Support for Healey stance on LAAs

摘要

Local government minister John Healey's rejection of an overhaul of local area agreements has been backed by senior figures in the sector. Calls by for the agreements to be redesigned because of the economic downturn were dismissed as foolish, and likely to divert energy away from action. Chris Leslie, director of the New Local Government Network, said a review due by the end of this year was an opportunity to refresh but not revise, and urged Whitehall not to pull rank. He said: 'The "refreshment" process should allow for some recalibration of targets given the state of the external environment. But it would be foolish for some government departments to pull up the drawbridge and retreat from decentralisation.'