Light touch performance regime for flood hit Councils
| Published: 14th November 2007 14:19 |
Communities and Local Government (Yorkshire and Humber)
Light touch performance regime for flood hit Councils
Local Government Minister John Healey announced plans today to ensure that councils severely affected by this summer's floods will not be unfairly penalised through their performance rating system.
The performance system is important because well performing councils can enjoy financial rewards, greater freedoms on spending, and wider powers to raise funds by trading services that can be used to improve services or reduce council tax bills. John Healey described the new approach set out in a statement of principles published today, saying that central Government and the relevant inspectorates will recognise the unusual strain placed on severely affected areas and would use common sense when reacting to temporary dips in performance against a previously improving trend.
The common sense approach to assessing the performance of authorities worst hit by the floods will ensure that they able to focus on the recovery effort and are not overly burdened by performance requirements during this time. The new approach was set out in a statement of principles published today.
Local authorities were central to the response and recovery operations for the floods which caused widespread damage to homes, businesses, and key public services. With 48,000 homes affected and high levels of contaminated waste, some councils may struggle to meet key service targets such as waste collection, recycling and decent homes.
John Healey said it would be unfair to penalise authorities for temporary dips in performance caused by the floods. But equally that wholesale changes to targets would not be appropriate or what local people would expect given the Government's determination to see all councils improve and reform public services.
While on a visit to Hull to get an update on the flood recovery work taking place John Healey said:
"This summer's floods caused misery for thousands of people with widespread damage across large parts of the country. Thousands of homes and businesses were affected with further damage to schools, roads and other public buildings.
"Local authorities, working with emergency services and other agencies, responded magnificently under very difficult circumstances. Government has provided up to £57million to support the local recovery operation so far - and more financial help will follow.
"But we recognise that we can also provide support in other ways. It is important that national performance requirements on local authorities do not act as a barrier to the process of getting their systems and services back in place following the floods. Some councils have raised this concern with me so I am ensuring we take a common sense approach so we do not penalise authorities for temporary dips in performance resulting from the flooding.
"However at the same time I want councils to be absolutely clear that we continue to maintain momentum on existing service improvement, so I will not simply change the targets as some have suggested, especially given we are introducing the new performance framework and indicator set over the next year. So this is about striking the right balance between fairness and delivering better services for local communities.
"We want the process for agreeing flexibilities to be transparent and clear, as much for the benefit of those local authorities not affected by the flooding as those who have been. It also needs to be responsive and flexible, with minimum bureaucracy, while remaining consistent and fair across regions."
The Audit Commission are working with Government to use their consultation on Comprehensive Performance Assessment methodology in the New Year to outline the approach they will take for flood affected areas. They have confirmed that they will be sensitive to the affects of the floods in assessing the performance of local authorities in severely affected areas. The Audit Commission have stated that they are willing to allow some flexibility but they also need to ensure that their methodology is clear and consistent.
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