When it comes to local government reorganisation, Liberal Democrat local government spokesperson Vikki Slade is well-versed in the details. Prior to her Parliamentary career, she was a councillor at Poole BC before it morphed into Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP) and she took over as leader of the new unitary.
This weekend, she will open the Liberal Democrat party conference in Bournemouth, alongside BCP's now leader – at Slade's insistence – Millie Earl.
Since she was elected as an MP last year, and took on the brief to shadow the then communities secretary Angela Rayner, it has been a bit of a whirlwind with devolution, reorganisation, funding reviews, planning reform and housebuilding all dominating the agenda.
Speaking to The MJ in advance of the conference, she states: ‘It's been quite existential for a lot of people.'
That's not really devolution....and it's not the solution to the local governance crisis that we need because it doesn't actually change how most of the services are going to get delivered. It doesn't really save much money, if any.
They may have expected devolution, but reorganisation was not in the Labour Party manifesto and the resulting turmoil has ‘caused so much angst'.
‘There will be fewer people involved in democracy, and therefore the risk of a democratic deficit for communities,' she says. ‘That's been exercising people, and the concern is that what it takes away is not really replaced in the devo Bill.
‘It doesn't really feel like decisions are being moved more closely [to communities].'
While some decisions will be handed down from Whitehall, others will be handed from local authority level to large unitary or strategic authority level, she says, taking them further away from local people – and putting a new mayor between local leaders and the Government.
‘That's not really devolution,' she says, ‘and it's not the solution to the local governance crisis that we need because it doesn't actually change how most of the services are going to get delivered. It doesn't really save much money, if any.'
It has, she says, left a lot of people ‘agitated' at the loss of their district, and that their towns and parishes are not being empowered.
‘Instead, the unitary is going to have these top-down neighbourhood committees which is a sort of quasi-community empowerment, but they are still top down.
‘As a party, we're great believers in bottom up.'
When it comes to the savings, she is sceptical. ‘No one really cares that you've got fewer chief executives if you've got fewer social workers or planning officers,' she says. ‘This feels like devolution in name only, rather than devolution that's going to change people's lives.'
She tells The MJ: ‘If you don't have a solution to the social care problem, then whatever changes we make to local government are still going to be undone by social care.
‘You are not changing the fundamental relationship, which means that councils are being crushed by social care and special educational needs. Without changing that, you are just rearranging the deckchairs, aren't you?'
In a rush to push through change, she suggests there is a ‘massive missed opportunity' for fundamental reform.
The Bill does nothing on councillor behaviour, local public accounts committees or to resolve any of the major issues around finances. Slade insists she does not want to throw arrows from the sidelines – there is too much conflict in politics – but help find the solutions.
When it comes to her own party, the conference will look at leasehold reform. There will be consultations on climate that will look at the net zero agenda and another on the future of town centres. And while the Lib Dems have been vocal about wanting to shift business rates to a land value-based tax, she says it is ‘too early' for a policy.
Slade is also keen to see the private sector charges put on councils capped. She cites examples of soaring social care contract costs, leaving local authorities fearful that refusing to pay will leave vulnerable people at risk.
The Government could, she says, ‘cap the profits' and force private sector firms to provide services ‘within an envelope' to break the stranglehold on councils.
It is just one of the problems facing the sector that is being aired in Parliament, now that so many former councillors have taken to the green benches.
‘One of thE things I found as leader was that people don't really understand how important local government is,' she says. That has changed with the influx of people with lived experience.
‘The beauty of local government is, if it's working well, you don't really notice it,' she says. With the current packed agenda, councils are being noticed more than ever.
