by Helen Mooney
October 23 2009
The government must decentralise power in a ‘real and visible’ way if it wants to end the ‘blame the minister’ culture in Britain.
A report by the Institute for Public Policy Research and PricewaterhouseCoopers has found that when things go wrong with public services, the public holds the government in Westminster accountable.
However, it said that ministers should not be ‘put off’ the idea of decentralising power if they want local accountability to become more prevalent.
The report, Who’s accountable? The challenge of giving power away in a centralised political culture, published on October 22, was based on a survey of more than 2,500 members of the public.
It suggested that when real power is transferred to highly visible and accountable bodies, such as the Scottish Government and the Mayor of London, the public do understand who is responsible.
Guy Lodge, associate director of the IPPR, told Public Finance that if real powers were devolved to a local level as in London, then the public would understand that and blame and accountability would shift accordingly.
‘I think there is real scope for a mayoral model in other areas of the country. Government must be brave and not pull back on this, because [decentralisation] will get results. There is just a time lag in how long it takes for that accountability to shift,’ he said.
The survey also found that a fundamental problem in political culture was that while Westminster was held accountable for public service failures, it is not given credit for successes.
October 23 2009
The government must decentralise power in a ‘real and visible’ way if it wants to end the ‘blame the minister’ culture in Britain.
A report by the Institute for Public Policy Research and PricewaterhouseCoopers has found that when things go wrong with public services, the public holds the government in Westminster accountable.
However, it said that ministers should not be ‘put off’ the idea of decentralising power if they want local accountability to become more prevalent.
The report, Who’s accountable? The challenge of giving power away in a centralised political culture, published on October 22, was based on a survey of more than 2,500 members of the public.
It suggested that when real power is transferred to highly visible and accountable bodies, such as the Scottish Government and the Mayor of London, the public do understand who is responsible.
Guy Lodge, associate director of the IPPR, told Public Finance that if real powers were devolved to a local level as in London, then the public would understand that and blame and accountability would shift accordingly.
‘I think there is real scope for a mayoral model in other areas of the country. Government must be brave and not pull back on this, because [decentralisation] will get results. There is just a time lag in how long it takes for that accountability to shift,’ he said.
The survey also found that a fundamental problem in political culture was that while Westminster was held accountable for public service failures, it is not given credit for successes.
