Archived decisions

REPORTS OF LEADER

AND CABINET

PART II

IMPACT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT WHITE PAPER "STRONG LOCAL LEADERSHIP - QUALITY PUBLIC SERVICES"

1. In December the Government issued a White Paper entitled "Strong Local Leadership - Quality Public Services". The document is divided into two parts. Part I covers a wide range of non-financial proposals, aimed at reforming Council services and enhancing local democracy and community leadership. Part II sets out proposals for modernising the Local Government finance system to promote good local financial management in which Councillors are fully involved.

2. The Cabinet has considered the White Paper in detail and whilst it is not a consultation paper, has considered it appropriate to make a number of representations based on its concerns about fundamental aspects of the proposed legislation. These supplement earlier comments made in response to a request from the Commission on Local Governance for the County Council's initial views on specific areas of the White Paper.

3. Whilst the language of the White Paper is strong on intent, acknowledges the valuable role of Local Government in community leadership, and sets out a number of principles that the County Council can broadly welcome (many of which have already been taken forward by the Council), there are a number of contradictory statements and there is much as yet to emerge in the final guidance. Crucially there is a perceived failure to provide Local Government with the autonomy it needs to deliver services effectively with the "freedoms" in the document often involving replacing one type of Government control with another, moving from controls over inputs and how money is spent to control over priorities and outcomes enforced by an inspection and performance measurement regime. In short, the Cabinet resents the inference that Central Government is better placed than individual local authorities to judge where particular pressures lie. Among the other issues referred to in the response are the problems caused by the lack of coterminosity between the County Council and Health Authority boundaries and the Government's failure to link and synchronise the related Government papers recently published or about to be published, namely the Local Government White Paper, the Planning Green Paper (referred to elsewhere in this set of reports) and the White Paper on the Regions.

4. A copy of the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions' summary of the White Paper, and the full text of the County Council's response is obtainable on request to the Chief Executive.

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