4 The influence of CLG within and outside
Government
69. Last year, we concluded
Communities and Local Government holds responsibility
for the delivery of some crucial aspects of Government policy:
increasing housing supply; creating cohesive communities; and
ensuring that local government is able to deliver effectively
for local people. The nature of those responsibilities is such
that it is heavily reliant on a wide range of other Departments,
agencies, non-departmental bodies, local authorities and other
stakeholders for the delivery of its goals. To achieve those goals,
it therefore needs to become a "big hitter" among Government
departments: a department skilled in influence, brokering and
negotiation and, crucially, with the weight of robust policy formulation
and development to back those skills up. Perhaps inevitably for
a department which has been in existence for less than three years,
it cannot yet claim to be one of those "big hitters".
Its senior management and its Ministerial leadership have recognised
the steps which have to be taken towards that goal: we look forward
to seeing further progress towards it when we come to repeat this
exercise of examining its Departmental Annual Report next year.[63]
70. One important indicator of whether a department
can claim to be a "big hitter" is the extent to which
it is viewed as such elsewhere in Government. Since our report
of last year, CLG has gained a new Secretary of State, Rt Hon
John Denham MP. We asked him whether he considered his appointment
as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to
be a promotion from his previous post as Secretary of State for
Innovation and Skills:
Yes I did. It was also, without being indiscreet,
of a number of options that were discussed, the one that I chose
to have and the one that I wanted to do [...] I have a
background in local government personally as a councillor and
have a strong commitment to local government. My work at the
Home Office and subsequently chairing the Home Affairs Select
Committee gave me a great interest in issues around community
cohesion and that side of the agenda so it seemed to me to be
a department where there was still a job to be done and one that
I would find personally interesting and one that I thought was
particularly important.[64]
71. We went on to ask him whether he thought
he had been able to increase CLG's influence with other Departments:
I think I would say that I have some sympathy with
the view that there may be places where we need to drive our influence
further in more detailed areas. Within the last few months I would
point to a number of examples where I think we have done that,
most obviously [...] with the scale of the Housing Programme and
that ambition has involved other government departments, not just
our own. I think in the consultation around local government—Strengthening
Local Democracy—we clearly could not have done that
without buy-in from a significant number of government departments
to the increased scrutiny role of local government, and finally
the recent launch of the Connecting Communities campaign again
only really makes sense if you can be confident that other government
departments are going to back you up at local level. So I think
there is probably more that we can do but I think there are a
number of examples of where we have set out very clearly to have
influence across government departments to influence delivery
on the ground, not just our own Department's work.[65]
72. We went on to test the extent of CLG's influence
within Government in a number of different areas. These areas
included other Departments' commitment to localism;[66]
the extent of regulation of local authority performance;[67]
local authority influence in PCTs;[68]
the collapse of the Icelandic banks;[69]
and housing, particularly the asset-backed securities guarantee
scheme.[70] Speaking
particularly in the context of housing policy, and commenting
on the suggestion that CLG was not as influential in Government
as it needed to be, the Minister for Housing and Planning told
us:
To amplify what John Denham has said, I think it
is a fair criticism of the Department in previous years; I do
not think it has been characteristic of the Department in the
last couple of years and certainly not in the last few months.
[...] I think you could see the prime minister's housing pledge
in June, a centrepiece for the Building Britain's Future
document in which, as a Department, we were able to nail a deal
and negotiate a switch of funding from other parts of government,
topside of £900 million. I think this Committee would be
hard pressed to remember the last time when education money, health
money, Home Office money or transport money was switched to housing
and in particular to build affordable homes that this country
needs and I think that is a sign of the strength of the Department
across government. Finally I think it goes beyond government
[...] I think the Financial Services Authority's Mortgage Markets
Review demonstrates the extent to which it is accepted that
there should be tougher rules and regulations on lenders. I think
the extent to which the court service is now toughening up and
implementing its pre-action protocol meaning that even on the
day when people face a repossession order in court with the free
advice and representation and the operation of that pre-action
protocol we can still prevent four out of five repossessions taking
place on that day. It is a department that has always played
that mediating role between the local and the central and the
marshalling role between government departments and I think we
are playing that together as a team here probably more forcefully
than we have done in previous years.[71]
73. Evidence from CLG's main stakeholders broadly
reflects the view of the Secretary of State that CLG has done
some good work, but could go further in driving its influence.
The Local Government Association, for example, told us:
When it is able to, CLG operates well as a "local
government Cabinet Office", bringing policies into line to
ensure national policy objectives can be realised in the most
productive way for councils. However, it is our experience that,
on balance, CLG has too often failed to influence other government
departments sufficiently well. For example, on the children and
young people's agenda, it is rare to attend DCSF project board
or stakeholder events and find that representatives of other Whitehall
departments have engaged CLG in their policy areas.[72]
The Association of North East Councils reiterated
this point:
[There is] a broader issue of coordination and communication
within Government that needs to be addressed. Given CLG's broader
and more over-arching focus than other departments, we would urge
CLG to rise to the challenge of driving better co-ordination in
government. [73]
London Councils told us that it was "pleased
with CLG's efforts to drive a more concerted approach in Whitehall
to the local performance framework and to reducing its scale".
However, it added a cautionary note:
[The local performance framework] is never a cause
that is truly won and there are always dangers of the position
slipping backwards. We believe CLG will need to fight its policy
corner tenaciously if the interests we have in this area are to
be advanced.[74]
74. Moving away from Whitehall and considering
the Department's influence with those delivering on the ground,
the Chartered Institute of Housing suggested that recent change
in the Department promised not only more effective delivery but
also better communication between policymakers and the front line:
The movement of the department to a more strategic,
policy-focused footing is welcome. With the creation of the HCA
(and TSA to a lesser extent) it has been clear that CLG has looked
to create strong delivery bodies to take forward the government
priorities it shapes and articulates. The policy-delivery split
is however one that always blurs. Those delivering on the ground
(with significant resources) are often well placed to pick up
on key issues and wish to be more responsive and progressive in
their thinking. The department finds itself increasingly reliant
on its delivery bodies for this information and evidence. It
is important that a strong relationship between the department
and its institutions is in place so that these energies and ideas
are developed mutually and with a strong sense of openness and
transparency. The framework created by the Housing and Regeneration
Act is relatively embryonic but drawing on the strengths of the
respective organisations to improve policy making should remain
a priority.[75]
75. The Local Government Association, however,
suggests that there is still some way to go before CLG can be
considered fully effective in its relations with stakeholders:
One of our main concerns is that not only does CLG
struggle to influence other Whitehall departments; it also fails
to act as a coherent body within the sector itself and too often
is not joined up in its approach with either stakeholders or councils.[76]
76. The Departmental Annual Report demonstrates
that CLG has recognised these concerns. It reports that
we are currently undertaking a comprehensive review
of our approach to communication strategy and stakeholder engagement
across all of our policy areas, to ensure that we improve our
impact and relationships with stakeholders. The stakeholder survey
also indicated areas where we could do better, particularly on
concerns about 'silo' working and confirmed stakeholders' desire
to be involved more consistently in the early development of policy.
Stakeholder engagement is a key part of our PPM training programme
and we are ensuring that it plays a core role in the Department's
learning and development strategy.[77]
77. In oral evidence, Mr McCarthy re-emphasised
that point and reassured us that the Department is listening to
its stakeholders with a view to improving its engagement with
them:
We have a stakeholder engagement strategy for the
department and in the specifics of my group I am reviewing all
of our stakeholder engagement at present. One of the things that
we have sought to do is to make it very systematic. [...] We
have to deal with a very wide range of separate stakeholders,
particularly again in response to the current circumstances.
We will take the opportunity of feedback [...] and ask them what
they felt they were missing so that we can improve what we do
in the future.[78]
78. Defending its record of stakeholder involvement,
CLG referred particularly to issues connected with the past year's
housing crisis: with the formation of the Mortgage Rescue Scheme
and with programmes such as Kickstart and HomeBuy Direct. This
work has involved CLG working with, in particular, the NHF, with
mortgage lenders and with the FSA and, according to Mr. McCarthy.
with colleagues across government in terms of the
way we have engaged on dealing with the repossessions and changed
the whole regulatory framework and the way that people are given
protection, it is all about very extensive stakeholder engagement.
We created with the Treasury for example the home finance forum
which I have attended all the way through with Lord Myners and
which John Healey also now attends, engaging with a very large
group of both lenders and also the representatives of the national
advice agencies, trying to respond to an extraordinary challenging
set of circumstances.[79]
Mr McCarthy gave a further example of the Supporting
People programme, with local authorities working with the NHS
to help people stay in their home and "helping people with
particular vulnerable needs to receive care and support in the
community where we are waiting for the baseline data to appear.
That is absolutely about PSAs where we are sitting and working
together with those colleagues from the Department of Health and
elsewhere."[80]
79. Last year we said that we
looked forward to seeing further progress towards seeing CLG develop
its role as a "big hitter" within Whitehall and elsewhere.
The evidence we have taken for this inquiry, including from the
Department's most recent Annual Report, shows that there remains
some way to go before it can be described as such. However, there
is evidence of progress, and further evidence that the Department's
Ministerial leadership is aware of what is required and is in
a position to exert the influence which is required to pursue
CLG's policy goals effectively. We look forward again to seeing
further progress when we repeat this exercise of looking at CLG's
Annual Report next year.
63 HC (2008-09) 238, para 76. Back
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Cm 7598, para 2.52. Back
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