The local government minister has told the Office for Local Government (Oflog) to “pause” the rollout of its “early warning conversations” remit.
In a letter to Josh Goodman, chief executive of Oflog, Jim McMahon stated that he is “committed to resetting the relationship between local and central government” and will “review the role” of the body by the end of 2024.
This will ensure that Oflog adds the “greatest possible value” to local government, McMahon explained.
In the meantime, the minister instructed that Oflog should continue to deliver its previous short-term remit, except for “piloting and rolling out its current model of ‘early warning conversations’, while we consider the government’s overall approach to early warning and interventions”.
“I would like Oflog to work with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government officials on options to help identify when local authorities might need support to recover, rebuild or reform,” McMahon said.
This follows some sectoral backlash over Oflog’s “early warning conversations” remit when it was first launched in July 2023, which raised concerns about increasing distrust between central and local government.
In his letter, McMahon outlined Oflog’s current short-term remit under three categories: inform, support and warn.
Under inform, the minister acknowledged that the current model is “rich on data but poor on insights”.
“Although the current Oflog Data Explorer is live, it is incomplete and covers only a fraction of local authority activity,” he wrote.
Since Oflog’s launch, the sector has been calling for a review of body’s the role and responsibilities, particularly highlighting the “severe limitations” of the data comparison tool, which is open to “misinterpretation on council performance”.
For example, Oflog’s debt measure examines councils’ total borrowing as a proportion of its spending power. However, professionals have warned that despite debt being an important factor, it should not be used in isolation to understand the financial position of an authority.
McMahon stated that Oflog will continue to update existing metrics and add new ones to the Data Explorer, while also developing options for “new, additional, or alternative data tools”.
Oflog’s remit will be “updated” after further consideration of its role in the sector, McMahon added.
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