Concern about the impact of economic decline in parts of Britain and the desire to stimulate regeneration has long been a focus of government activity at both national and local levels.

However, many studies have questioned the effectiveness of past national and local initiatives. A common thread to the criticisms has been the lack of clear objectives and of mechanisms to assess both progress and the ultimate impact of such initiatives. In September 1999, the Audit Commission published a major report, A Life's Work; local authorities, economic development and regeneration. This report found that

'Some authorities have a very clear idea about what they are trying to achieve and how, but for many authorities:

• economic development and regeneration is planned on a very short-term basis with a meagre evidence base; and
• targets are often unmeasurable and vague, and performance measurement is neglected.' (A Life's Work p42)

This echoed the findings of the Audit Commission's inspectors who, when inspecting economic regeneration regularly found that performance management of regeneration programmes was weak and that there were few robust indicators to provide the evidence base for such activity. Authorities seemed to lack good information to provide a context for their work and also lacked measures to assess progress and achievement against their aims and objectives.

So the Commission joined with other national and local stakeholders to research and promote the development of key performance indicators.

View introductory paper outlining the project and its indicators.

How were the indicators chosen?

In 2002, the Commission launched the initiative, in conjunction with other national and local stakeholders to meet the need for robust indicators. Following a series of workshops and consultations with key national stakeholders (including the Local Government Association, Regional Development Agencies, various Government Departments) and local authorities, a draft set of indicators, Economic Regeneration – Performance Indicators Feedback Paper, was formulated and published in March 2003.

Local authorities attending the workshops were invited to be part of a two-year pilot programme to test the indicators. Seventeen authorities – providing a good cross-section of local government organisations by both type and geographic location – volunteered to join the programme. The programme included two exercises to test the indicators by collecting data and identifying problem areas.

The seventeen authorities participating in the programme were:

Bedford
Birmingham
Bolton
Bradford
Burnley
Coventry
Devon County Council
Dover
Essex County Council
Exeter
Lancaster
Leeds
Northumberland County Council
Rotherham
Stoke
Southend
Wycombe

View the themes that the indicators cover and the final publication of the definitions.