Phil Woolas (Minister of State (Local Government & Community Cohesion), Department for Communities and Local Government; Oldham East & Saddleworth, Labour)

The clause sets out which local authorities will be responsible authorities. I hope and intend that my introduction of the clause will give me an opportunity to help the Committee to place the remaining clauses in context.

This chapter places duties on the authorities that are being defined to consult their partner authorities when preparing local area agreements and community strategies, to prepare for those local area agreements and co-operate with the partner authorities when determining the targets within the local area agreement. We believe that this makes a significant change in the statutory framework and statutory climate in which a local authority will work. It will enable better joined-up government for service delivery and public involvement.

The list includes upper-tier authorities—or those with upper-tier responsibilities—as well as the London boroughs, as has been mentioned, and the two peculiar but important local authorities—the City of London and the Isles of Scilly, which are designated as upper-tier authorities as well. Hon. Members from  two-tier areas may wish to ask why district councils are not defined as responsible authorities. That would be a very reasonable question.

Government policy, which I hope is clear, is that it is critical that districts and counties together agree their priorities for the locality that they cover to avoid obvious inefficiencies and overlapping or contradictory targets for the same area. In the local area agreement framework that is already in place, the districts are named among the partner authorities in clause 79. Every local authority area will have a local area agreement by 31 March. I hope that no one believes, inadvertently, that we are not paying attention to districts. They will be responsible for agreeing targets on the same basis as the counties and other local service providers. The clause, and other policy measures, are a crucial part of the new framework that the Bill creates.

I was in some difficulty in our debate on Tuesday, as I had a copy of the embargoed information on the Audit Commission’s scoring. To prove how independent it is, the commission timed the release of that information for today rather than Tuesday morning, which would have been extremely helpful for my purposes.

Members of the Committee may have heard the chairman of the Audit Commission, Mr. Michael O’Higgins, on the radio this morning. He congratulated local government on the increase in performance in every type and nature of local authority and across the political spectrum. When the interviewer asked why that was, he replied, “There were a number of themes that characterised the best councils: the quality of leadership and governance, the clarity of their focus on what they wish to do, how they work in partnership with other local organisations and the extent to which they understand what their users—the residents of the area—actually want.” Mr. O’Higgins said in two sentences what it took me an hour to explain the other day.

Tom Levitt (PPS (Rt Hon Hilary Benn, Secretary of State), Department for International Development; High Peak, Labour)

Does my hon. Friend think that it was irresponsible of The Times to point out, in an arbitrary manner, in a block heading that “No Liberal Democrat-controlled council is improving strongly”? Do not those arbitrary comments undermine the process in those councils?

Phil Woolas (Minister of State (Local Government & Community Cohesion), Department for Communities and Local Government; Oldham East & Saddleworth, Labour)

I suspect, Mr. Benton, that you will not allow me to stray into the irresponsibility of The Times newspaper, much less the performance of the Liberal Democrat party. My hon. Friend has made a point that Hansard will record and that “Labour News” will repeat.

Andrew Stunell (Shadow Secretary of State for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Communities and Local Government), Department for Communities and Local Government; Hazel Grove, Liberal Democrat)

When you are at the top of the tree, it is difficult to go higher.

Phil Woolas (Minister of State (Local Government & Community Cohesion), Department for Communities and Local Government; Oldham East & Saddleworth, Labour)

There is therefore only one way for the Liberal Democrats to go if that is the case.

The framework of partnership and the duty to co-operate that the Bill puts into place is a very important part of the new duties and the direction of travel for local government. I hope hon. Members will support the clause.