I believe in local government. Why doesn’t Eric Pickles?

By Lisa Nandy MP / @lisanandy

I’ve already become accustomed to the poor quality of legislation as a result of the speed at which this government is pushing through its agenda. However, what still takes my breath away every time a new bill is published, are the devastating consequences and reckless ideology that lie just beneath the surface of seemingly ragtag collections of ideas.

The Localism Bill, which has its second reading on Monday, is yet one more example of this and marks a fundamental shift of power in England. The people who will lose as a consequence of its underpinning philosophy are those who live in fragmented, fractured communities, who lack the ability or resources to organise. They make up a significant chunk of the population and they are losing their voice.

At the helm is Eric Pickles: a Secretary of State for local government who does not believe in local government. It is understandably difficult for Ministers to resist the compulsion to intervene – when their own neck is on the line – and trust to local government. But, despite his language, Pickles has no intention of doing so.

For example, the new general power of ‘competence’ which attempts to shift the emphasis from what councils can’t do, to what they can. In theory it should give more power to councils but there are over 140 proscribed activities in the bill already and most likely more to come.

Like the reforms in education and health, the Localism Bill devolves powers to communities, bypassing their elected representatives. The best councillors play a strong part in balancing competing interests and protecting minorities. Without this essential safeguard what often remains is what de Tocqueville called the tyranny of the majority. As one local government official said to me this week, the central question is ‘what constitutes a community?’. I believe in community action but what Pickles refuses to recognise is, with an unequal distribution of power between communities, councillors matter.

Overriding them will be particularly problematic in relation to planning decisions. How many homeless shelters and other important but unpopular developments will now be built? This new ‘freedom’ combines some of the worst elements of democracy: ‘might is right’, without the best democratic traditions of representation for the voiceless.

Critics will point out that councils are gaining some powers. One of those is to decide who amongst the homeless is a priority for housing. Disparities like this lead to chaos. It already happens: when councils turn away unaccompanied asylum seeking children they are forced to try for help at neighbouring councils. In the battle for school places people move wherever they have to, to meet the criteria. Now it seems those councils who will prioritise the vulnerable will be overrun. Does that really constitute more power for them?

At the same time the bill stops councils from introducing council tax rises above the level set by the government unless they call and win a referendum. It would take a remarkable community to vote through a council tax rise. Taken together with the savage programme of cuts, frontloaded so councils don’t have time to pool resources, introduce efficiencies and make voluntary redundancies, it leaves councillors simply with the ‘power’ to decide which staff to sack and which services to slash.

It was an email this week from one of our brilliant Wigan councillors, Chris Ready, which prompted me to wonder if most of his colleagues up and down the country have also noticed this is happening. I sincerely hope so, and I hope they take on this battle and win it.

I was led into local politics after seeing firsthand the difference councils make to people’s lives when their politicians choose to do so. At the time, when I worked with homeless teenagers, my local council – Hammersmith – were leading the way in protecting 16 year olds while others were doing all they could to fail them. More than the legislation that was designed to protect them, what mattered to those young people was the judgments their local councillors made. That is why I believe in local government. Why doesn’t Pickles?