A partnership deal between central and local government has been put on hold, after the two sides failed to reach agreement before the deadline. The much-heralded concordat was due to be signed at a joint DCLG/LGA event on ‘Working together' on Wednesday. But, after last-minute haggling over the detail, the two sides backed out of signing up to the deal – which would outline their working relationship for the coming year. LGA chief executive, Paul Coen, described the concordat as a ‘good idea', but said: ‘It has to be an agreement.' He told The MJ he hoped it would be signed later. Chairman, Sir Simon Milton, used his speech at the conference to up the ante with ministers, claiming councils should have the power to hire and fire heads of other public services at a local level. Further to Gordon Brown's calls for greater local accountability over police and health services, Sir Simon said councils should take control of ‘every service delivered to citizens in their local area'. Sir Simon set out key challenges for the LGA and central government for the coming year, adding: ‘I want to make the local police chief and the NHS trust director accountable to the elected representatives of the community. ‘And I mean totally accountable. We cannot serve the interests of local people if we cannot get rid of someone who does a bad job. ‘This will require changes to the way our state is organised, where central government should continue to do what it does well, but should leave delivery of local services to those who know the local area best.' Sir Simon's speech followed the LGA general assembly, and communities and local government secretary, Hazel Blears, was also keynote speaker. Sir Simon also criticised the Government's centralism, saying: ‘For the life of me, I can't see why central government continues to think it is in its interests to take responsibility for the things that it must, by definition, fail at.' He called on the Government to do what it does best, and leave local issues to local government. ‘The Civil Service could revisit what it once did brilliantly – to act as an extremely talented policy advice and development service to government. Instead, it is currently being daily vilified for failures which are an inevitable consequence of it trying to take on responsibility for delivery.'
