New powers for councils
Author: DCLG - Sep 9, 2009
Councils in North Kent, the West Midlands and the West of England are today being given new freedoms and powers to work together to improve employment, skills, housing and transport in their regions, announced Communities Secretary John Denham.
The issues that affect people's lives like jobs and housing do not stop neatly at council boundaries. Councils increasingly need to join forces across their borders to mastermind regional solutions for getting more people back into work, raising skills levels, or developing new transport links.The Government is helping local authorities to work together to do this through new Multi-Area Agreements (MAAs).
Today councils are signing up to the next wave of MAAs - giving them new powers to devise their own plans and spend money as they see fit to tackle the most pressing issues in their regions and drive economic recovery.
The agreements will help thousands of people back into work, kick-start stalled housing developments, improve skills, and create first class transport links.
The latest wave of MAAs aim to:
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Reduce the number of people receiving out of work benefits;
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Increase the number of people with formal qualifications;
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Get work started again on stalled housing developments;
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Reducing carbon emissions by increasing the number of people who use public transport to get to and from work.
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