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As the regulatory framework in this country changes to make enforcement more consistent and targeted, Clive Grace explains the new strategy. While national economies suffer, in part as a result of regulatory shortcomings, at the local level there is still considerable potential to use regulation to support both economic prosperity and community protection. The Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO) has been created to maximise that potential and, through the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008, it now has major statutory powers to do so. The Act establishes LBRO's mission to help local authority regulatory services – trading standards, environmental health, licensing and fire safety – regulate business in a way that is consistent, risk-based, targeted, transparent and accountable. And we are absolutely committed to making it happen. In our first year, in shadow form, we built firm foundations which will be the basis for achieving early impact. We have appointed a strong and senior board, and a small but excellent executive team led by Graham Russell, the former head of trading standards and community safety at Staffordshire CC. And we have forged good relationships with a wide group of stakeholders. As well as the professional institutes, local government bodies, national regulators, government departments and consumer groups, we have already started to work directly with major businesses, including Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, B&Q and Sainsbury's, and with local authorities ranging from Cannock Chase to City of London, Dundee to Torbay. Our strategy, published this week, has been developed on the basis of firm evidence, clear analysis and positive consultation. We see three fundamentals which set the context for better local regulation. First, local authority regulatory services are the frontline enforcers of both EU Directives and UK legislation. They are the leading edge of a long delivery chain, subject to several layers of governance and competing priorities, which results in a number of often-conflicting pressures. They are the partners of the national regulators – the Office of Fair Trading, the Food Standards Agency and the Health and Safety Executive among others – and co-enforcers of a raft of legislation. Their service planning and resourcing has to take into account these competing regulatory demands as well as local needs. The national enforcement priorities, established by the Government in 2007, helped clarify what most needs to be done, and LBRO will keep them under review. Second, businesses of all sizes have legitimate concerns about their experience of local enforcement. A survey for LBRO carried out by Ipsos-MORI suggests one-third of businesses operating across three or more local authorities perceive inconsistency in the advice they get – although this does not prove inconsistency's objective presence, it does show the potential scale of the problem. Mostly, business welcomes appropriate regulation to ensure fair markets, and wants support from local regulators to help achieve compliance. Increasingly, they want a relationship which understands commerce. The Primary Authority scheme, which LBRO will administer, has been designed precisely to tackle these issues. Third, local regulators' ability to influence community wellbeing is potentially huge. Being central to the interface between local government and business, and particularly new businesses, the enforcement-compliance relationship holds major possibilities for the local and multi-area agreements. As well as the wider agenda of local economic prosperity and community protection, local regulatory services also contribute to tackling under-age sales, for example. To make a positive impact, we need to bring people and organisations together across what is a complex and messy ‘system'. We have invested early effort in building a coalition of partner organisations to create the vision for world-class local regulatory services and to find practical ways of getting there. We must also directly support those authorities which most need help, working firmly within the modern ethos of peer-supported improvement journeys led by the authorities themselves. But we also need more innovative ways of thinking about and managing the enforcement-compliance relationship. We should promote ways of working which encourage constructive compliance, acknowledging the legitimate needs of business for less-burdensome regulation, while maintaining or even enhancing consumer confidence and public protection. When businesses build compliance into their own systems and behaviours, and when consumers are armed with accessible information to underpin their market decisions, regulators can work with them to help co-produce outcomes which benefit everyone. This is not ‘light touch' regulation – rogue traders can expect greater attention in accordance with the risks they pose to all. It is better regulation, which makes for better and fairer markets, and which is valued by business and communities alike. Clive Grace chairs the Local Better Regulation Office

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WHITEHALL

The new regulators

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