21 October 2010
The lack of a firm commitment to place-based budgeting in yesterday’s Comprehensive Spending Review was because it has failed to gain cross-departmental support, local government select committee chair Clive Betts has told Public Finance.
Despite being strongly backed by the Department for Communities and Local Government and councils, Chancellor George Osborne gave a commitment only to ‘16 community budget areas’.
The CSR document said that services in the budget areas would be pooled to help families with ‘complex needs’. It also opened the way for all localities to be given similar flexibilities by 2013/14. JohnTizard, director of the Centre for Public Sector Partnerships and an architect of the Total Place projects, described the announcement as ‘some way short’ of the opportunities presented by place-based budgeting.
Betts saidthat one of the reasons that there was not much mention about place-based budgeting was that ‘the CSR was about headline figures for local government – and very uncomfortable ones at that’.
But he added that the lack of greater commitment was because Whitehall departments, especially the Department of Health, were not supportive.
‘I think generally there is cross-party consensus on trying to get more devolution, more power to local authorities. And I think there is consensus in the DCLG. The problem is, we have not got cross-Whitehall consensus, getting other departments to sign up. It is something that there is lip service but to, but there is no real enthusiasm.
‘The Department of Health was totally and utterly resistant. Its view was that any money spent by the department was accountable to the secretary of state and he alone was responsible for every penny spent.
‘I think there is a long way to go,’ he added.
