The review forms part of Gordon Brown's drive to promote greater devolution in line with the Constitutional Green Paper published last week to ensure regions and local areas can play a greater strategic role in tackling the challenges they face.
The review announces that Government will:
- consult on the creation of a focused statutory economic duty for local authorities which would require all upper tier authorities to carry out an assessment of the economic circumstances and challenges of their local economy;
- ensure that Local Area Agreements include a clear focus on economic development and neighbourhood renewal;
- concentrate neighbourhood renewal funding more closely on the most deprived areas with greater incentives for improved performance;
- move funding for most 14-19 year olds education and skills to local authorities as announced as part of the recent machinery of government changes;
- consider options for supplementary business rates, working with local government, business and other stakeholders
- bring forward options for reforms to the Local Authority Business Growth Incentive (LABGI) scheme before the summer which produce a simpler, more certain scheme with a clear focus on growth
- work with the Regional Development Agencies so they play a more strategic role, delegating responsibility for funding to local authorities and sub-regions where possible unless there is a clear case for retaining funding at the regional level or there is a lack of capacity at lower levels; and
- provide support for local authorities through the proposed New Homes Agency.
Recommendations from the review will be fed into the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007. Please use the links below for more information and links to the full document and press release on the Treasury website.
