9 Successful projects are driven by the effective interaction of organisations and people who often have widely varying aspirations and requirements. The public sector's most common delivery partners are contractors, consultants and devolved delivery bodies such as local authorities and the third sector. But other groups such as citizens, special interest groups and end users can have a significant impact on delivery and delay or derail projects.
10 Understanding the motivations and level of influence of these groups can be crucial to the successful delivery of a project. But, government tends to be over-optimistic about its ability to align the different views and the amount of time it will take to have sufficient engagement, particularly where the project is complex or involves new ways of working. There is a tendency to make assumptions about the behaviours of groups over whom government has no direct control.
One of the causes of the failure of the FiReControl project was that it did not have the support from the outset of those essential to its success - the local Fire and Rescue Services. The Department for Communities and Local Government tried to centrally impose a national control system, without having sufficient mandatory powers and without consulting properly with the Fire and Rescue Services. In 2006, the Communities and Local Government Select Committee concluded that the Fire and Rescue Service's opposition posed the greatest risk to the project's success. The project was cancelled in December 2010, seven years after it had begun.11 At least £482 million will have been wasted, with no IT system delivered and as at March 2013, five of the nine regional control centres were empty and incurring maintenance costs.12 The Department has learnt from this experience, and undertook a consultation with the sector on the role of central government in the future of fire and rescue control centres across England. The Department is now working collaboratively with the Local Government Association and Chief Fire Officers' Association, and has recognised the importance of securing buy-in from the sector.13 The success of the New Homes Bonus scheme relies heavily on the behaviour of local authorities. While the Department for Communities and Local Government did consult with local authorities, it did not test specific assumptions within the model designed to understand local authority behaviour with local authorities themselves. A more sophisticated assessment of how local authorities in different situations might react would have allowed a more reliable estimate of the potential impact on housing supply.14 |
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11 Comptroller and Auditor General, Department for Communities and Local Government: The failure of the FiReControl project, Session 2010-2012, HC 1272, National Audit Office, July 2011.
12 Public Accounts, Written evidence from the National Audit Office, paragraphs 3.11 and 2.6 (www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmpubacc/110/110we05.htm)
13 Public Accounts, Written evidence from the National Audit Office, paragraph 4.1 (www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmpubacc/110/110we05.htm)
14 Comptroller and Auditor General, Department for Communities and Local Government: The New Homes Bonus, Session 2012-13, HC 1047, National Audit Office, March 2013.