Local authorities are switching off street lights in trials that could cut carbon missions and save on energy bills. One motoring organisation has raised concerns about safety risks but the councils believe there are no increased risks and that cutting lighting will help in the fight against global warming. 

An independent study says the two billion pound New Deal for Communities programme has led to real improvements in people’s lives and bridged the gap between some of England ’s most deprived neighbourhoods and the rest of the country. The study by the Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University also found local people were more satisfied with the communities. 

By Sir John Bourn
Drawing on 20 years experience as Comptroller and Auditor General, and head of the UK National Audit Office, Sir John Bourn gives his own account of the role and influence value for money auditing has in holding governments to account and in helping public bodies improve the ways in which they deliver services.
He describes why bureaucracies based on rules and staffed by life time career officials don’t work.