Ruth Kelly looked quite pleased with herself when she appeared at this week's New Local Government Network conference on the White Paper, for her first major speech since its publication on October 26. After all, even the Opposition's Caroline Spelman could only come up with the rather weak barb that the White Paper was a ‘halfway house'. Ms Kelly was magnanimous enough – perhaps because Lord Bruce-Lockhart was speaking after her – to say she was aware of criticisms the WP could have gone further in devolution. Of course it could have done. And it is vague about city regions and does not touch on finance because of Lyons, in particular business rate, but things, at least for Ms Kelly, could have been worse. The White Paper could have said nothing at all. As it is, there is enough for local government to get its teeth into, some of it positive, some of it fraught with potential problems as observers are finding, studying the small print. Plainly structure will be a short-term concern in two tier areas but ‘virtual' unitary government has long-term implications. The new community call for action could become a nightmare for council cabinets if strong local interest groups end up dominating ward issues. And the shift in the inspection regime is also intriguing. For new Audit Commission chairman Michael O'Higgins, the NLGN conference was his first opportunity to lay out his stall and he did it with refreshing candour, a mix of stick and carrot. Expressing regret that the original CPA category ‘coasting' was dropped and if he had the opportunity he would bring it back, Mr O'Higgins then said far too few councils learned from each other's successes. He cited Tower Hamlets, his home borough, which on being upgraded to three stars in social services still had not a single visit from any other authority to find out how it was done. ‘You should plagiarise more,' he urged delegates. His appointment precedes the setting up of CAA, the offspring of CPA. The new CAA will be risk-based, anticipating problems rather than dwelling on past weaknesses which have often already been recognised and addressed before
