Annex: What does the code mean for me?
A new constitutional settlement for local government
will be the life blood of our democracy, but it must be seen to
be relevant to the ordinary local elector. So what difference
would be evident in your area?
There would be a new buzz as local government set
out its ambitions for its people, its areas and its economy, showing
the ideas, the drive and the determination to take localism further.
Surveys show electors already have more faith in local government
than central government. More than that, councils have proved
that they can deliver localism in action, making a difference
to communities. Local councils should be held to account and fired
if necessary by local electors.
Local decisions about local matters are more sensitive,
and less crude than 'one size fits all' from Whitehall. Electors
would notice the difference in many areas. Here are five:
1. Retaining and raising local income
Building the local economy and boosting local job
creation is one of the main benefits of letting councils get on
with the job that local people elected them to do. The devolved
Administrations do not have to wait for clearance from Whitehall.
Local democracy in England should be in the same situation. If
you saw that a part of your income tax came directly back from
HMRC to your council then you, like other every other elector,
would take a much closer interest in local decisions, and your
council, and value for money.
As a local business owner, what would be different
if councils were able to retain business rates? The most obvious
answer is that your business rates make you an even more valuable
asset to your council.
By having a financial stake in the success of local
businesses, councils will be incentivised to work constructively
with you to make sure that local conditions are as favourable
as possible to the success of your business—be that a corner
shop, construction firm or multinational manufacturing plant.
Companies from Jaguar Land Rover to Manchester Metropolitan University
to the over 1,000 businesses helped by Calderdale's economic task
force can point to the positive impact of working with councils.
As a local business, you play an important role in
your local economy. Councils will have even more reason to recognise
that when they are able to reinvest business rates in local services
- not funnel them back to Whitehall. Your rates will be crucial
in helping fund care for older people, supporting vulnerable young
people, regenerating your local town centre and much more.
As a council tax payer the rate of council tax you
pay will be entirely in the hands of your council, to be spent
on your local services. Councils will no longer be able to blame
central government when choosing to increase council tax, but
will have to make the case to local taxpayers. This would support
a much more collaborative, locally driven approach to funding
and providing local services.
You would vote to authorise fund-raising propositions,
local bonds and so on, so you would have to be persuaded to cast
your vote for or against a particular proposal—funding a
new bridge, school, or early intervention programme for example.
2. Removing centrally imposed duties
As a local resident you will from time to
time want to speak to the council about an issue that is important
to you. It might be repairing a pothole, applying for benefits,
installing a new road safety sign outside your children's school,
or requesting a new bus route. All too often, the council's ability
to respond swiftly, innovatively, and in a way that meets local
needs is hampered by having to obey rules set out in London.
With independent local government, strong business
cases built on value for money would have been subject to stringent
local audit control and scrutiny—potentially saving £40
million of public money.
Greater freedoms from central supervision would mean
that your council would be much more able to respond to your local
circumstances. That in turn means your vote at elections and on
local propositions is even more important in determining what,
how, when, and where services are provided locally: the balance
of power would shift away from Whitehall towards you.
3. Letting local electors decide councils' boundaries,
structures and governance models
Local people have a deep and abiding interest in
the way their locality is governed. You have only to look at the
reams of submissions to the Local Government Boundary Commission
for England on the proposed changes to local government in Devon
to see the breadth and depth of people's concern.[102]
A sense of place is at the heart of local government,
and central government meddles with this at its peril—as
can be seen by the results of the Norfolk, Suffolk, and Devon
boundary reviews.
Imagine the impact of making a local decision on
the electoral system to be used to elect your council or to endorse
further devolution to neighbourhoods, communities, councils or
parishes—with you deciding, not 'the man from Whitehall'.
Your voice suddenly becomes much more important; you make decisions
not passively receive them.
As a local resident, independent local government
gives you more power to shape your local area: it is your vote
that counts, not the opinion of a distant Secretary of State.
You know how your local needs are best represented, and this is
what should determine councils' boundaries, structures, and governance
models.
4. Restating and extending local councils' General
Power of Competence
The community budget pilots are already demonstrating
what a difference a community budget approach can make to local
people. Residents in the pilot areas will benefit from plans to:
integrate health and social care in Tri-borough so
that older people and those with chronic conditions are rushed
to hospital or into emergency care less frequently.
help complex families in Greater Manchester into
work and out of dependency on benefits once the Troubled Families
Programme funding runs out.
reduce domestic abuse in Cheshire West and Chester
and Essex with perpetrators helped to stop abusing.
improve the skills of people in Essex so that they
can increase their earnings and compete more successfully for
work.
The opportunities to make changes on this scale should
be available to all councils by extending the General Power of
Competence so that it is a truly general power, not one hemmed
in by over 1,000 statutory duties.
5. Entrenching the independence of local government
As a local resident you would see your council leading
the way in promoting a vibrant local economy and ensuring the
best outcomes for you and your family and friends. People, having
got used to exercising this control over their own affairs, would
not want to see these powers default back to Whitehall. The powers
and freedoms would be protected in a way that would mean that
changes in government would not lead to meddling and micro-management.
Local would mean local, and it would stay local.
So local control through autonomous local government
must be enshrined in law and properly entrenched if it is to win
hearts and minds. People have seen significant nationally-driven
changes in public services over recent years. A commitment from
Government to a lasting devolution of powers and responsibilities
would make a strong case to councils and local people about the
permanence of their intentions.
Local electors would see that in our country we trust
the people—and the local government that they choose—to
run their own affairs, like most other democracies.
102 http://www.lgbce.org.uk/all-reviews/south-west/devon/devon-structural-review Back
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