Local devolution at odds with capping

7 Apr 05
Ministers have ignored requests for meetings with local authorities facing the threat of capping and there are 'no grounds for optimism' that the orders will be rescinded, Public Finance has been told.

08 April 2005

Ministers have ignored requests for meetings with local authorities facing the threat of capping and there are 'no grounds for optimism' that the orders will be rescinded, Public Finance has been told. 

Sarah Wood, the Local Government Association's director of economic policy, said the body was giving its full support to appeals by the nine capped councils but held out little hope of success. 

The LGA was due to reaffirm its opposition to capping at a meeting of the executive on April 7. 

'We will keep on trying but the government has made its position on council tax and capping very clear,' Wood added. 

The nine councils, who were told on March 23 they would have their council tax increases capped, must lodge their appeals against the decision with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister by April 13. 

They were first notified of the capping order the day after the department published a discussion paper, Securing better outcomes, on a new performance framework for local government. It promised a radical shift away from central prescription towards genuine local accountability.

Wood told PF that the promises of devolution were at odds with the decision to cap. 'It is illogical that the government is promoting, through the discussion paper, the idea of greater responsibility, and yet authorities' ultimate responsibility, to set council tax, is one the government intervenes on,' she said. 

The paper, released as part of the ODPM's ten-year vision for local government, pledged a substantial reduction in the number of inspections faced by councils. 

Instead, robust and transparent performance information would be collated, and the views of service users and partners would carry much greater weight. 

So-called 'trigger' mechanisms would allow residents to force improvement on underperforming services. 

The current morass of targets would be replaced with a few key national objectives, which would be set out in each authority's local area agreement. 

Wood said the LGA backed these principles, but was cautious about whether the government had the will to implement them. She also warned that the shift to more performance information should not result in merely replacing one system of regulation with another. 

'It should not just be information that's useful for central government, it should be information that can also be used by authorities for delivering better services.' 

Wood added that the proposals would allow councils to prove to ministers they could be trusted, which could prevent interventions such as capping in the future.

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