David Cameron this week responded to the UK’s democratic crisis by promising to devolve significant powers to councils, as MPs seek to assuage public anger over Westminster’s ‘unethical behaviour’.
Just a week after MPs called for more localist powers, the Conservative Party leader, still comfortably ahead of his rivals in national opinion polls, attempted to shift attention away from the snowballing MPs expenses row and into the policy realm with a speech to the Open University in Milton Keynes on Tuesday.
Acknowledging the collapse in public confidence towards Westminster, Mr Cameron said it reflected ‘a much deeper problem in our political system’ – the centralisation of power in Whitehall and unelected quangos – and claimed a Tory Government would empower local councils and residents.
‘I believe there is only one way out of this national crisis,’ he said. ‘We need a massive, sweeping, radical redistribution of power. From the state to citizens; from the government to parliament; from Whitehall to communities.’
A Conservative Government, he claimed, would start ‘by pushing political power down as far as possible, wherever possible’, and he called on politicians, their advisers and civil servants to ‘kill’ their instinct to ‘hoard power’.
Echoing proposals in the Conservative local government Green Paper, Mr Cameron said he would slash Whitehall-imposed local targets and inspections, force referenda on key issues on to town halls, and encourage more directly-elected mayors and police commissioners.
‘We’ll… require councils to publish online details of all spending over £25,000, and to get approval for any excessive tax increases in a local referendum,’ he added.
A new ‘general power of competence’ for councils would, he said, allow them to ‘do literally whatever they like as long as it’s legal, creating solutions to local problems without getting permission from the centre’.
As with the party’s Green Paper, however, his speech offered few clues on how the Conservatives would finance extra local services and administration.
Mr Cameron’s speech was timely, following publication last week of a report by backbench MPs accusing Whitehall of dragging its feet over devolution to town halls. The CLG select committee had also called for a general power of competence.
But Andy Sawford, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit, said ‘gimmicks’ such as directly-elected police chiefs would do little to satisfy localists. And he questioned Mr Cameron’s desire for real change.
‘If we rely on turkeys to vote for Christmas, ministers and MPs will never give up real power,’ he said.
‘Mr Cameron should commit in hard and fast terms to a new constitutional settlement, a new basis for local taxation, and a fundamentally-new approach to our major public services – with most spending controlled locally and decisions taken locally.’
Meanwhile, senior local government academics have urged the LGA to force through the CLG select committee’s core proposals, including claims that decisions which primarily affect one locality more than any other area should be taken within that locality.
George Jones, emeritus professor of government at the London School of Economics, and John Stewart, emeritus professor of local government at Birmingham University, fear the MPs’ report could be kicked into the long grass by ministers in the same way that past governments have ignored key findings from the Lyons and Layfield reviews.
‘The LGA must ensure these issues are followed up… giving them their full support and not quibbling over details,’ the academics warned.
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