Fiscal devolution
Tourism levy meeting call
Core Cities has called for a meeting with new culture secretary Nicky Morgan and her ministers to discuss the idea of a hotel room levy.
Going local on tax raising
Boris Johnson has promised to grant more powers to local government, but has been silent on how to finance them. Alistair Jones argues it’s time to use some imagination.
Let’s talk about tax
Colin Copus and Steve Leach ask how we should approach the problem of how to finance English local government and examine how comparable nations use their local taxation powers
Call for leaders to be given seat at top table
A council of UK civic leaders chaired by the Prime Minister and mayors on the Privy Council are among the calls from a think-tank.
Open letter to Boris Johnson
In an open letter to new Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Heather Jameson says: 'I would argue you only need to give councils one thing: respect.'
Calls for new PM to make council funding 'immediate domestic priority'
Calls have been made for the next Prime Minister to make council funding his 'immediate domestic priority' after Boris Johnson won the Conservative Party leadership contest.
Emergency settlement call as councils face financial cliff-edge
Calls have been made by a think-tank for a one-year emergency local government settlement with councils facing a ‘financial cliff-edge’.
Grabbing a larger slice of the cake
On paper, cash-strapped councils face many options for raising revenue. As they await the Spending Review, David Phillips argues they need ‘cake decisiveness...to plan how to grow the cake for an increasingly austere diet'.
Kick-start devo deals, says Heseltine
Former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Heseltine has called for power over housing, skills and jobs to be handed to metro mayors in order to kick-start the devolution agenda.
£250bn and more devolution needed to tackle oncoming crisis
The Government needs to invest £250bn and commit to devolution if it is to tackle the jobs, housing and environmental pressures on the horizon, a group chaired by local government stalwart Lord Kerslake has argued.
Council tax system needs 'fundamental reform'
The council tax system is ‘highly regressive and unsustainable,’ and needs ‘fundamental reform,’ progressive think-tank IPPR has argued.
Central-local relations at 'all-time low' - study
The relationship between Whitehall and councils has broken down, with local leaders feeling ‘disrespected and marginalised,’ according to a think-tank behind a major new report published today.
Redressing the balance
Localis’s report Hitting reset – a case for local leadership puts the argument for a complete transfer of powers from Whitehall to the local state. Ann McGauran reports
We need a real debate on local taxes
Piali Das Gupta argues that we need a more sophisticated balance of local revenue sources for local services that would reduce the pressure on any individual tax or set of taxpayers. Many other countries do it – so what are we afraid of?
Cut business rates, claims Treasury's Truss
Business rates should be cut to support the private sector, chief secretary to the Treasury, Liz Truss, told a Smith Square debate last night.
The dead hand of centralism
Central Government must give up its ‘iron grip’ on local government finances and free councils up to make genuine local choices, say Steve Leach and Colin Copus.
Doubts over new taxes to fund Commonwealth Games
New forms of tax are unlikely to fill a £40m hole in funding for the Commonwealth Games budget, councillors in Birmingham have been told.
Speak up! Making the case for devolved infrastructure funding
This week's launch of the National Infrastructure Commission's Next Steps for Cities programme rolls out knowledge-sharing to councils in the 45 biggest cities. Sir John Armitt urges them to clearly make the case for investment in infrastructure.
Local income tax best bet for fiscal devo - IFS
Local income tax would be the best option for fiscal devolution if the Government wanted to hand more powers to local authorities, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) argued today.
The problem solvers
Cllr Nickie Aitken says it is time for the sector to stop pleading poverty and start working on solutions to the financial issues ahead.