Editor Nick Golding Founder Charles Knight | Frequency Weekly Company Ascential | |
Categories Government officers trade publication Year founded 1855 (162 years ago) (1855) | ||
The Local Government Chronicle (LGC) is a British weekly magazine for local government officers, and is published by Emap. The magazine was launched in 1855 by bookseller and publisher Charles Knight. It is politically independent.
Subjects LGC covers include finance, law, management, housing, planning, regeneration, the environment, education, big society, local elections, the third sector and social services. Nick Golding is its editor. It features contributions from analysts including Tony Travers from the London School of Economics, a weekly anonymous columnist "LGC Insider" and various governmental figures.
It works closely with its sister publication the Health Service Journal to provide comprehensive health coverage, given the continued expansion of health into the local government remit; specifically through the Health and Social Care Bill 2011.
It provides comprehensive local election coverage each year, in the form of rolling online results, expert analysis from Professors Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher from Plymouth University, political reaction and a council control map.
In recent times it has gained a reputation for its coverage of Local Enterprise Partnerships, with its chief reporter, Allister Hayman being shortlisted for the PPA Awards 2011 writer of the year (Business Media).
Among its other activities, LGC runs the first national awards to be launched for local government, the LGC Awards for Excellence, has recently launched the Business Partnership Awards; which reward private contractors who work with local authorities in the UK to deliver services, and a large number of public sector conferences.
In March 2012, the owning company rebranded as Top Right Group, but retained the Emap name for its magazines operation, which at the time accounted for around 18 percent of the group's turnover. In October 2015 Top Right Group announced it was scrapping the Emap brand and would stop producing print editions and that, over the next 12–18 months, titles would become digital only.
In December 2015 Top Right Group rebranded as Ascential who, in January 2017, announced its intention to sell 13 titles including LGC; the 13 "heritage titles" were to be "hived off into a separate business while buyers are sought."