Councils pledge to help each other

More than 100 councils have pledged their commitment to help each
other improve their performance.

Council leaders have signed up to the Local Government
Association’s written statement Moving Towards Excellence
following the publication of the comprehensive performance
assessment results in December.

The statement sets out the LGA’s intention to improve the
performance of every council to the extent that no council will be
subject to government intervention by March 2006.

In order to realise this aim, the LGA plans to encourage councils
to contribute to the improvement process by providing support to,
or receiving help from, other councils.

It wants the government to back self-improvement and peer support
and to carry out its promise to make available appropriate freedoms
and flexibilities to all councils.

LGA chairperson Sir Jeremy Beecham said that local government was
“best placed to support itself to improve”, with council workers
able to offer support to colleagues from other authorities.

“We are confident that all councils will play their part and we
hope that government will encourage their efforts by extending the
scope of freedoms from red tape and ring- fenced budgets to all
councils who are making these efforts to improve.”