What will the coalition do for localism?

Friday, May 28, 2010

Ministers must drive the Total Place approach through Whitehall with real conviction if local government is to stand any chance of achieving the efficiencies and outcomes the coalition promises, writes Anna Turley, acting director of NLGN

This historic Tory and Liberal Democrat coalition government has presented us with a remarkable policy programme described as a "blueprint for radical, reforming government". If the parties were criticised for being 'policy-light' ahead of the election, this tag can no longer hold sway after they launched a substantive programme of action, with – it must be said – a pretty clear and comprehensive narrative.

For the localist, while we must be realistic about the likelihood of any party giving away power once it gets a grip on Whitehall's purse strings and clunking levers of delivery, it is rare that the devolution of power has formed such a central thread in a governing party's policy tapestry. The damning phrase in the foreword of the document – "centralisation and top-down control have proved a failure" – ought to give the localist some cause for optimism.

The good news included the appointment of Greg Clarke as decentralisation minister at CLG (Communities and Local Government), as well as the proposal to legislate for a general power of competence long promised by the Conservatives. Plans to scrap Comprehensive Area Assessments will have heartened many, particularly in the light of its burdensome cost, and allowing councils to return to the committee system will have given many backbenchers cause for celebration.

Moreover, the review of our broken system of local government finance is welcome after failure to implement the Lyons Review. The devolution of other key financial powers such as increased control over business rates will also be important for those local authorities who want to take a leading role in driving local economic regeneration.

However, it is important to sound a few notes of caution so that we might steel ourselves should we be let down once more by these alluring devolutionary calls.

On local government finance, while the review is welcome, it will be vital that attempts to 'depoliticise' the formula don't remove the essential elements of fairness in the process. Nor is the proposal to freeze council tax remotely localist. It is clear that the government is already struggling to find the money for this commitment since it has been downgraded from a two year proposal to one. If the local government grant gets cut to the level of 25 per cent as expected by the IFS, in many areas councils will become even more dependent on their ability to raise money locally. This will be a real test of the extent to which government is willing to devolve financial autonomy.

So it is all the more important in this climate that Total Place approaches and greater collaboration across geographical and service boundaries continue to set the pace for public service reform. Local government will get none of the protection afforded to health and schools in the forthcoming budget, and will have to continue its radical reassessment of the way it delivers and commissions services, needing greater freedom and flexibility, not less. Ministers must drive the Total Place approach through Whitehall with real conviction if we are to stand any chance of achieving the efficiencies and outcomes it promises.

It looks as though collaboration across boundaries will also be key in terms of the regional agenda. With the likely decline of Regional Development Agencies (although 'popular' ones look like they may survive) more organic, bottom-up sub-regional collaboration is favoured by the Conservatives, based around functional economic geographies. This approach, driven by economic necessity could also apply to local government restructure. While unitarisations have been halted, the financial squeeze and more shared services could well see some district councils get increasingly suffocated.

And what can one glean about the future of 'place-shaping' from the proposals? While Conservative proposals on city mayors have survived the coalition, I fear there is some incoherence at government level about the strategic role of the local authority as the leader of a place. The direct elections of individuals to PCT boards and for oversight over policing could serve to fragment the place-shaping role of the authority and lead to an erosion of strategic multi-functional approach to local democracy that is better able to align services, pool money and work towards more integrated public services.

Local government must also try to find its role in the 'Big Society' agenda. It is clear that the coalition government seeks to "roll back the state and roll forward society" at local level as much as at the centre, as we anticipate more power shifted towards community groups and citizens in terms of local budgets, schools, planning, and the ownership of assets.

Innovative local authorities are already embracing this agenda and re-evaluating the role of the local state and its relationship with citizens. The Easycouncil approach in Barnet and the Co-operative approach in Lambeth share more than would immediately hit the eye in that they both seek to move away from the traditional role of the local authority of a deliverer of one-size fits all services to a passive public, towards a new balance of rights and responsibilities, albeit from differing political and philosophical stand-points.

Local government must try to carve out an enabling role for itself in supporting the development of local civic capacity, encouraging greater co-production with citizens, and through the use of its commissioning powers with voluntary and community groups, whilst still ensuring the most vulnerable are protected. Otherwise the danger is it may become bypassed by this agenda.

These caveats notwithstanding, it is exciting to have a government with a clear agenda for the decentralisation of power. I will however, await my localist Utopia with some patience.