Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities
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Local Government in driving seat for decision making and delivery
Local Government Minister John Healey announced today that councils and their partners are now in the driving seat on new Local Area Agreements (LAAs) with a package of measures to give them the tools to make decisions and improve services and quality of life in their communities.
Speaking at the third annual LAA conference in London John Healey said the potential for action on localism was now enshrined in law giving LAAs the legal clout they demand. This new settlement between central and local government and communities will rebalance where judgements and decisions are taken that affect people in their everyday lives.
All Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) are now agreeing which priorities they want to tackle by involving their local communities, before negotiating a maximum of 35 targets with Government.
New guidance published today delivers the new framework for negotiating LAAs - giving local government and partners the opportunity to negotiate ambitious plans to meet the needs and aspirations of their communities.
John Healey announced today:
* Eleven LAA demonstration areas in Stockton, Sunderland, Leeds, Manchester, Coventry, Leicester, Essex, Portsmouth, Cornwall, Westminster, and Lambeth, who will work closely with the Government to explore how to deliver ambitious LAAs and help to transfer learning to all other areas.
* An introduction to the new local performance framework: Delivering better outcomes for local people produced jointly with the LGA to provide a clear overview of purpose to all those working with LAAs and setting out their and relationship and timeline with the new national indicators and the Comprehensive Area Assessment.
* Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous Communities: draft statutory Guidance for consultation on the duties under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act setting out how the new laws will enable local government and LSPs to develop effective LAAs and sustainable community strategies; ensure effective consultation with local communities through the 'duty to involve' and ensure commitment from local partner agencies through the 'duty to co-operate'
* 'Development of the new LAA framework' The second phase of operational guidance to support the negotiation of LAAs by June 2008. It explains how LSPs can use their local vision, evidence and the radically streamlined national indicator set to develop their LAA. It highlights the importance of engaging with councillors, communities, voluntary groups and businesses to agree shared priorities, a timetable for implementation and the new more flexible arrangements for performance management and area based grant.
It also includes an overview of arrangements for Multi-Area Agreements which will help the thirteen areas announced last week to take forward this collaborative approach to sub-regional working.
John Healey said:
"This is a decisive period for local government. The pieces of the jigsaw for local decision making are now in place. We've radically cut the number of national indicators, to give LSPs more freedom to decide how to focus their efforts and resources, enshrined LAAs in law with duties to involve and co-operate to make them more effective and accountable, and provided guidance to help support effective and ambitious agreements.
"These changes offer unprecedented opportunities for local leaders to set out a vision for their communities. This is not just about making sure services meet local need and demand. It is also about defining a future for the area and a vision of the good society.
"Every LAA will be unique, tailored to meet the unique circumstances of different places - whether they are rural or urban, densely or sparsely populated, and no matter what challenges they face. But what they will all have in common is an expression of the pride, purpose and leadership that local authorities can give.
"Now it is time for local leaders to act. I want them to seize this opportunity, be ambitious and deliver genuine solutions that meet local people's aspirations and concerns."
Communities Secretary Hazel Blears added:
"To be successful devolution must mean local action on the ground, not an abstract theory. That is why we will work with these eleven areas to show how more local decision making can provide better services, greater public satisfaction and demonstrate what local democracy in action can achieve."
Chairman of the Local Government Association, Sir Simon Milton, said:
"The new framework for Local Area Agreements brings some major changes around greater clarity about the relationship of national and local priorities, a reduction and rationalisation of national performance monitoring, and greater financial flexibility. We are confident that councils and partner organisations locally will seize the opportunities this brings to work more effectively, and with a clearer focus on local priorities.
"LAAs provide a strong platform for local leadership, enabling the local authority to build, with partners, a strong shared vision for the area and to take decisive action to tackle problems and create new opportunities, particularly in getting local people involved in improving their area. Our ambition is to deepen local democracy, develop more citizen-centred services, and promote stronger, more cohesive communities."
The guidance embodies the new relationship between central and local government. Rather then central government providing all the answers, it has been developed with local government and its partners through extensive discussion and a series of dry run negotiations, which showed how best we can provide flexibility for local decisions and deliver improvements to the people we serve together.
The measures will also be complimented by both the a new consultation document developed by the voluntary sector on how best to work with LSPs, and the consultation by the seven local inspectorates on the Comprehensive Area Assessment published yesterday.
Notes to Editors:
Statutory guidance on Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous Communities is published for consultation today and is available here: http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/statutoryguidance
Development of the new LAA framework: Operational Guidance 2007 is available here: http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/laaoperationalguidance
An introduction to the new local performance framework: Delivering better outcomes for local people is available here: http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/localperformanceframework
Local Area Agreements are now the only place where central government can agree targets - up to a maximum of 35 - for local areas, for those outcomes delivered by local government alone or with partners. New LAAs will be negotiated in all areas by the end of June 2008, to cover the period 2008-2011.
The up to 35 targets (plus statutory education and childcare targets) will be drawn from the new streamlined national indicator set, supplemented with any local targets which local areas wish to set. These local targets will not be subject to performance monitoring by Government.
Dry-run negotiations took place with 17 areas over the summer. A full report is available at http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/laadryrunreport
The first phase of operational guidance - Negotiating New Local Agreements - which covers the key lessons from this testing was published on 18 September, and is available at http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/negotiatingnewlaas
On Monday 19th November the seven local inspectorates published a consultation on the new Comprehensive Area Assessment which is available here: http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/caaconsultation
The New Performance Framework for Local Authorities and Local Authority Partners: Single Set of National Indicators was published on 11 october and is available here: http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/nationalindicator
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