LGA urges ‘audacious’ reform of powers

24 May 2006

Radical reforms to sweep away Whitehall red tape and empower councils to fund and deliver transport, infrastructure and economic development have been set out by local government leaders.
They are demanding the slashing of performance targets, the return of business rates to local control, and other new freedoms to engender a renaissance of local government in England.
In return, they propose turning their new power for social, economic and environmental wellbeing into a duty, binding Local Area Agreements with other public bodies, ‘zero tolerance of poor performance in local services’, and beefed-up arrangements for, mainly local, scrutiny.
The far-reaching proposals, which have the backing of all the political parties, were published by the Local Government Association this week.
Echoing the interim report of Sir Michael Lyons on local government finance and function (Surveyor, 11 May), it argues that decentralisation, especially in transport, planning and the economy, is essential if English cities, and their regions, are to catch up with the likes of Frankfurt, Milan and Madrid.
‘In England, with the exception of London, powers are held centrally or fragmented among a set of non-elected bodies,’ said LGA chairman, Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart ‘The time has come for audacious and deep-seated reform.’
In recent evidence to the Commons transport committee (Surveyor, 18 May), the LGA has blamed Department for Transport hold-ups for stymieing schemes.
The report says funding powers should be devolved to allow elected leaders of one or more councils to decide bus, rail and highway routes, and services.
All income from local tariffs and new development would be retained locally, to help finance infrastructure. Innovative funding sources would include borrowing for capital investment against long-term income streams. Business rates would be limited by an ‘inflation guarantee’ exceeded only with businesses’ backing.
Given clear powers, councils could deliver road charging and other controversial developments, the report suggests.
Removing Whitehall’s 1,000 prescriptive targets would save £2.5bn in regulation costs. They would be replaced by no more than 30 ‘national priorities’, such as reducing congestion, linked to locally-decided priorities and targets.
The LGA calls for early field trials of its proposed performance and accountability framework - based on public satisfaction with services and external quality assurance through new ‘select committees’ and more widely publicised audit reports.
Central government would hold councils and their public service partners to account against their Local Area Agreement targets.

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LGA urges ‘audacious’ reform of powers

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