01 March 2002
The LGA has sent a draft list of priorities to local authority chief executives for comments before the March 20 meeting of the central/local partnership, the forum where ministers and authority leaders meet. Areas highlighted include improving standards in schools; boosting social services for vulnerable children; and tackling crime.
The priorities were drawn up in response to a pledge in the local government white paper to agree a common agenda for change. Council leaders are hoping that a list of priority areas, agreed between local government and the centre, will encourage Whitehall to grant authorities more autonomy.
Phil Swann, the LGA's director of communications, told Public Finance that the aim was also to provide a focus to the different proposals in the white paper.
'We want to move away from the blizzard of initiatives, targets and indicators that has fallen on councils in recent years,' he said. 'This is as much about local government securing central government's support for what we are doing as it is about supporting central government's agenda.'
PFmar2002
