The Department for Environment Transport and the Regions has urged councils to start work on the Best Value initiative before the Bill receives royal assent later in the year. The initiative requires local authorities to consult public and voluntary bodies on a vision for the community, to set corporate objectives and priorities and draw up a schedule of reviews for all services. 

A second wave of 15 Health Action Zones have been set up to improve the health of local people by better integrated arrangements for treatment and care. There were 34 bids to share in the £50m budget which also provides funding for the11 Action Zones launched in the first wave in April 1998. The successful bidders proposed the most imaginative schemes for addressing needs, modernising services and developing partnerships. The zones now cover 13 million people.