cadence comments about localism

6 Dec 2011

Consultation - Mayor and cuts

The local press in Sheffield are getting excited about the City Council spending £21K on a consultation exercise on the cuts (ideas for). The May 3rd 2012 referendum on whether to have a Mayor or not is provoking some debate too. It's a touchy subject in South Yorkshire due to Doncaster's experiences with their elected (night?) Mayors ... more

16 Nov 2011

Big Society? Localism? Sustainability? And Sir Bob

It is easy to argue that the current economic crisis dwarfs all other issues at the moment. But, if the Coalition neglects its commitments to the Big Society, localism and sustainability then the consequences of the global shifts on UK life will be even harder to handle ... more

5 Sep 2011

Autumn

Once again the government is getting in a muddle in trying to square its different priorities. new planning regulations to encourage enterprise and recovery, versus localism and the big society. There is nothing more likely to bring a community together than an objection to a planning application ... more

6 Jul 2011

Localism and not localism again

BBC Home Editor Mark Easton's work does not get enough attention as far as we are concerned. He consistently takes a topic and looks at it in a way that brings further understanding and probably without phone hacking. Today he is looking at localism again and how George Osbourne's pledges on lower paid public sector last year turned out not to mean that much ... more

27 Jun 2011

Cutting off nose and getting support

If a charity closes because it loses its funding it is a bit different to a private sector supplier who loses a contract. Many third sector organisations are very dependant on a few small sources of funding and cannot survive their loss. If they have to close they are likely to be gone forever, whereas a private organisation will suffer, but probably has more of a mix of income streams to see them through tough times ... more

17 Jun 2011

CBI moaning about reform back down

The CBI are apparently not happy that David Cameron is not reforming public services in the way they hoped. They are talking about the 'forces of inertia' winning over ... more

26 May 2011

Localism and not localism

The Communities department Eric Pickles is sticking to his guns on localism. This week he is pushing Nottingham City Council with legal action if they do not publish details of all spending over £500. People in Northamptonshire might wish he'd been so keen to keep to the localist principles in mind when he decided to approve the disposal of low grade nuclear waste in a landfill in the county ... more

3 May 2011

The alternative vote - council elections

The media attention in the run up to election day is clearly on the voting system is referendum. Their attention might turn to the council elections when the results came in on Friday. All across the country a new set of councillors will be faced with trying to deliver some 'challenging' budgets. Nobody want to lose control of a town hall, but ... more

13 Apr 2011

Fit for purpose (and cuts)

The public sector has always struggled as a buyer. Paying well over the odds for paper clips and light switches tends to get the Mail enraged, but the problem is inevitably more complex than that. Anyone who bares the scars of filling in a local authority PQQ will have some inkling as to why things go wrong. The term 'fit for purpose' is the one that always create tension here in Cadence HQ ... more

18 Mar 2011

Collecting and using data

One of the cuts that the public sector might welcome would be to their data collecting budgets. Especially if it meant they had to do less of it. The trouble is that more often than not, what is done is it is collected, but not used ... more