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The Welsh Assembly Government and councils across the principality have signed a landmark deal which will hand more freedoms over to local government and, at the same time, reduce the burden of targets.

The agreement will see council officers involved in new legislation affecting local authorities and, in return, councils will be expected to share their expertise in certain areas. The assembly government will provide more financial certainty, in terms of settlements, and also remove ring-fencing from some of its funding to give authorities more say on how money is spent.

A spokeswoman for the assembly said the deal, A new understanding, was the first time it had moved away from simply issuing targets since devolution, and it hoped councils would now be free to be innovative as funding started to dry up.

‘Before the agreement, there were a lot of targets and rules,' she said.

‘Now, following discussions with the councils, we are taking a lighter touch, freeing them up and giving them more responsibility.'

‘This will start from the assumption that authorities require the maximum flexibility over the use of their resources in order to secure the maximum value for the public purse,' states the agreement.

In return, councils will be expected to look at partnership working with other authorities and health, fire and police boards. They will also have to ‘seek to identify and release efficiency gains each financial year'.
Both parties will work together to create a new list of strategic outcome agreements. WLGA leader, Cllr John Davies, said the agreement was needed to ‘codify central local relations in Wales', and focus resources in new and innovative ways.

‘The agreement [frees] up local authorities and their partners to get on with the job,' he said.