Blears slashes local govt targets to give more 'freedom'
Friday, 12 October 2007 12:00 AM
Communities secretary Hazel Blears has slashed the number of targets for local government.
From April 2008 the number of performance indicators will be less than a sixth of a where they are now - dropping from 1,200 to 198.
Speaking yesterday, Ms Blears said this would give councils "major new freedoms to direct their focus and resources at the issues local people care about", including problems such as anti-social behaviour, gun culture and improving education.
Speaking in Cardiff to the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (Solace) Ms Blears said this was a "once in a generation" chance for local government.
She said: "You must now step up to the mark, embrace this new responsibility and demonstrate a strengthened approach to governing.
"This represents a major re-engineering of the relationship between the state and local councils bringing government much closer to our communities.
"We are delivering on our devolution promises - slashing Whitehall control, increasing financial flexibility and turning devolution to the town hall into a reality.
"Councils and communities will have more power to take action on the issues local people care about whether it's tackling guns and gangs, providing more affordable housing or improving the local neighbourhood."
The Local Government Association (LGA), which called the grants announced in Alistair Darling's comprehensive spending review "the worst settlement in a decade" for councils, welcomed Blears' move to reduce performance indicators.
Chairman of the LGA, Simon Milton, said: "The bonfire of red tape that Hazel Blears has promised for councils is an excellent step that will help free councils to deliver on what local people want and need.
"The ending of these targets will allow local people and local councils to have more power in their hands to decide what is right for them."
The Conservatives, however, attacked the government's reduction of performance indicators, saying it was "empty rhetoric".
Shadow communities secretary Eric Pickles said: "This is just a cynical attempt to appear to hand down control, when in reality the dictates from central government and regional bodies are distorting priorities and tying the hands of locally elected representatives.
"The idea that councils are being delivered more freedom is yet more empty rhetoric."
The Liberal Democrats, who have long campaigned for more power to be transferred to local government, said the decision signalled "step in the right direction" but claimed the government was still "putting local authorities in a straight jacket"
Local government spokesman Andrew Stunell said: "It's a step in the right direction.
"But the idea that councils should be judged by how many teen pregnancies they have, or discipline records in secondary schools - over which they have no control - is frankly ridiculous."
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