§ Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the implementation of Local Agenda 21; what steps her Department is taking to promote its introduction by local authorities; and to what extent agreements on Local Agenda 21 signed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 have been enacted. [46565]
§ Mr. MeacherIn June 1997 the Prime Minister set a target for all local authorities in the UK to adopt Local Agenda 21 strategies by the year 2000. A Government Office survey showed that 93 per cent. of local authorities met this target.
The Local Government Act 2000 placed a duty on local authorities to prepare a community strategy for promoting or improving the economic, social and environmental well-being of their area and contributing to the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom. The Government want to see sustainable development become a mainstream issue for local authorities, their partners, and local communities. It believes that the most effective way to achieve this is to subsume Local Agenda 21 strategies within community strategies.
17WThe Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions have introduced a Best Value Performance Indicator to report on local authorities' progress with community strategies. A survey of English and Welsh Authorities by the Local Government Association in autumn 2001 found that, of the 67 per cent. which responded, 27 per cent. of authorities had developed a strategy. Of those yet to develop a strategy, nearly 80 per cent. said they would have one by March 2002, and the remainder would be published by March 2003.