmly on growth and aiming to be "the blueprint for prosperity over the next 10 years".  Extra cheese sandwiches all round I reckon.  Quickly now. 

Sadly, I was unable to be there in person (and not just because it was a 7.30am kick-off!) but UKR was well represented.  And I hear it was a right shot in the arm. Nottingham city council, in the driving seat, sees private sector solutions as vital to many of the challenges it faces and has opened a consultation - or "a conversation" (nice!) - with the private sector over the coming weeks. 

There were about 100 senior guys from the private sector there at the summit, showing real support.  As ever, the Nottingham family sticks together and is always on-song, even in the face of a public sector document.  One business commentator summed up the report thus: "Too many recommendations, but the heart is in the right place."  And that seemed to be the general view.

It might seem a little early to be thinking of MIPIM but I've learned the hard way that to get best value out of it all you should start before Christmas. And as I keep shouting at anyone who will listen, if you're Hell-bent on regenerating the UK, as we are, then now is the moment.

I attended the greatest "hot ticket" event last Friday morning in "London's Living Room" (sorry, but really! "London's Living Room" is  just too fey for words! Whimsical or what? But a nice space nonetheless). 

The sun was streaming into City Hall (the Thames was twinkling), onto the great and good of the housing industry out in force. Charmaine Young of St George, in the most extraordinary feat, has corralled a massive number of industry leaders to produce the most formidable book Working Together. Delivering Growth through Localism (details can be found at www.berkeleygroup.co.uk/growth-and-localism).  And it is a most assured treatment for the enlightened house builder.  She is indeed a force to be reckoned with. And everyone was there.  

The Municipal Journal this week carries an in-depth interview that will further unpack the story I commented on in respect of communities secretary Eric Pickles being poised to win his battle with deputy prime minister Nick Clegg over the scope of the coalition's local government finance review.

Mr Pickles has indicated firmly that the imminent review will focus on powers that could quickly be handed to councils - such as the retention of a higher proportion of locally-raised business rates, rather than the root-and-branch assessment of local government finance, that nice Mr Clegg wanted (including consideration of local sales and fuel taxes and new charges) to help redress the huge funding imbalance between central and local government.

Mr Pickles says: "You need to repatriate the business rate as a proper foundation to what comes next. I have always been of the view that local government reform should be incremental." And I guess this last hook is - at least - an amber light to the later introduction of the more creative use of the local authority powers/land/covenant. That is, one assumes (and these are my words, not Mr Pickles'), if the local authorities are pared back, slimmed down and fit for purpose (ie, have "earned it"). 

Local government finance? There be dragons! Apparently, our esteemed secretary of state Mr Pickles had been hoping to make a firm announcement on the local government finance review in his speech at the New Local Government Network think-tank's conference yesterday. But by the start of this week it was publicly clear there was major disarray in the camp. Good job the secretary of state's team had had the good sense to not set a firm deadline, although sources still describe the review as "imminent" (another one of those great civil service words!).

There are rumours that nice Mr Clegg and... er... Mr Pickles hold different views over the scope of the finance review (well, I never!). This spat threatens to put a bit of a spanner in the works, being as it forms a key plank of the coalition government's long-term plan to overhaul local government and to reduce councils' heavy reliance on central government funding.

A leaked letter from Mr Clegg to Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne reveals that the deputy prime minister wants a root-and-branch review of local tax-raising powers - including the consideration of American-style local sales and fuel taxes, reformed parking levies and wider borrowing powers - to help councils become increasingly self-sufficient (any warning bells sounding yet?).

But, true to form, Mr Pickles takes a more traditional view. Following years of sharp rises in council tax, it is understood that Mr Pickles (and Mr Osborne) are hell bent on limiting the number of new taxes (warning bells getting any louder?) and will stick to their guns in kick-starting a standard finance review that is more narrow in scope. For this, read, "never mind, nice Mr Clegg, Mr Pickles will be fighting hard for the answer he thought of in the first place" (and, moreover, he has the support of Mr Osborne).