Public works departments know how to fix a dangerous stroad. We put it in a five-year capital improvement budget. We do a big study of the conditions. We mock up several design alternatives, and we hold public workshops where we ask constituents for their feedback and preferences. We send out (typically useless) surveys. A design is selected by the city council, and over the next couple years, it’s built.
The end result of this approach is typically very pretty. There are curb bulb-outs planted with flowers. There are flashing beacons and refuge islands at newly painted crosswalks. The street is calmer, it’s safer, and it actually feels better to drive on, as well as walk along. It’s hailed as a big step forward, a boon to the neighborhood’s quality of life. Everybody is happy. This example from South Minneapolis, of a nasty stroad rebuilt after a deadly crash and public outcry, is typical of my experience.
Okay. So, we know how to do that. Now do it 1,000 times.
The “1,000 times” problem may actually be the primary reason why we can expect local governments to be resistant to adopting an approach like the Crash Analysis Studio as policy. If you truly acknowledge that a deadly crash is not a fact of life, but an anomaly that shouldn’t have happened, and a condition that should be corrected, then you suddenly have a to-do list a thousand miles long.
Nobody is going to say out loud, “We can’t come close to fixing all of them, so it doesn’t make sense to acknowledge that there’s an urgent imperative to fix any of them.” But I’ll bet a lot of traffic engineers have thought it.
Local government
Khan launched Right to Buy-back in July last year to boost London’s supply of council homes. It gives boroughs the funds to purchase former council homes that have been sold into the private market through the government’s Right to Buy programme.
Since then 14 London boroughs have been given ÂŁ152 million to purchase 1,577 market homes that have been or will be converted to social rent or to house homeless families. A total of 1,756 council homes in London were sold through Right to Buy in 2021.
According to the New Economics Foundation, the scheme has led to an average net loss of 24,000 social homes a year since 1991.
The mayor’s office says it has already exceeded his previous target of starting 10,000 new council homes this year. Khan now aims to start a further 10,000 homes in a significantly shorter time – a total of 20,000 new council homes by 2024.
A Best Value Notice is a letter issued to a local authority by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. It sets out concerns about the authority’s performance and ability to achieve its Best Value Duty. It may require them to take specific actions to improve their services and achieve better value for money, report on improvement plans or engage directly with the department.
Essentially, it’s a firm tap on the shoulder and being handed a note which says: “Things seem shaky there, friend. You need to get back on the right track.”
A council under fire from the Government for piloting a four-day working week on full pay has reported improvements in staff performance and wellbeing.
Liberal Democrat-run South Cambridgeshire District Council, which is looking to continue a planned extension of the pilot until March despite Government officials ordering it to end, found rates of staff turnover and vacancies had dropped.
A report on progress since the start of the trial in January presented to the council’s employment and staffing committee on Thursday showed the number of agency staff covering vacancies had reduced from 23 to nine, providing a projected saving of £776,000.
Staff turnover reduced by 36% and sickness rates fell by 33%, while significant improvements were reported in the mental and physical health of employees.
Complaints to the council reduced by 2.5% and there was no worsening in the performance of any council service, the report said.
This paper examines whether homeowner opposition to nearby housing development affects local councillors’ votes on housing bills. Homeowners benefit financially from restricted housing supply through increased housing prices. City councillors, who approve housing development applications, cater to the needs of homeowners who are often long-term resident voters with a financial stake in neighbourhood amenity levels. Using data from Toronto, Canada from 2009 to 2020, we identify housing bills through a machine learning algorithm. We find that councillors who represent more homeowners oppose more housing bills. In particular, councillors are significantly more likely to oppose large housing developments if the project is within their own ward.
A surge in people being forced to live in bed and breakfasts and other temporary homes in England is costing the taxpayer £1.7bn a year, “shameful” council data analysed by the Local Government Association has revealed.
The worsening shortage of social housing and increasingly unaffordable private rents are among reasons councils are now paying for 104,000 households to live in temporary accommodation – more than at any time in the past 25 years.
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The LGA, the councils’ umbrella group, is demanding the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, use his coming autumn budget statement to increase housing benefit to make more private rented homes affordable to people on welfare, and to reform housing rules to allow councils to build more social housing.
“Council budgets are being squeezed and the chronic shortage of suitable housing across the country means that councils are increasingly having to turn to alternative options for accommodation at a significant cost,” said Darren Rodwell, the leader of the London borough of Barking and Dagenham and the LGA’s housing spokesperson. “Councils need to be given the powers and resources to build enough social homes for their residents so they can create a more prosperous place to live, with healthier and happier communities.”