How big is our Ambition?

February 11, 2008

Dick Sorabji, Duputy Director, NLGN
Policy Review

This is the first year since 2003 that local government has not been waiting for Whitehall to deliver the next big step in devolution. Last year we waited for the final Lyons report. In 2006 we waited for the Local Government White Paper. In 2005 it was Lyons again. In 2004 the Balance of Funding Review was to solve the problems of a centralised state.

We are still waiting. But that is not because of a lack of progress, instead it reflects the way that the political initiative has moved from Whitehall to town halls across England. Changes such as the new local area agreements create the opportunity for councils to address issues far beyond their statutory duties.

The supplementary business rate (SBR) and the multiple area agreement (MAA) regime, that follow the Treasury’s review of sub-national economic growth provide a platform on which local government can prove that they are best placed to deliver stronger economies based on more than “trickle down” from London.

Of course, central government’s initiatives do not all point in the same direction. There are reasons to be concerned that the new performance framework will have too much of the micro-management style that typified CPA specifically and Whitehall controls generally.

Ministers have created more financial incentives for councils, including SBR and the replacement of Planning Gain Supplement with a “roof tariff” style planning charge. But the complex LABGI grant incentive has been cut.

Ministers have agreed warm words in a Concordat between central and local government, but as yet there is little sign that the proposed Constitutional Reform Bill will enhance local government powers.

At the same time the legislative programme includes a range of bills that are directly relevant to local government, but do not propose major increases in its powers. The Planning Bill and the Housing Bill are just two examples where Ministers will have to choose whether they believe that their national promises are best delivered through more top down targetry, or through a devolved approach that allows local politicians to tailor national policies to fit local circumstances.

In the pre-2008 culture these would all be indications that Whitehall was back peddling on its promise of devolution. In fact something far more hopeful is happening. Constrained by tighter finances in the Comprehensive Spending Review and by the increased political risk of error in the face of reviving opposition parties, national politics has become more fragile. The result is less confidence at national level to deliver in practise what is believed in theory.

That is the opportunity for local government; ambition is the way to seize it. In the hands of the best in local government, the partial reforms that have been delivered provide enough leverage with which to demonstrate new local solutions to national policy dilemmas. That in turn provides a platform upon which to build public support for further devolution. That devolution can be given substance by pressing to amend the government’s current programme.

For example national government is seeking to close the gap in regional economic growth rates. It is relying on local government to deliver solutions, possibly through MAAs. Councils that build robust strategies with vocal local support will be well placed to push for the Planning Reform Bill to provide a fast track for those plans.

On worklessness national government’s desire to help the long term unemployed back into work cannot succeed without joining up government at local level. Kent’s Supporting Independence Programme and Southwark Works show how local government is ahead of national. Might this be the basis on which to push for new financial incentives delivering more public service, within tighter budgets, through devolution?

In different communities there will be different priorities. In every community this is the year in which local government should be using the partial reforms of the recent past to seize the initiative.

Real autonomy comes when we no longer wait for Whitehall to give us permission to act. The politics of 2008 should not be about left and right, but about central and local. To convert hope into reality local leaders must not ask which Whitehall initiative we are waiting for, but instead ask: “How big is our ambition?”


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