Clive Betts: Why this country needs a renewal of local democracy

Localism, my committee was told, is like sunshine: who could possibly be opposed to it? Devolving power and decision-making to local level seems an obvious way to make sure that services take account of the differences between communities. Solutions devised by distant civil servants are less likely to work.

You only need to utter the phrase ‘postcode lottery’, however, to understand why not everyone is so enamoured of the idea. Nobody likes the thought of unfairness, or unequal treatment based purely on where you live. Citizens may need some persuading of the merits of localism, therefore.

Unfortunately, the way the Government is going about implementing its programme is not going to help.

We should think in terms not of ‘postcode lotteries’ – a phrase which implies a completely random outcome – but rather ‘postcode choices’.

Differences between areas should be a result of decisions made explicitly by local people and implemented by agencies that are transparently accountable to them.

Some local authorities already have ways of asking their residents to make decisions about how resources are allocated in their neighbourhood, such as community councils with small budgets attached, or ‘participatory budgeting’ events. These ideas are along the right lines, but not nearly ambitious or widespread enough.

The ideas the Government has put forward for how to do this better, similarly, are not wide enough in scope.

If passed, the Localism Bill would give some powers to local people to bid to take over certain facilities in their community if they would otherwise be lost, or to challenge their local authority to take over the running of a particular service.

These are very specific powers, and communities or community groups will need a set of very particular circumstances if they are to take advantage of them – most importantly, a great deal of time and commitment to the project, and access to a lot of expertise and financial support.

Central government cannot solve this problem; instead, what is needed is a renewal of local democracy.

Whatever you think of your local authority’s performance, everyone has an opportunity to vote for the ideas they want to see implemented. That fewer and fewer of us take that opportunity is at least partly because of a perception that councils are toothless and irrelevant.

They should be at the heart of making localism work. Elections and referendums should not be the only way for residents to have their say, and councils themselves have to put more effort into the ways they listen and respond to the public.

Local authorities can provide the support, expertise – and in some circumstances the funding – that community groups will need if they are to take on more responsibilities. Where the voluntary and community sector is at the moment not as well developed as in other places, they can help to even out the inconsistencies. If things go wrong, councils can be the failsafe.

Unfortunately, some of the reforms that the Government is making, such as the introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners and free schools, seem designed to bypass councils.

Local authorities believe they have local knowledge which could improve efforts to get unemployed people back to work, but the Department for Work and Pensions has shut them out of the process.

Proposals to join services at local level through ‘Community Budgets’ – so that the problems are tackled in the round and users don’t have to go through many different agencies – are stalling because individual government departments won’t commit the necessary budgets.

And when local authorities do take the opportunity to make choices according to local needs, Ministers have shown themselves all too eager to weigh in and express their disapproval.

How often councils can publish newsletters, how they should handle waste collection, how much they should pay their senior staff – all these should be matters for local choice, democratically made, without interference from Westminster.

Only by empowering local authorities, and improving the ways the public influence them, can we take the lottery out of localism.

Clive Betts is the Labour MP for Sheffield South-East. He is chairman of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee at the House of Commons.