A new website comparing services in different local authorities has gone live today.

Oneplace draws on findings from six national inspectorates: the Audit Commission, Care Quality Commission, Ofsted and HM Inspectorates of Prisons, Probation and Police.

The site attempts to present the performance of 152 local authorities against a range of indicators in a way that is plain and accessible for ordinary voters.

Councils are graded on a four-point scale, from one (poor) to two (adequate), three (performing well) and four (excellent).

Communities secretary John Denham welcomed the website, which he said put “more information about the state of local services into the hands of the public than ever before”.

"It is just the start of our efforts to give local people far better access to information held by local public organisations so they can challenge, compare or scrutinise their local services in order to drive up standards in their area,” he added.

But the Conservatives have already said they would scrap the comprehensive area assessments carried out by the Audit Commission, which are a crucial part of the data on Oneplace.

And the Conservative leader of a local authority which performed well in the assessment criticised the exercise as “too superficial”.

“In attempting to cover just about every aspect of public life in the area, the reports simply descend into generalities. Despite the huge effort in cost and time, there is nothing here that provides any added value for our taxpayers,” said Edward Lister, leader of the London Borough of Wandsworth.