Councils have gained a local government secretary who wants to defend and extend their role. But he’ll have to win over Whitehall
New local government Secretary John Denham likes to tell a joke that highlights the vulnerability of ministers. He says that when he took up his first Cabinet post and arrived at his desk in his new department he found three envelopes left by the outgoing secretary of state. A handwritten note on top said: ‘Open in case of emergency.’
After a few months in the job, he faced his first crisis and remembered the envelopes. When he opened the first one, it said: ‘Blame your predecessor’, which he promptly did, and the crisis abated.
A few months later, finding himself again in the eye of a political storm, he turned to the second envelope, which said: ‘Blame your officials.’ So he tried this old Whitehall trick and it worked. All went well for a while and then another major crisis arose. In desperation, he turned to the third envelope for advice. It read: ‘Prepare three envelopes.’
The joke gives us an insight into Denham’s approach. First, he is a pragmatist. He knows that politics is often about survival. Second, he is experienced. Having been in many ministerial jobs, with ups and downs including a high-profile resignation from office, he knows all about the kind of twists and turns he will surely face in his new role at the Department for Communities and Local Government. Third, he doesn’t take himself too seriously.
There is a contrast here with his predecessor, Hazel Blears, who was in such a rush to exit Cabinet on the night before the local elections that I doubt she left behind three envelopes. Blears was a relentlessly upbeat character and yet there were times when she did take herself too seriously. She was also an idealist. The ‘empowerment agenda’ was a personal credo that she sold with the persistence of someone selling cavity wall insulation, and described it as though it was an essential missing component in the construction of the House of British Democracy. It resulted in the imposition of new duties on councils ‘to promote democracy’ and ‘to involve’ citizens.
As an advocate of stronger local democracy, and a realist who knows that not every council is great at involving its citizens, I could see where Blears was coming from. But I knew this sledgehammer to crack a nut would alienate local government. What councils really want from central government, in the interests of strengthening democracy in communities, are the powers, freedoms and financial flexibility to respond to local priorities. What they don’t need are tokenistic new legislative duties.
The ‘community empowerment’ Bill was quietly dropped in the draft Queen’s Speech published this week. Even more telling is that Denham’s first major speech as secretary of state, given at the CIPFA Conference on June 25, contained not a single mention of ‘empowerment’. Denham focused instead on the gritty realities of local government policy, telling us that ‘local authorities will need to make every pound work harder’ as we look towards a difficult decade of tight public spending. He exhorted us to quicken the pace of local government reform, speaking of efficiency savings, improving procurement and fundamental reform of service provision.
Where Blears often seemed very critical of councils, Denham makes it clear that he wants to ‘defend and extend’ the role of local government because ‘local councils have proved time and time again that they are ready and willing to meet any challenge’. The most significant opportunity he sees is around the Total Place initiative.
This is now being developed in 13 pilot areas, putting councils in the driving seat to make the best use not only of their budgets, but also of all the money spent on public services in their area.
The Local Government Information Unit has long called for a new approach that moves beyond ‘partnerships’ to a real union of local public service provision, with elected councillors in control where this will work best. Not all decisions should be made in town halls, of course, some should be taken at other levels of government. But we have to start with a presumption that democracy is most effective when it is closest to the people.
To fully realise the ‘Total Place’ approach we need more than local innovation. Denham will have to get the rest of government signed up. Where the Blears ‘empowerment agenda’ floundered, the new local government secretary needs to make the compelling case that Whitehall fears of a postcode lottery must be overcome with a new era that promotes and celebrates local diversity.
Andy Sawford is chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit
