John Denham - Government is Strengthening Local Democracy

Published       5 February 2010

Radical measures taken by the Government over the last six months will enable councils to continue to improve public services despite the tighter public spending constraints, Communities Secretary John Denham said today.

Over the past ten years, the Government has overseen a steady and sustained transfer of power to local government, giving greater influence, freedoms and flexibilities to councils to act on behalf of local people using their unique democratic mandate.

Publishing the Government's response to its Strengthening Local Democracy consultation, Mr Denham said the Government had moved to quickly put in place ambitious reforms that enable councils to further protect and improve public services in a tighter financial climate, by extending their influence over all local spending in their area.

The Government has already begun delivering some of the key measures proposed in the consultation:

• Greater powers of scrutiny - Communities are being given a powerful new way to fix local problems under new proposals to strengthen the ability of councils to scrutinise local public services through a new Private Members Bill that will establish a framework for an enhanced scrutiny regime. The Bill, backed by the Government, is having its second reading in the House of Commons today.
• Local carbon frameworks - 9 pioneering areas led by councils are working with Government over the next twelve months to test new local carbon frameworks. The frameworks will promote new and more effective ways of significantly reducing carbon emissions, unlocking new income and meeting Government's ambitions on the essential climate change agenda. This should be extended to all councils in due course.
• Building on the Total Place pilots, Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government published in December set out a radical vision to streamline Government and transform frontline services to put local people first. Greater transparency around public data will also let local people challenge, compare or scrutinise public services and spending. Final Total Place recommendations are due to be published at Budget.
• Powers for local authorities to participate in mutual insurance companies were urgently introduced and enacted in the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction (LDEDC) Act 2009 in light of the London Authorities Mutual Limited (LAML) court judgement. In addition the earliest legislative opportunity will be sought to further develop the framework of local authority powers to ensure that councils can deliver other efficiency and cost savings measures.
• The LDEDC Act also introduced a new framework by which councils can be given the power to set up joint scrutiny committees and provides for new sub-regional working arrangements. The Act also gives real teeth to local petitions so people can demand their councils take action. The Government proposes to develop guidance for councils on how best to carry out sub-regional scrutiny.
• The Government considers there is merit, given the favourable local support, in exploring further, with the House Authorities, the establishment of a joint select committee to examine how the work of central government impacts on the ability of local government to fulfil its role.

John Denham said:

"One of my first priorities as Communities Secretary was to set out my vision for further strengthening local democracy. Over the past six months we have acted quickly to implement many of the ideas like powers to compel local service providers to appear before scrutiny committees, the development of local carbon budgets and of course taking forward the Total Place reforms of local government.

"In a tighter financial climate these steps will enable councils to act on behalf of local residents to meet the challenge of delivering better public services, offering better value for money for the taxpayer's pound and making those services more transparent and open to scrutiny.

"We believe that wherever people live in the country, they should expect to have their needs met and assessed, with the guarantee and entitlement to a certain standard. Powerful local government must help secure and guarantee those entitlements by promoting innovative and creative approaches that will improve the quality of services."

Local Government has a strong record in delivering efficiencies. It will be vital for all councils to exhaust the possibilities of these tried and tested approaches, whether that is sharing services, more innovative procurement, or efficient use of assets. The Government has set up a taskforce, led by Steve Bullock, the Mayor of Lewisham, and Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council, to spearhead this drive.

Notes to editors
1. New powers for local authorities to scrutinise local services have been proposed in the Local Authorities (Overview and Scrutiny) Bill: www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1451696.

2. Local action on climate change will drive down fuel bills and generate new income for councils: www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1449033.

3. Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government was published in December. Local people come first in our smarter government press notice: www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1405708.

4. Urgent new powers to create mutual insurance companies were introduced on 12 October 2009 as amendments to the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill: www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1355540. One month later it became the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 after being given Royal Assent. The Act strengthens the democratic role of councils to support local people and businesses to rebuild the local economy, increase jobs and skills, tackle housing shortages and improve infrastructure: www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1382694.

5. New task force to drive value for money for councils: www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1423047.
6. Other proposals included the relationship between local and central government. The Government will ensure that the role of local government in the development of any broader written constitution is examined, as appropriate, and in a manner consistent with the Prime Minister's Transforming Politics speech of 2 February, which said it would be necessary as part of the debate on a written constitution to consider what aspects of law and relationships between each part of the State and between the State and the citizen should be deemed constitutional. The full response to the consultation to Strengthen Local Democracy can be found at:
www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/localdemocracysummaryresponses.
7. Focus group research by Ipos MORI into the Strengthening local democracy consultation found that councils were seen as best placed to make local decisions and there was broad support for the ideas proposed in the consultation if it meant that councils would be more able to fulfill their leadership role on important local matters. Participants also felt that the idea of extending powers seemed sensible given that councillors acted on behalf of local communities. Full details can be found at: www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/localdemocracyfocusgroup.