Threats of a massive cut to the Local Government Association’s sector-led improvement budget have become an annual ritual and this year is no different.
Each year, ministers appraise the performance of local authorities, grumble, and begrudgingly flick through the coins in the departmental purse to see what they can spare.
Surrey, Northamptonshire and Birmingham may have made their way out of the woods, but now Croydon, Nottingham and a host of other authorities have headed into the forest. Ministers are apparently asking why they are paying for improvement and still seeing authorities toppling over.
The obvious answer is austerity and a global pandemic – but, in all honesty, that is not the full picture and the whole sector knows it. At their best, local authorities are extraordinary but sometimes they are not at their best – they get things wrong.
The LGA’s improvement offer has its failings. It is not universal and it lacks transparency and teeth. There is no one to force councils to have a peer review – and if they do they don’t have to publish. There are too many reports of councils choosing their peers, and re-writing the final reports.
When it comes to failing authorities the LGA is even more opaque, doing all it can to keep its work under wraps and hide poor performance. Understandable for a membership body – and no doubt appreciated by those in the mire – but does the public not deserve to know more about their councils?
Sector-led improvement has many benefits that should not be overlooked. There are no better placed experts on local government than those in local government. It is significantly more cost effective than pouring money into private sector profits to create public sector improvements. And when it comes to politicians they are more likely to be swayed by their peers.
In truth, the LGA needs to up its game. It needs to give the ministers no doubt whatsoever that this is the best option to help councils stay out of the mire. It needs to go on its efficiency drive – just as councils across the country have – and prove its grant is money well spent.
Local government needs to support the LGA as a single voice or face being drowned out by metro mayors and LEPs.
And local government needs to accept a more stringent improvement offer – or face far worse.