Local Government: Reinvigorating Local Democracy

Baroness Hayman of Ullock Excerpts

Thursday 15th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

My Lords, I start by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, for introducing this important debate. There is much that we need to discuss around the future of local government. I would also like to make the point—and I feel this in many debates I take part in—that Members of this House and the other place who have been in local government bring an important and different perspective to our debates. It is important that we listen carefully to what has been said.

One of the things that has come out strongly from this debate is the fact that councils touch people’s lives every day. It is the councillors who experience at first hand how national and even international pressures impact on local communities. At one extreme they have arranged accommodation for refugees fleeing Ukraine, for example, and they have to support residents through the cost of living crisis that we have been facing. But it is also important that local government is fundamentally very different from central government. There is a more direct line to residents, listening more closely to their wishes, which need local decision-making.

One thing we have heard a lot in the debate from a number of noble Lords is the PACAC inquiry into the different initiatives the Government have introduced on devolving power locally in England. The report, Governing England, concluded, as we know, that there needs to be urgent and significant reform of the way in which England is governed. It came up with a number of areas of concern that noble Lords have talked about today. One was that current local government structures were too complex and created a confusing and opaque system. I have concerns that the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill may well add to that complexity. This is something we need to think carefully about. We need to ensure that local people understand where responsibility and accountability lie for decisions that are made. When I was a Member of Parliament, I was often asked to get my councillors into order. People genuinely get confused about responsibility and where reporting lies.

The noble Lord, Lord Shipley, began by saying that England and the UK as a whole are overly centralised compared with other democratic countries around the world. Again, that has come through time and again in today’s debate. PACAC argued that this was the result of

“a prevalent culture in Whitehall that is unwilling to let go of its existing levers of power”.

The noble Lord, Lord Young, gave some very good examples of its reluctance to let go. It would be interesting to know whether the Minister agrees with that analysis.

We know that devolution to local leaders of real, genuine power, backed by sustainable resources and funding, is the most efficient and effective way to address the current fiscal crisis and secure a path to long-term prosperity. I was very pleased to hear the comments of my noble friend Lord Liddle on this, and I fondly remember our days together on Cumbria County Council.

Research that the LGA has commissioned on fiscal devolution clearly shows that the UK is an international outlier with the most fiscally centralised systems in the developed world. In addition, the Institute for Public Policy Research shows that countries with a greater level of devolution experience lower levels of regional inequality. The Institute for Government has also argued that there should be further devolution of responsibility to local councils. Last month it wrote a report called How Can Devolution Deliver Regional Growth in England?, which argued that councils should have greater responsibility for transport, skills and planning to better support growth in their areas. My noble friend Lord Adonis gave housebuilding in the 1960s as an example of exactly how councils can push forward things that local areas need.

The report also said that the Government really need to simplify the funding system. We have heard a lot about the reasons why that has to be. The current funding arrangements for local government are simply ineffective. The system by which local authorities pit themselves against each other, bidding for separate pots of money, is not just a waste of local resources; it means that the money does not necessarily go to where it is needed. The Government need to commit to ending this system. I have asked about this a number of times. We also debated it at some length on the levelling-up Bill, and I imagine we will continue to do so.

The point is that councils have the potential to identify and address the challenges that matter most to people and their local communities, but they will achieve this only if the relationship between national and local government can be reset to allow for more local determination. Will the Minister ask his department to consider accelerating work to genuinely devolve both legal and fiscal powers to local government so that we have long-term, sustainable funding arrangements? The way we are moving at the moment simply does not allow local government to deliver properly and effectively for local communities.

I also ask the Minister: when are we likely to hear from the Government about the outcomes of the fair funding review, so that local authorities can benefit from more equitable distribution of income right across the country? Surely, if the Government have any chance of delivering on their ambitious levelling-up agenda, we have to have the outcome of the fair funding review so that we can make sure that local authorities have the money to deliver on what the Government will be asking them to do.

I will mention the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Razzall. He talked about the cuts a lot. Again, it is important that we put that in context, but I was very pleased that he talked about the cuts to the arts, because we really do not hear about that enough. They are an extremely important part of our local communities.

I also mention the abolition of the Audit Commission, which the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, mentioned. The Society of County Treasurers has produced a chart that shows that over 83% of council audits for 2021-22 have not yet been signed off. In other words, the private sector has comprehensively failed to provide effective audit services for local government and for the public it serves. How do the Government intend to address this serious issue?

Something else that was discussed and which should be of great concern to us all is the fact that people are increasingly feeling that political and social change is simply not possible and will not happen. We heard that people are being dissuaded from participating in politics in the first place because they doubt the effectiveness of democratic politics to actually enact change. This is not good for the health of our democracy.

The noble Lord, Lord Wallace, talked about the importance of trust, and the difference between trust in local and national government. I looked up the figures: 27% trust central government and 55% trust local government. If you then look at government research on community life, you see that less than one-third of citizens engage in civic participation and only about one-quarter believe they can personally influence decisions in their local area. That is quite a serious statement to have to read out. If we were better at devolution, people would feel that they had more control and then, I hope, would participate more and earlier in the kinds of schemes mentioned by the right reverend Prelate.

Councils are going to thrive only when barriers to engagement are removed. We have heard about turnout at local elections. The average turnout for stand-alone local elections is around 34%, with local election registers being only 83% complete and only 89% accurate when they were last assessed back in 2018. These points were made very strongly by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Durham—the importance of people voting and taking part in that local democratic act.

The noble Baroness, Lady Scott, talked about the importance of community power and parish and town councils. Again, if there was more influence there and more ability to support local communities, perhaps people would feel more of an urge to vote in their district council unitary authority elections.

We think that improving registration levels and encouraging citizens to vote in all elections is a first step to reinvigorating local democracy. But we also know that when the Electoral Commission did a review of electoral registration recently, it found evidence that the new canvass process is not fully picking up population movement and that the number of people being registered has been falling since the introduction of individual electoral registration in 2014. So I ask the Minister: have the Government picked up that report? Are they going to look at how registration, particularly when people are moving around the country, can be improved?

On this matter, the LGA has recommended a number of things that the Government could consider. First, it suggests that the process of registration could be reviewed from end to end, including a realistic assessment of the cost, as well as a consideration of what further data could be used in the annual canvass to better identify those who move around regularly; for example, you could tie it in with the renewal of driving licences or passports or the issuing of national insurance numbers—there are ways these things can be pulled together. I see the noble Lord, Lord True, here. We discussed much of this during the Elections Act.

It is important that the Government act on the Electoral Commission review of the annual canvass process, due to be published in September this year. I urge the Government to look very carefully at that report when it comes out, because it may be extremely helpful in dealing with some of the issues that have been raised today.

We have heard how councillors are a vital part of local democracy, representing the needs of their residents and working to improve outcomes for their local communities. But good decision-making also needs people who reflect their local communities—the range of experiences, backgrounds and insights. But, by law, councillors now have to attend council meetings in person. One thing we discovered during the pandemic was that Zoom and Teams were actually very useful in bringing people together and ensuring that connections and meetings still happened.

We debated in Committee on the levelling-up Bill the benefits of continuing to allow virtual attendance at council meetings, which of course was stopped by the Government. This had a lot of support. It supports a range of people—such as parents of young children, carers and disabled people—and enables them to come forward and represent their communities, encouraging wider public participation as well. On the basis that the Government should really be lowering barriers to participation, why on earth can we not have as an option virtual participation in council meetings? Councils should have the flexibility to decide for themselves whether or not this is a useful tool for them to use.

In conclusion, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Eaton, for the considerable expertise and experience in her speech. She made the important point that this is a pivotal moment. I think one of the reasons for that is that the Levelling-up Bill provides us with an opportunity.

Local government underpins the whole levelling-up agenda, so it is important that the noble Lord takes back to his department, and to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the concerns raised in this debate, and asks the Government to work with local authorities so that they have the powers and resources they need to deliver the Government’s ambitions on levelling up. It needs to be much more than just a slogan. Finally, I congratulate Shaun Davies on his appointment and I am sure we all wish him well.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

I agree with the right reverend Prelate that accountability is at both ends. In my experience, if there is good local leadership in the local authority that can communicate well with the government departments, it can help things, but he raises a very important point and if we can avoid those delays, working both ways is exactly the way to do it.

The noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, asked a couple of questions on local government structures. The English Devolution Accountability Framework, published in March, sets out how areas with devolution deals will be scrutinised and held to account through local scrutiny by the public and by the Government.

Through its accountability framework, the Government have committed to review how current scrutiny and accountability arrangements in London are operating in practice, exploring the strengths and challenges of the capital’s devolution settlement, and how the Greater London Authority works with London’s boroughs. This will be aimed at sharing best practice, learning lessons for other mayoral authorities and considering how current scrutiny arrangements may need to evolve over time.

I will also mention the abolition of the Audit Commission. We are establishing the Office for Local Government, a new data-focused performance body for local government which will increase transparency of local government performance and improve the accountability of performance across the local government sector. There is a need to have the appropriate checks and balances in the system; Oflog will support others to interpret performance data and take action on it, particularly where the data shows early warning signs of failure.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

Is the intention that Oflog will do the financial audit?

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

That is the case. In conclusion, we recognise the importance of local democracy, and that devolution is essential for flourishing local democracy. Devolution is a process, not a moment, and the country continues to see the model evolve and the benefits it brings. I thank again the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, for bringing forward this debate, and all noble Lords for their contributions today and their service as councillors. I look forward to continuing our discussions on local government in England as we continue our efforts to put power in the hands of local people.