By Ann Quinn, Angela Snowling and Pam Denicolo Getting information about services provided by the statutory and voluntary services can be a daunting task. If you are older and English is not your first language the information barrier is much more difficult to penetrate. The authors found that the information, like the services themselves, was agency based and finding out what you needed to know was a matter of chance. They offer suggestions for a joined up information strategy with a user focus.

The power of the Internet to influence behavour and provide advice and guidance is being exploited by the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Environment and Heritage Service in Northern Ireland. The agencies were confronted with the challenge that the smaller UK businesses are failing to take action to protect the environment. They generate about 60% of the commercial waste in England and Wales and are responsible for as much as 80% of pollution incidents contributing to poor air quality and contamination of land and water. In collaboration with the Small Business Service the agencies developed a strategy, centred on a website approach to get the ‘green message’ through to small and medium enterprises.The website, www.netregs.gov.uk promotes the advantages to businesses of ‘going green’ and gives advice on good environmental practice. It has specific advice for 50 industry sectors and this will rise to 100 sectors in 2004. The agencies have appealed to staff in local government who advise small and medium enterprises to tell their clients about NetRegs.

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The balance of power in local government is causing all round disquiet. Two years on since Stephen Byers, the then local government minister, announced plans for a white paper to give local government freedom, little has changed. The Local Government Association has published its critique of central local relations over the past six months with the revealing title of ‘ambition thwarted’. The failure to decentralize has been compounded by moves to give power to regional authorities whilst at the same time exploring the possibility of creating directly elected local bodies.Lord Herman Ousley, President of the LGA, in a speech to the Association today, will criticize ministers for failing to boost the role and power of local councils and local politicians and of responding to difficult issues by putting the power back in the hands of the centre. Taking the Euro debate model he will call for national politicians of all parties to stop and think about localism and apply five tests to every new and existing policy. They cover allowing locally elected people to make decisions about their local services and priorities, directing money to meet locally decided needs and priorities, supporting the role of councils and helping them to identify and meet local needs, enhancing the freedoms and flexibilities available to local councils and consulting with local government through the LGA.

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