§ Malcolm BruceTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what assessment his Department has made of the role of a legally binding framework relating to the delivery and auditing of sustainable development by local authorities; [77584]
(2) what steps are being taken by his Department to allow local authorities to (a) increase self-determination and control and (b) increase local accountability of the delivery of sustainable development objectives; [77583]
§ Christopher LeslieThe Local Government Act 2000 placed a duty on local authorities to prepare community strategies for promoting the economic, social and environmental well being of their communities and contributing to sustainable development in the UK. Our guidance does not stipulate a timetable for the preparation of community strategies but we have introduced a statutory Best Value Performance Indicator to report on the progress of each authority.
874W
Average length of stay in bed and breakfast for homeless households in any form of temporary accommodation, as at 31 March 2002 less than 1 week 1 week to less than 1 month 1 month to less than 3 months 3 months to less than 6 months 6 months less than 1 year 1 year or more Total Adur 0 6 8 2 1 0 17 Arun 0 18 14 6 1 0 39 Chichester 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 The Local Government White Paper Strong Local Leadership—Quality Public Services introduced a national framework for assessing the performance of authorities which shifts the focus to the delivery of outcomes. The cornerstone of this framework is the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) which will provide local people with clear and concise information about their council's performance. The Government is also committed to giving local authorities greater freedom to deliver by removing unnecessary bureaucracy. In addition to the action taken for all authorities, CPA will be used as the basis for offering extra freedoms to the best performers. We expect that such authorities will use these freedoms to deliver sustainable improvements to the quality of life of their communities. We intend to announce the details shortly.