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Cash for councils that lead by example

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, last night announced extra funding to encourage local government to spread their good practice and work - from affordable housing to anti-social behaviour.

A pot of £1.5million for 16 projects across England, led by beacons including Leeds, Sheffield and Bristol, will help local authorities deliver on some of the toughest targets in the Local Area Agreements announced this Monday.

The Beacon Scheme encourages local authorities to share their best working practise and ideas with their peers, and the Peer Support Fund supports this cause, financing innovative and targeted support to help raise standards and performance.
 
Authorities among the winning bids this year have raised £1.3m on their own to match their Peer Support funding, ensuring that even more authorities will benefit from their advice and guidance. For example, the four Beacons for delivering cleaner air have provided additional funding of £250k to supply tools, resources and mentoring to other authorities, and working with stakeholders to feed in to DEFRA's emission policies.

Congratulating the winners at the annual LGA conference, she said:

 "Today, we are giving 16 leading councils and their partners an extra  £1.5m to enable them to share what they have learned more widely - from getting the local economy going to reducing air pollution.

"The benefits will be two-fold. Beacon authorities can get on with the  job of stimulating good practise in other councils and offer tried and tested solutions to local problems. And to work with Whitehall to inform, develop or test national policy. 

"This is about town halls helping to set the agenda in a whole range of  policies, and to share the best in local practice on issues such as health, including how schools can work with pupils and parents to get  them eating better and exercising more."

Areas in England which have benefited are Birmingham, Bolton, Bristol, Coventry, Durham, East Hampshire, Gateshead, Leeds, Leicester, London, Merseyside, Rotherham, Sheffield, Shropshire and West Sussex.

Notes to Editors

1. The Beacon Peer Support Fund was established in 2003 to encourage Beacon authorities to provide further targeted, innovative support to other authorities who can benefit from Beacons' experience and excellence. Since then a second 'Policy Development' strand has developed providing an opportunity for Beacons to work with the lead Government Department for a particular theme to inform, develop or test national policy.

2. Bids were assessed by an independent Peer Support Assessment Panel consisting of the Chair and Vice Chair of the Beacon Panel, a Local Authority Chief Executive, a Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership Director and officials from the LGA and IDeA who made recommendations to Local Government Minister, Parmjit Dhanda.

3. This year 29 bids totalling more than £5.2m were received from authorities awarded beacon status in round 6, 7 and 8 of the Beacon Scheme.

4. The successful bidders were as follows:

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