New Local Government Association chairman, Sir Merrick Cockell, called on the prime minister to meet and discuss localism.
In his maiden speech to the LGA’s annual conference in Birmingham this week, Sir Merrick promised a stronger, more confident association. He paid tribute to the Government’s decentralisation agenda, and removing the ‘wasteful apparatus of central control’.
Sir Merrick said: ‘The coalition government is freeing us from being the servant of the state to being the servant of local people. But I know that so much more could be achieved – so much more could be saved.’
But, he warned: ‘The message to government at a national and local level is that localism means letting go.’
He added: ‘I am asking the group leaders to join me in issuing an invitation to the prime minister... to agree a set of principles and priorities for how those local democratic values are reflected in the extension of localism.’
For coverage of the LGA conference, see our website www.themj.co.uk
