A message from Councillor Bridget Smith, Deputy Leader, LGA Liberal Democrat Group
Dear colleagues,
For those of you who don’t know me I am the Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council (of Four-Day Week fame), the Lib Dem lead on the District Councils’ Network and Deputy Leader of the LGA Lib Dem Group, backing up Cllr Joe Harris on the LGA Board.
In my capacity as Deputy Leader, I have been asked to join the newly formed LGA Devolution Task and Finish Group. Because devolution and the threat of associated local government reorganisation is the thing most people are talking about at the moment, we thought members would appreciate a regular newsletter sharing what information we have and keeping you fully up to date. Additionally, I do hope that those of you with interesting devolution stories to tell will get in touch and use this newsletter to share your experiences.
Councillor Bridget Smith, Deputy Leader, LGA Liberal Democrat Group
What we know, and don’t know, about Devolution
The first meeting of the T&F group was not quorate as the Tories failed to attend, but it went ahead anyway. It is not yet clear to me what the purpose of this group is or what its full value could be. If it is just a sop to fulfil the LGA’s responsibility to its members without it being able to robustly challenge the government, then things will get tricky and will be something we push back on. Obviously, we are all working in the dark at the moment, as the Devolution White paper keeps being delayed and the rumour mill is rife with unhelpful speculation. Our latest understanding is that it will be published on 16th December – just as everyone goes off for the festive season, which is, in itself, very inconvenient. There has been some suggestion that the delays have been caused by MHCLG and the Cabinet Office not being in full agreement. Once it does land, we will get a summary of how it is affecting councils to you as soon as possible.
At the LGA Conference this year and subsequently online, we ran a series of very well attended sessions on devolution where we heard from councils at all different stages of devolution – including those with Combined Authorities, Mayoral Combined Authorities, and none. I think we are at the stage of accepting that Mayoral-Led Combined Authorities are coming countrywide, though how the government thinks it can deliver on this and on whole-scale local government reorganisation at the same time is unclear. My own experience of the Cambridge and Peterborough MCA is that it takes years to set up and become a functional body and, from the experience of others, moving to large Unitaries is similarly resource and time-consuming. The risk is that while you are ‘reorganising’ you are not doing anything else, including delivering on the government’s priorities of delivering housing and economic growth.
MY own view is that full democratic accountability in MCAs is vital, and this means that all member councils must have a full place on the board. In my own MCA, all the District Councils, the County Council and the 1 Unitary Authority of Peterborough have full voting rights; with the caveat the County and the Unitary having a veto on highways matters, as they are the highways authorities.
The other very important consideration is the geography of these bodies. Functional economic areas make the most sense but are often difficult to agree on and there is always the risk of some ‘less attractive’ places being left behind. I would suggest that larger areas may well be best as it keeps the focus on high level strategic issues rather than running into conflict with member councils’ responsibilities.
Your local Devolution journey
Please do email me and let me know if this is helpful, if there are any particular areas of concern and to share your own experiences where they might provide useful insights. The devolution process across England has been long and varied – and there are important lessons to learn from across the country which I and my colleagues would like to hear about. In the meantime, have a very lovely festive break and I will look forward to sending you all my next update.
Contact Bridget
Email: [email protected]