By Steve Leach, Jean Hartley, Vivien Lowndes, David Wilson and James Downe The Act of 2000 changed the political structure of local government, but possession of a wider range of formal powers has not necessarily led individuals to exploit these powers proactively. Important though the change was it was not in itself sufficient to secure meaningful or consistent changes in political behaviour, though some have exploited the new structure creatively. Looking to the future, the authors found that new institutions for local political leadership are emerging, using both old and new and formal and informal elements creatively and pragmatically.

The Department for Work and Pensions is again renewing efforts to cut the one billion pound fraud bill. The annual ritual of crackdown is different this year with greater reliance being placed on using technology to identify the fraudsters. Computer support and more sophisticated use of data sources will allow investigators to pinpoint potential cases of fraud. The key message in the Department’s anti-fraud publicity is ‘our computers will work relentlessly, never take a day off and don’t even sleep.’A radical development is the use of credit reference agencies. The Department will be able to compare the financial details provided by claimants when claiming benefit, with the information they provide to other organisations when applying for credit. This cross check should identify people living together fraud , which traditionally has been difficult to detect. It is estimated that the saving to the taxpayer from this data comparison routine could amount to 40 million pounds.

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Public services are urged by the Social Exclusion Unit to do more for the 12.4m disadvantaged people in the UK who have significantly poorer life chances than the general population. The report from the Unit, ‘Improving Services, Improving Lives’ shows that public service reform is not doing much for those who need them most. The Unit looked at the way services respond to disabled people, people with long-term health conditions, ethnic minority groups who experience the most acute levels of socio-economic disadvantage including Bangladeshis and Pakistanis and people with low levels of literacy.The report highlights key areas for action including better information and communication, and giving disadvantaged people the “know how” they need to find and use public services effectively.

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