Title

England remains a long way from achieving a healthy balance of power. My committee's latest report The balance of power: Central and local government – the fruit of 60 written submissions, two preliminary and five full oral evidence sessions, a seminar and a visit to Denmark and Sweden – urges radical reform to enhance local government power, with a corresponding reduction in power held by the centre. This will not be easy, and requires a culture change, not just in local and national government, but also the press and public, who need to hold local councillors to account for local delivery, not ministers. All major political parties, in opposition, promise to shift power to local government. Yet in government, are unable or unwilling to deliver. This Government has taken small steps to redress the imbalance, but should now go further. We believe that cultural change is essential – at a ministerial level, across the Civil Service, and in Parliament – to establish a higher threshold before intervention in local issues. And local authorities must be more ambitious for themselves and the people they serve. Local authorities are best placed to set priorities and make tough decisions which get the best-possible outcomes from finite resources. They know their communities, and should have the flexibility – while respecting reasonably-set national minimum standards – to vary their priorities to better reflect local aspirations. In particular, policing and health care services remain insufficiently accountable to their local populations. Commissioning of these services by local authorities would strengthen accountability and enable them to assimilate these services fully into their strategic vision. The Department of Health and the Home Office should work with the CLG to establish a local authority commissioning model, initially through pilot projects in localities with matching boundaries. Local government finance is a complex and politically-intractable issue, but to promote local accountability and encourage autonomy, it's essential that local government is able to raise more of its own money. Business rates should be returned to local authority control. Re-localisation would give local government an additional tool to pursue local recession-proofing and, in the longer term, promote economic growth and regeneration. Central government must stop capping council tax increases. Finally, as a longer-term solution to the balance of funding problem, serious consideration should be given to a supplementary local income tax, to be introduced alongside council tax with a corresponding reduction in central taxation. Over and above all this, we want a permanent shift in the balance of power – not just cultural change and a change to the balance of funding but a new constitutional settlement which gives local government a much stronger status. The Government recognised the benefits of local autonomy when it signed up to the European Charter of Local Self-Government. Now it should act to enshrine these principles in UK law, and establish a new joint committee – of the Commons and the Lords – to scrutinise central government compliance. We see a direct link between a new status for local government, and the potential for enhanced local innovation to improve the lives of local communities. I should perhaps stress we are under no illusions. We know the history for reports such as ours is not encouraging. But perhaps the time is now more opportune. A strong democracy requires popular participation at both the local and national levels. The two are closely interconnected. If popular participation at the grass roots continues to decline in this country, then so will our national politics. But flourishing grass roots are only likely where local people understand what local government is responsible for, where they can hold local government to account for its performance, and where, crucially, they believe that local government can make a real difference. Phyllis Starkey, chairman of the House of Commons' CLG Select Committee

Title

WHITEHALL

A rebalance of power

SUBSCRIBE TO CONTINUE READING