| It's Official - Liverpool is a GOOD Council |
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It's Official - Liverpool is a GOOD Council An independent report has ranked Liberal Democrat run Liverpool as a ‘good’ local authority which has made “significant improvements in services” in the last year.
The Audit Commission’s Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) ranks each local authority as either excellent, good, fair, weak or poor - depending upon how well they are run. Last year, Liverpool was ranked overall by inspectors as “fair”, but praised for its rapid progress from a low base. But within 12 months, the city council’s performance has accelerated even further – and is now the second most improved local authority in the country. Liverpool has moved up into the “good council” category – a remarkable turnaround from when Labour ran the city and services were ranked the third worst in the country. The CPA singles out Liverpool’s education service for particular praise, and gives it the highest possible score of 4. It is an amazing transformation for education. In 1999, the service was on the brink of being privatised because it was failing the children of the city. Now it has scored top marks. Other areas of improvement praised in the report include a £5 million investment in new technology to speed up the processing of revenues and benefits applications. Residents in the city were able to claim £1.4 million in housing benefit, which they weren’t aware they were entitled to. :ib Dem Council leader Mike Storey said: “I am absolutely delighted that this independent report into our performance officially puts us ahead of many other cities, and shows that we are on course to make council services amongst the best in Britain." “We made it clear from day one that we wanted to improve the services provided to the people of Liverpool, and today is a big step towards us becoming an excellent local authority. This report has given us four stars out of five. It shows that the city council, like Liverpool, is being transformed for the better. We are no longer a basketcase. We are now a four star council in a premier European city. And we aim to be the best.”
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