Conservatives have “no confidence” in Audit Commission

The Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary Caroline Spelman has said that the party has “no confidence” in the Audit Commission following the discovery that the organisation commissioned a lobbying group to undermine Conservative plans to abolish the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA).

According to the Sunday Times, the Audit Commission paid nearly £60,000 to Connect Public Affairs — founded by Labour minister Rosie Winterton - who advised the Commission to “combat the activities of Eric Pickles”, the former Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary who proposed the CAA's abolition.

Spelman said: “We can no longer have confidence in the Audit Commission if it has become such a creature of the state that it bankrolls lobbyists to save its own skin and call for more red tape. This is a complete abuse of taxpayers’ money by a body which is supposed to be standing up for taxpayers’ interests.”

Pickles has described the CAA as “time consuming, over-complicated and unnecessary”. He told the paper: “This feather-bedded quango should not be using our money trying to save expensive, box-ticking regulation which is simply not working.”

The Audit Commission told the Sunday Times that the work done by Connect was “research and analysis” rather than lobbying. “The commission does not operate in a vacuum,” it said. “It is incumbent upon the commission, as a publicly funded body, to keep all political parties aware of its activities and findings, to inform public debate.”