Faced with the big cut in budgets laid out by central government, councils leaders have in turn submitted a dossier to ministers detailing costs of "unnecessary red tape and outdated laws" that they say burdens local authorities and diverts council staff from providing frontline services.
The Local Government Association, which represents more than 350 councils in England and Wales, submitted the dossier to highlight bureaucratic red tape in local government. The association said guidance, legislation that was rarely used and unnecessary legal duties imposed on town halls were costing councils millions of pounds.
The LGA said red tape included "thousands of pages of official guidance that has no legal force. There are more than 2,000 pages of planning guidance and more than 10,000 pages of guidance just for administering housing and council tax benefits."
The association said leaders also bemoaned having to provide 2,500 separate pieces of data to government and public bodies and keeping track of and enforcing "a maze of outdated laws, ranging from a ban on marriages after 6pm, the offence of accidentally allowing your chimney to catch fire, and a ban on shopkeepers who allow thieves and prostitutes to assemble in their property."
Although some might argue that keeping track of how efficient councils are at spending council tax is useful information, the dossier says that forcing councils to do this has cost £10m. Similarly, it says, forcing councils to put "costly traffic calming measures on all roads with a 20mph speed limits, even if they are quiet cul-de-sacs," is causing town hall headache.
"Councils have to cope with a mountain of paperwork and are forced to prepare bureaucratic plans on everything under the sun," says baroness Margaret Eaton, chair of the LGA. "Town hall staff have to enforce antiquated and sometimes bizarre laws, fill in endless forms and spend money dealing with a blizzard of initiatives. At the same time an army of inspectors is paid by the public purse to check up on them. In the current climate we can't afford to waste a single pound on things that do not help provide services to people.
"We need to make sure the government cuts waste and protects front line services for vulnerable people who need them most. We need nothing less than a transformation of the way the public sector works to deliver savings through a bonfire of bureaucracy."
From Bubb's Blog
From Whitehall Watch
