Good Local Economics

Is it possible for a council to avoid cutting staff, maintain local services and keep funding the voluntary and community sector? Manjeet Gill reckons you can – and achieve a whole lot more. Austin Macauley meets her

If ever there was a council boss with their head above the parapet it’s Manjeet Gill. By insisting it’s possible to maintain services, avoid job cuts and actually invest in new initiatives she’s not so much peeping over the top as jumping up and down on it.

I have spent a lot of time in the last two weeks looking at aspects of the Work Programme with people from the voluntary and community sector (VCS), social enterprises, prime contractors and even been part of meetings with the minister and shadow minister responsible. The question is, what have I learned?