Local Area Agreements: The next generation

In June 2008, 150 new Local Area Agreements (LAA) were signed off by central government. A Local Area Agreement is a three year agreement, based on local Sustainable Community Strategies, that sets out the priorities for a local area.

The 14 strategic authorities in the West Midlands each have a Local Area Agreement.

The LAA is negotiated between the local strategic partnership (LSP) and the regional Government Office, who act on behalf of central government. The LSP consists of all the key players in a local area who deliver services. The local authority is the lead partner in the LSP, and now has a statutory duty to prepare it. The local authority negotiates the LAA on behalf of its LSP and is the only body accountable to government. Other key players in a LSP include the police and the primary care trust.

The new LAAs have 35 indicators chosen from the new National Indicator Set plus 16 statutory education and young people indicators.

Useful information on LAAs can be found on the Communities and Local Government and I&DeA sites. The Observatory’s resource catalogue includes each of the West Midlands LAAs and other local area agreement related resources.

I&DeA also links to all the 150 LAAs and a tracker spreadsheet developed by Government Office London which allows the user to see which are the most frequently chosen indicators on a national or region by region basis.