Labour will support “people-powered public services”, says Miliband

Today, launching the final report of Labour’s Local Government Innovation Taskforce, Ed Miliband will announce that the next Labour government will support “people-powered public services” and give more power to local communities.

Writing in The Guardian, Miliband explains that  in order to ensure that public services are delivered effectively, Labour recognise that it’s time to move away from “the old top-down command model”.

Miliband says that this kind of decentralisation would mean that “instead of Whitehall setting local authorities annual budgets, the government I plan to lead next year will provide long term funding settlements so councils can plan ahead, improve their services and reinvest the savings.”

This announcement builds upon the ideas he endorsed in the Adonis Review last week – namely to devolve £30 billion to regions. Miliband says the ideas in the Adonis Review should be matched by “equally radical changes in the way local authorities deliver public services in every community.” 

Miliband outlines five key ways Labour would move power away from Westminster: 1) locally-delivered integrated health and social for older people, 2) giving local areas £1.5 billion for further education for 19-24 year-olds, as well as control over a “new service for under-21s  looking for work”, 3) Clear ways to combat crime, 4) making sure there are “new hubs for family support in communities”, 5) strengthening local accountability in education.

This looks like part of the Labour leadership’s drive to give people in local communities more of a voice in politics, because Miliband says, “by reversing the centralisation of power we will empower those who are best able to use the resources we have and have shown they can deliver. It is an essential step on the road to social justice and a more equal society.”