Indicators may be dropped

Councils may drop indicators from local area agreements (LAAs) if they cannot agree targets with Whitehall.

Expectation is growing that some of the 150 upper-tier councils will fail to hit the June deadline for agreeing targets amid continuing conflict between local objectives and ministers' goals.

Only two months remain until the agreements are due to become operational.

But it is thought that negotiations on areas including housing, violent extremism, transport and climate change have become so difficult, no successful outcome may be possible.

Up to 35 local priorities should have been selected for each area for local partners' performance to be measured against.

Local Government Association programme director Corin Thompson said: "If targets cannot be agreed it is possible that indicators will get dropped. It would be preferable for indicators to be dropped than for authorities to agree to targets they think are over ambitious."

One senior London local government source said he would be surprised if all boroughs agreed their targets by June.

But Guy Swindle, who is leading negotiations for Barking & Dagenham LBC, said his council's experience with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) showed compromise was possible.

DEFRA wanted Barking & Dagenham to include CO2 targets in its area, but the council argued that additional traffic caused by the borough's proximity to construction work for the London Olympic site would push up emissions.

Mr Swindle said: "We agreed not to take up [the CO2 indicator], but as a compromise we are taking up an indicator concerning emissions produced by the council itself."

A Department for Communities & Local Government spokeswoman said: "We are on track to have agreements in place in June."