Recommendation 18

We enquired whether some local authorities were effectively “swapping” households with other local authorities. MHCLG replied that it received a lot of anecdotal evidence that this was happening, and that such an approach was clearly wrong given that it is better for people to stay as close as possible to their home. We challenged MHCLG on whether some kind of central co-ordination was required to prevent this swapping of households from taking place. It replied that it was cautious of too much central government involvement in the statutory responsibilities of local government, but that it would look at ways in which it might encourage local authorities to work better together.24 20 Q 87 21 C&AG’s Report, paras 3, 1.21 22 Q 1 23 Q 39; C&AG’s Report, para 21 24 Qq 41-42 13