Hammersmith & Fulham draws up list of 105 regulations to be scrapped

September 14, 2010

The London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham has sent the government a list of 105 town hall regulations that it says should be scrapped, claiming that the reforms would deliver savings of £200m across the country if implemented.

The council estimated that it would save a minimum of £500,000 on its own as a result of its proposals, which were suggested by council officers, charities, business groups, social workers, teachers and others.

Writing on the ConservativeHome local government blog, Cllr Harry Phibbs said the list contained proposals already made elsewhere – “we are adding our voice to the chorus” – as well as some completely new suggestions.

He added: “While the list is long it is not remotely comprehensive. I think we could have included some more examples of requirements for pointless consultation exercises; also some more on the obstacles to starting new schools.

“But the project became a bit like painting the Forth Road Bridge. We thought we really should get out initial thoughts sent in and then offer the government a further batch later.”

Among the regulations that Hammersmith and Fulham believes should go are:

Sustainable community strategies: it should be at the discretion of the local authority and its partners as to whether such a strategy should be produced
Local area agreements: these should be developed locally, “not imposed from above”
National indicators: these should be reviewed so that only those useful to the majority of councils are collected on a compulsory basis (for benchmarking purposes). The rest should be discretionary
Charging and trading: Sections 94 and 95 of the Local Government Act 2003 fetter the council’s ability to act commercially. This should be scrapped and decisions about generating income left to local authority discretion
The general duty provisions under the Local Democracy Economic Development and Construction Act 2009: this contains a variety of “micro-managing and unnecessary statutory duties”
All guidance on how to implement statutory duties: “The judgement in relation to the LAML case has demonstrated that it has no force. It simply provides cover for lazy drafting of primary legislation”
Secretary of State consent: the number of statutory provisions requiring councils to seek ministerial consent should be established and significantly reduced
Employment relations and dispute resolution: “Regulations for dismissing employees are excessively bureaucratic”. The employment process should be simplified, “wherever possible taking it out of the complex legal process”
Freedom of Information: the FOI process, “which requires massive resources”, should be reviewed
The Local Development Framework: this is “complex, over-prescribed and places a huge and expensive burden on local authorities. “We need more autonomy and fewer stages of central approval”
Local newspaper advertising: the requirement to advertise planning applications in local newspapers should be axed.