LibDems back abolition of national targets for councils

20 Sep 07
All nationally set targets should be scrapped under a new covenant between central and local government, the Liberal Democrat annual conference in Brighton agreed this week.

21 September 2007

All nationally set targets should be scrapped under a new covenant between central and local government, the Liberal Democrat annual conference in Brighton agreed this week.

The party's new local government policy paper, The power to be different, sailed through the conference on September 16. The party believes it would pave the way for a 'renaissance' in local and regional government in England.

The party's Communities and Local Government spokesman, Andrew Stunell, told Public Finance that the LibDems were much more committed to genuine devolution than the government.

'The government is using devolutionary language but… we're still going to have quangos all over the place that are still going to be doing jobs that we believe should be commissioned and run by councils.

'We were looking at some of the statistics. For every £8 spent out of the public purse in Liverpool, only one is spent by the council and the rest is spent by various quangos and public bodies that are not accountable,' he said.

Other proposals in the paper include the introduction of the single transferable vote system for local elections, the relocalisation of business rates and the replacement of council tax with a local income tax – a long-held LibDem policy. Over time, the party wants to see the proportion of council revenue generated locally rise from 25% to 75%, although Stunell admitted this was an aspiration at present and details were hazy.

'The first steps should be the repatriation of the business rate [and] the conversion of council tax to local income tax. We want to move on from there, and our policy paper is pointing in that direction but it doesn't actually get specific beyond there,' he told PF.

Other proposals include reform of the audit and inspection regime, with more emphasis placed on peer reviews, and the devolution of genuine decision-making powers to parish, town and community councils.

This last proposal was welcomed by the National Association of Local Councils. Spokeswoman Councillor Hazel Williams said: 'With 150 new councils created since 1997, parish and town councils are one of the few growth areas of local government. This should continue further as people wish to exercise more influence over the services that affect their everyday lives.'

The paper represents the LibDems' second attempt to refresh its local government policy. Last year's paper was thrown out by the conference following criticism that it lacked 'substance'.

Stunell said the party had listened carefully to these criticisms and had worked hard with the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and party colleagues in the Local Government Association to come up with more acceptable proposals.

PFsep2007

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