26 October 2001
The groups would also take over the ownership of some council assets in their areas.
The commissioning bodies would be formulated as companies limited by guarantee and called 'community trusts'. Directors would represent a mix of different interests, such as the council itself, local business and community and voluntary groups.
Gavin Kelly, research director of the IPPR, said that although there were many community trusts in operation, he did not believe any were commissioning local services. This would represent, he said, a new model for involving people in the governance of services. He added that he was involved in 'private conversations' with the councils and could not name them.
Proposals for this type of community trust were included in the IPPR's recent report on public-private partnerships, Building Better Partnerships, and were similar to suggestions in earlier reports from the Social Exclusion Unit.
Steve Wiler, director of the Development Trusts Association, said that many community trusts had already taken over the ownership of council assets.
Next month it will publish a report, The can-do guide to asset transfers, jointly with the Local Government Association, on best practice in achieving this.
But Wiler was sceptical about community trusts taking over the commissioning of services. He said that a study in Bradford had concluded that it was not cost-efficient to commission most services at sub-local authority level.
PFoct2001
