Edited by John CraigThe essays in this collection draw on examples from across the public sector and beyond to explore the challenges professionals and citizens face and where their conversations might lead. They provide practical examples of how their encounters might help citizen autonomy and professional autonomy to grow together.

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THINK TANK CRITICISES SOUTH EAST HOUSEBUILDING PLANS

The Government needs to re-think the ambition of its plans for housing in the ‘Growth Areas’ of South East England. This is the main finding from a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research. In the report ‘Would you live here? Making the Growth Areas communities of choice’ it argues that the planned build of 200,000 homes by 2016 should be increased by a further 217,000. The growth areas are The Thames Gateway, Milton Keynes and South Midlands, the London, Stanstead, Cambridge, Peterborough corridor and Ashford.

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COUNCILS BECOME PFI INVESTORS

The great debate about the use of private money to fund public projects with the emphasis on the benefits for the private investor and the poor deal for the taxpayer, has now entered a new phase as local councils take on the Public Finance Initiative investor role. Recent months have seen a spate of local authorities financing and building state of the art health facilities for other public bodies to pay back over the long term. Councils up and down the country are now investigating how they could replicate these new PFI projects across England.

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