This is a crunch year for Labour in local government. Whilst most of the media focus has been on the battle for control of London, we face a tough set of elections across the country defending more seats than any of the other parties. The Labour councillors and candidates I've joined on the campaign trail over the past few months have been working hard to persuade their communities that our party best represents their interests.

Writes Local Government Minister John Healey
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Highly-rated Local Government Minister John Healey is set to publish at Labour Conference a pamphlet with the LGA Labour Group calling for town halls of "all the talents".
In what seems a natural extension of Gordon Brown's Cabinet strategy, Healey seems to be calling for Local Authorities to be less partisan in their power sharing - "Confident politicians can reach beyond the narrow circles of their own power".
While this may mean co-opting opposition politicians into positions of power, the main thrust seems to be to press devolution down to a local level.
I for one am looking forward to reading the detail.