By Michael Burton Local government and communities secretary Ruth Kelly has pledged a bonfire of red tape in her first major speech to councillors since she took on the post last month. In a clear signal that she has listened to the litany of complaints about the cost to local authorities of central government regulation, she told the LGA conference this week that the forthcoming White Paper would propose a sharp reduction in targets. And she also announced that Telford & Wrekin Council chief executive, Michael Frater, was to chair a new Lifting Burdens task force to investigate how regulatory burdens could be lifted from councils. Ms Kelly told the conference: ‘I’m clear that we need much less red tape getting in the way of councils responding to their citizens. ‘This means a dramatic reduction. Too often there are burdens which are costly, at best, duplicate, and at worst, contradict. The local government White Paper provides the opportunity to address these issues fully.’ Mr Frater, whose authority last week was named as Best Achieving Council of the Year in The MJ Achievement Awards, will be joined on the task force by local government practioners. Their brief is to outline to Ms Kelly’s office those Whitehall regulations which cause the most aggravation and the least value, and agree a reduction through the Central Local Partnership. Ms Kelly also published a new report, Mapping the local government reporting landscape, about regulatory burdens. This found that council managers spent 80% of their reporting time compiling information for Whitehall, and only 20% aimed at their local electorate. In a reciprocal gesture, LGA chairman Sandy Bruce-Lockhart offered to agree some ‘30 national outcomes’ which councils would pledge to deliver in return for a cut in national targets. In his opening speech at the LGA conference, he said the outcomes would be supported by a new local performance framework based on public satisfaction and supported by ‘robust peer intervention. He added that there was a growing consensus across Westminster that ‘we now need a deregulating and devolving agenda in order to improve public services’ and called it ‘a once in a generation opportunity.’
