Secretary of state Michael Gove is “minded to” extend government intervention at Liverpool City Council until 31 March 2025 – but with a statutory Assurance and Improvement Board replacing the current commissioner model.
The commissioners’ fifth report, written in March and published today (8 May), highlights significant improvement, particularly since May 2023. But it also recognises this improvement is “from a very low base and follows a slow start to the intervention”, according to a letter from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to the council.
Liverpool City Council is yet to fully meet its best value duty, the report said, with the improvements already made needing to be fully embedded across the authority.
However, Gove’s proposal to establish a statutory Assurance and Improvement Board reflects the “positive progress made by the authority so far”.
This board would be smaller in scope than the commissioner model, and is expected to be chaired by current lead commissioner Mike Cunningham if Gove moves forward with his proposal.
While oversight, advice, and challenge will still be provided to the authority, Assurance and Improvement Board members would not be able to exercise any functions of the council.
Gove has invited representations from Liverpool City Council and other interested parties on the proposal by 13 May 2024.
If a final decision is then taken to proceed with the proposal, Gove will establish new directions which would come into effect immediately after the current March 2024 directions expire on 9 June 2024.
The current commissioners’ appointments would also expire on that date, with all functions currently being held by commissioners returning to the authority.
In other news involving DLUHC, a Best Value Notice has been issued to South Cambridgeshire District Council due to “ongoing concerns about its trial of a ‘four-day working week’”.
A Best Value Notice is a non-statutory but formal notification that DLUHC has concerns about an authority, and is also a request that the authority engages with the department to provide assurance of improvement.
The notice will remain in place for six months, to allow for further data analysis, DLUHC said.
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