David Cameron has called for an end to all inspection at the Conservative Councillors Association Conference. The Tory leader claimed local government websites should be standardised in order to make it easier for service users to compare their services with those from neighbouring authorities. He claimed the move would cut the cost of running councils by scrapping the Comprehensive Performance Assessments and inspection. Councils would then be judged and held accountable by residents, ‘not by some mandarin in Whitehall'. He compared the service to the website ‘theyworkforyou' which tells people how their MPs voted on issues, how much they take part in the democratic process and how quickly they take action. ‘By making local data standardised and freely accessible, it would be possible to create a town hall equivalent of "theyworkforyou"'. It would also make information available to share on other websites – for example saga could link up to services for older people. Mr Cameron also called for more neighbourhood budgets. He said: ‘I encourage you all to go back to your councils and see if you can make this happen.' Shadow local government spokesman Eric Pickles pledged to take a ‘big axe to Labour's Quangocracy'. ‘We must take local government out of the hands of administrators and give it back to the people,' he said. ‘Now is the time for us to throw off the shackles of this authoritarian government with its command and control structures.' He targeted regional development agencies, regional assemblies and the new homes and communities agency for the chop. ‘The next step of localism is to expand the rights of citizens with the same enthusiasm we approached consumerism.'
