22 February 2002
The project will be run by the Improvement and Development Agency, and is an attempt to increase diversity among elected members.
The IDA has decided to act after the second National Census of Local Councils showed that, on measures such as age and ethnicity, the figures had got worse since the last survey in 1997.
The fast-track scheme, due to get off the ground later this year, will be run in conjunction with the main political parties, plus representatives of independent councillors. The IDA will write to authorities in the next few weeks asking them to identify young councillors who may benefit.
In its first year, 40 councillors under the age of 35 will be offered support and training to develop their potential as future council leaders. More than 200 elected members are expected to be taken on over the next five years.
Paul Wheeler, assistant director of IDA Solutions, launched the census results on February 22 at a conference in Birmingham on the role of the modern councillor. He said: 'We are in discussions with a range of leading academic institutions and major private sector and voluntary organisations to put together an innovative development programme, which will build leadership in local government.'
The census, a joint initiative between the IDA and the Employers Organisation, collated data from 374 English and Welsh authorities and showed that past efforts to increase diversity had yielded few results.
The average age for councillors is 57, up from 55.6 in 1997, and overall 37.5% are retired. Just 2.5% of elected members are drawn from ethnic minorities, an even lower figure than the modest 3% recorded in 1997. The gender balance has improved slightly in the past five years, but is still totally unrepresentative of the population as a whole: 71.3% of the respondents were men and 27.9% were women. The remaining 0.8% declined to reveal their gender.
On the positive side, disabled people are becoming more visible in town halls – 13.1% of councillors have a disability, compared with 10.8% in 1997.
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