The new leader of the Local Government Association will face an uphill battle making sure its voice commands the attention of Government, says David Walker.

Whether or not you agree with Rowan Williams’ views on the Government, he commands attention. Even in a (relatively) godless land, the Archbishop of Canterbury is a central figure, someone who can lead opinion.

You would not say the same about the chair of the Local Government Association and you would not say it, whether it’s David Parsons or Merrick Cockell who succeeds Margaret Eaton.

The expectation is not that the head of the LGA becomes a household name, but that their views are accorded weight because of who they represent. How far away we are from local government having that kind of status.

The expectation is not that the head of the LGA becomes a household name, but that their views are accorded weight because of who they represent

One reason is partisanship. Councils are run by political parties. Political affiliation supplies the glue, without which decisions do not get made – which is why councils controlled by independents or in no overall control often tend to be least effective.

It follows that the LGA leadership will be based on political parties and to get to the top you have to appeal to your ideological soul mates.

But there is a trick to this, which seems to come easiest to, on one side, ‘Tory toffs’ such as Sandy Bruce-Lockhart and ‘Old Labour’ types – think of Jack Layden, former chairman of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities. Because they were unmistakeably ‘of their tribes’, they had a capacity to reach out to the other side.

Another reason the LGA may never have ‘must listen to’ status with its leaders fated to remain in the political shadow, their utterances ignored or only half-attended by media and ministers, is the sheer diversity of the organisation’s membership.

It is similar, in its ineffectiveness, to Universities UK, the body representing higher education under the pretence University College, London and Cambridge are deep down the same kind of institutions as the University of Gloucestershire or Thames Valley University. All they in fact have in common is the name university.

Councils are more obviously cognate bodies, with a common legal base. But often their interests sometimes seem unbridgeably different. When Eric Pickles completes his review of finance next month, whatever he says about business rates will pit the ‘have property’ against the ‘have-nots’.

The LGA response will have to avoid giving offence to one side or the other. There is some common ground – all councils surely favour incentives to grow business and employment – but finding it will test the LGA leadership’s ability to transcend partisanship.

That is now up to Tory councillors: their vote will determine whether the LGA has even a marginal claim on public attention.