In the last 18 weeks, the vision for Stevenage that had been developed with our community and our partners has been dismantled.
The 16,000 houses that were being built to support our economic growth and tackle the waiting list of 6,500 have been scrapped. The 20 families a day coming into our offices to register on the housing list are faced with a thirtee- year wait. Even private renting moves out of reach with new caps on housing benefit.
The four-year local decision-making process that led to my local hospital being designated the acute hospital for north and east Hertfordshire is being reviewed by Andrew Lansley in accordance with election promises made by Grant Shapps, the Tory minister who is MP in our neighbouring constituency. So the multimillion pound investment in our hospital is on hold.
Our Building Schools for the Future project, strongly supported by my Labour district council and the Tory county council has been decimated with only three schools out of eight now going ahead.
Our Neighbourhood Action Teams, their priorities set and monitored by local residents in neighbourhood forums, face having their key resources plundered in the scramble for cuts. The Police Community Support Officers have delivered particularly effectively on local issues and their reduction is almost inevitable.
And all that is before we start to look at further cuts to local government budgets where an optimistic estimate will take a further £30 million out of the local area.
So what exactly are we saying to people about the ‘Big Society’ – never mind if your education standards fall, your streets are not safe, there are no jobs or houses – you can run your local park!?
But my job is not to sit back and wring my hands, or to deny that there is a deficit that needs to be tackled. I want to engage in a dialogue with my community about how we can do this in a different way, using the traditions of mutualism and cooperation that are not only fundamental in the Labour movement but are woven into the fabric of my town. Stevenage as a first generation new town engaged its residents from the start in building a community alongside the bricks and mortar of the town and the working together that is part of our heritage, can be used as a firm foundation for our future.
We are recognising and promoting our cooperative approach to community engagement and involvement as a real alternative to the mythical ‘Big Society’. Why mythical? Well firstly because it seems to overlook the huge amount of work that communities and volunteers are already doing, secondly because it overlooks the fact that for some communities – and some people in my area will be doing three or four part-time jobs to make ends meet – the capacity to take on any more is limited. And lastly because our voluntary sector are under the impression that ‘Big Society’ is going to be like ‘Big Lottery’, a funding round that will answer all their budget problems.
Another proposal that seems to be gaining a lot of traction is the idea that we do not have enough directly elected representatives. So plans are being drawn up for directly elected police commissioners, health representatives and a further push to encourage directly elected mayors. I have to confess to being a bit baffled by this. People already have directly elected representatives – they are called councillors.
At their best, ‘Big Society’, directly elected mayors and police commissioners and a localism where the only choice is ‘Hobson’s choice’ are diversions, at worst they are a con trick.
In my community, people want a decent job, a home sufficient for their needs, a good education for their children, healthcare that means they don’t die ten years earlier than people in neighbouring towns and safe streets. The cuts currently being imposed put all this at risk, not because it is necessary – you wouldn’t suddenly decide to pay all your mortgage off in five years, even if it meant your kids went without – but because it suits the political and ideological game plan for this coalition.
The Total Place pilots have made a tentative start in the direction of giving real responsibility and funding at local level to tackle the major issues affecting our communities. If the Labour party is to demonstrate a genuine commitment to real localism we must extend that. At one extreme this would mean devolving the whole quantum of public service funding and resources to local communities and the community charging a public service board to deliver their priorities. This board would include directly elected representatives, and as in all good cooperative models, would report back to the wider community.
I hope this would move us on from Big Society to Stevenage United.