Why the commission lost its way

摘要

The Government is going to abolish the Audit Commission. We support that decision, although for different reasons from the Government. Our reason is that the Audit Commission had ceased to be the independent body created by Tory grandee, Michael Heseltine, and had become an agent of central government. Mr Heseltine said he was following the recommendations of the Layfield Committee on Local Government Finance (1976), of which we were members.