| Boris Johnson calls for change in strike laws Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has demanded changes to the law making it more difficult for workers to strike as he launched a stinging attack on trade union leaders. telegraph.co.uk |
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Jailed Knox 'created confusion' Amanda Knox, the American convicted of murdering a UK student in Italy, is quoted as saying in a new book her "stubborn ingenuity created confusion". bbc.co.uk |
Councils' forced marriages | Tony Travers Less locally accountable 'super councils' may be the only way of dealing with unprecedented cutsThe decision of Hammersmith & Fulham, Westminster, and Kensington & Chelsea councils to share services is evidence of the massive pressure bearing down on local authorities. This week's spending review will initiate an unprecedented 27% cut in their government grants over the next four years. Many spending programmes will be stopped. The impetus for a major reconfiguration of local public services is now overwhelming. The possibility of "super councils" is a stark reminder of the radicalism now stalking the land with demands that may test the principle of local accountability.Joint operations are seen as a way of improving services while simultaneously cutting costs. Already, Hammersmith & Fulham's chief executive also runs the local primary care trust. Labour policy had started to encourage councils, the NHS, the police and other local services to pool their budgets. Now the communities secretary, Eric Pickles, has announced 16 areas will evolve "community budgets" to bring together funding for families with complex needs.The trend towards mergers is pronounced in London – Camden and Islington are to appoint a joint chief executive, and Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham have agreed a "concordat" with a view to sharing services – but it already goes far beyond the capital. Densely populated urban areas do have greater opportunities to develop joint working – in Greater Manchester the 10 metropolitan districts have a sophisticated "city region" to improve provision of transport, skills and further education. A number of shire district councils, such as Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire, have a joint management structure; Herefordshire's chief executive is also in charge of the local NHS.But yesterday's announced reforms in the west and central London councils look the most radical yet proposed. Major challenges will emerge as council officers examine the scope for full integration of services across three authorities with distinctive approaches. Even where councils are all controlled by one party, their cultures, values and political leaderships will often be very different.By far the biggest imperative will be to ensure councillors in each authority continue to be able to adapt services to particular neighbourhood circumstances. A large joint department may seem remote from particular households, streets and estates. Councillors would have to be able to guarantee they can hold the new merged departments to account in the way they would existing town hall officers.Planning decisions will almost certainly have to continue to be dealt with on an individual, local basis. Aesthetics and local development needs are at the core of how a council shapes its local area. Equally, challenging services such as child protection could only be handed across to merged super-departments if each council was confident there was no more risk of serious failure than at present. In 2013-14, authorities will take over a localised council tax benefit system that could be run jointly – providing all those concerned wanted to run a broadly similar system.It is hard to exaggerate the number of different pressures bearing down on councils now. They are being asked to become more efficient by merging departments and joint procurement while simultaneously being more "localist" and shifting provision towards "big society" institutions such as co-ops, charities and not-for-profit companies. Many will want to commission services from big private companies. Where Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster are moving, others will surely follow. There is little choice left to them if grant cuts are not to lead to service butchery.Local governmentSpending review 2010Tax and spendingLiberal-Conservative coalitionTony Traversguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Two men abscond from open prison Police are trying to find two 20-year-old prisoners who have absconded from an open prison in Monmouthshire. bbc.co.uk |