Local Government: Reinvigorating Local Democracy

Lord Bishop of Durham Excerpts

Thursday 15th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Durham]

My Lords, as Bishop of Durham it is my privilege to work with seven local authorities—Hartlepool; Darlington and Stockton, which are part of the whole Teesside set-up; County Durham; the City of Sunderland; South Tyneside and Gateshead—and I will not try to list all the town and parish councils that then come under those. The four northerly ones are in a region that is building towards the election of a new regional mayor for the north-east.

It has also been my privilege to chair the Brighter Bishop Auckland board, which has been a recipient of the future high streets fund. As chair of that board, I have been a member of the stronger towns board, where we have had stronger towns fund money for Bishop Auckland. So my contribution comes from a quite different perspective from those who have been local authority engaged; it is more of an overview, and I want to share some examples of what I hope is reinvigorating.

I shall start with Hartlepool. The Wharton Trust runs a local community and resource centre in the Dyke House area of Hartlepool, one of the most deprived wards in the whole of the UK. It has high unemployment, huge health inequalities and low educational attainment. From social housing and promoting healthy lifestyles to engaging young people in activities and developing IT skills, the Wharton Trust has worked over the past two decades to reduce the effects of poverty. It has provided support and initiatives that do not just help people facing these issues but empower them to bring about resident-led regeneration. The work of the Wharton Trust and its people-led approach reflects the nature of local democracy, and it would not be able to do that without good relations with Hartlepool Borough Council. It prioritises the needs of the community, not simply delivering services but placing local people at the heart of decision-making, empowering them to take responsibility for change.

Sadly, though, that does not often represent the reality of local democracy across England. The figures from the May 2023 local elections have yet to be released, but the statistics from the 2021 local elections in England display a vast disengagement from local government and decision-making. The elections saw a turnout of only 35.9%; sadly, in Marfleet it was only 14.6%—the lowest in the country. These statistics are always deeply concerning, and we have to question the kind of democracy we live in. Is the diverse range of people in our country truly represented when elected officials have been chosen by such a small proportion?

Democracy is simply strongest when people show up and are involved in decision-making, and it is therefore necessary that we increase voter engagement throughout local regions. So we have to ask: why do so few people vote in local elections as opposed to general elections? Bluntly, what I hear is that there is a feeling among the public, regardless of political flavour, that local elections are irrelevant, and that it is not through local government that change can be made.

However, local governments are concerned with the very issues, and provide the very services, that people care most about. The noble Baroness, Lady Eaton, made the point that what people care most about is their immediate family and home, then their local community and then national and international issues. Somehow, a lot of people do not make the connection that it is local government that meets most of those needs. From schools and housing to social care and the clearing of bins, local governments deal with the issues that impact the details of our everyday lives. We need to reinvigorate the role that local government plays in our lives, and the impact that it has the potential to have.

People need to feel that their vote matters: that taking their polling card down to the local polling station—with their ID—or posting it through a post box, will make a difference. When asked to what extent people agree that they personally can influence decisions affecting their local area, the response in my region of the north-east as a whole was that 22% believed they could. It is evident that attitudes towards local government need to change.

I welcome the Government’s commitment to devolving power to local governments as part of their levelling-up agenda, but it is being carried out with a top-down approach. England remains one of the most centralised democracies, still being primarily run through UK-wide institutions. Let me give an example, as chair of a local future high streets fund board. It is wonderful when the money is given, because it is for that local community. Then, when there are delays in delivery, civil servants in Whitehall say, “It’s got to be delivered by this date”, and the local community and local authority—both the town council and the county council—are told there is no flex whatever. That does not encourage local people, who have worked hard on a local plan, to believe that they are really wanted or encourage them to serve their local community. I am afraid I have seen it time and again with the stronger towns fund as well. Here are some things that I would like to explore further. We have to find ways of devolving power to local government and engaging people in local elections.

I have been privileged to be involved with Citizens UK in different ways over many years. I helped found Nottingham Citizens and Tyne & Wear Citizens. Citizens and I do not always agree that its methods have necessarily been the best, but I have learned from it the power of the strong advocacy of local community organising and using local citizens to lead the decisions about what matters most to them and then to work with local decision-makers on how that can be delivered. How might we encourage the greater use of community organising, and how might the use of local citizens’ assemblies work to effect a greater sense of belonging and ownership of our local communities and a sense of empowering local people?

I previously mentioned the success of Wharton Trust in Hartlepool, but I will also highlight two further initiatives that, for me, demonstrate the impact and power of partnerships where local people and organisations collaborate.

County Durham has really effective area action partnerships. These truly give local people and organisations a say in how services are provided. There are 14 across the county. They each consist of members of the public and representatives from the council and local organisations. Together, the members work with communities to meet their needs and take action to tackle local priorities. Each area action partnership has a forum, which anyone in the area can join to discuss local priorities, and, importantly, a budget that it decides how to use. In the past year alone, its work has supported more than 820 local projects: youth work, mental support work, activities for older people, environmental projects, community centres and employment schemes. I know that area action partnerships are not unique to County Durham, but I ask the Minister how lessons learned might be better disseminated and encouraged around the country.

It has been my privilege for the last couple of years to chair the ChurchWorks Commission. Last year, when it became clear that the cost of living crisis would become a more and more significant problem, a small number of us got together to ask what might be done to support people through the winter that has just gone. We came up with the idea of warm spaces and warm hubs. We were not alone. At the same time, Gateshead Council launched its plan for warm hubs across Gateshead. That was launched in July, when the temperatures were like they are outside now, because the council saw the problem coming.

The ChurchWorks Commission and Gateshead Council shared information and ideas. We learned from it, and we built a coalition, through the ChurchWorks Commission, which led to the Warm Welcome campaign. Through the winter, that involved huge numbers of places—local churches, libraries, community centres and parish halls. It was successful because parish councils, town councils, borough councils and county councils worked collaboratively with the faith sector, the voluntary sector and local organisations to identify where warm hubs could be best run, and they provided seed funding that unlocked other funding. It was the best example that I have seen of local people working with local government to care for those most vulnerable in their community.

I hope that these examples demonstrate that local democracy is not restricted to one method but involves the collaboration of many. Moving towards local democracy demands higher voter engagement in local elections, which must be done by helping people understand what local authorities can and do deliver and why it matters that they take seriously who is representing them, as well as greater and more effective devolution. That is not simply devolution to big regions but devolution that goes down to town councils and parish councils; that is where ordinary, everyday people are most concerned about what happens in their community. It require citizens, local organisations and local businesses to be empowered and involved in decision-making and bringing about change.

My core argument is that, if we want to reinvigorate local democracy, we must devolve it, but not simply to the councils, whatever level they are; we must devolve it in a way that becomes collaborative between councils, local businesses, and local voluntary and faith sectors. Working in collaboration is ultimately the most effective way to serve local people.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

My Lords, your Lordships may have noticed that at Questions I paid tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, for his service over many years as a councillor. Indeed, I pay tribute to all of your Lordships because I have really enjoyed the speeches. Former leaders have also paid tribute to my noble friend Lady Eaton for the work she did on Bradford Borough Council.

I was particularly interested to hear the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, talk about the Barnett formula. I have to declare an interest: when I was a councillor in Cheshire, people used to ask me about that formula and I had to read up on it. I had to work out how to explain the Barnett formula and why the good citizens of Cheshire were £2,000 per head poorer that those in Scotland. I still find that hard to explain, as many of your Lordships have said they did.

As I said, I was a local authority councillor. I was persuaded by my local councillor, who introduced me to politics but sadly died of cancer; he said that I should stand, in 2000, when my party was not in power, and so I stood. My chances were apparently slim, and the Liberal Democrats fancied their chances of taking a Macclesfield constituency, while the Labour Party candidate was doing a really good job. I always remember that, at the count at Macclesfield sports centre, there were the two candidates who thought they were going to win—the Liberal Democrat and the Labour candidate—and me, the unknown outsider. I came in and polled more votes than those candidates put together.

What has come through in the debate, and it is important, is that if you have a local authority background you have a feel for the citizens of this country. I know West Yorkshire and the areas that the noble Lord was talking about but less so those in London. There is a difference between rural and metropolitan areas. My experience was of being on a town council. I was elected to a borough council and told not to go for the parish council, as in the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Scott: “Don’t go for the parish council, go for the borough council”. We also had a Cheshire County Council, so it was a bit like that sketch in which borough councillors looked up to county councillors but looked down on parish councillors. I was not having any of that.

They were a plucky bunch on Bollington Town Council, because when they realised that I was not standing to be a parish councillor they voted unanimously to co-opt me. They caught me out, and I ended up having 10 years on the parish council in Bollington and 10 years on Macclesfield Borough Council. Then Hazel Blears, God bless her, introduced unitaries, so I now live within Cheshire East Council. As many of your Lordships are, I am steeped in local government. Being a councillor helped me as a Member of Parliament in the Commons; the noble Baroness said something similar.

The noble Baroness, Lady Scott, talked about how people do not think that those on parish councils are interested. I can assure your Lordships that, in my experience, the parish councils in my part of the world are very vibrant. They work well with the unitary council and seem to have a lot of flexibility. It is a wonderful place to live, work and bring up a family. It is not called “Happy Valley” for no reason at all. If you look up Bollington Town Council, you will see that it is a very special place.

The noble Lord, Lord Liddle, mentioned that his grandfather was a miner, a councillor and a JP. The wonderful former chairmen of the town council were all, I noticed, JPs until about the 1960s. I also pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Young of Cookham. I have learned a lot about his good self and the work that he did as a councillor in London.

The noble Lord, Lord Shipley, is right, and he speaks from experience, in his argument for why devolution is so essential for a flourishing local democracy. Devolution is at the heart of the Government’s plans for economic growth and to level up the whole country. Indeed, the levelling-up White Paper made explicit the need for empowered, devolved local leadership. It set out, for the first time since the emergence of mayoral combined authorities in 2014, a clear menu of options available for places seeking to draw down, and take more control over, a range of powers and functions in local areas.

The Government’s overall approach to supporting local growth has put local institutions at the heard of decision-making, whether through the £2.6 billion UK shared prosperity fund, the £4.8 billion levelling up fund or the £150 million community ownership fund, to name just a few. In my own community of Cheshire East, this has empowered local leaders to spend £49 million through the UK shared prosperity fund, the future high streets fund and the towns fund on projects that are identified and led locally.

All that is alongside the overall increase to local government budgets. The final local government finance settlement for 2023-24 makes available up to £59 billion for local government in England, an increase in core spending power of up to £5 billion—9.4% in cash terms—on 2022-23. This boost in funding demonstrates how the Government stand behind councils up and down the country.

Devolution goes further and enables communities and their elected leaders to use their local knowledge to fix the problems that they face and harness opportunities unique to local places. Crucially, it maintains the core principle of a thriving local democracy: the right of residents to judge how well their representatives and leaders are doing at the ballot box.

There are many different approaches to devolving power. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London all have their own models. As the noble Lord will no doubt remember from his time with Newcastle City Council, the top-down approach was tried; the north-east was given the opportunity to vote for a regional assembly, which it rejected in 2004.

The truth is that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to devolution in England. Devolution must be locally led, rather than top-down and imposed by the Government. Through our devolution framework and process of devolution deals, we work hand in glove with existing local government to agree the right model for governance in their regions. Instead of creating a conflicting or purely additional tier of governance, this process establishes combined authorities that are made up of constituent local authorities in the area. They are the combined authority’s constituent members.

As constituent members, the local authorities have a seat at the combined authority’s table. They not only consent to devolution but continue to play a role in how devolution works in that area. That includes the requirement that they, alongside the Secretary of State and Parliament, must consent to any further devolution in their area. This is devolution to empower local government, working with existing local government structures for the benefit of residents.

The work of our existing combined authorities and mayors demonstrates how devolution can play an incredibly powerful role in driving economic growth, improving public services and giving local areas a real voice on the national stage. For example, in the Tees Valley, the mayor, Ben Houchen, has worked with business to trial new approaches to sustainable transport with an e-scooter trial, with free e-scooter rides for the NHS, the Armed Forces and emergency services.

At the height of the pandemic, Steve Rotheram set up LCR Cares to raise money for community and voluntary organisations in Liverpool City Region. They raised more than £2 million. Research funded by the Health Foundation found that Greater Manchester had better life expectancy than expected after devolution, particularly in the areas with the highest income deprivation and lowest life expectancy. That is levelling-up in action. Those are just a few examples of the powerful role of mayors and how they help to create greater convening power to deliver place-based programmes.

As a result of these successes, we have been determined to roll out devolution further to places that believe it will benefit their businesses, communities and residents. We set ourselves a mission that by 2030 every part of England that wants one will have a devolution deal, with powers at or approaching the highest level of devolution and with a simplified, long-term funding settlement.

Significant progress has already been made. The Government signed five mayoral deals with areas last year. This takes the proportion of England now covered by a devolution deal to above half for the first time, up from 41% in 2021. It also means that almost 75% of the population in the north is now covered by a devolution deal, providing greater opportunities to help level up those regions.

These new deals will see more than £3.6 billion invested over a period of 30 years and mean that more than 5.8 million more people can directly elect a mayor or leader to represent them in the future. Once elected, these deals will give the directly elected mayors or leaders and their combined authorities greater local control over crucial levers of economic growth and public service, such as transport, infrastructure and skills.

Our devolution journey will not simply conclude with the successes of last year; the Government are committed to rolling out devolution across England. We are particularly interested in exploring opportunities for devolution deals that will empower local leaders and communities where places want a directly elected leader, such as a mayor, across the devolved area. This additional layer of accountability and leadership is necessary to secure the highest level of powers and responsibilities. Indeed, those single, accountable, elected leaders act as an ongoing champion for those regions. That is why, alongside extending devolution to new places, the Government continue to work with existing mayors and combined authorities to push the frontier of devolution.

In the levelling-up White Paper, the Government committed to deepen the devolution settlements of the most mature institutions, to support them in delivering further benefits for local residents. We are delivering on this commitment. Alongside the Spring Statement in March, the Government announced the trailblazer deeper devolution deals with the Greater Manchester and West Midlands combined authorities. These deals included commitments to a single department-style settlement which will give the Greater Manchester and West Midlands combined authorities the flexibility and autonomy they need to deliver for their areas.

Single settlements represent an ambitious step on the road to greater simplification of the funding that GMCA and WMCA receive from central government. The Government’s ambition is to roll this model out to all areas in England with a devolution deal and a directly elected leader over time. These trailblazers will act as a blueprint for deepening devolution elsewhere in England. We will begin talks with other institutions on deeper devolution this year. The Government will set out more plans for those talks soon.

The noble Lord will know from his time in local government, and in this place, that power cannot be passed without clear accountability. That too is crucial for effective and transparent local democracy and is why a crucial part of our work to bring decision-making closer to the people is developing a strong accountability framework. The Government published the English Devolution Accountability Framework in March this year. This sets out how areas with devolution deals will be scrutinised and held to account through local scrutiny by the public and by the Government. The accountability framework will empower local residents and provide them with confidence that devolution is leading to developments in their area. We also published new scrutiny arrangements for the trailblazer deals, to match the ambition of the powers agreed with Mayors Andy Street and Andy Burnham. This includes a model for assurance to cover the new single departmental-style funding settlement.

With great devolved power comes great responsibility. We have agreed with local government mechanisms to ensure that local leaders and institutions are transparent and accountable, work closely with local businesses, seek the best value for taxpayers’ money and maintain strong ethical standards.

[The Lord Bishop of Durham]

Will those accountability agreements also be in reverse? In my experience with the high streets fund and the stronger towns fund, a lot of the delays happened at the central government end and there has then been no flex at the local end, so we have lost 18 months’ delivery time. Accountability must be both ways.

[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.

[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.

[The Lord Bishop of Durham]

I apologise, but I did ask a specific question about the use of citizens’ assemblies, which the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, was kind enough to support. I wonder if the Minister would like to comment.

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

Do forgive me. I do not have a specific answer, but from my experience I can confirm that citizens’ assemblies certainly have a role to play in communities, together with strong parish, local and unitary councils. If the right reverend Prelate would like me to write to him confirming that, I can certainly do so.