New Economy to help councils balance books

MANCHESTER City Council’s New Economy think tank has been chosen by the Government to help other local authorities deal with smaller budgets.

It will be working with councils as they redesign services to cope with smaller awards from Westminster.

The Government has made £320m available to help local authorities to re-engineer public services.

New Economy said it was picked on the back of its Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) framework which enables local authorities to measure value for money and economic and social impacts, when evaluating public services.

Mike Emmerich, chief executive of New Economy, said: “For some time, a new system has been required to respond to the many complexities of public service reform; which is why I’m delighted that Government has recognised Manchester’s CBA methodology is meeting these needs.   
 
“The CBA framework has been borne out of a mature approach to reforming services and it shows how local authorities can adopt better practices to take more control of spending in their areas.”