The general election is now less than eight months away and as the political battlelines are being drawn Labour is defining a new message: gaining power to give it away.
The period since the last general election has been interesting. With unprecedented cuts targeted at Labour councils it would have been understandable if those same councils went into meltdown, crisis management or declared war on the government.
Instead we have witnessed a period of innovation, self-determination and modernisation which have left even the biggest centralisers taking note. Something has been happening in town halls across the country and it has provided the foundation for an ambitious incoming Labour government.
The Innovation Taskforce championed by Jon Cruddas with the backing of Ed Miliband put that claim to the test. Across the country councils worked to gather the evidence and to offer solutions, but it also challenged the centralisers too.
With the Innovation Taskforce report launched by Ed in Stevenage this month it kept the momentum going strong. But local government knew too well that, while it was an important statement of intent, cementing the devolution agenda into Labour party policy was far from complete.
Milton Keynes played host to the National Policy Forum with hundreds of amendments covering a wide range of policies from renationalisation of the railways, zero-hours contracts, the NHS and more.
In my new role as leader of Labour Local Government, and working closely with Association of Labour Councillors NPF representatives, the LGA Labour Group delegation secured a number of commitments for local government including:
- Local government and central government to be independent and equal partners
- A fairer funding formula for local government linked to need
- A New English Deal for all councils which will devolve power and freedom
- City and county deals rolled out to all parts of the country that want one and stopping government departments setting targets that undermine the deals
- Building more council houses, with reform of the housing revenue account system to better enable councils to build new homes to their maximum potential
- Replacing homes lost from Right to Buy with new social housing built in the same area
- A clear role for local authority accountability in a new system of local oversight over all schools and in decision-making over new schools
- Local commissioning of support for long-term unemployed and skills funding to be devolved to local areas to create an integrated whole-system approach
- New powers for whole-person care collective commissioning to health and wellbeing boards and legislation to permit full integration of health and social care into a single budget locally
- Greater control for subnational bodies over transport spend to deliver local priorities and a duty to cooperate on highways authorities to improve integration between local and strategic roads
The final documents will be published and finally agreed at Labour party conference in the autumn.
The test of a new relationship is also a test of the maturity of Labour politics in 2014. Centralising is not the same as holding power. Real political power is the ability to lead and mobilise others. With a strengthened army of empowered Labour councils a new Labour government could deliver real social and economic change.
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Jim McMahon is leader of Oldham and chair of the Co-operative Councils Innovation Network. He was recently elected Labour Leader of the Local Government Association.
He is standing for the NEC to represent labour councillors. See here for more details. He tweets @CllrJimMcMahon