Reforming statism: Why the new leader must reform local government

By Matthew Zarb-Cousin / @matt_zarbcousin

The coalition’s desire to shrink the state recently received the support of the public in a survey carried out by BBC Business, where 60% agreed with the planned cuts to public spending. Even after the cuts have started to become less about numbers and more about people’s lives, the majority of the public are supportive of the coalition’s deficit reduction programme.

Recently in the New Statesman, Peter Kellner argued that the public saw Labour’s handling of public services as inefficient:

“Most people think Labour wasted most of the extra money it spent on the NHS … [and] think that the brunt of the task of cutting government borrowing should be borne by cuts in public spending rather than increases in taxation.”

One might argue that those who hold such views are naïve as to the consequences of 25% cuts in departmental budgets, but I think there is an underlying sentiment here that the next leader cannot ignore. Public services improved considerably under Labour in their 13 years of government, but the public’s expectations grew at a faster rate. Coupled with Labour’s centralised approach to public service management and it is hardly astounding that people felt disconnected from the state, even if they were receiving better public services. All of the leadership candidates agree that “re-connecting” with the people is essential if we are to move forward, and David Miliband has countered the Big Society by training a thousand community organisers, which must be commended. It is what Labour does in communities – to empower people – that will ultimately transform perceptions of the state from being something distant yet intrusive, into something local yet liberating. It is essential in an age of globalisation that some sense of localism in the Labour Party be regained.

I sense an opportunity to devolve some of the funding that would go to unitary and county councils directly to local communities. Why not create the means for people in each council ward to handle budgets themselves, bypassing local government and empowering people directly, so that they can affect change in their community? People in communities often come together, through residents’ associations and community groups – how about giving them a fairly substantial budget each year to decide what they would like to do with it? It is the people who live in the communities who often know more about what would be best for that area than any councillor might. Funding could also be weighted based on how much a community needs it. I have often found in Southend that the Conservative council are less inclined to direct funding towards more deprived areas of the town.

This problem would be eliminated if the politics and self-preservation – so often prevalent in local government – were bypassed completely. It has the potential to be more effective in bringing communities out of deprivation, and also in bringing communities together to make democratic decisions based on an Athenian model of direct democracy. The membership card says that the Party wants to create a society where “power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many and not the few.” Some might argue that wealth is power, so with an effective redistributive state, communities can become empowered through the funding they receive.

I would urge the next leader of the Labour Party to reconsider the role of local government. I do not believe it is local enough, nor is it empowering and it can often divide communities rather than bring them together.