Report of the Local Government Efficiency Review Group

14.1 Recommendations
14. Recommendations
14.1.1 This section lists the recommendations made in previous sections of the
report, including indicative timeframes and cross-references to the main
text. While the list of recommendations appended to the Executive
Summary is presented on a thematic basis, this section lists the
recommendations section by section.
14.1.2 Short-term timeframes are set for recommendations to be progressed in
2011. Medium-term timeframes indicate recommendations to be
progressed in 2012-2013. Long-term timeframes signify recommendations
that can be expected to achieve efficiency outcomes in the post-2013
period.
Organisational Efficiency Issues
1. Responsibility for planning, roads and housing functions should be transferred
from town councils to county councils (medium term – section 5.6);
2. County councils should be allowed delegate some local aspects of housing
service provision to towns where this is economically efficient (medium-term –
section 5.6.9);
3. Each county council should be allocated an urban grant for local urban roads,
with the county council determining the urban road spend across all towns in
its administrative area (medium-term – section 5.6.6);
4. The power to determine the annual rate on valuation should be removed from
town councils, and town charges be applied in the same manner as other
existing non-rating town councils (medium-term – section 5.6.13);
5. County council offices / area offices and town council offices should be colocated
(ongoing – section 5.6.10);
6. Joint drainage boards, joint burial boards, and other bodies should be
dissolved, and their functions transferred to local authorities or a ‘lead’ local
authority (short to medium-term – section 5.7);
7. The payments and expenses provided to local elected members should be
kept under review to ensure that they remain reasonable and proportionate
(ongoing – section 5.2).
Local Government Staffing
8. The number of county/ city managers should be reduced from 34 to 24,
representing a reduction of 30% (short, medium and long-term – section 6.4);
9. The number of directors, based on a standard template related to the size of
the local authority, should be reduced by at least 20% from 240 to 190 (short,
medium and long-term – sections 6.5 and 6.6);
10. The number of senior and middle managers (administrative and professional)
should be reduced by 15% (short to medium-term – section 6.6);
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