Two Annual General meetings back to back, Westmill Solar Coop – where I’m a director and Westmill Wind Coop – which I chair. For the first time the meetings were entirely on-line, which has involved quite a lot of preparation…
Blog Archives
Focus
I’ve radically simplified my website, too much was about roles from a decade ago. I’m a portfolio worker. I helped create a credit union, a community owned wind farm, and then a solar farm. That led to a role as…
Posted in Uncategorized
Community energy strategy
Last month’s community energy strategy set out, in part, to identify how to support investment funding for community energy. A series of grants and funding schemes from across different parts of government are highlighted. Actually there is shortage of investment…
Posted in sustainability
Bucks Council talk
I had a really interesting day meeting councillors, managers and local people in Bucks. I was asked to speak about community energy, and whether Buckinghamshire could create the sorts of projects that have started to emerge around Oxfordshire. My advice…
Posted in Community, sustainability
A collective bond agency
Across Europe local authorities have worked together to create mutual, collective bond agencies. These agencies have meant councils (not just the large ones) can access bond markets at attractive interest rates. There are several wider benefits. Individual councils don’t have…
Posted in Finance
Looking outwards
When the going gets difficult organisations tend to look inwards. Over time this can become an ingrained habit, much like a stoop when walking. Looking downwards means you miss what’s going on around you. An inwards focus in an organisation…
Posted in Efficiency
From efficiency to effectiveness
I have worked at different authorities, some seen as the best in the country and others viewed as “failing”. These measures were far from perfect, failing sometimes meant failing to follow the maxim of the government of the day. Nearly…
Posted in Efficiency
Benchmarking
There’s a renewed interest in benchmarking, it can be a helpful tool. When I worked at the Audit Commissioner Local Government they used to produce an annual statement analysing each council’s costs. You could see if a high cost service…
Posted in Efficiency, Finance
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