IIn 2012 Leeds City Council convened the Commission on the Future of Local Government. A group including Keith Wakefield, Lord Victor Adebowale, Baroness Margaret Eaton and Will Hutton devised a blueprint for its future.
Faced with a perceived perfect storm, they set out an optimistic vision. The last decade of austerity, Brexit, the pandemic, war, climate change and cost of living crises has made that storm look like an April shower. Have the five propositions - civic enterprise, good growth, a new social contract, 21st century infrastructure, and devolution - stood the test of time? And what should the sector be seeking in the future General Election party manifestos?
Civic enterprise - a return to financial stability
The central idea was about local government needing to rediscover its enterprising Victorian roots where Chamberlain and others collaborated to improve local public health, education, and utilities. Although smaller, councils could be bigger in influence with the right values-driven civic partnership. They had to be more enterprising and efficient; the private sector needed to become more civic, aiding social and environmental goals. The third sector would help strengthen a weakening communities connection. With a stronger democratic mandate, local leaders would provide place leadership to stimulate positive change. Most councils now see place leadership as core business. We named it Team Leeds and it's worked. Our Child Friendly Leeds campaign recruited a thousand business ambassadors to amplify the voice of children and put them at the heart of our economic plans. This has transformed child protection from a somewhat siloed activity into a collective city endeavour. Our city centre is among the UK's most vibrant, clean, and welcoming because the private sector matches our investment. When the pandemic struck, in short time every council had a pandemic outbreak plan, governance, and funding to help localise the national effort. Local government became the only way to reach every community across the country with food parcels, vaccination campaigns, surge testing, and business grants.
Austerity has consequences, though, with fewer boots on the ground to deal with the pandemic. Our statutory responsibility to balance budgets made us highly effective in reducing costs, but at a price, including rising inequality. The incessant financial challenge has driven ill judged, risky decisions, often with insufficient scrutiny, in places like Croydon and Woking. The sector needs to front up to this, recognising our collective credibility demands more effective assurance and improvement arrangements. It is equally a failure of a highly centralised system where under funding is institutionalised. One-year settlements haven't reflected inflation, asylum arrivals have only time limited financial support, devolution deals are not index linked, reserves messaging is inconsistent, profiteering in children's placements is unfettered while health continues to be prioritised over social care, and pay and grant agreements are delayed till the very end of budget processes. All of this adds up. Rather than more centralisation, monitoring and data, we need a fair, long term funding settlement, with the right incentives that reward good and penalise bad behaviour and a credible new burdens process, alongside a strengthened audit and assurance framework. Without this, more Section 114 notices across the sector are inevitable.
Good jobs and homes - new statutory local economic plans
The 2012 Commission identified good growth, a strong economy and sustainable house building as vital to local government delivery. Channel 4, the Bank of England, Burberry, and a fast-growing tech sector have bought into our Leeds inclusive growth ambition and we consistently build over three thousand homes a year for our growing young population. Barnsley have reimagined their town centre, others have risen to the challenge, yet the decade has seen a marked divide between those who own assets and those who don't. Not enough houses are being built. It's rare for a council not to want inclusive growth, but in the absence of long-term regeneration programmes few are achieving it on the scale needed.
A new statutory duty for economic development would elevate its importance within local government, explicitly linked to a ‘total place' investment plan bringing together housing, economic regeneration and infrastructure, consolidating the many disconnected capital pots allocated in competitive bidding rounds. A duty to cooperate would also bring a statutory framework to toughen and codify the need for whole system working between the NHS, universities, further education, utilities, and national Government agencies, particularly to tackle inequality and the wider determinants of health.
A new social contract - rebuilding public services
The Commission identified local government needed to engage more closely with communities as austerity reduced its ability to provide universal public services, with the Wigan Deal being the best example of that. Many councils have had to change to targeted, rationed service provision. Others have transferred provision to the private sector. In Leeds we have kept services in house and strengthened partnerships with outcome-based approaches to head off problems through earlier intervention. Helping people before they become statutorily homeless reduces the need for temporary accommodation, improving outcomes and saving millions of taxpayer pounds. Restorative working and supporting families to help themselves has led Leeds to two outstanding Ofsted assessments and much better children's outcomes. North Yorkshire's no wrong door approach supports children exceptionally well. Camden pioneered citizen juries and hyper local community engagement and early intervention. Libraries, theatres, museums, community centres, one stop shops and other public assets also provide a vital public service and a great sense of civic pride from the smallest town to the biggest city.
The core role of local councils providing public services has been eroded by austerity, with the majority of budgets now taken up by social care, and an unplanned approach to national intervention, for example on asylum policy. During the pandemic and since, local government has arguably become the country's default business support agency and local welfare state. There has never been a local government White Paper and now, more than ever, the time feels right to define the role of the sector clearly, including how it relates to national and regional bodies, so it can be funded and understood properly, not least so that council taxpayers know what we are here for.
21st Century infrastructure - the key to UK productivity and net zero
The Commission recognised the need for a strong underpinning infrastructure across all the country, especially for public transport, and for new challenges around carbon and technology. For the North, the public transport experience has at times felt more like jumping a century backwards. The stop-start nature of national infrastructure decision making is inhibiting the UK's productivity. All of the UK needs the integrated public transport system that London enjoys and needs as the world's financial capital. Digital infrastructure has improved, and full incentivised private investment should be deployed across other policy areas. Many places like Cornwall have impressive climate change programmes. There has been good progress towards net zero on energy switching to renewables from fossil fuels, but much more action is needed on domestic heating, transport, and industry. Leeds was recently identified by Forbes as the UK city most likely to achieve net zero, citing our work on district heating, charging infrastructure and housing retrofit. A clear, sustained strategic approach to national infrastructure delivered regionally via Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) and county equivalents. MCAs in particular need to be released to deliver infrastructure plans that capitalise on their unique economic assets and unlock jobs and growth for the UK's benefit.
Devolution - a settlement for England
The Commission proposed empowering local government and rolling back our highly centralised English governance, transferring power to local communities via a new English Office. With the advent of mayors and Combined Authorities this process has thankfully started. The recent trailblazer deals for Greater Manchester and the West Midlands are a vital step forward, releasing mayors and local leaders from the restrictions of countless unconnected pots of money with different monitoring arrangements. However, mayors have limited direct powers and abilities to raise or cut taxes. Most decisions affecting local people are still taken in SW1. Local leaders are hugely constrained in making genuine choices about resourcing of services, let alone having to seek permission to introduce a roundabout or fly flags. The Integrated Care Partnerships have been a welcome step to facilitate the vital integration of health and care closer to the people the NHS serves. The trailblazer mayoral deals should be rolled out across the country, alongside clear national infrastructure priorities covering transport, digital and carbon.
The future - we need the strongest ever national/local partnership
The Covid vaccine rollout and support for vulnerable people and businesses demonstrated that strong partnership between national and local government delivers the results English communities need. To rebuild public services, build more homes, improve economic growth, and reduce cost of living pressures and carbon, the winner of the next General Election needs to embrace that model. With a sustainable funding settlement, genuine devolution within a refocused statutory framework and the right performance regime, local leaders and mayors can deliver for local communities as equal partners with national ministers.
Tom Riordan is chief executive of Leeds City Council
@tomriordan @leedsCC_News
