Council responds to Government request on Productivity Plans

Date published: 2nd August 2024

Following the announcement of the Local Government Finance Settlement in the Spring, a letter was sent to all council chief executives on April 16 by the then Minister for Local Government, Simon Hoare MP, asking them to produce a productivity plan for submission by July 19.

The purpose of these plans was to help the Government understand what is already working well in the local government sector across the whole country in terms of delivering savings and efficiencies, what the common themes are, whether there any gaps and what more we need to do to unlock future productivity and efficiency opportunities.

In drawing up their plans, councils were asked to consider a number of questions under the following four headings:

1. How the Council has transformed the way it designs and delivers services to make better use of resources
2. How the Council plans to take advantage of technology and make better use of data to improve decision-making, service design and use of resources
3. The Council's plans to reduce wasteful spend within its organisation and systems
4. The barriers preventing progress that the Government can help to reduce or remove.

North Norfolk District Council’s response, as endorsed by its Cabinet, can be viewed here.

The LGA is now undertaking an exercise to review and summarise the responses of councils across the country which will then be used to inform future policy design and how the new Government might support further change.