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The Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) should be scrapped, with responsibility for oversight of councils transferred to the Cabinet Office, a leading Liberal Democrat has suggested. Cllr Richard Kemp, Liverpool councillor and leader of the Liberal Democrats at the Local Government Association (LGA), suggested the move at a meeting last week of the LGA's executive, characterised by a spirit of mutinous impatience with Whitehall. Cllr Kemp is currently engaged in an escalating feud with Conservative communities secretary, Eric Pickles, and Tory housing minister, Grant Shapps – whom he recently dubbed the ‘Laurel and Hardy' of the coalition government. Mr Kemp's hostility towards the two most senior CLG ministers stems from claims that the pair have taken a largely-dismissive approach to dealing with town halls – imposing disproportionate burdens through a Draconian finance settlement and a series of centrally-imposed diktats. It followed the sector's finance settlement last December, through which the CLG agreed 26%, four-year, front-loaded cuts to councils' central government grants. During the LGA meeting on 13 January, other senior town hall figures called for a change of approach at the CLG, indicating the extent of the sector's dissatisfaction with the coalition's approach. Referring to the department, Portsmouth City Council leader, Gerald Vernon-Jackson, told the meeting: ‘We have a real problem there which we need to try to address.' Chris White, leader of Hertfordshire CC's Liberal Democrats went further, and called for ‘regime change' at the CLG, which he described as ‘not competent'. But it was Cllr Kemp who suggested the most radical course of action to ease tensions between central and local government. ‘Is there a point in having the CLG at all? It never seems to carry the weight across Whitehall as a whole that we believe is needed. ‘If we are to be central to public sector delivery, wouldn't it be better to be part of the Cabinet Office? It's something we should put on the table,' he said. A senior CLG source told The MJ this weekend the department recognised the current relationship between Eland House and councils was ‘a little tense', due to the ‘tough' finance settlement. But the source added that there was ‘no escaping' the tough conditions imposed on local authorities – and warned changing the government department was not the solution. ‘All parts of the public sector are facing a tough few years – and councils must play their part in tackling the UK's record public deficit. The CLG is currently the deliverer of some bad news. But it must be recognised that the department has also worked hard to free councils from central controls – through measures in the Localism Bill, such as the general power of competence.'

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WHITEHALL

Axe 'light-weight' CLG and transfer powers says Kemp

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