The local government watchdog, the Audit Commission, has today [18 Dec 2003] published a new league table of local councils, grading the local services that they provide. Labour-run Haringey and Lib Dem-run Islington Councils are both scored as “weak” – the second lowest performance Council. Analysis of the results by party control has revealed that Conservative councils achieve the highest scores and deliver the best quality local services.

Conservative-controlled Enfield has improved from "weak" to "fair" in only the first full year of Conservative control.

Analysing of the ‘Comprehensive Performance Assessments’ published on 18 December for each, shows: 

• Conservative-run councils have the highest ‘overall service’ scores, averaging 3.3 out of 4, compared to 2.9 for Labour councils and 3.0 for LibDem councils. Both Haringey & Islington Councils score 2.0  
• Conservative councils are more likely to be ranked as ‘excellent’ – the highest grade. 26% of Conservative councils were graded excellent, compared to 20% of Labour councils. No Liberal Democrat council was given an excellent rating.  
• Conservative councils are the least likely to be ranked ‘weak’ or ‘poor’ – the lowest grades. Just 9% of Conservative councils were labelled so, compared with 20% of Labour’s councils and 20% of Liberal Democrat councils.

Peter Forrest, Conservative GLA Candidate for Enfield-Haringey, remarked:

“It’s official – independent research by the Audit Commission has listed the best and worst councils in England. And if one looks at who controls those councils, Conservative-run local authorities [like Enfield] are more likely to deliver the best services, whilst Labour and Liberal Democrat councils perform the worst.

There is little to choose between Labour Haringey and neighbouring Lib-Dem Islington Councils. They both score appallingly on the quality of their education services and both are near the bottom of the independent Audit Commission’s league table of high-performing Councils. Voting for Labour locally is to opt for more of the same and switching to the Lib-Dems would be like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.”