Councils stop work on CAAs

The Government has announced that the Comprehensive Area Assessment, that hugely onerous array of regulation imposed on Town Halls, is to be abolished. Legally they will continue to exist until until legislation is passed. But according to the Municipal Journal the Audit Commission is "poised to announce all work surrounding the CAAs will stop immediately." In Hammersmith and Fulham we reckon it used to cost £200,000 a year in officer time dealing with the CAAs. Then on top of all that the Audit Commission would charge each council a £100,000 fee for "audit costs."  Flaming cheek. 

Forall councils in Britain the bill for supplying all the pointless CAA data was probably getting on for £100 million. Actually, it was probably worse than pointless. It encouraged a culture of sameness. Officers would resist any innovation that would clash with ticking the CAA boxes.