The Department for Communities and Local Government made estimates of audit and inspection costs related to the work of the Audit Commission as part of the impact assessment for the Local Audit and Accountability Bill, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-audit-and-accountability-bill-local-audit-impact-assessment This Government has taken a series of steps to scale back unnecessary local government inspection and ineffective audit regimes. The abolition of the Audit Commission and the setting up of the new audit regime is estimated to deliver net savings of £1.2 billion of taxpayers' money over a 10 year period.