08 March 2002
Public Finance has seen a letter from the Local Government Information Unit to Local Government Secretary Stephen Byers, which attacks the plans to give every authority a 'report card' and put them into one of four categories.
Sent by LGIU director Dennis Reed to Byers on February 27, the letter is a stinging attack on ministers' attempts to put an end to the widespread dissatisfaction with Best Value felt by many authorities.
'The new proposals put too much importance on nationally defined standards and priorities, which erode local choice; give too dominant a role to the Audit Commission as the sole arbiter of success for councils; whilst the four-category classification is crude and potentially damaging.'
Reed also criticises ministers' keenness to yoke together the 'freedoms and flexibilities' promised in the white paper with councils' high performance, especially in relation to finance matters. 'The financial freedoms to be given to some categories of council are very limited. Such as they are, they should be available to all councils,' he wrote.
A particular target of the LGIU's criticisms is the plan to classify all authorities as high-performing, striving, coasting or poor. Speaking to PF, Reed said that, far from being an improvement on the stars system, the proposed categories were a backward step. And he criticised the lack of detail on what rights of appeal councils would have.
'We don't see anything wrong with a performance management framework, but this terminology is even worse. Every authority will have good and bad services, but to boil it all down into four crude categories is self-defeating.
'It will destroy staff morale and affect recruitment. What bright young thing will want to work for an authority that's coasting or poor? This terminology will lead to a downwards spiral – the authority won't have the incentive or the resources to improve, and standards will go down,' he said.
Reed also criticised the CPA regime for being too centralised and not giving local communities a role in the assessment process. He said that it went against the principle of 'local democracy', and called for opinion polls and citizen juries to be given a role.
The LGIU's critique of the plans, outlined just last month by Audit Commission head Sir Andrew Foster, will dismay ministers. Although the proposals were broadly welcomed by the Local Government Association, the response overall has become increasingly critical.
Senior figures, such as the Improvement and Development Agency's head, Mel Usher, who talked to PF two weeks ago, have described the plans as 'flawed' and demanded greater clarity from ministers.
The CPA regime will be rolled out to all top-tier authorities by the end of this year, and extended to district councils in 2003.
PFmar2002
