Top tier local authorities are set to be given new duties as part of a package of measures to revive some of England’s most deprived areas. Government ministers have begun a consultation on proposals which they say will lay the foundations for sweeping reform.
The plans follow the Sub-National Review of Economic Development and Regeneration, which was published last summer and which envisaged streamlined regional government with the phasing out of Regional Assemblies from 2010. 

Local authorities have new powers from today to get tough with utility companies that cause traffic congestion and disruption for local people and businesses through over running road works. According to the Local Government Association council transport staff will use the powers to manager where and when works take place. 

By James Caplin
The aim of this book is to help the reader become better at preparing and doing presentations. There is a secondary aim. This is to be part of the process of ridding the world of poor presentations, so that we all have to suffer through fewer of them in future. I Hate Presentations is a practical book, containing no academic arguments, footnotes or extensive reading lists.