Why David Cameron’s piece in the Guardian today is flawed

By Ed Mayne

In his article in the Guardian today, David Cameron talks about “turning Britain ‘s pyramid of power on its head” by devolving more powers to local government. He has talked about “localism” before. This time he has backed it up with a green paper. But his proposals are flawed for three reasons.

Firstly there is the issue of local taxation. It was the Guardian columnist, and another Tory thinker, Simon Jenkins who wrote that all talk of devolving power to local government is pointless unless it is backed up by the decentralisation of local tax raising powers.

To paraphrase the academic Bernard Lewis, there is the well known phrase ‘no taxation without representation’, but vice-versa is also true. He was talking about the Middle East. But the same phrase could apply to local government in the UK, which is funded by a complex mixture of central government grants and council tax, which central government has the power to cap.

The Tory green paper proposes an end to the cap, but it does not take the even more radical step of making local government free of all central government interference. In fact, the recent Tory proposal to freeze all council tax bills would enhance central government power over local authorities. This is an example of inconsistency if ever there was one.

Secondly, there is the issue of overly large local authorities. In 2007, I stood as the Labour candidate in a local council by-election in Chiswick. This is part of the London Borough of Hounslow. Hounslow, the location of the borough Civic Centre, is a 15 minute train ride away. A car journey can take even longer. Most Chiswick residents never go there. Unsurprisingly engagement in the campaign was minimal. Only 25% of the electorate voted. Only 50% of postal voters sent in their ballots.

David Cameron’s proposals say nothing about creating smaller local authorities to which people could actually relate. Chiswick even has a town hall from the days when it governed itself. But the town hall now sits idle. It is merely an outpost of the Hounslow empire, mainly used for children’s ballet classes, country dancing and tv locations. Many other areas are caught in a similar trap, as part of a local authority that means nothing to them or their local identity.

According to Simon Jenkins, British elected councillors, on average, answer to 2,600 voters. In Sweden it is 667 voters and in Germany it is just 250. Local election turnout in Sweden is 80% and in Germany it is 70%. This proves that making local authorities genuinely local is the only real way to create localism.

And thirdly, the structure of UK local government would remain largely unchanged by these Tory plans. If there is anything to admire about the French government system it is its clear structure. Each “commune” in France has an elected mayor. Some of these 36,000 communes are as big as Paris. Yet over 80% have fewer than 1000 inhabitants. Turnout in French mayoral elections is usually high and they often arouse strong local passions. Alongside this there is a clear demarcation line between the roles of local government, regional government and central government. Tory plans would not change the overlap that currently exists between the different branches of government in the UK.

So in short, David Cameron’s proposals are hollow and flawed and they don’t address the main issues. All talk of localism is pointless without reforms to local tax raising power, local authority size and local government structure.

The counter-arguments to these ideas are clear. Smaller local authorities are expensive, council tax is unpopular and regional discrepancies are not tolerated by the electorate. However I firmly believe that these are the specific issues that will motivate people to get more involved in local politics. If local government was more powerful more high profile candidates would run in local elections, if tax was determined at a local level more people would vote, and if regional discrepancies could be remedied at a local level, more people would campaign to change them at a local level.

We should thank David Cameron for putting this issue back on the agenda. But he does not have any answers to address the real issues. It was a Labour Government that created assemblies in Wales and Scotland. And thanks to Labour Government reforms, there are now 13 directly elected mayors in England. Hopefully Labour will once again take the initiative and talk about real localism.