The significant challenges for local government in 2008 were set out in a speech by Communities Minister Hazel Blears. The key issues are transferring power from Whitehall to the town hall and beyond and driving forward community contracts.
The new approach to regeneration with the Working Neighbourhoods Fund is designed to help councils to think creatively about how they might help places dogged by long-term worklessness and turn them around. 

A campaign by a group of charities to raise awareness of the need for new approaches to social care has been welcomed as a step in the right direction by local government leaders. ‘Right care Right deal’, has been launched under the Carers UK umbrella to support calls for what the charities call ‘brave and innovative solutions for the social care system. 

A tax on high earners could cut council tax bills by 200 pounds for each household according to a report from the New Local Government Network. It argues that levying a small supplement in income tax on people earning more than 200 thousand pounds a year would take the pressure off council tax bills and allow reforms to take place without penalising householders.