Socitm welcomes Policy Exchange report

27 Jan 2015 12:46 PM

Socitm welcomes the latest Policy Exchange report into smarter use of technology and has contributed to the research.  The report makes many sound recommendations, however it is unfortunate that it emphasises most the weakest area of research that makes bold assumptions about local government’s poor performance in making efficiency savings and moving to a more collaborative model.

The report recognises the enormous savings already achieved by local authorities since austerity measures were first imposed.  Indeed, local authorities have had to shoulder the largest burden of deficit reduction across government at a time when demographic changes have created a very significant increased pressure on their services.

The fact that such savings have been made is testament to just how much re-organisation and accommodation is already going on. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find any local authority in the country that is not now sharing some services or collaborating with another authority in order to reduce costs and improve services, so the report's suggestion that LG is negligent in this area is disappointing.

For further information on Socitm’s response to key points in the report please see our press release. The report itself can be found athttp://www.policyexchange.org.uk/webreports/small-pieces-loosely-joined/