Miliband pledges to hand more power to parents and patients

The Opposition leader and Doncaster MP last night launched an attack on the Government’s propensity to “hoard” control in Whitehall as he promised to “drive power down” to local areas.

The Yorkshire Post revealed last month how Mr Miliband was preparing a series of major pledges on English devolution to boost the Northern economy and combat mounting frustration with national politicians’ failure to deliver.

Last night he set out for the first time some of the areas where a future Labour government would seek to devolve power.

Parents, he said, would have the opportunity to demand “immediate action” should a significant number be concerned their local school is failing. Patient representatives would have a greater say over hospital closures and other major NHS reconfiguration plans. Powers and funding would be handed from Whitehall to groups of local authorities.

“It is right to devolve power down not just to the user – but to the local level,” the Labour leader said, delivering the annual Hugo Young lecture in London.

“The centralised state cannot diagnose and solve every local problem from Whitehall.”

Mr Miliband insisted Labour’s new approach would not lead to a postcode lottery on public services.

“It is right that we elect a national government to set key benchmarks for what people can expect in our public services,” he said, promising to maintain NHS targets and police standards.

But he added: “How specific services are delivered within these standards and guarantees cannot simply be dictated from Whitehall. The next Labour manifesto will commit to a radical reshaping of services, so local communities can come together and make the decisions that matter to them.”

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