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- first archive
- News archive
- 2008
- October
- LGA Annual Conference - the latest from first
- Everyone a winner
- Memorial service for former chairman
- Questions over Tory tax plans
- Knife crime survey
- 'Innovate to beat cash crisis' - LGA
- Green light for councils' equal pay plan
- Small councils star in national awards
- New figures to help councils cut CO2
- Politicians debate climate change
- LGA demands role for local authorities
- Councils' carbon footprints revealed
- ‘Parties need to diversify’
- Poll shows support for councils
- Pay offer to be implemented
- Calls to improve public loos
- LGA celebrates success
- LGA battles for taxpayers’ money
- Calls for FSA credit ratings inquiry
- Act aims to unlock innovation
- Councils mark democracy week
- Harrow bans ‘council-ese’
- LAAs ‘too top-down’
- Beacon shortlist drawn up
- No to police reforms
- Council polls to coincide with Euro vote
- Have your say
- Action needed on betting shops
- Concern over council deposits
- LGA: ‘don’t fear the RIPA'
- Reshuffle - a boost for LGA campaigns?
- Claims hamper pothole repairs
- First red phone box 'adopted'
- Council house waiting lists to soar
- Migration - challenges and benefits
- Barriers to local regeneration
- Double awards win for council
LAAs ‘too top-down’
National indicators for local area agreements (LAAs) are too ill-defined and top-down, research suggests, and Whitehall should step back and give councils greater control.
A report by the New Local Government Network (NLGN) argues that the current system is too inflexible for many local authorities. It wants to see LAAs taking priority where central mandates and regulations interfere with implementing locally agreed targets. However the research, based on interviews with councils, found there was general satisfaction with local partnership working.
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See also
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Local Area Agreements and partnerships Partnership working is of increasing importance for councils. Working together with other services delivered locally, such as police, health services, bodies involved in skills or economic development and others, is an important means of meeting the council's overall ambition for the place it represents, sometimes referred as the 'place shaping role'.