Archive for April, 2011

Defra has had a rocky year in meeting “responsive external engagement”, one of seven fundamentals of good policy making recommended in our recent report, Making Policy Better.

One of the big contrasts between making policy and, say, making chocolate bars is that the latter are trialled and tested before they move into full scale production. Most innovations fail to make it from concept to supermarket shelf.

In the Institute’s new reports on better policy making, we suggest seven building blocks of a good policy:

Special advisers, or SpAds as they are not-so-affectionately known, seldom get good press. Gordon Brown vowed to trim their wings when he moved into No. 10, and the Conservatives’ hostility to SpAds was well established in the run up to the 2010 general election.

The aftermath of last year’s general election proved something of a shock to the Westminster village.

Local government waste management is emerging as a test case of the government’s genuine commitment to localism. Over the weekend, plans by the Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, to rein in local authorities who charge for waste, suggest a low level of tolerance for local action and little belief in the power of local people to...

In July 2010, Environment Secretary announced the abolition of the government funded watchdog on sustainability, the Sustainable Development Commission.

Today marks the launch of 16 Community Budget pilots that promise to pool local budgets around families with complex needs. Eric Pickles has said: “My message to local areas is: don’t be afraid to think big – to be as bold and as innovative as you can. This is the future for public services.”

I’ve just returned from giving a seminar in Berlin to public servants from various European countries. They were eager for more details on the UK’s fiscal consolidation.