By Saffron James and Ed Cox,
The role ward councillors should play in community leadership and strategic decision making has become a pressing issue for local authorities in the context of current policy and legislative changes. This article investigates how the role is likely to change as neighbourhood working, legislative and policy changes impact on the role of local government. It identifies obstacles to developing new roles and the need for a culture change. 

The rapid way in which cities in Victorian Britain grew have many lessons for how the economy should be managed now, according to a report today. The authors claim the need for some cities to grow means more care needs to be taken over the constraints placed on their development.
Professor Nick Crafts and Dr Tim Leunig will present their findings as part of the Economic History Society’s annual conference, which begins in Nottingham today. 

Local government leaders want all developers to be forced to make land available for allotments in all big urban schemes as a way to tackle mounting waiting lists and the shortage of plots in some parts of the country. The Local Government Association has estimated that 200,000 allotments have disappeared in the last thirty years.