Government must tackle "avalanche of paperwork" inflicted on town halls: LGA
Some 74,000 pages of rules and instructions have been imposed on local government in the past decade, research for the Local Government Association has claimed.
A report by the National Foundation for Educational Research also revealed that 1,355 pages had been produced alone between April and August this year. This additional material was the result of 67 new laws directly relating to local government, the authors said.
The report focused on the cost of inspection as well. “The bill for the various inspectorates, Government Offices and councils’ compliance costs is in the order of £900 million a year, and estimates of the overall drain on the public purse have been as high as £2.5 billion,” the LGA said.
The LGA urged the government to:
- Scrap guidance on statutory duties
- Simplify the “existing muddle” of local government laws and allow councils to use the promised general power of competence to full effect, and
- Cut data demands on councils, and only collect stats where they have a proven value to local people.
The association’s comments came on the day that Communities Secretary Eric Pickles called time on Local Area Agreements.
Baroness Margaret Eaton, Chairman of the LGA, argued that “an avalanche of paperwork” had descended on town halls across the country in the past decade.
“The sheer quantity of bureaucracy is in danger of burying important measures which are both important and useful,” she said. “There is no justification for the sheer quantity of form-filling, data returns, reviews and micromanagement being foisted on local government. Red tape of this kind wastes valuable time and resources which councils need to spend delivering essential front-line services.”
Baroness Eaton also warned of a danger that paper trails conceal the decision making process and make all tiers of government seem more complicated and less accessible than they are.
