Resource Hub

LATCo guidance – Local authority company review guidance

The toolkit, Local authority company review guidance, is for undertaking strategic and governance reviews of wholly or partly owned council commercial entities – 2023 edition.

A tool to help councils ensure that they strike an appropriate balance between allowing a company the freedom to manage its activities and ensuring that it is accountable for its actions.

Jane Forshaw, presents the webinar: “Effective approaches for integrating fleet budgeton” behalf of the Welsh Government Energy Service, hosted a webinar to help attendees navigate the financial aspects of transition towards a zero emission fleet, with speakers from Nottingham City Council, Monmouthshire County Council and Powys County Council.

Local Partnerships recently provided support to Wiltshire Council as it was preparing to re-tender a large framework to provide support for young people and adults of working age with additional needs due to mental health, learning disabilities and/or on the autistic spectrum (MHLDA). Local Partnerships has produced the Wiltshire Council Case Study.

“Councils are critical in preparing people and places to the impacts of the changing climate. As leaders in communities, they deliver hundreds of essential services to protect public health, manage roads, prepare for floods, and provide open space. Nationally we are not sufficiently prepared for the impacts of climate change, and central government must prioritise its work with local government to close this gap. This research report explores local authorities’ preparedness for climate adaptation”

This “Local government finance – capacity and capability” study has been commissioned by the Local Government Association (LGA) as part of the government funded Sector Led Improvement Programme.

It has been undertaken as part of the Government–funded sector improvement programme, reflecting some concerns and issues on capacity and capability in local government finance, that have followed recent high–profile cases of failure and financial mismanagement.

We worked with the LGA and Leeds and Cornwall councils during 2022 to understand what approaches have worked in homelessness prevention, how much they cost, costs that can have been avoided, and some of the benefits accrued by their implementation. From this, we produced homelessness prevention report and tool, containing some simple cost benefit models which are free to use on our website.

The report “Mapping a route to clean local growth – clearing the path to net zero” calls on central government to raise the floor of support to help councils deliver a decarbonised local economy and to remove the ceiling on their ambition. There are five action points for local leaders within the report.