LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION

Devolution – a new false dawn fades?

Simon Goacher hopes that whatever the outcome of the election, all party agreement on devolution proves no false dawn and progress made in the last five years to devolve real powers to local government accelerates.

As we head into the election is there a prospect of the most centralised western democracy embracing greater devolution or is this is another false dawn?

The last parliament began with the coalition preaching the mantra of localism.  However, the results of the last five years have been mixed.  There has been some progress but parliament ended with a string of centralised directions to local authorities on how they should act on issues as diverse as publishing newspapers and setting up housing companies.

Simon Goacher

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