To see how your council is performing visit the Audit Commission website

Perhaps the most startling thing about the Audit Commission’s local government performance scores is how good they are. It is hard to imagine an equivalent, numerically scored, exercise for Whitehall departments coming up with such glowing indicators. The Home Office would be lucky to get a “one star, not improving adequately” ranking from the auditors. Councils, by contrast, have been improving and winning extra stars.

Cynics will wonder about “grade drift”: is the measure becoming easier to achieve, or are councils learning how to play the system? There is always a risk that performance measurement systems will have less effect over time but the Audit Commission is widely respected and has little incentive to soften its tests. Indeed, the comprehensive performance regime has been strengthened in recent years.

London authorities appear to be improving at a faster rate than the average. Wandsworth, Conservative flagship for many years, is singled out for exceptional praise by the commission. It is impossible to be sure why councils in the capital are doing so well. The stresses and strains created by London’s rapidly growing and complex population have perhaps proved to be a stimulus to councillors and officers. It is also possible that good officers are attracted to the challenge of one of the world’s leading cities.

At the other end of the spectrum, Liverpool received only one star and is judged to be only “improving adequately”. Despite the city’s current Capital of Culture status, its public administration appears to be challenged. Without effective public services it is unlikely that the boost provided by a cultural festival, however splendid, can provide the Merseyside city with long-term benefit.

Many of the least effective performers are relatively new unitary authorities outside the big cities. It may be worth research to identify why they do less well than, say, metropolitan districts or shire counties. Having said this, Bracknell Forest and Blackpool, both unitaries, perform very well.

Councils provide the most basic services to us around our homes and places of work. If the streets are grim, or council housing ill-maintained, it is less likely that companies will want to locate within an area. The Audit Commission’s work suggests that environmental provision has worsened, albeit marginally. Housing remains the worst performing of all council services. Even if local government is performing well, there are spheres of its activity that need improvement.

We are now a long way beyond the 1980s war-of-all-against-all where Margaret Thatcher’s Government struggled against (what she saw as) failing local government. The evidence presented today by the Audit Commission implies that councils are now among the best performing parts of the public services. Surely this fact, combined with the defective nature of so many parts of Whitehall, suggests that the political parties should seriously consider a significant decentralisation of political power. Good and bad

Improving councils
The best councils (improving strongly & 4 stars): Bracknell Forest, Camden, Corporation of London, Gateshead, Kensington & Chelsea, Kent, Leicestershire, Shropshire, Somerset, Sutton, Tameside, Wandsworth, Westminster

The worst
Liverpool (improving adequately and 1 star) 11 councils are improving adequately with 2 stars: Bournemouth, Bury, Cumbria, Harrow, Herefordshire, Northamptonshire, Nottingham, Oldham, Rochdale, Slough, Thurrock Rutland is improving well, but receives only 1 star

Value for money
Top: nine councils scored 4 for use of resources and value for money: Camden, Kent, Leicestershire, Shropshire, Tameside, Wandsworth, Westminster, Worcestershire, Stockton-on-Tees Bottom: Liverpool (scored 1 for use of resources and 2 for value for money) 19 councils scored 2 for both use of resources and value for money

Leaking roofs
Herefordshire, Liverpool, Rutland and Slough all scored 1 for housing

Political make-up
22 councils improving strongly (last year 12), of which
11 are Conservative
6 Labour
2 Lib Dem
1 Con/Lib Dem alliance
1 NOC
1 Independent

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