Councils call for control of Total Place savings

18 Mar 10
Councils are calling for radical public service reform as the government prepares to release the results of the Total Place pilots, intended to identify billions of pounds’ worth of savings.

By David Williams

18 March 2010

Councils are calling for radical public service reform as the government prepares to release the results of the Total Place pilots, intended to identify billions of pounds’ worth of savings.

The findings of the pilots, which mapped all the spending on public services in 13 local areas, will be published along with the Budget on March 24.

Early figures suggested that £20bn could be saved over ten years just by better use of publicly owned buildings. Council leaders say the scheme could lead to improved, locally tailored services, but only by allowing authorities much more flexibility.

‘Local areas must have the freedom to design services that better meet the needs of people who live there,’ said Local Government Association chair Dame Margaret Eaton.

An interim report from the 2020 Public Services Commission also called for a radical rethink of public provision. Beyond Beveridge argued that modern phenomena such as climate change, an ageing society and entrenched inequality had stretched the current public services model, which has its origins in the 1940s, beyond its limit.

The commission said choices offered by politicians were too narrow. It called for a shift in power from Whitehall to citizens, with fewer ministers and departments, possibly directed at places rather than functions.

Commission chair Sir Andrew Foster said: ‘We need a new approach – one that is positive, coherent, consensus based and long term.’

- Ben Lucas, director of the 2020 Public Services Trust, which set up the 2020 commission, will be speaking at the CIPFA annual conference in Harrogate on June 9.

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