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Management

Whitehall blamed for local apathy

Written by Adrie van der Luijt

Wednesday, 30 April 2008

Local government has been seriously weakened by the centralising policies of successive governments, a hard-hitting report claims.

As the nation goes to the polls to elect local representatives, the need to reinvigorate local democracy was never more apparent, the report suggests.

Quangos and single-interest boards

Whitehall’s mania for ever tighter central control of resources has led to confusion, waste and apathy at local level, the study by George Jones, Emeritus Professor of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science, argues.

Over the last 30 years local government has been under attack from all directions; diminished from above by central government, from the side by quangos and single-interest boards and from below by unelected neighbourhood and community groups, the report, published by the Public Management and Policy Association think tank, contends.

The Public Management and Policy Association (PMPA) is a national membership organisation which exists to promote the value of public management and public policy.

Whilst acknowledging the efforts of the Department of Communities and Local Government, Prof. Jones rounds on several Whitehall Departments, accusing them of overriding local democracy.

He says that the Departments of Children, Schools and Families, of Health, of Transport, the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice tend to see local government as a mechanism to implement their wishes.

Removal of existing constraints

Prof. Jones adds that when these departments claim that they support decentralisation it is usually not to elected local government, but to their own arms or special-purpose institutions, for hospitals, education, policing, community safety and social services.

“They do not trust local authorities to do what they think should be done,” he said.

Calling for a new constitutional settlement, enshrining the role of local government and clarifying its relationship with central government, Prof. Jones said new powers for local authorities were unnecessary, merely the removal of existing constraints.

He also argues that an independent commission should be set up to oversee the relationship between local and central government, which should report to Parliament on a regular basis.

Prof. Jones points out that local government can be re-invigorated only by giving local authorities powers to do things that matter to people in the locality, to have discretion over what they do and how they do it, and to finance their expenditure decisions by levying local taxes that bear on local voters.

“If these changes are made, then local politics will revive. People will be interested; they will want to have their say and to vote, and to become candidates. Local government and local politics will matter. The way ahead for strengthening local government, and local representative democracy, is not by keeping the centre in the driving seat,” Prof. Jones concludes.

For a copy of the full report The future of local government; has it one? by George Jones please contact the PMPA Press Office on 020 7543 5687 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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