Senior Liberal Democrat councillors attacking the government’s financial onslaught on town halls should come as no surprise. Interviewing David Faulkner, LibDem leader of Newcastle City Council for last month’s Public Finance, it was quite clear that he was not only aghast at Eric Pickles’ onslaught on town halls, but close to rebellion. Ditto many others. And the subsequent limp and laboured defence of the coalition from a LibDem local government minister, Andrew Stunnell (a former senior councillor in both Cheshire and Stockport) will only add fuel to the looming revolt.
But what should concern Communities and Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles - and his attacker (or defender) in chief, Grant Shapps - is the simmering revolt among senior Tories in local government. Bluntly, they’re outraged by Pickles’ (and Shapps’) continued manipulation of statistics to justify the indefensible.
After I interviewed Pickles recently – the secretary of state claimed ‘unsustainable’ local government was as much to blame for the country’s financial woes as the big banks! – Baroness Margaret Eaton, chair of the Local Government Association (and a former councillor colleague of Pickles in Bradford) could contain her anger no longer. She fired off a right-of-reply to The Guardian, virtually accusing Pickles of insulting local government workers. It was strong stuff.
In the current issue of the LGA’s bi-monthly magazine, Baroness Shireen Ritchie similarly attacks Education Secretary Michel Gove for skimming approaching £500m from the schools budget to fund free schools. ‘This cut will fall on councils irrespective of the number of schools that choose academy status in their area,’ she laments. Paul Carter, Tory leader of Kent County Council – the country’s largest authority in population terms – has been equally forthright in his criticism of Gove.
You can see their point. Why should councils in areas where there is little or no appetite for Gove’s plans effectively subsidise middle-class areas where there is some demand?
But their concerns go further. Many senior Tories value the role of local education authorities and, bluntly, see Gove’s plans as an attack on localism. They believed Cameron in opposition when he promised that a Tory government would be localist like no other.
Just listen, then, to Tricia Turner, Tory leader of Central Bedfordshire Council, a new unitary authority, when she labelled the Localism Bill – likely to get Royal Assent early next year – as ‘big on rhetoric but light on practical support’.
She added: ‘When the bill is saying to communities “we’re giving you power to shape local services”, the sub-text of the finance settlement and front-loading of cuts is “but you’ve got no time to prepare”.’
How long can Pickles, Shapps and the rest hold the line and play their silly statistical games as redundancies mount and treasured front-line services are axed? Fact: total government formula grant funding for councils is falling by 12% in 2011/12 to £24.9bn. Who says so? The Tory-led LGA.
Peter Hetherington writes on community affairs and regeneration
