Devolution plan is not localism; it’s a Whitehall power grab – William Wallace

NEXT month the Government will unveil proposals to reshape local government. Press reports suggest the number of councils will be cut by 50-60 per cent, mayors will be imposed on many of the new unitary bodies, and in rural England the area each council covers will be larger.
Yorkshire risks a second class devolution, argues Lord Wallace of Saltaire.Yorkshire risks a second class devolution, argues Lord Wallace of Saltaire.
Yorkshire risks a second class devolution, argues Lord Wallace of Saltaire.

The new proposals will also move 
bits of Whitehall departments out of London, including to York – though it’s unlikely that local government will be given any more money, or greater freedom from central government. This will weaken, not strengthen, local democracy.

Local government in England used to be more important to most people in their daily lives than central government. But over the past 50 years local authorities have been reorganised, merged, deprived of powers and financial resources to a point where many are struggling to cope with threatened bankruptcy and a constant flood of contradictory instructions from London. No wonder so many voters are alienated from democratic politics.

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The mishandling of the coronavirus epidemic has shown how far the government of England has moved from local initiative to central control. The German response to the disease was led by local government, responding to local needs. Our government outsourced testing and tracing to private companies, including a US multinational.

Lord Wallace of Saltaire is a Lib Dem peer.Lord Wallace of Saltaire is a Lib Dem peer.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire is a Lib Dem peer.

Hardly surprisingly, these private providers did not know where best to set up testing stations. In Salisbury, after the Russian poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, the local public health director led an effective response. When Covid-19 hit, Ministers cut local public health officers across the country out of the picture.

Older readers will remember how large a part local public services used to play in our lives. The municipal water, gas and electricity companies that 19th century councils had set up, financed out of local taxation, had been nationalised after the Second World War.

But education, local public transport, social housing, prisons and probation services, children’s and adult social care, and public health, policing and justice all retained strong local influence or control.

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Trade union domination encouraged Margaret Thatcher to privatise public services. Privatisation and outsourcing have a mixed record. Some services have improved, although the major investments in water, electricity, gas and telecommunications have sometimes taken second place behind private profit. In other areas, most vividly in the probation services, this has led to disastrous results.

The Government has signalled a desire to transfer more Whitehall jobs to the Minster city of York.The Government has signalled a desire to transfer more Whitehall jobs to the Minster city of York.
The Government has signalled a desire to transfer more Whitehall jobs to the Minster city of York.

In my parents’ generation it was easy for voters to know who their local councillors were: to give them their complaints, to re-elect them if satisfied and throw them out if not.

Reorganisation of local government in the 1970s swept urban and rural district councils away. In Leeds and Bradford, single wards cover multiple communities that used to constitute districts of their own. Councillors who represent 12-15,000 voters cannot hope to get to know most of them. Town councils have been set up in some areas, but not all, and with very minimal money or powers. It’s no wonder that MPs are now asked to deal with local complaints in their surgeries; the link between citizens and local authorities has weakened.

The 10 million people of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland now have effective and properly-financed devolved governments, as well as local authorities to provide local services. The 56 million people of England are not being offered anything comparable.

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The promise of ‘devolution’ – which means transferring powers from London to local and regional bodies – is contradicted by the removal of local control of planning, and the maintenance of detailed ministerial guidance on everything from school classes to cycle lanes.

Democratic politics must be rooted in local politics. The Conservative Party used to be the party of local government, of strong local communities and independently-minded councillors. It’s now becoming a centralised machine, wanting to direct everything from Westminster and Whitehall.

All Yorkshire politicians, including our Conservative representatives, should reject the White Paper’s proposals when published and demand a real transfer of power and finance from London to our county.

Lord Wallace of Saltaire is a Lib Dem peer and former Minister.

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