Devolution to local partnerships

Date published: 31 March 2007

For the first time, every area in England now has its own agreement on local priorities, individually negotiatied and agreed with central government. These agreements set out what councils and key partners will deliver for local people and how they will collectively spend public money to do this.

The final 62 Local Area Aggreements (LAA’s) have been signed, providing a basis for implementing the proposals set out in the Local Government White Paper.

New locally agreed priorities, along with proposals for three year settlements from 2008, are intended to give councils both the stable and predictable funding they want, and the power and flexibility to meet the challenges faced by their local communties. 

Local Government Minister, Phil Woolas, said: "This marks a watershed for devolution to local government. We made a clear commitment that all areas in England would be covered by a LAA by April 2007 and we have achivied that, this is a remarkable achievement.

"LAA’s ensure greater clarity about central and local responsibilites, a new settlement, to deliver the key recommendations of greater flexibility and clarity in  Sir Michael Lyons’ recently published report.

"This is by no means the end of the story. New propoals for LAA’s are at the heart of our devolutonary agenda for local government – as laid out in our White Paper – they give councils the ability to tackle the most impotant challenges in their areas, whilst reducing the number of centrally set targets. They could for example use their LAA to tackle climate change or focus on social exclusion in their communities." 

From 2008 LAAs will be about outcomes, however funded. Any of the non-ring fenced money that local authorities have can be spent on achieving LAA outcomes. Leaving aside money for fire, police and schools this would be some £42bn this year.