By Tash Shifrin
30 June 2009
Local authorities are ‘part of the solution’ to the crisis of confidence in politics, the chair of the Local Government Association has said.
Margaret Eaton told the LGA’s annual conference in Harrogate on June 30 that the public was ‘tired by the politics of Westminster’. But she added: ‘People care very deeply about fundamentally political issues. People want to see more politics not less – but they want a very different and a new politics.
‘What we need to mend the broken trust is a radical shift in politics, bringing power down to the local level where people can see they have a say over what happens.’
Eaton demanded more freedom and less regulation for councils, telling delegates: ‘I say to the politicians and civil servants back in Westminster – we can get on with our jobs without your endless guidance and permission.’
Watchdogs should ‘move away from a tick-box way of working that lets failures slip through the net’, she said.
The LGA also launched a campaign for an overhaul of unelected quangos. The association aims to score the 791 agencies – which between them spend £43.2bn a year – on value for money, accountability and openness.
Launching the campaign, Eaton said: ‘It is time for a radical overhaul of the quango state that gives taxpayers more direct influence through the ballot box over how their money is spent by government at all levels.’
30 June 2009
Local authorities are ‘part of the solution’ to the crisis of confidence in politics, the chair of the Local Government Association has said.
Margaret Eaton told the LGA’s annual conference in Harrogate on June 30 that the public was ‘tired by the politics of Westminster’. But she added: ‘People care very deeply about fundamentally political issues. People want to see more politics not less – but they want a very different and a new politics.
‘What we need to mend the broken trust is a radical shift in politics, bringing power down to the local level where people can see they have a say over what happens.’
Eaton demanded more freedom and less regulation for councils, telling delegates: ‘I say to the politicians and civil servants back in Westminster – we can get on with our jobs without your endless guidance and permission.’
Watchdogs should ‘move away from a tick-box way of working that lets failures slip through the net’, she said.
The LGA also launched a campaign for an overhaul of unelected quangos. The association aims to score the 791 agencies – which between them spend £43.2bn a year – on value for money, accountability and openness.
Launching the campaign, Eaton said: ‘It is time for a radical overhaul of the quango state that gives taxpayers more direct influence through the ballot box over how their money is spent by government at all levels.’
