Having just read Peter Riddell’s excellent ‘In Defence of Politicians,’ in which he makes the case for elected accountable politicians at a national level, I thought that it was about time that we celebrated councillors.
Every neighbourhood is represented by at least one and in many cases several elected councillors. Sadly all too often council elections are a minority sport with less than half the eligible voters making the effort to exercise their democratic entitlement and duty; and many councillors elected on a minority of these votes. Nevertheless, councillors are the only elected and therefore democratically accountable, local community leaders.
John Tizard is director of the Centre for Public Service Partnerships, and is a former council leader |
However, most of these cynics do not put their names forward for selection; and like much of the tabloid media whenever a major or difficult issue comes up they demand: ’They should do something about it!’ At local level these ‘they’ are local authorities, composed of elected councillors.
We fortunately still have local government and not local administration in the UK, which means we have local accountability for the actions of local authorities. Local government is fundamentally political for it is about::
- articulating the voices of local citizens and representing and promoting the aspirations and needs of local communities
- place-shaping – setting the vision for the locality and co-ordinating and influencing all public, private and third-sector stakeholders to maximise community well being
- allocating public resources and making the necessary ‘trade-offs’ between competing demands
- mediating and prioritising between competing demands and expectations within the community
- protecting members of society and in particular the most vulnerable
- securing public services to achieve outcomes on behalf of the citizens to protect them; to offer opportunity; and to ensure a quality of life for all citizens
- raising local taxes
The alternative to these and related decisions being taken by locally accountable councillors would be either central control from Whitehall for England, and from Cardiff and Edinburgh for Wales and Scotland, and/or unelected bureaucracy.
Successive governments have sought to direct local authorities and from time to time to performance-manage their activities. The current coalition Government may be committed to localism, but so far and regrettably not about empowering elected accountable councillors.
England has fewer councillors per head of population than in many European jurisdictions. This deficiency should not be ignored. The issue is not just about the number of councillors but what they are doing and their responsibilities and freedom to act on behalf of their local communities.
Broadly the role of a councillor falls into three categories
- the political, but not professional, administration of local authorities either as executive members of cabinets or through scrutiny and policy development – both politically significant
- championing the interests of those living in a ward, ensuring these interests are addressed satisfactorily and championing the interests of the authority as a whole, ensuring fairness – fairness is important given the number of diverse communities within any local authority area
- being a community leader – first for the ward the councillor represents; and second for the whole locality through the council
As a community champion a councillor should be able, and supported, to take up collective and individual cases and issues with every public agency that impacts – or fails to impact - on the community, and with businesses and third-sector bodies that similarly have a local impact.
Who else other than a member of parliament has the democratic mandate to act in this manner? Many community and voluntary organisations, including faith groups and bodies like the Citizen Advice Bureau, do a sterling job in taking up issues and advocating on behalf of individuals and groups but ultimately they lack the democratic legitimacy of the elected councillor and council.
An effective ward councillor will work closely with community and voluntary organisations including faith groups active in her/his ward, and have good relations with local employers and other public agencies. They will listen and seek advice from such bodies and directly from local people to ensure they are well informed. They will also regard such activity as core to their representative role and accountability responsibilities.
Increasingly local authorities will be devolving decision-making to communities, and budgets to community groups and in some cases directly to citizens, as with direct-care budgets). This devolution should not be seen as removing the need for elected councillors, since they have to decide what to devolve, to arbitrate between competing demands and areas, to set the criteria for such devolution and often to work with but not seek to control community organisations.
There may be more local referenda on budgetary and key policy issues, but such processes should enhance and not diminish the role of councillors. Referenda cannot be a substitute for the deliberations and decisions of elected councillors. Similarly councillors and their decisions can benefit from deploying modern marketing techniques to test and understand public opinion. In this way they become better representatives.
This is not a call for councillors only to be followers. At the council level and in the ward they have to act as leaders too, even when they may attract short-term unpopularity. They have a duty – and indeed self-interest – to share their reasoning with their communities, the electorate and other stakeholders.
Some councillors – though only a small minority – have displayed behaviour that is unworthy of the democratic office they have held. Councillors must abide by the highest ethical standards, respect officers and others in the council and the agencies which they deal with, and perform their duties in the council and their wards effectively.
There is no reason why a council should not adopt a public standard for such behaviour and performance with periodic appraisals put before the electorate and councillors should be proud to be subject to public scrutiny and accountability.
If local democratic accountability is to be strengthened, there has to be greater transparency of the council and of individual councillors’ performance and attitudes. Yet where local elections are regarded by the public, the political parties and the media as simply large-scale opinion polls on public attitudes to Westminster party politics, there will continue to be a major problem and a gap in accountability.
Ironically the abolition of the Audit Commission and some national targets could reinforce this problem. The importance of council elections in their own right has to be addressed by councils, councillors, political parties and the media too.
One of the strengths of the current council election process is all citizens are entitled to stand. However, more action is required to ensure that those elected are representative of their diverse communities. Current modest remuneration should not discourage participation – and for parish-level councils there are no such payments.
Councillors are responsible for major budgets and critical decisions – they give massive time commitments – and while they will and should never be paid an ‘equivalent’ professional salary remuneration, they deservedly should receive some payment and should have a wide range of practical support – e.g. IT. However, there is little chance of an informed and balanced debate about payment for councillors given the current media hysteria and ministerial statements on the subject.
Most councillors are likely to have been elected on a party ticket. They will therefore have key roles to play in the council political group and have a wider external party political role, which is inevitable and legitimate. At an election not every policy or foreseeable issue will be apparent. Electors find it hard to vote for any candidate on the basis of a single policy. The party-political system allows candidates and their parties to identify with defined and publicly understood values, principles and programmes. Electors vote according to the ‘packages’ of policies, the personalities of the candidates and the values they support.
Political parties need to introduce rigorous candidate selection procedures to ensure that candidates are able to undertake the duties and meet the ethical standards expected of councillors. They need to ensure that candidates are able to gain the public confidence and credibility that will eventually win votes. Parties should consider selection processes for candidates that range wider than the party activists, including primaries.
Whatever reforms and changes occur in the power and role of local authorities and the wider public sector, and wherever localism takes us, there will always be a requirement for councillors. If there were no councillors, or their powers were to be further eroded, they would be greatly missed.
