Scrap statutory guidance notes, LGA tells government review

The Local Government Association (LGA) has urged the government to stop issuing statutory guidance notes and to reduce the number of statutory duties on councils, saying that “unnecessary” guidance and duties are costing the government £1.5bn per year.

In its response to the Department for Communities and Local Government’s statutory duties consultation, the LGA also said that while the existence of  statutory duties were essential in many areas, the “minute detail” on how local authorities should go about fulfilling these duties created a significant administrative burden on councils. Eighty per cent of duties handed out down by the  Department for Communities and Local Government were accompanied by further instructions, it said.

The LGA identified more than 50 out-of-date duties that it said should be abolished and called for an immediate review of many other duties to “ensure they are fit for purpose”. The  LGA also called for the need for ministerial consent to be removed for minor activities, such as erecting traffic signs and managing street works carried out by utility companies on local roads.

The LGA claimed that that reducing policy work in central government departments by 20 per cent would produce a saving of up to £1.5 billion each year. It said that the data reporting demands of central government departments oblige the average council to fill in and submit an estimated 12.6 million individual pieces of information each, at an estimated cost of around £1.8 million a year per authority.

The LGA also told the government that the requirement to publish planning notices in local papers was an “anachronism from the pre-internet age which should be done away with immediately”.

Baroness Margaret Eaton, Chairman of LGA, said: “The elimination of statutory guidance notes and a root and branch prune of unnecessary duties would not only ease the costly red-tape burden being placed on local authorities, it would help government departments avoid unnecessary policy work, saving them up to £1.5 billion each year. In 2010 town halls delivered more than £1.6 billion of savings through measures like joining forces with other councils to get cheaper terms from suppliers and merging back offices. So far, more than 200 local authorities are in the process of entering shared services arrangements with neighbouring councils to bring down management costs. Local authorities need that level of endeavour matched in Whitehall.

“The Government has an opportunity to completely revise the existing culture of excessive bureaucratic oversight. We would like this review to take away the more restrictive and unnecessary duties and introduce a system which ensures residents’ core needs are met and vulnerable people protected, while offering councils the flexibility to deliver services in the most locally appropriate way.

“We are not seeking to abolish the statutory duty to provide core services and protect the vulnerable. However, some of the duties currently placed on town halls are perverse, unnecessary and run contrary to localism. Bossy guidance telling councils how to collect rent, costly duplication in the collection and reporting of data and confusing and contradictory policy guidance increase the administrative burden and make it harder for councils to deliver the services people want in the way they want them.”

A full copy of the LGA’s submission to the Department for Communities and Local Government’s statutory duties consultation is available by clicking the following link:  LGARedTapeSubmission.