Archives for December 13th, 2004

COUNCILS FEAR RING FENCING OF ELECTORAL FUNDING

Headlines, PublicNet: 13 December, 2004

Local authorities want assurances from the government that funding for running elections will not be ring fenced. The Local Government Association is calling for councils to have flexibility as part of its response to the Electoral Commission report “Voting for Change”.The LGA wants more commitment from government to modernising the electoral process, making it safe and secure and to give voters options on how they cast their ballot. It is also concerned about the prospect of all postal ballots and about what it fears may be the government’s lack of commitment to funding electoral services. The LGA says authorities must have the flexibility to run local elections without the restrictions of ring fencing that would fail to take local circumstances into account.

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REPORT OUTLINES NEW WAYS TO END POVERTY

Headlines, PublicNet: 13 December, 2004

The government is being urged to use new indicators that reveal concentrations of child poverty, poor housing, school underachievement and crime in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, to step up the campaign against deprivation and social exclusion over the next 20 years.A report published today to mark the 100th anniversary of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says the new measurements should inform a comprehensive strategy for helping the poorest places and the poorest people and to ensure that people’s life chances no longer depend so heavily on the places where they are born and live.

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BROADBAND

Book News, PublicNet: 13 December, 2004

This paper from the Department for Trade and Industry describes how broadband content can aid the delivery of regional and devolved administration’s economic strategies. Broadband will impact on all aspects of the economy, affecting growth, productivity and competitiveness and is seen by some as having the potential to equal the advent of the railways, the passenger jet or even domestic electricity in terms of its impact. The four target markets where broadband content can effectively influence regional economic strategies have been identified as business, learning, public sector and community.The public sector has a major role, both as a large scale customer and as a channel for aggregation of broadband demand, pushing broadband usage and capacity to new levels. In partnership with the private sector there are huge opportunities in areas such as eHealth and eGovernment to drive up the efficiency of the public sector and to improve the service that the public sector provides to citizens. The paper recognises that many of the skills needed to properly commission broadband content and applications are currently in short supply within the public sector, and this is one of the areas where effective action might be taken.

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