The United Kingdom has the shortest lifespan of fiscal rules across 35 countries:

Next week's reading: The fourth edition of Local Government Today (2009) by J. A. Chandler, which sets out local governance under New Labour.

Mayors have routinely contended that they operate 'above politics' or 'outside the Westminster bubble'. They've pointed out that they have loyalty to their region before their political party and don't operate under a 'whipping system'. Lords membership undermines that narrative:

According to new polling for OnLondon by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, 64 per cent of Londoners agree with the view that the office of the Mayor of London should be “given more power and control over how London is run”.

In the context of fiscal restraint, local authorities are adopting novel approaches to generate revenue - but some are more novel than others.

In today's edition of Private Eye:

A forum for Mayors that is embedded in the policy-making process in Westminster is long overdue - whether we call it a Mayors Cabinet or not.

Here's a snippet from my column in The New Statesman:

The authorities include: Coventry, Cornwall, Warwickshire, Wigan, Oldham, Birmingham, Lincolnshire, Sefton, Manchester, Bolton, Liverpool, Southampton, Blackburn, Cambridge, Chorley, Brighton and Hove, Barking and Dagenham, South Ribble, Walsall, Leicester, North Tyneside.

The #LocalElections2024 are fast approaching 🗳️

In our latest Economic Outlook, Jack Shaw unpacked the state of #localgov finances, examining the government's response and assessing what more can be done 🔓⬇️

Bennett Institute for Public Policy Mile End Institute The Productivity Institute

hubs.la/Q02rPDv20

Fact of the day: of the 101 Town Deals and 72 Future High Street Places, 80 per cent of them requested a Project Adjustment Request - meaning that at least 138 projects have been downsized in scope.

Analysis of data published today by the Cabinet Office shows authorities spent 0.08 per cent of their salary bill on Facility Time in 2022-23. That figure is 0.004 per cent for the Civil Service, though the Prime Minister's Office submitted incorrect data.
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One for finance experts: if local authorities owe the Treasury £102 billion but its 'year end value' is only £94 billion, what does that mean?

(If anyone is expert in PWLB and happy to chat, please let me know!)

According to the Guardian, here are a dozen authorities that could change hands after the local elections on 2 May 2024: