26 November 2004
Councils need to focus on building up effective relationships with their partners as 'new localism' plans move forward over the next few months, according to the Improvement and Development Agency.
Rob Pearce, the IDA's new head of policy and strategy, said the Local Area Agreement pilots presented a huge opportunity for all local authorities, not just the 62 councils in the 21 areas selected to take part.
'The worst thing people can do is sit there and watch the 21 pilots. We need to think what we can do to drive things forward and create conditions for more effective local leadership,' he told Public Finance.
Pearce said councils had been granted many powers under the Local Government Act 2000 that were not being used as well as they might be. The Act gave councils new powers to promote the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of their area and draw up comprehensive community strategies in conjunction with other partners.
'The wellbeing power changed the whole local government landscape,' Pearce said. 'But in a lot of local authorities the Local Strategic Partnership is just bolted on to the side… Central government departments tend not to trust local government. LAAs present us with an opportunity to turn that around.'
Pearce's comments followed a Local Government Information Unit-hosted conference about the challenge of LAAs.
Local government minister Nick Raynsford told the conference that LAAs represented a 'golden opportunity' for local government to show what it can do. 'We are starting from the premise that almost nothing is excluded,' he said.
'We need to keep the momentum going and I am urging pilot authorities to be ambitious and imaginative in taking the concept forward. It is in all our interests to make this work.'
PFnov2004
