What Future For The Lga?

摘要

It has been a tough few months for the Local Government Association. The Icelandic bank crash, Baby P - and other child protection cases - and more recently, the heavy snow, made it all too easy for the media to use councils as a convenient whipping boy. The LGA's cause in responding to these issues was not helped by losing the chair of the association and, more recently, its chief executive. As football clubs, banks and public sector organisations all know, changes in the top team are disruptive. There has been talk of some councils pulling out of the LGA - or reforming separate associations for different types of councils. That would be mistake. Councils, as a whole, would be the weaker if we go back to a situation where local government's voice on the national stage and in negotiations with the Government is undermined by divisions between competing interest groups. But, as Margaret Eaton and John Rans-ford work to get the LGA show back on the road, what they should do? First, the LGA must smarten up its act on its core business - influencing stakeholders. In part, this means persuading influential council leaders and elected mayors that it is worthwhile to be part of the LGA and national political scene.