Local councils will face an uphill struggle to make further efficiency savings in their back office spending according to a report today from the Audit Commission. In a review of efficiency savings of English councils’ back office activities it warns it will be difficult for them to contribute to a further 4.9 billion pounds of efficiency savings before 2010.

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Countryside campaigners are today calling on the Government to take action over the growing number of local communities which are being drawn in to accepting offers of ‘goodwill payments’ from wind farm developers. The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England wants the Government to take steps to prevent the planning system being brought into disrepute.

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New Deal for Communities Partnerships are the key driver for the New Deal for Communities Programme launched in 1998. This report describes how the partnerships have told people about progress in carrying the programme forward in the 39 deprived English localities over the last ten years. It explains how the partnerships have made people aware of the achievements in education, health, crime, worklessness, housing and the physical environment and liveability.

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