Local Government and Devolution in Britain

1. Local Government and Devolution in Britain Mike Emmerich Director Institute for Political and Economic Governance University of Manchester

2. Scope of Presentation • Background – central local relations • Post 1997 reforms to Local Government • An Interim Assessment

3. Conclusions • Devolution is underway in Scotland and Wales • Some change in England but devolution will be largely administrative • The extent of centralisation has consequences: • Inhibits local innovation • Constrains scope for elected Local Government to play the role of “Community Leader” • Limits local prioritisation and maintains uniform service levels for key services • Devolution and Political Contestability

4. Background – Central Local Relations • Unitary state – few checks and balances • Crisis of local government legitimacy: • Falling turnouts and low quality leadership • Decline in the role and powers of local government • Water supply and treatment • Higher education (polytechnics) • Further education • Reduced local fiscal autonomy • Large-scale reorganisation

5. Background – Central Local Relations Why centralise? • Constitutionally possible response to crisis • Ideology in the 1980s • To preserve universal public services Has centralisation worked? • Probably not as practised, leading to: • New localism post-2001? • More sophisticated central intervention

6. Post-1997 Reforms to Local Government • The 1997 Labour Manifesto • Aim: improve local government legitimacy • Reform to promote “Community Leadership”: • Split executive and scrutiny • New forms of executive - mayors • Reform to improve services: • Councils required to review all services to ensure they offer “Best Value” • Independent (audit-like) inspection • A long-term programme

7. Further Post-1997 Reforms • Developing partnerships • Contracts between Government and Councils (Local Public Service Agreements) • A joint Government/Local Authority Forum (the Central Local Partnership) • Partnerships between key local agencies (Local Strategic Partnerships) • Experiments with citizen engagement • Impatience at the Centre • new services not run by local government • Increasing use of specific “ring-fenced” grants

8. Changing Context Since 2001 • General Election – a referendum on public services? • Limits to traditional forms of service delivery • Development of new forms of devolved service management • The Prime Minister’s Principles of Public Service Reform: • National standards • Delegation and devolution to the front line • flexibility - challenging restrictive practices and reducing red tape • expanding choice and contestability

9. Local Government Reform Post-2001 • Earned autonomy • More freedoms for all but….. • Better Councils “earn” the right to freedoms • Devolve more quickly to some than others • Greater emphasis on intervention where Councils fail • More flexible organisation: • Powers for Councils to trade – including to run the services of others • Partnerships between groups of Councils and the Private Sector • Greater fiscal autonomy back on the agenda

10. An Interim Assessment • Public service reform has been a higher priority than devolution to Local Government • Devolution more evident in Scotland and Wales • Growing realisation that effective services can’t be run from the centre • Framework for administrative devolution now in place in England

11. Conclusions • Devolution is underway in Scotland and Wales • Some change in England but devolution will be largely administrative • There exist limits to devolved governance in a unitary state which: • Inhibit local innovation • Constrain scope for elected Local Government to play the role of “Community Leader” • Limit local prioritisation and maintain uniform service levels for key services

12. www.ipeg.org.uk