1 Introduction
1. The single theme that underlies this report and
informs everything we want to say about the performance of the
Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) is: Delivery.
We have commented previously on the challenges that face CLG because
of how it is constructed and its unusual reliance for the achievement
of the goals Government has set it on a plethora of other Departments,
agencies, non-departmental bodies, local authorities and other
stakeholders. Most of the money for which CLG is responsible is
spent for it by someone else—by 450-plus local authorities
in England, by 47 local fire brigades, by large government agencies
such as the soon-to-exist Homes and Communities Agency with its
£2.2 billion budget, and by many more bodies besides. All
the 10 Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets CLG was required
to meet in 2006-07 were set for a different Department and inherited
when it was formed in May 2006, and almost all of them relied
on the actions of someone else if their goals were to be achieved
and on data collected elsewhere if they were to be accurately
measured and assessed. To a greater degree than perhaps any other
Government Department, CLG depends on others to deliver what it
promises. The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
herself, four months into her new job, displayed a commendably
clear-sighted understanding of the nature and uniqueness of her
new Department when she told us:
the Department is one that does not have the traditional
levers in many cases of regulation and funding and direct delivery
… Our Department is very much about influence, about brokering,
about negotiation, and that is a very different skill set in many
ways from a traditional government delivery department.[1]
The central thread running through all that follows,
therefore, is the question of how well CLG enables, enthuses and
encourages its many partners to deliver on its promises and how
well it is setting clear visions that those other bodies can translate
accurately, cost-effectively and efficiently into practical achievement.
In short, the central question animating our Report is how CLG
delivers.
1 Q 119, Ev 16 Back
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