Deliver on devolution, say LabourList readers

Given that there are a multitude of different issues facing local authorities, particularly in the midst of significant cuts to local budgets, we asked LabourList leaders what they they would like to see the next Government prioritise in their area.

We asked people to rank what they thought was most important. In terms of average rankings, most people thought that creating more and better jobs was the most important priority for Government. This is, perhaps, unsurprising – although the number of people classified as unemployed is falling, these statistics don’t reveal that the average earnings are still well behind inflation. Nor do they show how many people are in insecure forms of work, like those on zero hours contracts. What’s more, although the number of people in employment is on the rise, there often isn’t room for job progression nor adequate on the job-training.

Delivering more affordable housing is closely behind jobs. Again, this isn’t particularly unexpected – the housing crisis in the UK isn’t going away any time soon. Although Labour have committed to building 200,000 more houses a year by 2020, a group of London-based PPCs, councillors and AMs have called on the Labour leadership to lift the cap on councils borrowing so they can build more houses.

Meanwhile, improving education and training, improving public transport and supporting local businesses to grow and prosper all can in around the same.

Deliver on Devolution

With devolution and the distribution of powers one of the most important political subjects of the moment – particularly with the Scottish referendum – we wanted to know what LabourList readers thought of the relationship between local authorities and national government, and whether power was too centralised in Westminster.

The responses highlighted why the Westminster bubble earned it’s name – a significant 76% of  people think that more powers need to be given to local government and rather unsurprisingly 70% of people think local government needs greater power to meet cities needs. This is a topic that Ed Miliband addressed today in his response to the Scottish referendum, where he’s called for

This will most likely be a welcome announcement for most LabourList readers because 52% of people think national-level politicians don’t understand what is needed in cities to help them prosper.

A mere 6% respectively think that things are find as they are – saying that they’re confident interests of UK cities are well represented at the national level and that local politicians have the powers they need to boost my local economy.

When it comes to devolution, it looks like this years Labour party Conference is one to watch…