Best practice examples of how regulatory issues ranging from work-related ill health to alcohol misuse to taxi licensing can all be tackled in ways that promote prosperity and protect against rogue traders are highlighted in an advice and guidance document due to be published next week by the public body for better local regulation LBRO.

The guidance demonstrates how environmental health, fire safety services, licensing and trading standards can play an important and sometimes under-estimated role in supporting businesses – and in turn consumers – through the recession and beyond.

A recent LBRO survey showed that more than half of the face-to-face contacts small and medium sized businesses had with local authorities in a 12 month period were with regulatory services officers.

Elected members, chief executives and directors are now being encouraged to assess how they can take full advantage of these officers’ local contacts, knowledge and expertise.

Better Local Regulation: Supporting Businesses Towards Recovery – available to download from the Institute Library - sets out how regulatory services are best placed to deliver four key approaches to moving towards recovery:

using direct relationships to signpost local businesses to appropriate support and guidance

using face-to-face engagement to understand local businesses’ diverse issues and challenges and feed this information into local economic assessments

taking an intelligence-led approach to targeting activity on the particular opportunities and threats faced by local economies and communities

developing collaborative approaches that deliver shared local and national priorities

The better regulation principles are at the heart of the advice and guidance, with case studies demonstrating how councils and their partners can further embed these principles through locally-agreed recovery plans.

Recommended approaches to developing regulatory services include adopting a continuous improvement culture, maximising use of resources and creating better outcomes through local, regional and national partnerships and greater collaboration.

OLDHAM’S TAXI STAR RATING
A scheme by Oldham council to help its hackney carriage and private hire vehicle drivers whilst meeting its objective of ensuring safe passenger journeys, in safe vehicles with safe drivers, is one example.

Oldham launched a ‘star rating’ scheme which provides valuable consumer information and brings clear financial benefits to those businesses that improve their compliance. While the scheme is in its early stages, there is already strong evidence that it is motivating businesses to improve their standards.

Private hire operators – and, increasingly, hackney carriage operators - are awarded up to four stars, which must be displayed on all of their vehicles. Those with top marks can see a reduction in their annual operator’s licence of up to twenty per cent, coupled with audit inspections every eighteen months instead of every six.

Top-scoring firms also benefit from more liberal rules on advertising on the licensed vehicles – at the other end of the scale, firms without any starts face monthly compliance audits and higher licence fees, which Oldham can implement due to the reduced checks on compliant businesses.


Within a few months of the scheme being introduced, all businesses had been audited at least
once and an estimated forty per cent of businesses had already achieved a higher rating than they would have been entitled to on the basis of audits conducted the previous year. A business that was initially awarded just one star acted quickly to improve its rating and was awarded two stars on re-audit.

The document is being published to coincide with the Local Government Association Conference in Harrogate next week. It has been welcomed by a number of key consumer and business organisations as well as regulatory trade bodies.

LBRO chairman Clive Grace said: ‘Councils need to be active in adversity. The leadership of elected members and chief executives has been critical to developing local ways forward amidst the global crisis. Better regulation has an important part to play, supporting business and protecting communities. Local authority regulatory services are often the most visible face of councils to the business community. Their advice and their focus on rogue traders benefits compliant businesses and their customers alike and are essential at a time when many are struggling.’