The Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) regime came under further fire this week, as local government looks to the future of inspection after the general election.
Think-tank Localis has called on CAA to be scrapped – a pledge already made by the Conservatives – in a bid to save cash and improve council performance, while the Local Government Association (LGA) is consulting on plans for a single inspection body.
In its report, For good measure, Localis claims councils should be encouraged to ‘opt out' of inspection in a bid to be more responsive to local people, rather than the inspection regime.
Localis chief executive, James Morris, said: ‘Local authorities are more accountable to central government than to their residents.
‘Without doubt, this has been a contributing factor in the disengagement of local people. The new system we propose can turn this underwhelming system of performance and assessment on its head.'
The key recommendations from the Localis report include:
