05 September 2008
Margaret Eaton, the frontrunner in the race to become the Local Government Association's new chair, will pick her battles with ministers, but has pledged to be 'aggressively forthright' if necessary.
Eaton, a Conservative councillor since 1986 and leader of City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council from 2000 until 2006, would replace Sir Simon Milton, who is stepping down following his appointment as a deputy to London Mayor Boris Johnson.
She is expected to see off four rivals for the Conservative nomination when the party's ballot closes on September 8. Confirmation that the winner will become the new LGA chair will be a formality.
Eaton is set to take over as councils wrestle with a particularly tough financial settlement. She described squeezing money from central government as 'getting blood out of a stone'.
But she told Public Finance: 'It's not a matter of going with a begging bowl.' Instead, councils have 'got to say to the government: these are the things we do well, but these are things we're not going to be able to do' without sufficient funding.
Eaton said her tactics as LGA chair would depend on the circumstances. 'It's about winning an argument. There are times when you need to be aggressively forthright and other times when you need to be gently persuasive.' That means: 'Don't roll over and have your tummy tickled... but only go truly into battle on the ones you can win,' she told PF.
The relationship between central government and local authorities is 'bound to be a difficult one because obviously the government makes the rules', she noted, and the current Westminster regime 'has been very controlling'.
But she added: 'We've made considerable headway in some areas. There's a more equal relationship with both the government and the shadow government.'
Eaton – until recently leader of the LGA Conservative group and chair of the Conservative Councillors' Association – will be the first woman to hold the post if she becomes LGA chair.
She also aims to change the organisation's focus, following last year's review by Richard Best. 'After the Best review, we need to be engaging more closely with councils, perhaps in a more relevant way.'
Although town halls around the country have much in common, Eaton noted: 'There are a lot of pressures on councils in different ways in different places.'
Both the LGA and the government are London-based, but the needs of councils and councillors outside the capital must also be reflected, she argued. 'We need to look at its presence in other parts of the country so people are more easily signposted to what they need.' The LGA could do more to 'translate' government policies 'that actually affect how councils operate', she said.
Eaton is also looking to promote 'the place of local government' in the run-up to the next general election. She believes her experience of working with members of other parties in hung councils in Bradford will stand her in good stead as chair of the cross-party LGA.
Tandridge District Council leader Gordon Keymer, Sunderland councillor Lee Martin, Oxfordshire's Keith Mitchell and Stephen Parnaby of East Riding of Yorkshire Council are the other Conservative candidates.
PFsep2008
