City of Wolverhampton Council has been shortlisted for a record number of categories at this year's prestigious MJ Awards which recognises outstanding achievement in local government.

The council is a finalist in 7 of the 14 categories including: 'Local Authority of the Year', 'Most Improved Council', 'Impact and Learning in Children's Services', 'Workforce Transformation', 'Senior Leadership Team', 'Behaviour Change' and 'Excellence in Governance and Scrutiny'.

It was also commended in an eighth category, 'Commercialism in the Property Estate', for its city centre investment strategy including the highly successful i10 development.

Leader of the City of Wolverhampton Council, Councillor Roger Lawrence, said: "This is a real achievement for the city council, its employees, councillors and partners.

"It shows the progress the council has made to transform services and regenerate the city - despite the significant financial challenges we face.

"The MJ received 500 submissions in total so to make it as a finalist in half of all the categories highlights our improvement journey. It's also a magnificent achievement to be finalist in seven categories when you consider that the next highest number of finalist nominations for another council was 4.

"Success at the MJ Awards not only gives us an opportunity to benchmark the quality of our services and the health of the organisation, it allows us to learn and share expertise with our peers. All of this we do to ensure that we are providing the best possible services we can to our residents and businesses.

"Each category is judged by local government experts and influential commentators from both the private and public sectors.

"Winning an MJ Award not only promotes achievements, it also provides employees and partners with the recognition they so richly deserve.

"We look forward to the awards ceremony next month when we will find out if we've been successful. However, regardless of the outcome - it's a real coup for the council and city to have got this far given the stiff competition we faced."

The MJ Awards have been held every year since 2004 and are one of the major, annual events within the public sector calendar.

  • released: Friday 5 May, 2017