Local Area Agreements


The introduction of LAAs has been heralded by some as a turning point for devolution. Three year LAA agreements set out the priorities for improvement in a local area, agreed between central and local government, matched with funding, flexibilities and freedom from central dictat. LAAs can help to free local authorities and their partners to be more innovative in service delivery, to respond more flexibly to local needs, and to deliver the local improvements that local citizens demanded.

“LAAs provide real opportunities to develop more mature, better co-ordinated dialogue. They provide opportunities to reinforce core partnerships between central and local government and the local partners.”
Des Browne, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, at NLGN Conference (Oct 2005)

With all areas signing up to a new three year agreement in June 2008, we are now knuckling down to the hard work of achieving local LAA targets. As always, the spread of good practice in LAA delivery will be a powerful tool in supporting councils and their partners, around the country. The IDeA are working on a website that links individual indicators to case studies, and they have also produced a helpful spreadsheet that allows you to see which indicators have been chosen by different areas.


LAA Peer Matching Tool

NLGN have now taken this a step further. Building on the IDeA’s work, we have built in an analysis of ‘levels of similarity between LAA indicator choices’. This analysis allows an area to see which of its peers have chosen an indicator set that most closely mirrors their own. The analysis then allows you to see which indicators you have in common with other areas. We hope that this analysis will allow areas to seek out those facing similar challenge and kick-start conversations and the spread of good practice across the country.

Instructions for using the tool are included with the downloadable Excel spreadsheet below.

Download LAA Peer Matching Tool


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