B69: Strengthening Local Democracy Consultation
The consultation paper on strengthening local democracy is the latest publication of the Labour Government’s twelve year tenure. This Bulletin provides a critical assessment on the consultation.
The consultation paper sets out a series of proposed reforms for the devolution of power which will give local authorities: greater power to scrutinise and oversee spending by partners and other organisations on addressing local issues; the ability to reduce levels of performance scrutiny from central government; the opportunity to explore the role of local government in tackling climate change and specifically in meeting UK carbon budgets; and the power to ensure sub-regional working is fully accountable to local residents. However, for CLES questions remain:
- Do these proposed reforms truly represent the greatest transfer of power to the local level as the consultation paper bills?
- Are the proposed reforms for local democratic renewal actually anything new or is this just more policy rhetoric?
- Are the proposals actually true factors of or real devolution?
- Are these actually powers that local government want?
