Tag Archives: tony travers

Caroline Pidgeon

Caroline Pidgeon writes: Setting our cities free from the stranglehold of the Treasury

By Caroline Pidgeon | Tue 23rd July 2013 - 3:00 pm

City Hall and Tower BridgeReforming local government finance – a phrase that is enough to send many of us to sleep.  But put a different way, devolving financial powers to our great cities, allowing local innovation and genuine localism, may keep your interest for longer!

May saw the launch of an excellent policy report called Raising the capital.  The report was produced by the London Finance Commission, an authoritative wide ranging group of experts from both inside and outside politics, but crucially including experts from Birmingham and Manchester.  The commission was chaired by respected Professor Tony Travers of the London School of Economics.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 15 Comments
Mark Pack

Thursday’s extra bonus: the local elections

By Mark Pack | Wed 5th May 2010 - 9:20 am

Put a backbench MP and a ruling group councillor together and they’ll often tease each other about who really has the more power – with the councillor often coming off the better. “I’ll see your ministerial questions and raise you a £500m budget” and so on.

So we certainly shouldn’t forget the other elections on Thursday:

  • All the seats in the 32 London boroughs
  • One third of the seats in the 36 Mets
  • One third of the seats in 20 unitary authorities
  • Half the seats in 7 district councils
  • One third of the seats in 70 district councils
  • Four Mayors

A happy side-effect of the strong general …

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Posted in Local government | 6 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Tony Robertson
    Well said, I'm with you and think your assessment is spot on. Too much treading water, not enough radical Liberalism. I've been a member since 1980 and fear we'...
  • Alex Macfie
    Not all vapes contain nicotine. What I really don't understand is the decision to tax all vapes the same, whether or not they contain nicotine. Also it isn't th...
  • Brigid Gardner
    @ Sarah: absolutely...
  • PM
    @ David, "I assume you refer to the people of England, Andrew..." Maybe Andrew will correct me, but I took him to mean the people of the UK. Or...
  • John Studholme
    I Agee with every word of the above. I used Tony’s manuals to achieve control of South Lakeland District Council and to get Tom Farron elected an MP. His me...