A Chance for Real Localism

June 23, 2011

The Localism Bill will give communities the ‘right to bid’ to take over local state-run services, but if we are to have proper democratic renewal and citizen empowerment we also need to drive devolution from Whitehall to councils.

That’s why New Local Government Network has advocated that this new right to bid be extended so that communities and councils can apply to take on services from Whitehall departments and government agencies.

The recent communities and local government select committee report on localism has taken on board our recommendation and called for local authorities to be
given “a power analogous to the ‘community right to bid’ in the Localism Bill: a right to challenge central government for the opportunity to deliver services”.

The question is, will ministers listen to this call? This mechanism would give community bodies, councils and local enterprise partnerships the power to submit an expression of interest – on behalf of local people – to deliver services at a local, rather than central level.

From welfare-to-work provision to crime prevention programmes, this could unleash a wealth of innovative thinking and energy from the bottom up, to radically improve service delivery.

Decentralisation minister Greg Clark seems sympathetic to the idea. He has stated that he would like “to extend the principle that people have the right to do things differently and prevail against a reluctant bureaucracy. Just as we are establishing that against councils, I think it should be established against central government.”

The difficulty is that, while voices within the Department for Communities & Local Government and Parliament are making positive noises, others in Whitehall are likely to be more resistant to this kind of reform.

Ministers must ask themselves what they and civil servants have to fear from a right to challenge. After all, under our model, devolution would only take place if it could be demonstrated that local government would be able to cut costs or improve quality.

Ministers should not have one rule for councils and another for their own departments. The current environment offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to embed localism in all parts of the state. Whether or not the government extends the right to challenge should be seen as a key test of how committed it really is to decentralisation and public service reform.

Nick Hope, senior researcher, NLGN


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