08 July 2005
Vivienne Russell reports from the Local Government Association annual conference in Harrogate
Sir Michael Lyons this week dismissed suggestions that he might be forced to water down his proposals on the future of the council tax.
But the former chief executive of Birmingham City Council stressed that he intended to ensure the recommendations of his inquiry into future local authority funding were acceptable to both ministers and the public.
Speaking at the Local Government Association's annual conference in Harrogate, Lyons said he did not want to follow in the footsteps of Frank Layfield, whose 1976 report on local government finance was shelved.
'I am out for change,' he said. 'My report will be radical but it will have an eye on what the government can do. There is no point spending time reaching a set of conclusions seen as impractical and unpopular.'
Addressing a packed session on July 6, he singled out new communities and local government minister David Miliband as strongly interested in greater devolution to local authorities, but added that attitudes were different among other ministers.
He urged local authority leaders to help give ministers space to consider radical changes by engaging their communities in a debate about their local services.
He pointed out that most people had no appreciation of what their services cost or what their council tax contributions paid for and were confused about local government structures and decision-making processes.
'If we want to bring forward radical taxation options, the ground has to be prepared, the public has to be convinced of the benefits of change and the government has to be given room to manoeuvre,' he said.
Sarah Wood, director of policy at the LGA, called on Lyons to be radical. She urged him not to hide behind the 'fig leaf' of the lack of debate on the form and function of local government or use it as an excuse for a watered-down set of proposals.
'The Lyons' review, and what the government does with it, will hopefully give local government the opportunity to enter into a radically different world,' she said.
'Now, and only now, is the time for radical change. Now is not the time for pussyfooting.'
Wood added that local authorities, too, had a responsibility not to complain at the prospect of change but to grasp the opportunity presented by Lyons.
Lyons himself stressed that he was not offering any conclusions at this stage but was still listening and open to representations. He added that his inquiry was on schedule for publication in December.
Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group at the London School of Economics, echoed Wood in calling for urgent reform and warned that the government could be prompted into suspending local taxation altogether.
'If something doesn't change soon, one more council tax crisis will lead the government to think enough is enough and could trigger a freezing of local taxation,' he said.
'This is a real last chance. Let's hope that the government understands that the stakes are very high. We need a reform, and we need one now.'
Localists have won the debate, says Bruce-Lockhart
The decentralisation debate is over and has been won by the localists, Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart told the conference's opening session.
'There is widespread recognition that the UK government is unique in the degree of central control it exerts over public services and local government,' he told delegates on July 5.
'That centralisation has wasted the public's money, it has sapped the energy and innovation of front-line staff, it has denied local choice and eroded local democracy. That debate is won.'
But Bruce-Lockhart's remarks attracted disagreement from Sir Michael Lyons. 'The debate has been won where?' Lyons said. 'I would accept there is more enthusiasm for greater devolution but I don't think this debate is fully played out. I admire Sandy Bruce-Lockhart's optimism,' Lyons told Public Finance.
The LGA chair called for a three-year action plan to be agreed between central and local government that would thrash out agreement on which services needed to be nationally regulated and which did not.
He said that councils needed to recognise that their reputation lagged behind their performance and take steps to win over public trust.
Bruce-Lockhart said: 'We must improve customer care and information to the public; give a new priority to visible improvement of the street and environment; and get "up close and personal" with the public, to improve public satisfaction.'
He added: 'We must arm ourselves with the public's support.'
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