About Tony Travers
Tony Travers is director of a research centre at LSE, undertaking projects about councils, public finance and urban government. He has been a member of the Audit Commission, a King’s Fund associate and advisor to a number of Commons committees. Tony writes and broadcasts extensively on public finance, local government and policy issues.
Continuing economic uncertainty, coalition tensions, phone hacking and civil disorder are among the challenges facing politicians at this year’s round of party conferences Read more
The chancellor’s failure to reduce government borrowing by the required amount suggests that he may have to inflict further cuts on public sector spending Read more
The Office for Budget Responsibility has presented a sobering view of the pressures facing governments in the decades ahead Read more
The government has launched an inquiry into how to achieve savings in the charges made for Private Finance Initiative contracts. According to the Treasury’s press notice on the subject: ‘The contract for the Queen’s Hospital in Romford will be examined by an experienced team of commercial, legal and technical advisors to identify ways of reducing ongoing costs in this contract on behalf of the local NHS Trust. The lessons will then be used to drive savings across the full portfolio of PFI contracts.’ Read more...
The government’s consultation document Implementing self-financing for council housing outlines proposals radically to reform the finance of English local government’s social housing. The pros and cons of these changes for housing will be debated widely. But for aficionados of central government’s view of local autonomy, paragraph 3.22 is a gem: Read more...
What a year it was. A new form of government, hitherto unseen reform of the public sector and a huge reduction programme. By this time next year, we will know how successful it all was Read more...
The Welsh Assembly Government has given councils in Wales an early Christmas present. Yesterday’s Revenue Support Grant settlement provides local authorities with an average reduction in grant of 1.4%, ranging from a rise of 0.1% in Cardiff to a ‘floor’ of -1.7% for most authorities. While it is important to note that the Welsh RSG includes schools’ funding (removed in England in 2006-07), the relative generosity of the settlement will be viewed with envy in England. Read more...
The business of government is never done. No sooner had ministers published last week’s Spending Review than they launched yesterday’s local growth white paper, which adds new detail to the anti-top-down approach of the Coalition. With a foreword by Nick Clegg and published by Vince Cable’s Business, Innovation and Skills department, the white paper offers what must be seen as very much a Liberal Democrat take on the world. Read more...
The candidates for the next leader of the Opposition have been focused on internal debates. But they need to regain the trust of the public soon Read more...
The abolition of the Audit Commission came as a shock, despite the fact that all quangos are under threat. Ministers’ current attitude to an appointed body such as the commission is not dissimilar to Mary Tudor’s view of her younger half-sister Princess Elizabeth in 1553: would it be better to execute her, imprison her in the Tower or keep her on a short leash at Court? Read more...
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