Council waste indicator system to be scrapped

Councils will no longer be expected to agree plans with government for improving their waste and recycling performance, under proposals which communities secretary Eric Pickles claims will reduce local authorities' reporting “burden” and make them more accountable to residents.

The plans, which were unveiled at the end of last week (October 13), will mean that from April 2011, councils will not be required to join forces in Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) to submit Local Area Agreements (LAAs) to government which set targets for service improvement.

Progress against these targets is measured using the National Indicator system of benchmarks used by government to monitor council performance. The agreements have been seen as having a key role to play in driving many councils' improved performance in recycling and landfill diversion, and their abolition is set to prompt questions over future drivers.

Of the 200 National Indicators in place at the moment, three relate to waste: NI 191, which is used to record the amount of residual waste produced per household; NI 192, for recording the percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling and composting; and, NI 193, relating to the percentage of municipal waste landfilled.

These are also set to be abolished under the plans announced by Mr Pickles and replaced with a single list of government data requirements, which Mr Pickles claimed would reduce the amount of data required by government from councils to a “minimum”.

While the department has not yet decided how waste and recycling performance will feature in this, Mr Pickles did say he was committed to involving councils in the process of finalising the new list, which will also be introduced in April 2011, and would also aim to review the list on an annual basis.

Outlining why he believed the LAA and National Indicator system needed to be changed, Mr Pickles said: “National targets tend to mean that councils are constantly working on things which matter to Whitehall, regardless of what local residents think. I'd much rather councils were tackling local issues. The money being spent on form fillers and bean counters could be far better spent helping elderly people to stay in their homes.”

“So I'm scrapping the existing local area agreements. I'm handing over control of more than 4,700 targets to councils and their voters. To keep them or dump them as they see fit.

“And instead of the National Indicator Set, and instead of every single department's endless demands that you measure this, that or the other, there's just going to be one list of every bit of data that Government needs,” he added.

Replacement plans

There are currently 150 LAAs agreed between first-tier, or county council level, local authorities and central government for 2008-2011, but, the announcement means that when they expire in April 2011, councils will not need to replace them and government will have no role in monitoring any that do continue.

Mr Pickles' statement is the latest in a number of government announcements overhauling how councils report performance on areas such as waste and how this is monitored and assessed.

In June 2010, Mr Pickles said he was scrapping the Comprehensive Area Assessment system which involves council's performance against the National Indicator benchmarks being critically assessed by the Audit Commission (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, in August 2010, he revealed plans to abolish the Audit Commission itself, giving councils the power to appoint their own auditors to investigate whether their waste services are providing value-for-money (see letsrecycle.com story).