Members and officers from the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) spent a total of 5,000 days supporting councils last year.

According to the IDeA's 2006/7 annual report, the organisation delivered 491 projects and 108 peer reviews in 239 councils and 47 other organisations.

Its leadership academy and academy for executive leadership delivered development programmes for 114 senior managers and 550 councillors. More than 60% of councils in England took part in the Beacon scheme's learning exchanges, and the IDeA secured £2.4m to improve third sector commissioning.

Executive director, Lucy de Groot, said: ‘It is important we show the return on the public investment of almost £46m in local government improvement across the 388 English councils and our more limited services in Wales.'

Also in the IDeA annual report: