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Of all the many unusual events of this year, the sudden and unexpected attainment to cult status of France's General Charles de Gaulle is certainly up there.In case you missed it this summer, younger audiences became hooked on the first instalment of a two-part cinema biopic based on Julian Jackson's acclaimed history A certain idea of France – a title taken from the famous opening line of the his own autobiography.For Gen Z, the twofold attraction is the retro aesthetic of belted military uniforms for fashion and the rejection of Washington's global order for politics.Indeed, at a key point towards the end of De Gaulle – Resistance the general shares with his subordinates the insight that after American might and economic power had inevitably won the war, it would reign supreme thereafter. In this power dynamic, every state that made up the western alliance would assume vassal status. This being the case, his concern and geo-political strategy was to ensure that France would remain sovereign.But is the Whitehall machine, even one now buoyed with former Leeds City Council chief executive Tom Riordan in place as the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government permanent secretary, really capable of heeding the localist call?De Gaulle was notoriously a difficult ally of British prime ministers. In wartime, Churchill said that the hardest cross he had to bear during the war was the Cross of Lorraine.Later in the 1960s, his Gaullist chicanery in refusing British entry into the European Community for the French national interest drove Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to tearful, raging despair.That begs the question: is there anything local government could learn from this Gaullist attitude in dealing with No10 in the battle for equality of esteem in relationships at central and regional level?In recent overtures aimed at getting local government onside, Andy Burnham has stressed, as he would, his understanding and support for the sector as he appeals to councils to get with the new administration's programme.Certainly, the speeches Burnham made during his summer coronation made it clear he has the back of local government and there is plentiful further textual evidence of love for local government in Head North – the book he co-wrote with Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram.But is the Whitehall machine, even one now buoyed with former Leeds City Council chief executive Tom Riordan in place as the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government permanent secretary, really capable of heeding the localist call?A close reading of the Rewiring the State Cabinet statement issued on 31 July suggests the new brooms at No10 see local authorities as good, but not half as useful as strategic authorities if we are to base it on word count.Local authorities are, of course, mentioned, but not in a prominent way. For those of a nervous disposition, the role envisaged for deputy strategic authority mayors in holding the reins of public service integration might also seem a land grab.The dramatic pause on the local government reorganisation process and the grave implications this has for the current and future form and functions of councils in affected areas, also plays into the heightened drumroll of expectation ahead of the Rewiring the State White Paper.As it stands, the current status of local government in the constitution has been fixed since the Widdicombe committee doctrine of 1986. It states: ‘Although local government has origins predating the sovereignty of Parliament, all current local authorities are the statutory creations of Parliament and have no independent status or right to exist. The whole system of local government could lawfully be abolished by Act of Parliament'.It is only constitutional convention that underpins the position of local government in our political system – a position in which there is no natural right for local government to exist, outside of the contribution the sector makes to good government.In this power relationship context, local government lacks the agency to do a ‘de Gaulle' and develop the constitutional equivalent of an independent nuclear deterrent or stand outside the American NATO umbrella.De Gaulle once also remarked that ‘politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians'. Exercising council sovereignty in the rewired state will be dependent on its ability to adroitly convene and powerfully communicate resident feeling – and be subject to context.When it comes to keeping control of the path for the integration of collaborative place-based public services, wisdom might suggest a certain willingness for pooling commissioning power across neighbouring councils. And when appropriate, yielding it when it comes to allowing strategic authorities to deploy their ability to scale up the procurement and integrating of public services.The trade-off for sub-regional commissioning has to be local authorities making use of their local and democratic mandate to offer the subsidiarity of double and treble devolution down to neighbourhoods and wards, as trusted stewards of place.When it comes to housing and economic development, the policy deck seems already heavily stacked in favour of strategic authority direction of funding and planning.What is sovereign for councils in this ecosystem may well prove to be the assertion of a closer-to-the-ground knowledge of community and practical understanding of place as a contribution to local growth plans and spatial development strategies.The sector does not have much time or space to assemble the strongest case for its survival in the rewired world. For it to remain in control of its destiny, it should now assert a confident and certain view of local government – one that is stronger than the opponents of localism can marshal.Jonathan Werran is chief executive of Localis

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POLICY

A certain view of local government

By Jonathan Werran | 23 September 2026

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