Memorandum from London Councils (DAR 09-11)
Thank you for your letter of 22 September seeking
my views on the "institutional capability" of the Department
for Communities and Local Government.
As your letter states, London Councils—as
representative of London's 33 local authorities—has a strong
interest in a considerable part of CLG's responsibilities. As
such, I am pleased to be able to say that London Councils and
CLG have very good relations across a wide range of policy areas.
Of course, as the voice of London's councils,
we will not always find ourselves in agreement with CLG on all
issues. Even when we share the same aspirations, unsurprisingly
we will have some different views about how quickly progress can
be made towards realising them. Overall, however, we respect the
commitment of CLG ministers and officials to brief us, seek our
views, and their willingness to meet with us when we have matters
that we feel we need to press.
Moreover, we are pleased with the Department's
willingness to participate in a dialogue on issues concerning
the balance of power between central and local government—including
your committee's own work in this area. This issue of local devolution,
of providing London local government with the scope to secure
better, more integrated and more efficient public services for
Londoners is a critical one.
Your letter asks for London Councils' perception
of the influence of CLG within government. We were pleased with
CLG's efforts to drive a more concerted approach in Whitehall
to the local performance framework and to reducing its scale.
This, however, is never a cause that is truly won and there are
always dangers of the position slipping backwards. We believe
CLG will need to fight its policy corner tenaciously if the interests
we have in this area are to be advanced.
One further example surrounds a current concern
of London's boroughs that the Department for Transport may re-open
the final year of the previously agreed special grant on concessionary
fares—a move that would no doubt have significant implications
on funding for London's Freedom Pass. In light of the impact that
this will also have on
CLG's own grants system, we would hope for support
from CLG on this issue as we await an announcement from DfT.
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