10 February 2006
Paul Coen, the incoming chief executive of the Local Government Association, has vowed to forge closer links between local agencies as the spur to achieving improvements to public services.
Coen, currently chief executive at Essex County Council, told Public Finance that he regarded strong local partnerships between local authorities, the health service, the police and other government agencies as a 'high priority'.
Speaking after he was offered the most senior job in local government on February 6, he said that devolution of power and joint local working offered the best hope of bringing about further improvements to public services.
'The road to further public service improvement lies in people, in the places in which they live and work, having ownership and taking responsibility for their local services,' he told PF. 'The scope for further improvement through national programmes and centralisation is now severely limited.'
But Coen warned against a rush towards neighbourhood governance, which has recently been promoted by David Miliband, the communities and local government minister, without first properly assessing its consequences.
'We have to work very hard to tease out where the neighbourhood agenda can be given meaning. There are a large number of services where it can be applied,' he said. But in some areas, for example, child protection, it would be disastrous if they were handed over to a neighbourhood-based process.'
Coen will be greeted by an overflowing in-tray when he takes up the position. The long-term future of local government will be decided in 2006, with the government publishing its white paper in June and Sir Michael Lyons delivering the findings of his two-year inquiry in December. These will be fed into the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review.
Coen will have to find a sector-wide consensus on a range of complex issues, including finance reform and structural reorganisation, and lead the sector's efforts to influence ministers' decisions. But the current reform agenda offered a chance to put local government on a firm footing for the future.
'I don't think I would ever use the word sanguine, but there is a real opportunity here. The political debate is moving in the direction we would like and it is up to us to turn that into practice.'
Coen is taking over from Sir Brian Briscoe, who is standing down after a decade in the top job. He and Briscoe will have a handover period lasting several weeks.
Announcing Coen's appointment, LGA chair Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart said: 'At a key moment for local government and the LGA, we have appointed from among the brightest and best in the public sector. We look forward to Paul providing outstanding leadership.'
Coen has been in charge at Essex since January last year. Before that, he was chief executive of Surrey County Council for nine years from 1995. He started his career as a graduate trainee with British Coal.
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