Changes in political colour, internal rows and natural churn have prompted a wave of new leaders to take control in some of the biggest and most well known councils across England.
Kevin Bentley (Con) has replaced long-serving leader
David Finch (Con) as leader of Essex CC, after Cllr Finch decided not to run for re-election. Cllr Bentley, who is well known in local government circles as chair of the Local Government Association’s people and places board and former chair of its Brexit taskforce, has already set out his new cabinet’s agenda, built on “three guiding principles of ambition, renewal and equality”.
The long-serving leader of a London borough has been named as the London mayor’s new deputy chief of staff. Richard Watts (Lab), who is stepping down as
Government proposals to overhaul the new homes bonus scheme have come under fire for ignoring the fact so many new homes are now built using permitted development rights which fall outside the scheme s parameters, sparking claims of unfairness in the system.
The consultation on the future of the new homes bonus scheme, which was launched last month, sets out possible changes such as revising the thresholds for payments, raising the baseline percentage growth of housing stock for eligibility to the scheme from 0.4% to either 0.6%, 0.8% or 1% to encourage more ambitious delivery.
Alternatively, the government proposes linking the bonus to an increase in the rate of house build rather than growth by rewarding councils for improving their housing delivery over an annual average of their past net additions.
A set of proposals which would more tightly define borrowing rules and set up new committees within councils as another layer of financial oversight have been slammed as “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut” by council leaders from across the political spectrum.
The proposed amendments to the prudential code and treasury management code - both part of the prudential framework - are laid out in a consultation launched last month by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy. But the changes have been widely disparaged as too prescriptive by members of the Local Government Association’s resources board.
Cipfa is proposing adding new statements to the prudential code spelling out in stronger terms that councils should not borrow purely to generate income. One proposed addition states that councils must not borrow to fund primarily yield generating investments”, clarifying that this “does not cover borrowing where the primary aim is rooted in the function of the