Local Government: Cost Effectiveness
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure council spending is (a) efficient and (b) value for money for taxpayers.
Answered by Jim McMahon
Local authorities are independent of central government. Councils are responsible for managing their own financial positions and services, including ensuring that their spending is efficient and delivers value for money for taxpayers; the department is not involved in local decisions.
Statutory best value guidance clarifies the government’s expectations of how local authorities must make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way in which their functions are exercised, having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness (the Best Value Duty). In the event of failure to uphold these standards, the Secretary of State has powers of intervention to ensure an authority’s compliance with that Duty.
In December the government launched a strategy to overhaul the broken local audit system in England and embed transparency and value for money across local government.
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