Looking for the X factor

With two years to go to the next London local elections, an 'X factor' search for new talent has been launched with the help of a recruitment manual to encourage the widest possible representation in 2010. Ian Mitchell reports.

You have to be a certain age now to remember the TV programme Opportunity Knocks. But just about everybody has heard of the 'X Factor' and its chief judge Simon Cowell.

Such ubiquity is no doubt one reason why London Councils the Leadership Centre for Local Government chose the X factor as the shorter title of their recent publication: A talent spotter's recruitment manual for the 2010 local elections.

Much like its TV namesake, the manual seeks to cast the net as widely as possible in search of new talent. Unlike Simon Cowell, however, this X factor is looking for community leaders rather than pop singers.