14 June 2002
Just hours after the publication of the draft Local Government Bill, Tony Wright, chair of the public administration select committee, warned that he did not foresee Labour 'letting go' of substantial powers in order to improve local service delivery.
The government had, however, understood that it must become 'the midwife of change' in local government, he added.
Speaking at a Public Management and Policy Association seminar in Brighton on the delivery of local services, Wright said: 'There's a real tension in the government at the moment, more so than in the past, because it recognises that you can't always make changes from the centre. But I do not think it will let go substantially.'
He added the government had too much to lose from granting wide-ranging autonomy to councils because 'ultimately it will be held directly and personally responsible for the delivery of public services.'
Wright also criticised the decision to allow local service providers – such as NHS trusts – to earn freedoms only by meeting strict criteria. 'Only a wholly centralist culture could have invented the term "earned autonomy",' he said.
But he praised his party's understanding of the problems of delivering certain local services and said that 'after five years of central stewardship and issuing an initiative a day, [Labour] has suddenly discovered that there are limits to central stewardship'.
PFjun2002
