Memorandum by Oxfordshire County Council
and Oxfordshire District Councils excluding Oxford City Council
(BOP 18)
SUMMARY
— The Oxfordshire local authorities believe
that the freedom to raise and spend funding is critical to the
success of further devolution.
— We believe that reducing the amount of
ring-fenced funding would enable local government to deliver successfully
a greater range of local priorities than at present.
— We support the proposal that local government
be able to raise a greater proportion of its expenditure locally,
providing that authorities can decide how to spend the funds and
that central taxation is lowered to an equivalent degree—there
needs to be a shift in the balance of funding.
— Further, we believe that capping prevents
local accountability and removes local responsibility for the
delivery of services.
FURTHER DEVOLUTION
Does local government need greater autonomy from
central government? If so, in what ways?
1. This revolves around finance,
there can be no autonomy without the funding to match the powers.
2. This is about the freedom to raise and
spend funding, rather than more money necessarily.
3. It is not an easy process to change the
balance of funding between local and national, however business
rates are the obvious power to devolve to local government. If
so, there would need to be an enforced relationship between council
tax and business rates increases to prevent councils having low
council taxes offset by high business rates.
Do local government's role and influence need
to be strengthened in relation to other public services, such
as policing and health?
4. Any strengthening must be obvious
and transparent to the general public.
5. Current arrangements regarding policing
allow little influence from local government and the recent green
paper is likely to make this worse.
6. It is not clear "who does what"
in terms of delivering services and taking decisions; the
powers made available in the Sustainable Communities Act will
further complicate the issue, though this may or may not be of
concern to the public.
FINANCIAL AUTONOMY
To what extent do the current arrangements for
local government funding act as a barrier to local authorities
fulfilling their "place-shaping" role? In particular:
— Does local government need greater
financial freedom? If so, in what ways?
7. Overall, we would wish for a light-touch
from central government.
8. There should be less funding that is
ring-fenced or funding with conditions attached, allowing local
government more control over where to spend it.
9. A framework of minimum standards which
can be achieved without prescription of how much should be spent
could be adopted.
10. Too much funding is CPA/target driven
and the focus should be on incentives for good performance rather
than penalties for poor performance. Further, greater autonomy
could be granted to higher rated authorities.
11. Funding freedom is required for duties
other than "place-shaping".
— Should local government be able to
raise a greater proportion of its expenditure locally?
12. Yes, if local government can decide
how to use the funding and if central taxation is lowered to an
equivalent degree—there needs to be a shift in the balance
of funding.
13. This should be raised through the council
tax mechanism, being simple and accountable to the electorate.
14. However, we believe that some funding
could be raised nationally that are now raised locally, for example
the Policing budget.
— What effect does the capping of council
tax rises have on local accountability?
15. Capping prevents local accountability.
16. Councils are accountable for their council
tax rises and capping removes local responsibility for delivery
of local services.
EXISTING POWERS
To what extent are local government services a
product of national or local decision-making?
17. Services are driven by available funding,
thus they follow national priorities. Though this varies to an
extent, dependent on the service (eg LTP offers little flex).
18. The three areas that concern the public
the greatest—police, health and education—we have
no control over. Further, these services are divided by government
in terms of delivery streams, leading to a fragmented, unjoined-up
approach at the local level.
19. National decision-making can have a
major financial impact on authorities. For example the concessionary
bus fare scheme has had a very substantial impact on the budgets
of local councils in Oxfordshire.
20. Regarding health, there is a proposal
from some local members for locally elected representatives (councillors)
to take on full time positions to form a board to set direction
and agree the budget
Does local government make adequate use of its
existing powers, such as its well-being, charging and trading
powers? What scope is there for greater use of those powers?
21. Trading powers are used but there is
greater scope for expanding this—perhaps local government
could be braver in this regard.
22. Motivated councillors are key to expanding
our usage of these powers.
23. However, we feel that there is a lack
of advice, money and time available to support and make full use
of these powers.
IMPROVING THE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
CENTRAL AND
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
What difference has the central-local concordat
made to central-local relations?
24. Most councillors (and many officers)
were not aware of its existence—thus little impact so far.
Should an independent commission be established
to oversee the financial settlement for local government?
25. We are unsure what this question is asking,
as setting the national budget is clearly a political decision
for the government of the day. However there is some local sympathy
for the idea of a government politically allocating a pot, then
a commission making the decision about how it should be divided
between authorities.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL
POSITION
Given the UK's constitutional settlement, what
protections should be placed in law to ensure local government's
ability to fulfil its responsibility as a balance on the powers
of central government?
26. Places could be given in the Lords to
local government, acting as a brake on misuse of powers.
What role should Parliament have in the protection
of local government's position within the UK's constitutional
settlement?
27. We would like the central-local concordat
established in legislation but not necessarily as part of a written
constitution.
September 2008
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