On 26 January 2026, the Independent Revenues and Benefits Monday Discussion Group focused mainly on the new Crisis and Resilience Fund, with a closing round of linked updates on digital delivery, WorkWell, and a developing Council Tax Reduction legal challenge. Independent R&B Monday Discussi… Malcolm Gardner opened by setting out the central tension in the…
Month: January 2026
Independent R&B Monday Discussion Group: Blue Monday session roundup
19 January 2026 (12:02pm) The group marked “Blue Monday” with a mixture of humour and hard reality: policy change arriving at speed, year-end pressures stacking up, and councils trying to keep services stable while funding assumptions shift under their feet. Malcolm Gardner chaired the session, with contributions from Naomi Armstrong, Kirsty Brooksmith, Nicki Duckworth, Michael…
Monday Discussion Group, 12 January 2026: transparency, microwaves, beach huts and the fine art of “savings”
We reconvened for the first session of 2026 with Malcolm Gardner in the chair, supported by Nicki Duckworth, and a familiar cast of local government finance, revenues and welfare experts, including Naomi Armstrong, Paul Howarth, Gareth Morgan, Laura Bessell, Kirsty Brooksmith, Michael Fisher, Bob Wagstaff, Robert Fox, Richard Hanby, Peter Haywood and others. The meeting…
Happy New Year, and second mid-break update.
Happy new year to you all, and I hope 2026 is a fantastic and exciting year. Ah yes, LGR, local elections, and a fresh dose of Donald Trump inspired international chaos. Come back 2025, all is forgiven. This is a second update on what has been happening while we have been stuffing our faces with…