Thinktank calls for CAA to be ditched

The Comprehensive Area Assessment and its predecessor regime have failed to improve local government performance and should be scrapped, an influential think tank claimed this week.

In its report For good measure: devolving accountability for performance and assessment to local areas, Localis said the cost of compliance was £2bn and that savings could be “far higher” when the costs of system distortion are considered.

The report recommended that:

• The CAA should be made optional, with councils actively encouraged to opt out. Councils would still be required to perform self assessment of their performance
• Councils should be required to release more data to residents, with all financial expenditure over £500 placed in the public domain together with information about the work of councillors (including their attendance record, declared interests and voting record)
• 25 indicators from the National Indicator Set, which measures national priorities, should be scrapped immediately
• Any increase in local accountability should be tempered by an increase in power from central to local government. “Without a power shift in line or above the increases in local accountability, performance will invariably be damaged and the case for localism completely undermined,” the think tank said.

James Morris, chief executive of Localis, 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.”