Clause 39
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
4:30 pm
Phil Woolas (Minister of State (Local Government & Community Cohesion), Department for Communities and Local Government; Oldham East and Saddleworth, Labour)
I thank the hon. Gentlemen for accepting the motion. The pace of devolution takes parliamentary time, and I am glad to see that the other Bill sponsored by the Department is proceeding as well.
When we adjourned, I was putting my argument against the amendment tabled by the hon. Member for Hazel Grove, which would delete the option of directly elected executives. Although that option probably will not be taken up widely by local government, the Government want to make it available.
I shall fulfil my undertaking to provide some of the evidence that the hon. Member for North-East Bedfordshire asked for in relation to findings on the changes made under the Local Government Act 2000. A number of pieces of research independent of Government have found improvements in the decision making, performance and leadership of councils as a result of the changes. Perhaps most prominent is the “State of the English Cities” report published in 2006, which laid particular emphasis on the economic success of local authority areas as a result of enhanced leadership. Research on best value in 2006 also showed that leadership was
“the single most significant driver of change and improvement in local authorities”.
There is a positive correlation between political leadership and the representative package of best value performance indicators.
Our Department—or its predecessor, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; the Department changes its name every now and again—carried out research in 2003. The local government workplace front-line staff survey—we have always gone for snappy titles—showed that front-line staff in the authorities that were performing less well, that is, those that the Audit Commission identified as weak or poor, were significantly more likely than those in good or excellent authorities to say that they needed better leadership by senior officers.