What is a LAA?

A Local Area Agreement is struck between Government, the council and its major delivery partners in an area (working through the Local Strategic Partnership). It will focus on a range of agreed outcomes that are shared between the partners and which they agree to work towards.

What are the benefits?

It is intended to rationalise funding programmes providing support to the area, allowing much more flexible use of resources between partners towards shared outcomes; reduced bureaucracy; genuine devolution of responsibility.

What will a LAA look like?

Initially, LAAs will be structured around four blocks; children and young people, safer and stronger communities, healthier communities and older people and economic development Outcomes and Performance indicators will be agreed with central Government, local Government and their partners for each theme.

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What is the linkage with Local Public Service Agreements?

Local Public Service Agreements between central and local government encourage local authorities and their partners to deliver specific improvements in the priorities for improvement locally, above and beyond what would otherwise have been expected. The authority receives a reward grant of 2½% of one year's budget if it achieves the agreed performance enhancement. It can share the reward with partners (such as district councils, Primary Care Trusts, and the Police).

Local Area Agreements will build on the Local Public Service Agreement process, extending it to cover supplementary funding streams as well as main programmes.

What is the Safer and Stronger Communities Fund (SSCF)?

The SSCF is one block of the LAA and is particularly important to local people because it contains the outcomes for community engagement. In other words how are the LSP partners going to involve local communities/neighbourhoods/individuals and organisations in the design and delivery of LAAs.

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When will the Safer and Stronger Communities Fund start?

The Safer and Stronger Communities Fund will be rolled out across all local authorities in England from April 2005. The fund will address the issues of high levels of anti-social behaviour and disorder and the frequent poor quality of public spaces, particularly in deprived areas. In Luton it will start in 2006.

How will the Safer and Stronger and Communities Fund operate?

The Safer and Stronger Communities Fund will bring together ODPM funding streams on wardens, neighbourhood management, community empowerment and liveability with Home Office funding streams on building safer communities, anti-social behaviour and Regional GO funding.

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What are the benefits to local authorities and partners?

LAAs will offer local authorities and their partners:

• Fewer funding streams to deal with and reduced bureaucracy and transactional costs associated with them
• Strengthening of partnership working and of the role of the Local Strategic Partnership
• Greater focus and agreement between agencies on the delivery of a number of key outcomes for the area over the life of the Local Area Agreement
• A single point of contact for each area with the relationship management team in the Government Office and a single auditing and monitoring process

Giving all the money to local authorities, including some which currently goes direct to community groups, is a regressive step.

All the local partners, through the Local Strategic Partnership, will be involved in agreeing the terms of the Local Area Agreement. Where necessary, such terms will include safeguards to ensure that such funding still reaches voluntary and community groups.

What difference will they make to ordinary people’s lives?

LAAs will give local authorities and their local delivery partners more freedom to develop local solutions to local priorities, and give people a say in their communities.