Pickles issues statutory guidance on best value and funding decisions

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has published guidance setting out the government’s “reasonable expectations” of the way local authorities should work with voluntary and community groups and small businesses when facing difficult funding decisions.

The document, Best Value Statutory Guidance, sets out how authorities can achieve Best Value in their areas – “not just in terms of cost for local taxpayers, but also the wider social and environmental benefits above and beyond the services they provide”.

It says authorities “should seek to avoid passing on disproportionate reductions – by not passing on larger reductions to the voluntary and community sector and small businesses as a whole, than they take on themselves”.

In particular:

• “An authority intending to reduce or end funding (where ‘funding’ means both grant funding and any fixed term contract) or other support to a voluntary and community organisation or small business should give at least three months' notice of the actual reduction – where on the basis of past practice the organisation might have some basis for expecting the funding or contract to be continued – to both the organisation involved and the public/service users.
• An authority should actively engage the organisation and service users as early as possible before making a decision on: the future of the service; any knock- on effect on assets used to provide this service; and the wider impact on the local community.
• Authorities should make provision for the organisation, service users, and wider community to put forward options on how to reshape the service or project. Local authorities should assist this by making available all appropriate information, in line with the government's transparency agenda.”

The government insisted that the guidance allowed authorities “the flexibility to exercise appropriate discretion in considering the circumstances of individual cases, without Government trying to predict every possible variable”. Central government departments are reported to have already signed up to the same principles.

Best Value Statutory Guidance applies to all best value authorities, which include councils and a range of other public bodies such as the police, fire authorities, the Broads Authority, waste and transport authorities. It does not replace local compacts between local authorities and the voluntary and community sector.

The statutory guidance on local priorities, which was introduced by the previous government and ran to 56 pages, has been scrapped.

Pickles said: "Community and voluntary groups provide vital and valuable services to our communities, often aimed at some of the most vulnerable in our society. They deserve a fair deal.

"That's why I'm introducing new guidance on councils to consider how they fulfil the Best Value Duty for their communities, not just in stark money terms but also in terms of the wider benefits to residents above and beyond the services that these organisations provide. And in return, I'm cutting reams of red tape that in the past have hampered council efforts to get their important work done.”

The new guidance clarifies that there is no requirement for local authorities to undertake lifestyle or diversity questionnaires of their residents or their suppliers.

The Department for Communities and Local Government said the surveys often asked personal questions about religious beliefs, sexual orientation and ethnicity, often duplicating information already collected in the Census.

The Communities Secretary said: "At a time when taxpayers are watching their pennies, the last thing councils should be doing is sending out unnecessary and intrusive questionnaires.

"Local residents shouldn't be asked to reveal detailed personal information just because they've enquired about getting their bins emptied or how to join their local library.”

Philip Hoult