Local government leading the innovative way
Neil McInroy- LGC, 6th October 2009
I was in Brighton at the Labour Party conference. A fine debate was had at the CLES and Localis joint fringe event on Local economics and resilience. We had contributions from Rt. Hon Rosie Winterton MP, Minister for Local Government; Steve Bundred, CEO, Audit Commission; David Eastgate, CEO at Hyde Housing and chaired by James Morris, CEO at Localis.
Overall we explored what factors contribute to making some places economically strong and some weak? Also, like much of the conference we inevitably got to local government and public services cuts.
In numerous speeches and informal talks throughout the week, reduction in public sector spend, was never far from the surface. Indeed, I heard one cabinet minister in a non CLES Fringe, searching for the positive side to cuts, framed within a ‘progressive austerity’. He talked about cuts resulting in innovation and getting ‘more for less’. He gave some positive examples of doing more for less, which tellingly had nothing to do with central government at all, but were local government innovations.
It is in local government and in the delivery of frontline services, where the real work is going to be done in the short term, as regards attempts to do more for less.
The short term has to be about local government, innovating within the confines of cuts. However, the longer term requires further innovation, as regards more economic self sufficiency. It should strive to do and have more!
The long term cannot be driven by an ideology of a ‘lean state’ –where we just see more centralism, or a ‘hollowing out’ of local government which reduces capacity and makes local government ill equipped to deal with future environmental and social challenges.
I think there is a real need to lift our heads up and frame these public sector cuts and the debate around them into a broader discussion about financing progressive social change, environemental futures and the role of local government within this.
Indeed Paul O’brien from APSE touched upon this from the audience, during our debate. We may not feel like it and it may seem some way off, but we should be thinking now about a longer term future.
In this we need to still strive for creating a society and a local state which does less in some areas such as social services because we have created a society where there is less need, but also does more in terms of better education, reducing consumption and environmental change policies.
I have made the arguments before for less economic centralism and more local economic self sufficiency. Local government needs to be mobilising now and planning for a post austerity future, which sees them taking more control over their own financial destiny.
The time has now past for local government to wait for hand outs from the centre. The Multi Area Agreements and statutory city regions are a good thing, but are limited to a few locations. I think the time has come for the centre to say clearly, what it is going to devolve to local government – including counties and non metropolitan authorities.
It also needs to allow local government to reap the benefits of its own successes. For example should a locality which has reduced demand on employment benefits not be allowed to keep those savings? Furthermore, should any economic growth, not be harvested more effectively via new financial instruments, such as Tax increment Financing.
The here and now is public spending cuts.
It is Local government who are at the forefront of innovating in this context. However, in the future, local government, should also be at the forefront of a new economic model, where the local state is given powers and is enabled to find its own ways of creating excellent public services and financing progressive social change within environemntal limits.
Available on the LGC website- click here.
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