I thought I was settling down to a rather boring local government summer, with only the reshuffle following the coronation of Gordon Brown to lighten it. But then the Conservatives have brightened it up.
Lord Heseltine’s cities task force proposal is fascinating as an example of how far localism has spread over the last five years.
Its proposals for abolishing CPA, ring-fenced spending, the abolition of RDAs, LSCs and transfer of their funding to local government, strengthened by executive mayors, and even bigger beasts – pan-city executive mayors – all paid more than any are at present, and with election by thirds abolished.
While there are undoubtedly plenty of details to work out in all this, the intention is encouraging. What will be fascinating is to see what the shadow cabinet takes from this, and what it is willing to sign up to in a manifesto, in due course.
While most of the electorate will remain oblivious, it will be fascinating to see what the Conservatives will ultimately commit themselves to.
The willingness to take on the local political classes over mayors in big cities is probably right.
One proposal does raise a smile – leaving it up to local people to ‘make up their own minds’ about performance by reading performance data has been a fantasy of both Conservative and Labour politicians for the last two decades – and they show no interest in it.
The public are quite happy to have local government inspected and measured externally, think PIs are for managers, and react relatively slowly to failures in less-visible services.
Would it work? Watching Labour councils under a Conservative Government enacting these changes would be very interesting.
But, overall, all of the above implies a real willingness to trust local government in a way that no government has for decades. I await with interest proposals for predominantly Conservative two –tier England. n
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With local elections nearing, rising abuse fears are deterring candidates - this analysis explores risks, definitions, and new guidance to support safer campaigning.
