25 January 2011
Local authorities are not ready for localism or the challenges of the Big Society, according to a report published by consultancy Deloitte today.
A little local difficulty: the challenges of making localism work, based on interviews with 15 council chief executives, found that most (80%) had not put plans in place to address localism or the government's Big Society agenda in any kind of systemic way.
It also highlighted a ‘fundamental misalignment’ between Whitehall’s vision of localism and the practical challenges faced by councils in giving a bigger role to communities.
The report noted: ‘In a new world of reduced budgets, chief executives will actually need to become more selective about how and on what terms they release funds into the community.’
Mark Lawrie, head of local and regional government at Deloitte, said: 'From the beginning, what the government means by the Big Society and localism has, to some extent, lacked clarity. This has had consequences: people don't understand it so they ignore it or they interpret it in a way that suits them. Clearly, for the government's localism vision to be realised, it needs to provide the leadership necessary to bring clarity to the interpretation as well as remove the barriers to implementation.’
The report concluded that local authority business models were going to have to change significantly. Councils needed to understand how their capabilities and structures might have to evolve to meet future roles and responsibilities.
