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‘People are angry at governments which spend more but deliver less, frustrated with bureaucracies that give them no control, and tired of politicians who raise taxes and cut services but fail to solve the problems we solve.'

Not my words. Nor are they words about the current government. They come from Osborne and Gaebler's seminal book, Reinventing government, which was published in 1992. 

The central message of book was that government – at national, state and local level – ought to do less and steer more. The authors were arguing some 15 years before the term ‘place-shaping' became fashionable that local councils should let go of running things and focus more on working with and empowering others to solve the problems of local communities.

Why return to the Osborne-Gaebler thesis?  Partly because it is striking that how much of what they argued for has come about. But also, because it is time to debunk local government's favourite myth: That central government has denuded councils of all their powers.

When I first started working for my local council in the early 1970s, local authorities mostly delivered all their own services. Council staff cleaned the streets; emptied the dustbins; managed the local swimming pool; owned, allocated and maintained millions of homes; ran old people's and children's homes; controlled the schools and colleges; and – outside London – determined bus routes and operated the buses.

Today, it is more likely that contractors will collect the rubbish and manage the leisure centres. Millions of homes have been sold off, and housing associations are as likely as councils to manage the remaining social housing. 

Private providers dominate the residential care market for elderly people. Few children live in children's homes. Colleges are independent. Schools control their own budgets and, increasingly, are completely self-governing. 

And while bus regulation may be making a comeback, only a few councils have any stake in a bus company.

This revolution over the past 30 years has come about for a variety of reasons. Local authorities were just not that efficient at being direct providers. They also lacked the capital to rebuild a crumbling infrastructure. The quality of many services fell below what a modern consumer society expects. And there was political and government dogma driving the idea of a smaller state.

But, it is wrong to characterise this trend over the past 30 years as a one-way journey for local government towards decline and loss of influence. 

Economic development and regeneration are now key issues for most councils in a way that was inconceivable in the 1960s or 1970s – a role that is to be confirmed via a new statutory duty. 

Local authorities have become key players in tackling crime and reducing anti-social behaviour. They are required to promote social cohesion and equality. Councils have new duties to ensure there is sufficient childcare in their area and to carry out jointly, with their local primary care trust, an assessment of the health needs of the local population.

Today, a typical council cabinet or scrutiny agenda will often contain items on cutting carbon dioxide emissions, reducing childhood obesity, or improving the skills of the adult population. 

All this is encompassed in the power councils have to promote economic, social and environmental wellbeing – a power that councils campaigned for but have yet to exploit fully – and duties to draw up a sustainable community strategy and deliver local improvements in collaboration with partners. 

How far is the nature of this revolution understood within local government? Not as well as it should be. Too many dismiss what is happening because local government is still too dependent on central government for funding. But even here, things have changed. Prudential borrowing has been introduced.

Councils have much greater discretion to charge for services. And plans for the community infrastructure levy and supplementary business rates will bring further local financial flexibility.

These changes require councils to be more adept – to quote Sir Michael Lyons – at ‘influencing and affecting things' than running them. And they demand new skills of political and executive leaders and new systems for governing – subjects to which I will return next time.

Robert Hill was an adviser to former PM Tony Blair, and now works as an independent consultant