Part of the openDemocracy Network

Power2010

Breaking the monopoly of the professional politician: Guy Aitchison's idea for popular forums in Parliament
 

When you're in a hole, stop digging: Pam Giddy's advice to MPs who still don't get it
 

Ending the divine right of political parties: Steve Hawkins makes a radical suggestion
 

Les Miserables and Power 2010: John Jackson diagnoses the political class's selective crisis-mongering
 

A call to oD readers: Helena Kennedy calls on oD readers to support Power2010
 

More in this series

Submit your idea for the Power 2010 pledge.

The British Crisis

Do the public really want to change ‘the system’?: Stuart Wilks-Heeg presents polling evidence
 

Don't trust MPs' constitutional poker: Guy Aitchison supports the call for a citizens' convention
 

Brown's 'National Council for Democratic Renewal': Anthony Barnett on the Prime Minister's desperate proposal
 

More in this series

Navigation

delicious | digg | reddit | newsvine | furl | google | yahoo | technorati | diigolet

Syndicate content

Local Matters IX: Optimism will get you everywhere

7 - 05 - 2008
delicious | digg | reddit | newsvine | furl | google | yahoo | technorati | diigolet

OurKingdom is running a short series of posts looking at various aspects of local government - you can read the series in full here.

Amelia Cookson (London, Local Government Information Unit): Though it goes against every grain of my being, I think that it might be true: things really are getting better. Well, maybe not with the economy. And the climate might be a write-off. But for the first time in a long time, local government is on the up.

Let's make a distinction, first off, between the word on the street, and the received wisdom of those who speak the language of politics and government. It takes time for changes in government to sink through into public consciousness. You can still hear people talk about the DHSS - now already on a second name change. Any sea change in local government may need a decade to translate into public perception.

But in the world of government, there is already something close to agreement that local government is "the best performing part of government." Oft cited, little understood, the Audit Commission's inspection system is used for the league table of council performance. And though the Treasury issued an edict demanding that the inspection system become harder, councils have continued to rise to the top of ratings. The system is deeply flawed, but it is a test nonetheless, and a test that councils are excelling at. The National Audit Office's new system of inspecting Whitehall departments was much kinder, and several Departments still got a pasting.

At the same time, talk of devolution, though easily scorned, really has brought changes. They may be small, but they are creating momentum. George Jones may despair of local partnerships, but they are drifting towards accountability. It is now uncontroversial to talk of the council as first among equals and the accountable body in the local area - entirely right in a democratic system. Local Area Agreements may still be impenetrable to the public, but they are becoming increasingly penetrable for politicians. And if we believe in democracy then this is a perfectly legitimate way of improving transparency. Partners now consider political priorities as key building blocks to local strategies. Politicians take a lead in partnerships, and scrutiny powers have been given over other public bodies with some history of being cavalier about accounting for their movements.

And for both partnerships and performance management, there has been a quiet revolution in top down bureaucracy. Slowly but surely, the patchwork quilt of targets and plans, grants and guidance, is becoming clearer, simpler and much, much smaller - opening the door to local innovation.

There is still a hurdle, a major one, but one which will be overcome: Sir Michael Lyons called it the "sense of powerfulness in local government." Local government has been a victim, whether it deserved it or not is not for today. But it need not feel itself a victim any longer. If performance can improve, the public will respect it again, one day. If central government can release the reins a little, it will release them a lot, one day. Local government just needs to see that horizon and raise its chin a bit. Look up, there's a better day coming.

This article adheres to the openDemocracy.net principles.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Amelia Cookson (not verified) said:

Fri, 2008-05-09 08:13

I'm not suggesting the situation is ideal, or that there aren't serious problems to be addressed, our centralised system being one of them.

And I'm not saying people who don't work in government can't understand it, but you will be arguing long and hard to convince me that most people do. Not because they are thick, but because they have other interests, and because our system is monumentally complex. I don't understand banking, but why should I? That's someone else's job.

But I will not be swayed on this basic point: sometimes things do get better. Painfully slowly, and agonisingly tortuously, but the path is up. And if anyone is serious about improving what we have, they will be far more successful if they can see the opportunities (no matter how small) and build on them. Local government has been held back by negativity. If it sits around waiting for an overnight revolution, nothing will ever change. And if it keeps critisizing instead of doing it will reinforce the cycle that keeps it subservient to whitehall and westminster.

Peter Davidson (not verified) said:

Thu, 2008-05-08 07:43

Amelia

I am not an expert on local government; for instance I wouldn't know what a "Local Area Agreement" was if it fell on me.

However, I do belong to a campaign group extolling the virtues of bottom up, citizen driven governance.

Within that context, I only have one question/comment to put with regard to your article.

Who controls the funding?

Does the optimistic picture you paint extend to a realisation in the heady atmosphere of Whitehall, that the strength of local government, in terms of its relevance to ordinary people, can be calculated in direct proportion to its fiscal independance.

When we see the sacrosanct concept of tax raising revenues being devolved to more localised levels on the government's mainstream agenda, I will begin to share your mood of general optimism. Until that "sea change" in central government thinking happens, the rest of your dialogue is simply wishful thinking (and I am being sympathetic to your message - many others here will no doubt treat it with utter derision).

Acorn (not verified) said:

Thu, 2008-05-08 09:12

Amelia, you may be suffering from the “Pollyanna Complex” but I won’t hold that against you. I am afraid I can’t recognise local government being “on the up”.

Local government has never been more centrally commanded than it is at the moment. There has never been so many central government “initiatives” that require Councils to make the correct choice from a list of choices; that is, the choice that has the central government money attached to it.

“Let’s make a distinction, first off, between the word on the street, and the received wisdom of those who speak the language of politics and government”. We the people are so sorry that we are thick in the head and don’t understand what is going on. We don’t understand all these complex organisations that have been set up for our benefit, we just pay for them.

“Local government is “the best performing part of government.” Did you mean the least bad part of government? The Audit Commission and the National Audit Office - both organisations that have a problem keeping a track on their own employee’s expense accounts – have a vested interest in keeping the taxpayers money-go-round expanding. Nobody gets the sack with a bad report, just re-organised.

Local government has no power to change anything another QUANGO is doing, “scrutiny” is a joke, and it changes little, just like our Westminster Parliament.

The power is where the money is, always has been, always will be. Until local government raises the vast majority of its money locally, it will continue to be the local operating division of central government and obey its diktats. When it does, you may find that local Councillors may be reluctant to pay for LAAs; MAAs; LSPs etc; and, the £2.8 million they are paying to likes of the LGIU.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><b> <i> <br> <p> <div> <img> <map>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • You may quote other posts using [quote] tags.
More information about formatting options

Books from Amazon

Email Alerts

Fill in the form below to sign up to our automatic daily alerts, or weekly editorial summary (you will be taken to another page to confirm which options you want).

Enter your Email


Preview | Powered by FeedBlitz

They say about OK

"the ever-stimulating OpenDemocracy"
Ekklesia

"See OurKingdom to keep up"
South Belfast Diary

"...an essential guide to understanding the dynamic constitutional situation..."
Peter Oborne

"...becoming a daily read for me."
Iain Dale

"To make sense of it all, check out OurKingdom..."
Matthew d'Ancona

"Worth a look...it is, however, recommended by Matthew d'Ancona."
The Wardman Wire

"Fast becoming the best political website around"
Tom Waterhouse, CEP

"...attracting energy from a range of contributors."
thenextwave

"...looks very promising..."
The England Project

"The excellent new OurKingdom blog from OpenDemocracy..."
The Green Ribbon

"On the internet, I keep in touch with openDemocracy, a website on global current affairs, and its useful offshoot, OurKingdom"
Andreas Whittam-Smith

"thanks to the fine folk at OurKingdom, (who manage to communicate a variety of perspectives in the way that only a decent group blog can)"
Nostalgia For the Future