Title

The coalition government is about to take this country down a path which will result in a great deal of harm to services the state provides. Much of this will come in noticeable, very public changes, such as a reduction in benefits or sweeping restructuring in the NHS. But other decisions will not get the same attention, and may be overlooked by the media. Many of those will be at the local government level. Readers only have to look at a policy such as the New Homes Bonus, announced early in August, to appreciate the possible extent of the damage. It got a smattering of coverage in a slow news week, and then was overtaken by other stories. This is a policy that, far from properly incentivising the building of new homes that the country so badly needs, will wreck the council tax system. There will be no new money for this. Rather money will be taken from local government grant, effectively robbing one council to pay another down the road, with local authority services paying the price. Labour achieved a great deal after 1997, repairing the damage done by the Tories to public services. We have to recognise, though, that in many cases, we were guilty of not listening enough to concerns at a local level. As a result, certain issues were ignored for too long and some policies came too late, including the boost to local authorities to build urgently-needed council houses. Citizens felt the state was not responsive enough to their needs. And council staff were discouraged by layers of central bureaucracy. I intend to take greater advantage of the unique perspective of our councillors and elected officials at all levels, and make them able to play a more integrated role in shaping our policies. I am a great believer in the power of politics at a national level, but I also want to defend and embrace the power of local politics. It is easy to say that it's impossible to achieve real and substantial improvement to our local services when the public finances are so stretched. Just because it is easy, though, does not mean we should believe it. We must always have the highest expectations for public services, where local residents and communities are able to shape the area in which they live and the services they receive. The last government piloted an approach – Total Place – which sought to improve the quality of individual public services by creating stronger links between different local public bodies to deliver the best-possible services. The aim was to strip away layers of central control and deliver greater control over local services to the communities which will be using them. Under this policy, local authorities and bodies such as the NHS and police could come together, gaining greater freedom in their spending and less interference from central government, in return for offering better and more efficient services. This Government does not seem willing to allow the different arms of our public services to work together for everyone's benefit. The disjointed and fragmentary approach of the coalition will cement a permanent dislocation in local public services at the cost of massive inefficiencies. There is nothing radical or innovative about it. It is a predictable attempt to disguise something we all recognise – a return to the cuts and retrenchment of the 1980s. Labour has the responsibility to oppose these policies, and present a new vision for local government and the delivery of public services. Ed Miliband is MP for Doncaster North and the former secretary of state for energy and climate change

Title

WHITEHALL

What we want from our public services

SUBSCRIBE TO CONTINUE READING