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The London Borough of Sutton has called on Audit Commission to rethink its plans for Comprehensive Area Assessments (CAA), in light of the economic downturn.

Sutton chief executive, Paul Martin, told The MJ: ‘There's much in the CAA that we welcome, but there is an entirely new set of circumstances and challenges facing the country now from the ones when the CAA was being designed.'

As a result, he is asking the commission to go back to the drawing board. ‘Councils will always aim to change quickly to respond to different circumstances, but the regulatory framework has less agility.

‘What councils want is to have the maximum amount of freedom to prioritise to changing circumstances.

My hope would be that the CAA would have the latitude to make it flexible and responsive to the challenges we have to respond to.'

The plans form part of the council's response to the Audit Commission's consultation on CAA, which closed earlier this week. Mr Martin claimed he was in favour of the inspection regime's focus on outcomes for local people, but he was disappointed there was not more space for ‘innovation and creativity' for councils to support their communities.

In her speech to the SOLACE conference earlier this month, Hazel Blears claimed councils would have to revisit local area agreements, the basis of the new CAA. Under the current economic circumstances, she claimed some of the targets would no longer be relevant.

The Audit Commission promised to consider Sutton's submission ‘alongside those of all other consultees'. A spokesman added: ‘CAA is designed to be significantly more flexible than previous assessments, and this includes being able to respond to rapidly-changing economic circumstances and shifting priorities for local areas.'

Sutton says: