Sir Michael Lyons is a past master at always being on-message, choosing his words with such care that the skills of a Kremlinologist are required to decipher their hidden meaning.
But he was as clear as a bell in his comments last week on the current spate of bids in two-tier areas for unitary local government. The fact is, he thundered to an assembled audience of chief executives at the annual SOLACE reception at the Commons, reorganisation was an option for the very few, not the many. He referred to local government forming ‘a giant queue to press its case in typical combative fashion.’ Anyway, he remarked, what was so wrong with a two-tier system – why, even Met councils such as Bradford, Leeds and Birmingham were experimenting with it. He added darkly: ‘I shall be saying something on this in my report in March.’
In a later interview with The MJ, he insisted his report would be looking at ways of improving two-tier working, not commenting on the unitary bids, the shortlist of which would also be announced in March and confirmed in July. He insisted he would not ‘insert myself into Ruth Kelly’s agenda.’
However, she would be politically mad to ignore his comments, all of which she agrees with anyway, since they were spelled out in the White Paper.
His closeness to Gordon Brown, who asked him to extend his review by three months, merely emphasises the validity of his comments.
The message is clear: We don’t expect a mad rush of unitary applications and if there is one, then we shall look on it unfavourably.
However, out there, counties continue to keep their cards close to their chests. Many are planning to take final decisions close to the January deadline, which suggests the extent of their consultation among the public and local stakeholders has been limited, let alone among the districts.
Some counties will be wise to bear in mind that after the dust has settled, they will be expected to work more closely with districts, in particular, implementing the ‘enhanced two-tier’ programme – remember Ms Kelly’s warning at the LGA last July that ‘no change is not an option’.
The challenge for counties which decide to submit bids with little chance of success, or with little or no consultation with their districts, is that they must still live with the districts afterwards.
Balanced against the ‘we’ve nothing to lose by submitting a bid to be unitary’ must be the ‘we might poison relations with districts just when we’ve got to work with them even more closely.’
On that note, a happy Christmas to all, and see you in the new year.
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