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Our previous two inquiries into Communities and Local Government's Annual Reports have stressed the need for the Department to become more of a 'big hitter' in Whitehall. This year, we focused on three distinct themes: the success of CLG against measurable targets; the capacity of CLG to deal with the particular challenges it faced this year; and, crucially, the extent to which CLG has been able to exert its influence on other Government Departments and external bodies to achieve its objectives.
Our inquiry paid particular attention to the key areas of housing, planning, and the fire and rescue services. CLG faced particular challenges this year: as well as the extraordinary economic and financial pressures, which had a particularly dramatic impact on housing, it also faced its own internal challenges presented by the change of Ministers and staff turnover. A certain number of stakeholders made particular mention of the lack of continuity caused by an average tenure in post of just 9 months for a CLG official and, over the lifetime of the Department so far, barely a year for a senior Minister. As regards the influence that CLG is able to exert, we show that several stakeholders and key organisations that work closely with CLG expressed concern that CLG's influence on other Departments, though improving in some areas, was patchy and less than was desirable overall. The Secretary of State, in our oral evidence session, conceded that he had some sympathy with the view that CLG needs to exert its influence more effectively.
In conclusion, we recognise that this year has raised particular challenges for CLG. However, we feel strongly that CLG still has to improve its performance in several key respects, as identified in our recommendations, if it is to punch above its weight in Whitehall.
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