There is nothing like a round of local government reorganisation to remind you where you sit in the tiered hierarchy of English local government. As the civil servant who ran the last round, the late Paul Rowsell, said to me often: ‘The secretary of state will decide…' So it was then, and so it is now. With submissions for the six areas in the Devolution Priority Programme due at the end of September, much wordsmithing and change tracking is doubtless in progress on a multitude of laptops. More seasoned campaigners will know this is a political process as much as it is a technical one.
One of the areas in the contests will be the element of the submission that describes the way in which the requirement to establish ‘effective neighbourhood governance structures' as set out in clause 58 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (EDCE), will be met. My prediction having seen many drafts is that phrases like a ‘once in a generation opportunity to...' will be ubiquitous. Levels of hyperbole will be high, but levels of clarity low.
