The Local Authority Podcast LGC

The local elections are just around the corner, with everyone in England and Wales able to vote in either council, metro mayor or police and crime commissioner elections, or a combination of the three.
With the Conservatives behind in national polling, the increasing importance of independent candidates, and some bellwether mayoral and council contests taking place on 2 May, there is a lot to talk about.
In this special Local Authority episode, LGC deputy editor Martin George is joined by editor Sarah Calkin and head of news Kirsty Weakley to discuss all this and more. The trio are joined by elections expert Colin Rallings who explains why he thinks the Tories could lose up to 500 seats, and by Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, to talk about its recent polling about the metro mayors.
Find out more about sponsoring an episode of The Local Authority by downloading a copy of the media pack here, or emailing Andrew.Leggatt@emap.com. 

Councils are increasingly recognising the value of involving communities in the design of services meanwhile financial pressures have seen the delivery of services such as libraries outsourced to community groups. And though new technology has provided more ways for councils to engage with their residents and businesses, misinformation through social media platforms can often undermine trust. 
In this episode of The Local Authority we explore what the relationship between councils and their communities should look like and how councils can build trust and democratic engagement.  
LGC editor Sarah Calkin is joined by: 
Elizabeth Campbell (Con), leader of Kensington & Chelsea RBC  
Tracey Lee, chief executive, Plymouth City Council 
Adam Lent, chief executive, New Local
Find out more about sponsoring an episode of The Local Authority here: https://lgcplus.com/podcast

Children’s services are frequently cited as the biggest current pressure on council budgets, with costs having spiralled in recent years. But despite huge increases in spending there is concern children are often not getting the care and support they need, with shortages of placements meaning young people can often find themselves placed many miles away from the people and places they know. Furthermore placements are increasingly being provided in facilities run by private equity backed firms, sparking concerns of excessive profit making.
In this episode of The Local Authority, the podcast from Local Government Chronicle, we explore what has gone wrong and what needs to happen to fix a broken system.
LGC editor Sarah Calkin is joined by:
Louise Gittins (Lab), chair of the LGA children and young people’s board and leader of Cheshire West & Chester Council
Josh MacAlister, chair of the 2022 Independent Review of Children’s Social Care and now executive chair of Foundations, the what works centre for children and families
Andy Smith, vice president of Association of Directors of Children’s Services and strategic director for children’s and adults’ social services at Derby City Council

The UK is one of the most centralised countries in the world and local authorities enjoy few revenue raising powers when compared with their counterparts in other developed nations. In recent years calls have been growing for local authorities to be given the power to set new taxes or take control of elements of the existing tax base. However, central government has so far resisted these calls.
In this episode of The Local Authority, the podcast from Local Government Chronicle, we want to explore the arguments for fiscal devolution, what that could look like in practice and why it is being met with resistance.
Joining Sarah Calkin this month is Jamie Driscoll, metro mayor of the North of Tyne Combined Authority; Jessica Studdert, deputy chief executive of New Local and Ross Mudie, research analyst at The Centre for Progressive Policy. 
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Spiralling inflation has pushed up the cost of borrowing while the high-profile failure of some councils that took on large amounts of debt has increased scrutiny of council investments. In this episode of The Local Authority, the podcast from Local Government Chronicle, we want to explore how councils are approaching funding of regeneration in this environment and whether attitudes to commercialisation in local government have changed. Joining Sarah Calkin this month is Sarah Norman, chief executive at Barnsley MBC; Rob Whiteman, chief executive at CIPFA and Tracy Bingham, strategic director (corporate resources) at South Derbyshire DC.  The episode is available for streaming on all podcast platforms now.

For the past decade, the government’s preferred model of devolution has been to combined authorities with directly elected mayors. However, more than five years on from the election of the first metro mayors, there is ongoing resistance from councils to adopting this model. In this episode of The Local Authority, a podcast from Local Government Chronicle, we explore what is behind this resistance and how the model is working in those places where it already exists.
Joining LGC editor Sarah Calkin this month is Professor Carolyn Wilkins, fellow at Birmingham Leadership Institute and former chief executive of Oldham MBC; Cllr Anna Smith (Lab), former leader of Cambridge City Council and deputy mayor of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority and Paul Swinney, director of policy and research at Centre for Cities. The episode is available for streaming on all platforms now.