Localism Bill measures to increase admin costs by £68m+ a year, warns LGA

Town hall chiefs have hit out at measures in the Localism Bill which they claim could increase administration costs by at least £68m a year.

The Local Government Association claimed that its analysis of the proposed legislation suggested district and unitary authorities would face costs of more than £250,000 each year, “enough to pay the salary of 16 care workers”.

The association predicted that if the Bill was adopted without amendment, “thousands of hours of council staff time would be lost jumping through Whitehall’s bureaucratic hoops, doing things like checking the validity of names on petitions, compiling lists of ‘Assets of Community Value’ and ticking centrally imposed boxes which dictate how local people should be engaged in planning decisions.”

The LGA said it would be seeking a range of amendments to the Bill, which receives its second reading in the House of Lords this week. These would include reversing provisions that:

• Give ministers “hundreds of new powers to issue costly guidance and regulation”
• Dictate how much local authorities can borrow to invest in social housing
• Require local referenda be held at a cost of up to £300,000 per referendum, “even on issues of broad general support among the public and councillors”
• Hand ministers the power “to interfere with local democracy” by altering the constitutional structure of councils
• Pave the way for “complex, bureaucratic and costly” regulation governing planning and the use of community assets
• Unfairly pass responsibility to councils for paying fines worth anything up to £1.2bn levied by the EU for missing national environmental performance targets.

The association acknowledged, however, that large sections of the Bill provided a “desirable and welcome” devolution of power to local authorities.

Baroness Margaret Eaton, chairman of the LGA, said: “At the moment the Localism Bill is something of a curate’s egg. There are good bits and bad. The general power of competence offers a desirable devolution of power to local authorities but is being undermined by a number of measures which seek to entrench significant new powers in the hands of Ministers and Whitehall.

“Our analysis shows that elements of stealth centralism in the Bill will add vast administration costs to local authorities at a time when they are looking to focus spending on delivering frontline services. Sixty-eight million pounds is a lot of money and local people would much prefer to see it spent on caring for the elderly or keeping the streets clean rather than administering to the whims of Whitehall departments.”

Baroness Eaton called on ministers to avoid introducing measures that divert resources into “pointless, old-fashioned bureaucracy”. “Removing measures in the Bill which would hand ministers more influence over the delivery of local services will eliminate the temptation to interfere, ensuring councils have greater freedom to respond to the wishes of local residents,” she argued.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said:  “The LGA's figures are grossly exaggerated. Inevitably - as with any radical change - putting the Localism agenda into practice is going to mean local authorities taking on some new responsibilities. The Government is committed to ensuring that any additional burdens on councils are funded in accordance with the new burdens doctrine. The impacts of the Bill have been assessed in the usual way, and the necessary funding will be made available.

“The Localism Bill marks a significant milestone that will change the way the country operates by giving councils much more freedom and local people real power to get involved in local issues. Its measures - such as the general power of competence - will free up local councils and business from needless red tape and bureaucracy.”