Beacon status is granted to local authorities that demonstrate a clear vision, excellent services and a willingness to innovate within a theme.
Learn from the Beacon council open days
Greenwich, Sheffield, St Helens and Bolton councils were awarded Beacon status in March 2009 for their outstanding achievements in housing. All four councils have organised open-days.
It is important that their knowledge and know-how is disseminated as widely as possible making it available to other local authorities. These open days have been excellent opportunities for other local authorities and the wider housing sector to learn from their experience.
Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council overview
St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council overview
Greenwich Borough Council overview
Sheffield City Council overview
Overview of the Beacon Scheme
The Beacon Scheme's history starts with the first awards launched in 1999. Since then there have been 10 rounds and this year's awards were announced in March 2009.
Themes from round 10
Each year, Communities and Local Government announces a number of themes, mainly focused on specific services, but also cross-cutting. It invites all best value authorities to submit bids for recognition of their local projects, services and achievements.
One of the themes of the round 10 was 'Homes for the future'. This takes its lead from the Housing Green Paper 'Homes for the Future' 2007.
Homes for the future
'Homes for the future' theme is about local authorities' strategic housing role and their leadership in working with communities, housing and utility providers, to ensure sufficient delivery of the right quantity and quality of homes. In other words, it is about local authorities using their traditional role in granting planning permissions to orchestrate a good supply of good quality homes.
'Homes for the future' resource contains overviews of the Beacon authorities and case studies on the four councils that were selected for the award: Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council, London Borough of Greenwich, Sheffield City Council and St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council.
Overviews of the Beacon authorities
Case studies - on the four councils that were selected for the award.
Related Beacon themes
This theme is strongly interlinked with another theme, 'Raising economic prosperity through partnership'. This is because housing is one of the crucial aspects of the support provided to individuals who want to overcome worklessness and participate in economic growth. The holistic view is that to tackle deprivation requires effective collaboration between all local and regional partners. These include local authorities, Jobcentre Plus, Learning and Skills Council, regional development agencies (RDAs), planning bodies and housing, transport, private and third sectors.
Raising economic prosperity through partnership