Audit Commission praises “significant progress” over waste

The 'CPA – Final Score' report, which was published to mark the last year that the CPA system will be used to gauge council performance in services such as waste, highlighted increased levels of kerbside recycling and landfill diversion.

Its publication comes ahead of the introduction of the CPA's replacement, the Comprehensive Area Assessment, next month, which aims to reflect the increased levels of partnership working between councils and will involve inspections that are more targeted towards area of concern within a local authority.

The report explained that: “While on average councils only succeeded in reducing the overall amount of waste collected per household by 3% (from 493kg to 479kg) between 2001/02 and 2007/08, significant progress was made in the management of that waste.”

In particular the document, which is based on six years' assessment of all single tier and county councils in England, pointed to household recycling rates having increased from an average of 8% in 2001/02 to 21% in 2007/08. It also highlighted that 35% of councils offered household kerbside recycling of two recyclables to all residents in 2007/08.

And, it also emphasised a reduction in the amount of household waste sent to landfill – from 77% to 54% between 2001/02 and 2007/08.

Satisfaction

The report notes that “several” councils achieved recycling rates above 50% in 2007/08. despite government targets not exceeding 30%. It also praised the high level of satisfaction with council waste and recycling services – with 70% of householders satisfied with their recycling service in 2006/07 and 79% satisfied with their waste collection.

Since its introduction in 2002, the CPA has been based on the Audit Commission's inspections of council services and the work of bodies such as the school assessment organisation Ofsted, to examine the quality and value-for-money of services as well as how efficiently councils are run.

Waste and recycling is included within the environment section of the assessment, alongside other services such as planning and transport.

The CPA system involves councils being awarded a star rating for their services – ranging from no stars to a maximum of four.

In terms of environment services, the report revealed that from a base of over half of councils scoring only one or two in 2002, by 2008, 95% were rated at least a three – which means they were delivering a service “above or well above minimum requirements”.

With 73% of councils that could do so, improving their environment score over the lifetime of the CPA system, the report explains: “The poor performance seen in 2002 was addressed over time. By 2006 there were no councils scoring one, which meant that there were no councils deemed to be delivering an environment service that was below minimum requirements.”

Score

The 2008 edition of the CPA, which has been published alongside the 'Final Score' report, shows that a record 62 councils achieved the highest four star rating for overall performance, compared to just 22 in 2002.

It also reveals that, for the fourth year running, no councils has received no stars, and that in 2008, 91% of councils performed consistently or well above minimum requirements for their use of resources, and none performed below minimum.

Commenting on the 2008 figures, the chairman of the Audit Commission, Michael O'Higgins, said: “CPA has been a challenge to which local government has risen very well, and our retrospective report records the success of many councils that are to be congratulated.

“As we say goodbye to the star rating system, it is heartening to see a record number of 4 star councils, and 29 rising by one or more categories in this last year alone. There will be many others who, although they have improved their performance, didn't quite make it into the next division.

“We hope they will all take this experience and commitment to improvement into CAA from April, and help us to reflect the wider impact of local public services on people's lives,” he added.