Performance report says Newcastle City Council is getting worse

Mar 4 2009 The Journal

THE region’s biggest council is performing worse than last year, according to a leaked report.

Newcastle city council will be downgraded to two stars from three by the Audit Commission in its annual review.

Last year the authority was judged to be improving well. But in a report due out this week it is given two stars.

The Comprehensive Performance Assessment gives councils in England a rating out of four stars and a “direction of travel”. It looks at how efficiently they are run, value for money, and the quality and delivery of services.

Coun Nick Forbes, leader of the Labour opposition, said: “We’ve heard excuse after excuse for why services continue to fail and why quality standards are dropping.

“Given that in 2004 it was considered a good council with excellent prospects, to go from that to average is a shocking indictment.”

Acting council chief executive Barry Rowland, said: “Our Comprehensive Performance Assessment results for 2008 show the council continues to improve well overall and has done so in three of the last four years. We have improved our delivery of value for money from adequate to good.

“Despite this excellent progress our overall CPA rating has reduced from three stars to two. This is because our last Corporate Assessment, which took place in January 2007, has now been taken into account. Since January 2007, in part in response to that Corporate Assessment, we have fundamentally restructured the council and put in place a major culture change programme.”