Contract to confuse

Jan 29 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

ANYONE remember John Major’s citizen’s charter? Nope, neither do we.

It was launched by the then Prime Minister in 1991 to maintain standards and improve “every part of the public services”.

The Tory politician’s big idea could be generously described as ill-fated, eventually floundering in a sea of confusion.

Seventeen years later and we’re about to have another go.

This time it’s Labour which is in power and the initiative is called a community contract – with a core component being refunds to council tax payers if services are not up to standard.

Unsurprisingly, councils have been cool on the idea.

And who can blame them?

Their common complaint is that they have more and more duties poured on to them by the Government, but without the extra money required to do the work properly.

One unwanted impact for Communities Secretary Hazel Blears is that it will increase the pressure on national politicians to fund services to a level that underpins service guarantees.

The second worry is the bureaucracy – it’s hard to imagine that the scheme can be made to work without more staff or, at the very least, without existing workers being diverted from their tasks to carry out the administration.

At the moment we have been presented with a vague outline of the new contract. Firm details are needed before a true judgement can be made.