Local government needs to do more than just talk about ‘enabling’. Co-operative councils, like the London Borough of Lambeth, are showing how it can actually happen in practice
One of the themes of the 2013 CIPFA conference was how, in this period of austerity, public services can deliver a fairer society.
What is fair, of course, is a politically contested issue. But what matters to me is getting on and doing the things that will achieve a fairer future – and how, in particular, local government can help shape people’s lives.
This role as ‘enabler’ is central to the complex relationship between citizen and state, and is one that we take very seriously in the London Borough of Lambeth.
Collective wisdom tells us that by the 2020s, there will be: more people; more people living to old age; generational tensions; and an increasingly squeezed middle in our economy. Job security in any sector will be reserved for a privileged few, while those at the ‘bottom’ will be poorer. And technology will play a bigger role.
In all likelihood, there will be a growing gap between a small minority who are financially and socially secure and who insure themselves against the need for public services, and those who feel threatened by a state that is more intrusive and probably less supportive. The way these phenomena interact with each other will either increase tensions or fashion a more self-reliant civil society with supportive communities. I am working hard for the latter.
The prospect of at least two more ‘austerity general elections’ might tempt some to hunker down and hope for the best. But we need to overcome the sense of doom and fatalism embedded in the austerity language. Historically, upheavals followed by periods of high national debt have brought great social changes – the Great Reform Act, the NHS and National Insurance – and there’s no reason why the same shouldn’t follow now.
A hard look at the economics suggests that we can afford decent public services; the question is whether we want to pay for them and who will provide them, and how?
Local democracy and civic life matter in the creation of strong, resilient communities. Putting the citizen at the centre of what we do in local government and focusing on people, place and outcomes, as we’ve done in Lambeth, is a huge part of the answer.
To do this, public servants must start thinking of themselves as enablers, encouraging citizens to deliver in ways that make sense of the way people actually live their lives.
By 2020, I’m certain we’ll see a mixed approach to public services with, on the one hand, increasing private sector involvement and, on the other, co-operative council approaches, built on values of responsibility, fairness, reciprocity and relationships.
There has been a growth in activism beyond normal politics and a growing interest in alternative forms of economic organisation, such as mutuals. This is something we are actively encouraging locally, which will surely gain even greater momentum in the years to come.
Both approaches are based on the need to rebalance the relationship between the citizen and the state, but in very different ways for different political ends.
In Lambeth, we are seeking to do just that by working to give power and control back to our communities, so that they can find ways of helping themselves and others to lead the lives they want to lead.
By enabling our communities to help themselves, we can give them the power to change their lives in ways that make sense of their needs and circumstances. That’s what local government should be about, and that’s what Lambeth’s Co-operative Council is attempting to do.
Derrick Anderson is chief executive of the London Borough of Lambeth. He addressed CIPFA’s 2013 conference on the themes discussed here
This article was first published in the September edition of Public Finance magazine
