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Richard Stay, a county councillor who also once stood for parliament, offers a perspective on civil service attitudes to local authorities. Does Whitehall ‘get' local government? The answer is obviously no, but does it matter? It's perhaps a cliché, but Whitehall does strategy and local government does delivery. Whitehall's comfort zone is dealing with council officers, and it finds the political overlay of elected members a wee bit scary, perhaps, unsurprising, with hundreds of councils each with different cultures and priorities. Of course, this matters, and unless there is much greater mutual understanding and respect, the relationship between local and national government will remain inherently dysfunctional. Consider the alphabet soup of departments which regularly interact with councils – Home Office, HMT, CLG, DoT, Health, DoE, DCSF, DWP and BERR. Apart from a few notable exceptions, I find the Whitehall view of local government a combination of vague bemusement and occasional irritation. I was in Rotterdam recently, with the Leadership Centre, looking at the Dutch system of administration. I was struck by the extent of fluidity between local and national politicians. With the exception of the mayor of London, I know of few MPs who would regard local government as a credible career move. As someone who stood for a Westminster seat in 2005, I know that local government is much more exciting, rewarding and carries considerably more influence than any MP – unless one is a senior minister. I have regular bouts of frustration when local government is simply regarded as the delivery arm of national government. In terms of efficiency and transformation, local government has outperformed Whitehall by every meaningful measure. An initiative that I will applaud the Government for is the National Improvement and Efficiency Strategy, which is able to reflect local priorities – a great opportunity for local government to demonstrate that it can deliver. Success – and funding for the next two years – of the RIEP programme is now down to us. And, however much we dislike the overweight and bloated inspection regime imposed on local government (remember Phil Woolas telling us to just get on with delivering priorities), the CPA process has made the sector more effective. Perhaps one solution to the question is to pick up the proposals made by Matthew Taylor in his IPPR days, and adopt a more formal system of short-term secondments and exchanges between national and local government – just for a moment, hold the thought of a bright young Treasury graduate sitting behind an inner-city housing desk for three months! Richard Stay is deputy leader of Bedfordshire CC and its cabinet member for finance

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WHITEHALL

Does Whitehall understand councils?

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