TAG - Local Government Technical Advisors Group

TAG's main aims are to provide coordinated and comprehensive advice and support to technical professionals employed by local authorities directly or indirectly to manage and advise on their services.

To achieve these aims, TAG works through its network of Regions, Technical Committees, Topic Groups and individual contacts to provide a professional network for the development and dissemination of best practice.

Membership of TAG is open to all professionals employed either in the public or private sectors whose principal role is the procurement and delivery of local authority technical services. Individuals discharging these functions have a variety of professional backgrounds which relate to the built environment and which may include architecture, building services, engineering, environmental health, housing, leisure, town planning, street scene and strategic management. TAG is not prescriptive about membership qualification and welcomes as members all who are called to play a responsible role in the delivery and management of local public services.

Organisational Structure

Coverage of TAG

TAG has members from Local Government throughout the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including members who have retired and still retain an interest in Local Government. All members are automatically members of the Regional Committee for their home location or their work location: these regional committees (12 no) are the powerhouse of TAG and they influence everything which TAG does. They send representatives (normally a minimum of 2 members but frequently more) to each of the standing committees (8 no) and they nominate officers for election to the key posts in the organisation. These regional representatives on the standing committees provide an essential link between the regional and functional work of TAG.


Please find below the monthly blog from the TAG Council.



TAG BLOG SPECIAL
David Cameron has launched a major policy green paper outlining Conservative plans to give power back to local communities. He explained that “decentralisation, devolution and empowerment” are naturally part of a Conservative approach to government, and stressed the importance of an “empowering state” rather than an “overpowering state”. ‘Control Shift’, our decentralisation green paper, outlines a series of policies that will see powers transferred from the central state to local people and local institutions:
· Abolishing all regional planning and housing powers exercised by regional government, returning powers and discretion back to local communities
· Creating bottom-up incentives for house building, by allowing councils to benefit more from the increase in council tax revenues from new homes, rather than being equalised away by Whitehall
· Allowing councils to establish their own local enterprise partnerships to take over the economic development functions and funding of the Regional Development Agencies
Should Councils take responsibility for economic development from RDAs?

The view below from TAG, is based on the above Conservatives proposals announced last week, saying the Conservative party will scrap house-building targets and reward councils for building more homes, which would curtail regional development agencies.
TAG strongly believes that local authorities should be central to the delivery of local services and welcomes proposals that strengthen the role of local government. Economic development is a key activity linked to well-being and clearly local authorities should have a stronger role. Central control should be reduced however, there is a need to coordinate the use of resources to maximise benefits and individual local authority administrative boundaries are not necessarily appropriate. Co-ordination should be facilitated at the regional level, together with an appropriate degree of planning, however this should be accompanied with clear democratic accountability.
Success will inevitably be dependent upon the adequacy of funding and the true degree of freedom and flexibility provided.
Bob Donaldson
TAG President

» TAG Presidential Team and Officers

Leadership of TAG is provided by the Presidential Team

Normally the Vice President is elected at the AGM (in May) and progresses automatically to become Senior Vice President at the next AGM a year later, then President 2 years later. Past Presidents remain in the team for 2 years after their Presidency.

In addition to the Presidential Team, other officers appointed are the National Secretary, the Honorary Treasurer, the Seminar Manager, and the Bulletin Editor/ Webmaster.

» TAG Council

The policy-making body for TAG is the Council which is made up of the Presidential Team and Appointed Officers together with the Chairmen of all Regional and Standing Committees and one additional representative from each Regional Committee, normally the Secretary.