We are entering challenging times. Whichever party wins the general election, difficult choices will have to be made about public services and spending priorities. Many of these decisions will take place at a local level and the impact they could have on people’s lives should not be underestimated. We need to find new and radical ways of engaging people in the decision-making process or our democratic institutions will risk a crisis of legitimacy.
Politics really matters – perhaps more now than it has for a long time – but faith in our politicians has reached an all-time low. Too often citizens don’t feel that they have enough say over what happens in the places they live in or the services they use.
We believe that elected mayors could be part of the solution to these challenges – reinvigorating interest in local government and encouraging far greater democratic engagement. With their high profile and visibility they can help capture the attention of both the media and citizens in a unique way.
Elected mayors will be ideally placed to engage people honestly about the policy choices they face as public spending comes under squeeze. Importantly, people will be able to hold their local leader directly accountable for their decisions and actions.
But the mayoral agenda has stalled. Of the 360 councils in England and Wales only 12 have elected mayors. The Conservatives have gained the initiative over Labour by announcing referendums on mayors in England’s 12 largest cities if elected.
Labour has the chance to wrestle ownership of the mayoral agenda back by putting meaningful powers on the table for mayors and creating far greater incentives for local areas to implement governance changes. In NLGN’s most recent paper ‘New Model Mayors: Democracy, Devolution and Direction’ we set out our ideas on what these devolved powers might be in policy areas such as health, capital investment and skills.
In a recent interview with Progress, Lord Adonis, secretary of state for transport, articulated his support for elected mayors for city-regions across Britain, stating that they would have the democratic legitimacy to introduce big reforms like Ken Livingstone’s congestion charge. We strongly believe that city-region mayors should be offered powers similar to those of the mayor of London so that they can more effectively improve transport integration, tackle carbon emissions and drive forward economic growth.
But increasing powers is not enough by itself to re-engage citizens in local government. Our report also advocates open primaries for the selection of mayoral candidates. One could be forgiven for thinking that opening up politics and breaking down barriers to political participation would be a firmly Labour agenda, but it is the Conservative party that held the first open primaries and, once again, gained the initiative.
Too often party politics remains the pursuit of the few, and political representatives are from an even smaller political elite. Surely Labour should be leading the way in ensuring that political opportunities are for the many and not the few.
Bold devolution is needed if we are to empower people and places to prosper. We must open up politics if we are to reinvigorate democracy. Neither elected mayors nor open primaries are the full answer, but they could be an important part of the solution.
The reason the ‘mayoral agenda’ has stalled is simple: most places offered direct mayors in referenda have rejected them in referenda. The one city to have the chance to get rid of its elected mayor, Stoke, did so with alacrity. The antics of Doncaster’s elected English Democrat mayor have received insufficient publicity: but the current disillusion with politics makes the election of clowns and demagogues more likely. Of course, some mayors have been more effective than otheres, but the idea they transform local government is already disproved. Stop flogging dead horses!
The idea that the election of one person is going to address the problem of the public’s disconnection from politics is ludicrous. What we need is those people already in elected positions getting out and interacting with the public, rather than sitting talking to each other.
Suggesting that elected mayors are the solution to the democratic deficit is on a par with claiming that electoral reform is the answer.
Cabinet government is better than one-person government at both local and national levels because it enables public policies to be considered from a variety of perspectives. In the past old-style leaders were visible and known to the public like Ken Livingstone at the GLC, Shirley Porter at Westminster, and Herbert Morrison at the LCC. The English D-E Mayor system is defective because it does not allow the council by a special majority to remove a mayor who has failed, nor the public to petition for a recall of a failed mayor.