The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has announced plans to remove the requirement for an entertainment licence for many community events. The proposals to scrap parts of the Licensing Act 2003 are, as part of the government's commitment to ‘cut red tape', open for consultation until 3rd December 2011.

As the government's consultation on the Open Services White Paper comes to a close,
systems thinker John Seddon has published an opinion piece, reproduced on the National Coalition for Independent Action website, on how progress made on public service reform is under threat from cuts, commissioning and ‘big society'.

Tessa Jowell, the Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, says local commissioning could be key to future Labour success. Writing in the Progress pamphlet ‘The Purple Book', Jowell says that Big Society "speaks to Labour's principles of solidarity, mutualism and collectivism".

Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has found £250m from his budget to offer funding to local authorities that commit to weekly refuse collections. The new Weekly Collections Support Scheme has been criticised for prioritising refuse collection over other needs in the face of spending cuts.