Councils and the communities they serve may get the power to make local laws under proposals that are now out to consultation. The changes could see authorities no longer having to seek Whitehall approval for new byelaws – and they could get the power to issue fixed penalty charges.
The Communities Secretary, Hazel Blears, said the objective was to give communities the power to tackle issues such as community safety, vandalism and public nuisance that really mattered to local neighbourhoods. 

Representatives of local authorities, housing associations and community councils who deal with issues of rural housing will give evidence directly to a committee of the Scottish Parliament next week. It will happen when the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee, meets in Melrose on Tuesday, the first time it has visited the town.
The committee members will be in Melrose for an evidence-gathering visit as part of their ongoing inquiry into rural housing in Scotland. 

Changes to the law are needed to ensure future elections are better run according to a report today from the Electoral Commission. It says the current system is under strain and it sets out the steps it wants to see to reform what it calls ‘19th century structures’.
The recommendations include the creation of new boards that would have powers to give directions to Returning Officers. The commission also wants improved funding for electoral administration. 

Councils could give high street store vouchers to council taxpayer’s to make up for missed appointments. That is one of the options for occasions when services don’t meet people’s expectations that are being considered as part of a drive to put more emphasis on customers in local service delivery.
The Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has announced a
new review team, which includes members from Tesco and the National Consumer Council with customer service expertise. 

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Women are underrepresented among social enterprise owners. The Government Equalities Office, with the support of Office of the Third Sector have produced a report which highlights the support they need to help groups, such as Pakistani and Bangladeshi women, who are under represented in the workplace and in society, to become more economically independent and participate more fully in communities. 

The special constabulary has grown by 3000 in the last four years and the Home Office has announced that a further 3000 special constables will be recruited in the next three years. The new recruits will bring the total up to 20,000.
Constables work alongside Police Community Support Officers and Police Officers on the streets of local communities and they help reduce crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour. 

The Local Government Association has responded to the House of Lords Science Committee report on waste management, by calling on businesses to match the efforts local people have made in recent years to reduce the country’s reliance on landfill. Reducing packaging is vital to avoid paying more landfill tax and EU fines. “The days of the cling film coconut must come to an end”.
The report focuses on waste reduction. 

Nearly three-quarters of people responsible for the professional development of staff in schools lack awareness of the range of continuing professional development options available. A culture heavy workloads and poor prioritising is preventing middle managers developing their skills in the children’s workforce. These are key findings from research by the Training and Development Agency for Schools and the Children’s Workforce Development Council. 

A wide range of investors have backed a Cabinet Office proposal to set up a risk capital investment fund for the 55,000 social enterprise businesses in the UK. The proposal describes an equity-like investment scheme where Government funding will be matched by private investment.
Although there are various schemes for start-up businesses, there is a funding gap when social enterprises move to a growth stage. 

Alliance & Leicester has introduced a prepaid card payments solution for local councils in the wake of the government’s scheme to transfer payment of housing benefit to claimants, rather than their landlords.
A prepaid card scheme will allow councils to save up to 75 per cent of their processing costs for the payment of housing benefits, as well as remove the average 10 per cent charge to the recipients when converting cheques to cash.