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LGA chairman, Margaret Eaton, has had a dramatic 12 months, considering this time last year she faced life as a backbench councillor. Michael Burton spoke to her on the eve of the association's annual conference in Harrogate this week If a week is a long time in politics, then a year is an eternity, as Margaret Eaton knows. This time last year, she was facing the prospect of stepping down from national politics as leader of the LGA Conservative group, concentrating on work as a backbench councillor on Bradford City Council, and about to enjoy life as a grandmother – the baby appeared on the last day of the LGA conference in Bournemouth in July. And then Sir Simon Milton resigned as LGA chairman to become a London deputy mayor… But Margaret, a former leader of Bradford, now admits that at the time, she was unnerved at the prospect of stepping down from national politics. ‘I had withdrawal symptoms at the time. I saw it as the end of my political career,' she says. ‘It was a most peculiar feeling, and I felt quite sad about it.' I asked what she might have done instead, she replies: ‘I think I would have enjoyed mentoring leaders, offering support. It's a lonely job being a leader.' Margaret insists she would have remained as a backbencher at Bradford, avoiding a return to a senior position and concentrating on her interests in music. Indeed, she maintains that work in her ward keeps her feet on the ground. Instead, destiny was to offer her a different path. Soon after the election of her successor to the leadership of the LGA Tories, Sir Simon announced he was moving to City Hall. Margaret decided to throw her hat in the ring, and was elected chairman. She faces her first association conference this week. As if dealing with the credit crunch and recession was not sufficient challenge, two days after her election in October, the Icelandic banks crisis broke. She describes it as a ‘hurricane', adding: ‘We had to very quickly grasp the implications and argue the case for local government.' Then there was the not-insignificant matter of the exit of chief executive, Paul Coen. And to cap a busy few weeks, the Haringey Baby P scandal erupted, with local government's image once again being trashed daily by the media. The fallout not only affected public attitudes to councils, as revealed in subsequent surveys, but it hit the social work profession hard. As she recalls: ‘Inevitably, local government's image suffered, and even though many agencies were involved in the Baby P case, it was local authorities which got the label of being inept.' The whole issue of child protection, with rises in costs from more looked-after children since Baby P, is an ongoing challenge, and she says the LGA continues to lobby ministers on the subject. The blizzards in London early this year, however, showed councils in a far better light, doing their best in difficult circumstances, and the LGA hit the airwaves to explain the complexities of winter salt stocks and why the shortage was not the fault of councils. Margaret's tenure has also coincided with the deepening economic slump, in which councils have been seen by ministers as part of the solution, rather than the problem. It is easy to forget that, at the beginning of the year, there were fears the entire banking structure along with sterling could collapse. In the event, while the worst of the credit crunch appears to have passed, the underlying downturn has not, with unemployment rising – and expected to continue rising well into next year. In all this, councils have been active in trying to alleviate the impact of recession on residents, even though the-then local government minister, John Healey, grumbled early this year that town and county halls were being too timid in using their wellbeing powers. If this created a shift in local-central relations to a more partnership approach, the recent scandal of MPs expenses has further tipped the balance. There are many local government experts who argue that MPs and ministers have turned to local government to provide them with democratic legitimacy, to redeem themselves, to align them with a part of governance untainted by scandal. Margaret adds: ‘The expenses row brought to a head one thing which has long been shouting at us – that local government is more accountable and nearer to people's daily lives than central government. ‘I think the public antipathy to the political class is a good opportunity to show our worth. No Government can come in and tell us to do this, do that, as we're already engaged in practical issues.' The expenses row and the local elections also led to a new line-up at the CLG in secretary of state John Denham, a former councillor, and Rosie Winterton. Of the former, Margaret says she had ‘fisticuffs' with him in Bradford when she was leader and he a minister, describing him as ‘very political'. She has also had dealings with Rosie. ‘If you're active politically, then you meet these people. I'm not starting with a blank sheet.' Some insiders wonder the point of even bothering about ministers with an election looming in less than a year but, as she says: ‘The world isn't going to stop for 12 months. It's still important to make local government's voice heard. And what of the national Conservatives? Do they trust local government. ‘There are those who do, and some who don't, and it's up to us to sell the message which, I believe, has already got through in large numbers, I do think the politicians are listening. They recognise local government delivers, and that a lot of services in other Whitehall departments are delivered through councils.' Overall, after a turbulent year, she remains optimistic. ‘It's the best period we've had in local government for a long time,' she says. ‘We should be treated now as equal partners.'

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WHITEHALL

A long year in politics

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