New communities and local government secretary, Hazel Blears, has lost no time in making her mark by announcing this week 10 pilot projects to give the public a say in council budget planning.
But, she steered clear of making her views known on reorganisation, other than hinting that the timetable was still on course. She told The MJ, in an interview this week, it was ‘the first thing in my in-tray’, due to the imminent July announcement of the final list of unitaries.
The former councillor and council officer said that among her top priorities was engaging the public more in town hall affairs.
She said: ‘I’m a practical, hands-on politician. We have talked a lot about community engagement, and now I want to see action. These pilots are about that.’
In her speech to the LGA conference in Birmingham today (Thursday) Ms Blears will announce pilots in 10 areas giving local people a say in how their council budgets are allocated.
She will also announce that up to 40 projects in 20 areas have been earmarked to take control of council assets through a £400,000 fund, as part of the community control of public assets initiative in response to the Quirk review.
Ms Blears, one of the candidates for Labour’s deputy leadership, said that among her other priorities was making councillors more representative of their areas. She added: ‘I want to make sure we make the best use of people’s time and energy, and I want to make it more attractive to be a councillor.’
The Councillors Commission, under former Camden LBC leader, Dame Jane Roberts, is looking into ways of widening the elected member base, and is reporting back in November. Ms Blears added: ‘I’m keen to make it as radical as can be to achieve our objectives.’
Her appointment to the DCLG last week was followed by confirmation at the LGA conference this week that Westminster City Council leader, Sir Simon Milton, had won a landslide 66% of council leader votes to become the next chair of the LGA, until 2010.
It means both the LGA and DCLG will be represented politically at the top by newcomers, although Ms Blears and Sir Simon have met previously at the central/local partnership and when Ms Blears was a Home Office minister.
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