Business as usual for the LAAs

The much-vaunted local area agreements were forged in those long-lost days when credit crunch was a breakfast cereal, Iceland was a low-cost supermarket, and the HBOS share price was £10 not 64p.

So, it was inevitable that when the financial hurricane erupted, the assumption among local authorities and their partners was that LAAs would need to be revisited, perhaps even put to one side.

For example, some argue that the target to reduce youth unemployment, although laudable, must surely be under pressure because of the impact of the recession, while even climate change-reduction aims have become of secondary concern because of economic challenges. Reduction in oil usage has been achieved, not because of green policies, but because of falling worldwide demand. Housing has moved into a different era.

In her SOLACE speech – reported in The MJ (16 October), Hazel Blears hinted some of the LAA targets might be revisited. But her local government minister, John Healey, last week emphasised, on the contrary, that the LAAs were as relevant as ever. They were, he insisted, neither redundant nor in need of either a redesign or rewriting.

Speaking at The MJ/NSA conference on LAAs, he maintained that the credit crunch would ‘have a different impact in different places in a way that standard national policy simply can’t deal with fully.’ Indeed, he added, it was precisely because of the varying impact of the credit crunch/recession that LAAs and local authorities were best placed to cope with it, especially since so many of the targets were related to the economy.

It is right that the current round of LAAs should not be blown off course so early in their implementation. It is also right that they should be robust enough to adjust to the new economic circumstances, without their targets being abandoned, even though they may be more challenging.

After all, as Mr Healey himself noted, while some targets, such as reducing unemployment and boosting the economy, would be more difficult, others such as reducing teenage pregnancies or obesity would remain much the same, and some, like reducing congestion or carbon emissions, may actually be easier. The message, therefore, for LAAs is, business as usual.

Michael Burton, Editor, The MJ