LGA warns over CAA costs

The amount of taxpayers’ money being spent on inspecting and assessing local government is unsustainable and needs to be dramatically reduced, council leaders said today, as fresh evidence was published relating to the cost of a new inspection regime.

Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) replaced Comprehensive Performance Assessment in April 2009 and was supposed to be less of a burden on councils, while focusing on the priorities of a specific area.

New case study analysis of five authorities by the Local Government Association found that one council has seen costs more than quadruple under the new regime, while the burden has doubled for a second authority. Only one saw a significant reduction. The case studies support findings from an LGA survey carried out at the end of 2009 in which 65 per cent of respondents disagreed that CAA had reduced the burden of inspection and only 19 per cent agreed.

The figures have been released on the day another report into CAA, carried out by Shared Intelligence, is expected to say more than half of those questioned did not think CAA would ever reduce the burden in its current form. Criticisms included duplicate requests for the same information from different inspectors.

The LGA recently set out its requirements for the second year of CAA to help ensure the inspection regime achieves everything it was meant to. Priorities set for the year ahead include:
inspectors to focus on encouraging improvement on particular problem issues identified in the first year, not just re-run the whole process
collective activity by the inspectors to be more joined up, including better sharing of relevant data
high-performing authorities to be treated with a much lighter touch

Cllr David Parsons, Chairman of the Improvement Board at the LGA, said:
“In the current economic climate, all public funds have to work as hard as possible. Councils need to be able to focus resources on delivering front line services for taxpayers, with the cost of inspection kept to a minimum.

“The costs for councils of the current CAA regime are unsustainable. Demands for ever greater efficiencies from councils mean it is essential the burden of inspection and assessment are also reduced.

“Whatever researchers say about the performance of CAA, our own in depth analysis clearly shows the costs are climbing for at least some authorities, and that isn’t good enough. Reforms need to be made so the new regime can have a positive impact for all.

“Councils deserve an inspection regime which can keep pace with the ambitions of local government. Under the Total Place initiative, great progress is being made in providing value for money services which respond to the needs of residents all over the country, and that must not be hindered by poor regulation or inspection.

“The reform of council inspection doesn’t end here. The LGA is involved in a major project to explore options for a new accountability framework which will provide even more effective scrutiny while offering the best possible value for money to taxpayers.”