Those who predicted that today’s local government white paper would be devoid of substance won’t have been disappointed by being proven wrong at least, though there is plenty to be disappointed about otherwise. As Dermot Finch also added in the comments of my last post on the matter, it’s tantamount to tinkering around the edges really. In essence it’s the third relaunch of the elected mayors policy, which seems to be dusted off after every cabinet reshuffle but without much progress. The removal of certain legislative impediments on their establishment is to be welcomed, but it’s hardly a rallying call to embrace elected mayors. As Simon suggested yesterday, the desired clout for the policy to make a real difference simply isn’t on offer.
In a letter to the local government trade press after the last local government white paper in 2006, one think tank director asked “Why is everyone being so polite about the local government white paper?” It’ll be interesting to see how polite the reaction is this time around, given the how anaemic it is in comparison. Those think tanks who invested so much energy in assuring the policy world that elected mayors were back and the government was in listening mode will be equally as disappointed (unless you view allowing online signature gathering for a referendum and halving the period after which you can hold a referendum as considerable progress, that is.)
Self-confessed “local government geek” and London councillor Luke Akehurst has penned an analysis of the white paper for the New Labour think tank Progress and even he seems to think the document is weak on the issue of mayors, which suggests that Ms Blears may have disappointed her closest allies (he was on her campaign team for the deputy leadership contest.) He also makes a salient point that many of the concerns raised by the recent Councillors’ Commission (which the government formally responded to today) could be tackled at a stroke were the government to embrace electoral reform for local councils. This seems to be an issue that many Conservatives, who were firmly die-hard in defence of First Past The Post for many years, now concede may be necessary at local level. Half a decade or so ago, Lewisham Council in South London decided that it favoured electoral reform as a means of enhancing scrutiny of the new elected mayoralty and approached the government about the possibility of piloting this. Then as now, the government was definitely not in listening mode. Might London work as a pilot region to test the idea in the 32 boroughs in 2010? It’s worth a thought.
As also mentioned this week, cross-party frontbench consensus appears to have broken over the mayoral question, with Eric Pickles suggesting his party supports that part of the white paper. So that’s another non-prescriptive policy announcement to look forward to after the next election. However, mindful of the fact that his party introduced the ‘Widdicombe ban’ (David, not Ann) in 1989 in response to ‘loony left’ councillors appointing each other to posts all across urban England at the time (teachers were exempt from the ban because of the knock-on effect in the Tory shires though), he did pipe up against that particular proposal. This reform does have raised significance for London, where councillors and candidates overwhelmingly tend to have public sector backgrounds and have long been affected by the indiscriminate ban and its effects on their careers, on and off the council.
Of course, we’re only two years or so away from a general election and given how long it took the Blair government to make good on its proposals in its first white paper, the legislative timeframe simply wouldn’t allow for much in the way of radical reform. But given how in the war of words at Westminster all three parties are preaching a localist mantra and a genuine spirit of bipartisan cooperation appears to have broken out among them at local government level in terms of bringing that about, you have to wonder how many more missed opportunities will be put in front of us before everyone else stops listening.
Update: via paid-up local government geek Andrew Brown, Hazel Blears’ white paper blog. Here’s how London specifically will benefit from the white paper.
