David Cameron has finally launched his proposals for local government. The Tories say they will devolve more power to local councils. If they actually did, this would represent a stark contrast with their recent history. The last Tory government not only centralised power away from local government, they left councils in such a state of failure many were incapable of delivering even the most basic services. It is Labour’s reforms of council performance and increased investment in local services that has turned things round. So have Cameron’s Tories really changed?
There are two places we can look to answer that question. We can dig beneath the surface of what Cameron is proposing, but we can also look at what Tory councils are actually doing in power today.
The Tory proposals for council tax are to offer financial incentives to keep tax levels below a nationally determined figure and then to offer local referendums where the national government considers the increase to be too high. That means councils that keep increases down will get more cash and councils that don’t wont. This is intended to put pressure on councils to do what a Tory government wants. But it could also mean that councils under the most pressure to increase spending on frontline services – generally those representing poorer communities where demands on services are highest – will suffer the most. Is this a Tory plan to redistribute funding from poorer to better-off areas?
A truly localist government would allow councils to set whatever council tax level they feel is appropriate for their area. If voters think their councillors have got it wrong, they could vote them out at the next election. Successive governments, both Tory and Labour, have not allowed that to happen. Governments don’t like getting the blame for high increases across the country as councils pass the buck by claiming it is lack of national funding that’s put them in a position where council tax needs to rise. The present Labour government achieves its objectives by imposing a cap on council tax rises. The Tories intend to do the same by making councils hold a referendum before imposing rises above the cap which they fully expect will see higher increases rejected, as all previous local council tax referendums have done.
The thing is, the Tories are presenting this as something new. In fact, it’s just a new way of dressing up what already happens. Councils can set their council tax increase within government-imposed limits and the Tory proposals for change represent no real change at all.
More worrying is the Tory cuts agenda. Let’s not forget that Labour has increased spending on council services by 40 per cent in real terms, whereas during the last four years of Tory government funding was cut by seven per cent. The Tories claim they want councils to help local communities cope with the effects of the worldwide recession. That recession is having impacts that were not predicted just a few months ago. For instance, demand for school places has gone up as better-off parents decide they can’t afford to go private. Demand for council-run gyms has gone up as people cancel more expensive private gym membership. More people want to use council-run training schemes to develop the skills they need to get back to work. All of this means the cost to local councils goes up as the demand for services increases.
But far from helping people through the recession, Tory councils are cutting services instead. One Tory councillor in Cameron’s favourite Conservative council, Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, has proposed 100 cuts to council services that would be a direct hit on services for children in care, older people and the disabled. Boris Johnson’s Tory regime in London was elected on a promise to tackle crime but, in his very first budget, he’s cutting the number of police on the streets. The action of Tories on the ground is making a mockery of Cameron’s claims as Tories impose huge cuts on vital services.
By contrast, Labour councils are protecting frontline services and looking at new ways to help people through the recession. Half the Labour councils in London are freezing council tax this year – but doing it without the kind of swingeing cuts seen in Hammersmith and Fulham. We’re doing it by pushing for greater efficiency and stronger partnerships with other public services and voluntary organisations. The Tories want to hand core services and the vulnerable people who depend on them over to charities or the private sector. Labour wants to see councils providing strong direction with the close involvement of community organisations. There’s a significant difference there, and what it exposes is the Tory impulse towards a do-nothing state compared to Labour’s preference for an enabling state at both the local and national levels.
There can be little doubt that if Cameron makes it to No 10 Downing Street and George Osborne to No 11, they will issue central diktats capping council tax at levels that mean services cannot be sustained. During a recession, that means a future Tory government will be issuing demands for cuts in frontline services across the board, just like Tory councils up and down the country are already doing. As ever, it will be the poorest and most vulnerable that will suffer the most. But the impact this will have on community cohesion and social solidarity will hurt everyone in the end.
I alluded above to the Labour government’s increased levels of funding and inspection for local government. This, probably more than anything else, has driven the improvement we’ve seen in local government services since 1997. The Tories now plan to cut funding and stop inspection, scrapping the new Comprehensive Area Assessment that will measure residents’ perceptions of all services delivered in their local area. They plan to do this as part of a package they claim will increase local accountability. But how can services be more accountable to local people if they have no objective means of assessing whether they’re performing well or not? No one wants to see local government tied up in red tape, but there is an appropriate level of involvement that benefits everyone, not least service users and council tax payers.
Another headline in the Tory plans is to impose directly elected mayors in Britain’s twelve largest cities, following the model that Labour introduced for London. But there are two problems here. First, Labour has already given those cities the power to have mayors if they want them, and if you believe in localism as the Tories claim to, isn’t it up to the local cities themselves to decide if they want a mayor? Second, they are missing a key point. Having a mayor won’t solve any problems on its own. That mayor needs to have control over enough local resources and policies to be able to make a difference, and the Tories don’t plan any changes there. In fact, where there are regional development agencies bringing together councils across a geographic area to tackle issues like housing and transport, the Tories plan to scrap them.
The Tory proposals for local government look, on balance, to be an elaborate con trick. Despite the headlines, there’s very little real change. Behind the claims for localism, there’s a new drive towards centralisation. Councils under a Tory government will be forced to impose service cuts that will hurt the weak and vulnerable the most. The Tory proposals for local government are full of warm words but the reality behind them leaves you feeling pretty cold.