Local Authority Economic Assessment Duty What it will mean in practice

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Local Authority Economic Assessment Duty What
it will mean in practice

• Colin Lovegrove CLG

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Purpose of Presentation

• To set out
• Economic assessments and their wider context
• Benefits of duty
• How it would work in practice

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SNR Consultation

• Sought views on
• Proposals for taking forward economic assessment
  duty
• Whether there is a case for statutory
  sub-regional collaboration that goes beyond
  transport
• How best to take forward the single regional
  strategy
• Governments response expected soon!

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Economic Assessment - consultation responses

• Broad support for a duty
• Evenly split over need for Government guidance
• Data access and quality
• Need to engage district councils in two tier
  areas
• Need to engage local businesses

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Strengthening the Local Authority Role in
Economic Development

• Sub-National Review set out need for strengthened
  local authority role in economic development
• Local authority place shaping role
• New Local Government Performance Framework
• Flexibilities/incentives
• Multi Area Agreements/statutory sub-regions
• Economic assessment duty
• Current economic conditions places even greater
  emphasis on the local authority economic
  development role

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Why a duty?

• Underpins local authority role in economic
  development
• Builds on well being power
• Robust economic evidence base to inform economic
  policy decisions
• Give local authorities a stronger understanding
  of the economic challenges of their area
• Ensure better targeted investment

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How the duty would work in practice

• Duty to fall on all upper tier and unitary local
  authorities
• Counties would be required to work closely with
  district councils
• Duty on responsible authorities to consult key
  economic partners ie. RDAs, HCA, Jobcentre Plus
• But also important to engage other social,
  environmental and economic partners
• Building block for Sustainable Community Strategy
  regional strategy
• Inform LAA negotiations

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What should assessments focus on?

• Give local authorities a clear and coherent
  understanding of local economic conditions
• Identify economic linkages with wider economy
• Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities threats
  (SWOT analysis)
• Include assessment of worklessness
• Review ways in which local authority and partners
  influence local economy
• Factor in environmental pressures and impact on
  economic growth
• Look at economic conditions under different
  scenarios

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Linking Upper Tier to Lower Tier

• Duty on both tiers to work in partnership
• District councils to feed in economic survey
  material needed to inform their local planning
  role
• Both tiers to work from a shared consistent
  economic evidence base
• County wide economic assessment to feed downwards
  into Local Development Framework

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Geographic Scope of Assessments

• Assessments need to reflect functional economic
  areas as closely as possible
• Where functional economic areas transcend local
  authority boundaries, authorities should work
  together on a joint assessment
• Joint assessments for MAA areas

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Frequency of Assessments

• Need to be fit for purpose
• New assessment to form part of Sustainable
  Community Strategy
• Review assessments ahead of LAA negotiations and
  refreshes
• Review in the light of changes in economic
  conditions

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Achieving consistency across the region

• Important to achieve consistency in terms of
  scope of assessments across the region in feeding
  into regional strategy
• Adopt common methodologies indicators
• Need for structured dialogue involving LAs,
  RIEPs, ROs, GOs RDA
• Regional signposting/fact sheets on data?

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Improving Access to Quality Data

• Big issue in SNR consultation data quality
  access
• Working with ONS other data providers on
  feasibility of further improving data sets
• But constraints around sample sizes when budgets
  are tight
• Regional Observatories can help to sign post to
  regionally and locally held data
• Structured regional dialogue to enable sharing of
  data to avoid duplication of effort

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Guidance

• Draft CLG guidance early 2009 light touch and
  non-prescriptive
• IDeA capacity building project leading to
  practical sector led guidance
• - guidance on process, range of evidence,
  commissioning research developing capacity
• - focus on smoother work at intra-authority
  level and with core LSP partners

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Capacity Building Support

• Need for agreement across region on how to
  support authorities
• RIEP programme of support
• Regional Observatory offer
• RDA support
• GO convening/support/challenge role

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To conclude.

• Economic assessments should be first base in
  developing economic development strategies
• Improve economic development decisions
• Collaboration with LSP partners important
• Much to be done LA capacity, single regional
  dialogue/addressing data issues