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Over the past few years, there has been a fashion in British politics to express support for “a localist agenda”. Though few political figures are keen to defend the centralised structure of government in England, the vague pressure for reform has not amounted to much. I intend to explain why major decentralisation would not only harm our communities, but the nation as a whole.
At present, Britain has a very complex and multi-tiered system of local government. Scotland has a Parliament (responsible for a budget of over £30 billion), and 32 unitary authorities. Wales and Northern Ireland also have a system of unitary authorities, presided over by Assemblies with lesser powers than that of the Scottish Parliament. England, on which we shall be focusing, has 55 unitary authorities; 27 county councils above hundreds of district councils; 38 metropolitan district councils .That is not all: in the capital 32 borough councils are subordinate to the Greater London Authority. The remarkable fact is that despite the variety of forms of local government, power remains highly centralised.
Councils have traditionally been responsible for offering bin collections, funding for the police force and fire brigade, running state schools, providing libraries and leisure centres, social services, subsidising public transport, providing social housing, and planning within their communities. It is therefore unsurprising that one quarter of public spending is channelled through them. Despite having a large number of local government raises just one-third of its income, with the rest coming from national grants. There is some variation, with poorer areas receiving additional cash. It goes some way to explaining just how powerless councils are to offset the impact of savage cuts to their funding: Council Tax would have to be increased by 4% to increase income by 1%- whilst councils’ incomes are falling by an average of 20% over the term of this Parliament. As we all know, responsibility without power is a dangerous combination.
So we’ve established that councils have little control over their own affairs at present. Why should we not decentralise? There are three reasons: lack of accountability; the inequality that would result; and the lack of community.
Firstly, there is no such thing as local politics… Well, if there is, it’s hard to see. Turnout in local elections is seldom above 50%, and most of those who do vote do so along national party lines, paying little attention to local affairs. This allows a particular type of councillor (by no means all of them, but this strand are sadly all too prevalent) to pay little attention to the wishes of the electorate. With local newspapers being in terminal decline, there is little media attention to hold them to account.
Secondly, in the event of localisation of tax-setting, there are two possible outcomes for any given local authority: well-off areas served by Conservative councils will cut taxes and spending, hurting the poor. Poorer areas, generally served by Labour or even Liberal Democrat councils, will see their incomes fall and will have to cut spending, damaging their local economies and triggering a cycle of decline. To compound the problem, there may be competition between councils to lower taxes on businesses, creating a costly race to the bottom.
Before we can consider granting more powers to local authorities, we must put in place the most efficient and accountable structure possible. Some have suggested that it is possible to kill two birds with one stone by creating a uniform power structure throughout the UK, with England being divided into regions subdivided into unitary authorities. Advocates also suggest that this would simultaneously solve the famous “West Lothian question “- that is, the problem that MPs from the devolved nations have the power to vote on English affairs (because England does not have its own government).
Regional assemblies would only serve to centralise power in the hands of artificial governments. Few residents of Cornwall, for example, would feel that the transfer of power from London to Bristol is of much significance to them. Few identify as belonging to synthetic administrative regions such as Yorkshire and the Humber, and so regionalisation will be of little advantage. We identify as citizens of our towns and villages and our nation, but not our region
Instead, we should create uniform, single-tier local councils across England, save for large cities such as London. In this way, there is a clear, balanced distribution of power to communities. England does not need a devolved administration to oversee them, but we should correct the constitutional anomaly that gives Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland an unfair level of influence over English affairs. If all English MPs became members of an “English Grand Committee” in the House of Commons, which would act as a “parliament within a parliament”, there would be a forum in which the distribution of power can be determined. We need an English, not a South Eastern, solution for a problem affected by the English mentality.