Just last week, PM Gordon Brown promised a renewed focus on ‘devolution of powers and responsibilities to local government, and accountability of our local police and health services to their communities’.
I am greatly encouraged by this, given his centralising record at the Treasury. For, the truth is, the success of the Government’s domestic agenda is in the hands of local councils.
On housing, gang culture, health and prosperity, give us the freedom and powers we need to deliver powerful local solutions, and we will show you strong, innovative councils working with their residents and local businesses to improve services and reignite our democracy.
For, in all our public services, direction from the centre, however well funded, has produced limited results.
Massive central spending is subject to the law of diminishing returns. Initially, the money boosts investment in public services and stimulates the economy. Nevertheless, Whitehall can increase police officers and prison numbers by thousands, yet this doesn’t necessarily make people feel safer on the streets. Nor does it tackle the endemic problem of drugs.
Ministers can increase the numbers of doctors, nurses and beds, but, for the vast majority of the population, that doesn’t help them prevent illness or tackle unhealthy lifestyles.
And they can increase teacher numbers and reduce class sizes, but that doesn’t always raise the ambitions of the poorest children to reach their potential, or stimulate greater parental push. None of these problems can be solved by central diktat. They are issues on a human scale. They need treatment, advice or mentoring, and a fundamental understanding of the context they exist within.
Where we can improve public services by involving local people and tackling specific local needs, I also believe we can begin a new movement to reinvigorate our democracy. I want to see a new understanding of the relationship between councils and Parliament. We need to build a bridge at the national level between the way MPs and councillors each legitimately represent the interests of their local areas.
One powerful way of addressing this is to make a place for local government in a reformed upper house.
Why should the Government not propose assigning say 10% of seats in a new upper chamber to representatives of local government, possibly council leaders?
They would bring expertise. They are elected and directly responsible for delivering many services. Their insight would make unimplementable, burdensome legislation less likely.
We could apply the same principles to the new regional select committees which are to be created. If these committees are to hold unelected regional government to account, doesn’t it make sense for them to include both elected council leaders from each region as well as the region’s MPs?
We also need to integrate MPs more closely into what local government does. Some councils already involve their MPs in their Local Strategic Partnerships. Should councils go further, and systematically co-opt their MP as a member of the council?
We are all-too-familiar with councils and MPs trading blows in the local newspaper over difficult decisions. Wouldn’t democracy be healthier if they replaced that public rhetoric with genuine debate? No successive government has sought to reverse our centralist system, in part, because whether we have a tiny majority, like John Major’s, or a landslide such as Tony Blair’s, giving power away seems absurd.
And yet, it is the consequences of that centralism which demonstrate the real absurdity.
Consider Birmingham, the second city, where plans to rebuild New Street Station, the city’s main transport hub, are subject to three separate Whitehall approval processes. Can you imagine that happening in Los Angeles, Marseilles or Frankfurt?
Nottingham built a first-rate tram line, but in the time it took to get central permission do so, its twin town in Germany had built 14.
This is ultimately a symptom of the dependency culture that has grown as a result of the 1,000 or more performance indicators and targets councils are subject to, together with the rainforest of guidance we receive each year.
On council tax – yes, it’s a local tax – insofar as councils collect it and take the responsibility. But, after years of capping, a complicated redistributive grant system, and much central prescription about how it can be spent, the real local discretion councils have about council tax is extremely limited.
So, there is little point talking about devolution unless we are prepared to tackle local government finance. n
Sir Simon Milton is chairman of the Local Government Association and leader of Westminster City Council
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