The Welsh Government began consultation on a new framework for regeneration policy. Proposals included: new national outcomes; a people- and place-based approach that was well evidenced and evaluated; a strengthened national, regional, and local delivery structure; a renewed commitment to cross-portfolio working within government; and ideas on how to direct targeted investment.
Source: Vibrant & Viable Places: New regeneration framework, Welsh Government
Links: Consultation document | Welsh Government press release
Date: 2012-Oct
A paper examined the spending cuts by local authorities in Wales since 2009-10, and medium-term prospects. Net spending per person had been reduced by 8.4 per cent in real terms so far, and cuts look set to continue for at least the next four years. Even under the most optimistic assumptions spending power per person would be 9 per cent lower in real terms in 2016-17 than in 2012-13.
Source: Rowena Crawford, Robert Joyce, and David Phillips, Local Government Expenditure in Wales: Recent trends and future pressures, Briefing Note 131, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: Briefing Note | IFS press release | WLGA press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-Oct
An article compared two government-led 'flagship' area-based initiatives targeting deprived neighbourhoods – the New Deal for Communities (launched in England in 1998) and the Communities First programme (launched in Wales in 2001). In England, a shift in the national paradigm from 'big state' interventions towards the 'Big Society' agenda had heralded the decline of the area-based approach. In Wales, the approach remained but had recently been re-launched. The shift in the emphasis of both initiatives from holistic, place-bound strategies to broader, service-influencing efforts pointed to the up-scaling of neighbourhood governance, despite the renewed policy emphasis on localism.
Source: Madeleine Pill, 'Neighbourhood initiatives in Wales and England: shifting purposes and changing scales', People, Place & Policy, Volume 6 Issue 2
Links: Article
Date: 2012-Aug
An audit report in Wales said that local councils were good at asking the public what they thought, and carried out a great deal of public engagement exercises. But, despite this, many exercises fell short of enabling residents to help shape their local services.
Source: Public Engagement in Local Government, Wales Audit Office
Links: Report | WAO press release | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Jun
A report examined approaches to measuring rural deprivation, and their suitability in the Welsh context. It considered the extent to which the existing Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation was effective in measuring rural deprivation, and how the latter was reflected in policy development and funding decisions. There was growing evidence that the factors that defined deprivation in rural areas were different from those elsewhere, and that a specific rural index of deprivation could be developed.
Source: Getting the Measure of Rural Deprivation in Wales, Local Government Data Unit (Wales)/Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion
Links: Report | Data Unit press release | OCSI press release | WLGA press release
Date: 2012-May
The Welsh Government published a White Paper on proposals designed to make improvements in relation to local democracy. It included plans to improve access to information about town and community councils, enhance the operation of the local government ethical framework, strengthen the scrutiny function of local government, and ensure that councillors received improved levels of training and development.
Source: Promoting Local Democracy, Welsh Government
Links: White Paper | Statement
Date: 2012-May
A report by a committee of the National Assembly for Wales said that the Welsh Government should ensure that planning policy fully protected town centres from the potential impacts of out-of-town retail developments.
Source: Regeneration of Town Centres, Enterprise and Business Committee, National Assembly for Wales
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Jan
