Nine new unitaries announced

It appears the uncertainty has finally come to an end.

A total of 3.5 million people will see the end of two-tier governance in their area in the biggest shake-up of council boundaries since the mid-1990s.

When then local government minister David Miliband announced in LGC two years’ ago that he was contemplating redrawing council boundaries, most people immediately realised what he had unleashed.

Local relationships collapsed as districts and counties fought for survival. But restructuring enthusiasts insisted the efficiency gains resulting from reorganisation would make the saga worthwhile.

The battle has had many subplots. Districts such as Ipswich, Norwich and Oxford thought they were being offered an opportunity to break free from oppressive counties whose rural focus held back their economic development and local identity.

Counties such as Northumberland, Somerset and Cornwall felt they had a chance to provide more efficient local leadership – although their opponents said they were too big to truly represent local needs.

And then the Treasury got involved, making it clear that it would seek to restrict the number of councils allowed to proceed. The financial risk involved was making then chancellor Gordon Brown uneasy and the Department for Communities & Local Government was under pressure to scale back its original aspirations.

The final announcement constitutes a compromise between the views expressed by the county and district lobbies and the Treasury.

The hotchpotch of new boundaries ensuing marks no clear victory for the lobbies that backed either larger or smaller councils. While the figure of nine is slightly higher than the Treasury would have preferred, it certainly constitutes a less dramatic overhaul of boundaries than Mr Miliband envisaged.

One thing is certain. All councils, whether directly affected by today’s announcement or not, face continuing pressure to improve efficiency. Radical new working arrangements are required across the board – and the unitary council debate will not disappear in remaining two-tier areas. So perhaps the uncertainty has not entirely come to an end, after all.

Flood blogging takes off!

Yesterday the BBC contacted LGC with a view to interviewing me about the blog I wrote yesterday on flooding. This is now available for anyone to listen to via podcast on the BBC's Pods & Blogs website.

Interestingly, the Beeb also picked up on Cheltenham BC's use of blogging to keep local people up to date about what has been happening with the floods in the local area. What a great idea, and they are doing a great job - blogging every few hours on updates about where to get bottled water from, how the floods are affecting local events. I assume of course local people have power to they can surf the 'net! I have added the blog to the editor's picks.

There's also a link to the below video of how the town centre has been affected by flooding, which really brings it home how such areas are being affected to those of us like myself who are sitting on a dry hill in north London.

And with the floods come...all the same debates

In a former life I was a civil engineer, as my first journalism job was for a civil engineering magazine. One of my specialisms was flooding, and I was often sent out to report on various significant floods that happened from 2000 onwards. This meant I spoke frequently to the Environment Agency, engineering firms who built and maintained defences, and councils who were at the heart of emergency planning.

The issues that they talked about; problems with building too many homes on floodplains, the need for better flood early warning systems, changing climates, the lack of investment in flood defences, and the need for better drainage (sustainable urban drainage was all the rage then), are exactly the same which now appear to be making the news this week.

It makes me wonder: how far have we really progressed?

Surely the debate we should be having over and above all of this is, how prepared are we culturally - if indeed this flooding is an effect of climate change - to accept and adapt to our changing weather?

Adaptation and mitigation are two different prongs to coping with climate change, and the wisest councils are looking at both. But how well are councils and central government leading a mirror debate with their communities on the wider impacts? That is, do their residents accept that in the coming years they must also adapt their lives and decisions to cope with climate change?

At the moment the idea of living in an area at significant risk of flooding would for many people be a completely unacceptable concept. Understandably so - I've been to enough flooded homes to know it is far from pleasant. But if flooding is to become a common feature for some areas and particularly the more southern areas where homes are already under pressure some residents may have to learn to live with it or accept they must leave some areas entirely.

But are people prepared to live in a floodplain, perhaps in an cheaper but adapted house - houses on stilts are actually being designed already for some areas - than miles away from a conurbation in a house which is risk-free? And how prepared are those who live by the coast to accept that one day their home could be totally submerged, and for the government to shell out millions for a flood defence system to save but a clutch of homes is just not the best use of tax payers money?

Already some homes are built with an expectation of floods - main living areas are on the first floor, and electric plugs are fitted halfway up the wall. But are people prepared to wash down their ground floors every few months in the same way they might wash their car?

The debate needs to move on and it must involve residents, or in five years time we'll still be talking about the cost of flood defence rather than the real issue for debate; that climate change looks as if it's swiftly moved from hazy concept to muddy, unpleasant reality.

Nina Lovelace, acting editor

Housing; Can local government build with Brown's bricks?

When it comes to identifying subjects of great British conversations, housing probably comes a close second to the weather in terms of its ability to prompt the normally rational to become suddenly over-emotional.

Whether it is the challenge to get decent social housing or the frantic leap to get onto the private housing ladder, an individual's right to a decent home appears to be intrinsically linked to their sense of how 'fairly' they are treated by those in power.

The suggestion that councils are to get powers and responsibilities to build tens of thousands of social houses a year will also undoubtedly raise emotions in the town hall. For many, this is a great opportunity to better place-shape, should they also get the right financial tools to help them deliver.

But after having spent so long unable to take the initiative in the way the housing green paper will promise, are councils prepared? Remember the social catastrophes that resulted from the design horrors that came with the last major housing expansion in the Sixties.

Councils face growing pressures from an aging population and new requirements to tackle climate change. This means the social homes of the future can't just be glass and steel. They must also be linked to proper infrastructure, energy efficient, and built in the knowledge that increasing numbers of residents are likely to have limited or decreasing mobility.

Do councils have the planning expertise or capacity? Will political pressure see developments pushed through too quickly? Furthermore, although they will be expected to work closely with housing associations, are these partnerships geared up to deliver?

A recent Young Foundation report found these relationships to be “scattershot and too often weak”. No one could have anything but praise should Gordon Brown leave a legacy of truly sustainable, affordable housing. But without the right checks and balances, he risks delivering a raft of homes in which no one actually wants to live.

Regional ministers will not upset 'effective' partnerships

The latest we are hearing on the sub-national review is that it won't be out on Wednesday as we originally though but maybe later this week. Either way it's not far off and could significantly add to the jigsaw that will show us what place government has for local government in its future devolutionary world. It could be the nail in local government's devolutionary coffin, of course. There is palpable fear out there that these many announcements coming from No. 10 are offering devolution to regions and neighbourhoods only.

One of the regional ministers, Liam Byrne, who represents the West Midlands, spoke today with LGC about these new posts. He told us, which you can read more about in Thursday's magazine, that the new roles are not expected to mess with 'effective' local partnerships which are already working to boost local economies and facilitate better planning across boundaries. These might be city regions or councils already working on multi-area agreements.

Reading between his lines then, this means that regional ministers could however quite easily end up messing about with regional bodies which aren't cutting the mustard. Interestingly the Centre for Cities has just brought out a new report, Two Track Cities, examining exactly which cities aren't really delivering on their potential in terms of key economic indicators such as jobs and those that are.

If we put two and two together from this and all those other north/south divide reports out there we might be able to figure out which areas might have the busiest regional ministers as a result. That is indeed assuming they will have enough time off their days jobs to do regions justice. Oh yes, still no word on what might happen to regional assemblies.

Added by Nina Lovelace

Conservatives announce 'regional' ministers

The Conservatives have also just annouced their own version of 'regional' ministers for England, although they do not exactly mirror those which were recently annouced by government. They are:

• Alan Duncan for Tyneside
• George Osborne for Manchester
• William Hague represents the Leeds/Bradford area and will have and overall responsibility for the North
• Caroline Spelman for Coventry
• Andrew Mitchell for Birmingham
• Francis Maude for the Black Country
• Andrew Lansley for Nottingham
• Dominic Grieve for Leicester
• Cheryl Gillan for Cardiff
• David Mundell for Glasgow
• Chris Grayling for Liverpool
• Stephen O'Brien for Stoke
• And Jacqui Lait for London
  

Further announcements regarding the north-east and south-west will apparently be made over the summer. As yet no one has been appointed for any area in the south east.

It in interesting that the Tories have gone much more for a city-based focus, and many unsurprisingly in the north, whereas the government ministers are most certainly based on the nine regions.

LGA conference - councillors shut out?

Hazel Blears' imminent speech in which she will announce ten participatory budgeting pilots, is according to the Local Government Association at least, rather a non-story. Several councils have already been doing pilots around this so it's not really new.

The more interesting issue here is to what extent government wants councillors to get involved in its participatory budgeting vision. The LGA's ideal is that 'frontline' councillors are given the funds but then consult with communities. It appears the government's ideal is that more final decision-making lies more in peoples' hands, and that they vote on where to spend the money.

There is obviously a difference in the power balance depending on which model you go with. Putting too much power in people's hands obviously throws up scrutiny issues. There is the argument that people have power anyway by appointing a councillor in the first place to make the decisions for them.

This is another announcement from Brown's new government which appears interesting but, when taken with the recent regional news, adds to the murk about where central government thinks local governent should fit into the devolutionary future. Will it end up getting the short end of the stick whereas communities and regions walk away empowered?

Added by Nina Lovelace live from conference

LGA conference - Parties compete to be best localists

Birmingham is being rocked by a phoney war, a war which will shape the future destiny of councils but, then again, still falls slightly flat.

It's the war for the banner of localism.

Battle is waged between Labour and the Tories who are fighting for the banner of 'the party of localism'. But somehow, not even at the Local Government Association conference, can the battle get properly going.

Labour talks the localist talk with citizen empowerment promised in the participatory budgeting theme which will loom large in Hazel Blears' speech this afternoon. But key details of Gordon Brown's proposed restructured regional government are yet to emerge. It remains unclear if what is being proposed will empower councils or interfere in their workings. And, of course, vast swathes of the Lyons report remain on the shelf.

The Conservatives launched their most powerful missile at their opponents this morning, in the form of party leader David Cameron's speech.

Mr Cameron talked much about empowering councils to tackle social breakdown and about giving them more freedom to identify children at risk of falling into trouble.

But his speech was equally noticeable for what it did not contain.

It remains unclear now many of Lord Heseltine's recommendations to revive cities will be implemented. And he said little about council finance, apart from a suggestion he would look at giving councils greater freedom to introduce bonds to pay for infrastructure projects.

Expect the skirmishes to continue until the general election. But local government can take heart in the very fact that the parties are competing to be seen as localist.

Added by Nick Golding live from conference

LGA conference - the unitary question

Gossip is rife at this year's LGA conference on what decisions if any will be made on which unitary councils will get the go-ahead in the next few weeks. The date being bandied around by some is July 25 for a final decision, and some at conference who have unitary bids in are near-convinced they will be given the green light.

It's hard to see how anyone can be be certain as to what new communities secretary Hazel Blears has in mind, however. It seems unlikely that she has had time as yet to really take on board what unitary councils could mean, especially in the light of recent announcements about the constitution and particularly the regions. The situation may not be helped by the fact local government also has a new local government minister John Healey who will probably also have his own views. The new regional ministers might also want to feed in.

Could this all see a decision put off about unitary councils, and July's 'annoucement' be one of delay? Or will Brown push on to make his mark in his first 100 days, citing efficiency as his main argument for change?

The complexity of what is happening could also be added to today, as the Lib Dems have said that during the committee stage of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill today Lib Dem peer Lord Greaves will propose an amendment which will set up a 'devolution commission' to investigate and report on the devolution of powers to local authorities in England.

As Lord Greaves said in a release put out yesterday: "Gordon Brown’s talk of a new concordat between central and local government is just that – talk. There should be a clear commitment to serious and sustained transfer of powers to a local level along with a bonfire of the detailed controls, targets and regulations which are strangling local democracy. I challenge the government to make this commitment. It’s time for them to let go on a massive scale. Unless they do so all the talk of a new localism is just hot air.”

LGA conference - current buzz word

Concordat – noun

1. An agreement or compact, esp. an official one.
2. An agreement between the pope and a secular government regarding the regulation of church matters.

If there has been one buzz word at the Local Government Association’s annual conference so far, it’s been that used by Gordon Brown to describe the future relationship between councils and Whitehall in his statement to Parliament on constitution changes. There’s been no suggestion yet that Pope Benedict XVI is being brought in to take on the work of Sir Frank Layfield, Nick Raynsford and Sir Michael Lyons (although some might comment that divine intervention would be the next logical step), so we will assume the new prime minister was referring to definition 1.

The supporting documents contain the following paragraph:

“The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government will now work with the Local Government Association to establish a concordat to govern the relations between central and local government. This will establish for the first time an agreement on the rights and responsibilities of local government, including its responsibilities to provide effective leadership of the local area and to empower local communities where possible.”

All very exciting. And doubtless the LGA are looking forward to working with Hazel Blears to produce this new agreement. Only problem is no-one is entirely sure what it means.
Some at the conference are optimistically saying it could something along the lines of the independent commission to make sure the costs to councils of meeting Whitehall’s policies are fully funded.

One thing’s for sure, new local government minister John Healey was letting nothing go when asked to elaborate.

Added by Dan Drillsma-Milgrom live from conference

Regions to get select committees

We've just had in some more details about what the regional ministers' roles and responsibilities will be. The justice secretary's new green paper, The governance of Britain, sets out the following on page 38:

Regional ministers will:

• advise the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform on the approval of regional strategies and appointment of regional development agency (RDA) chairs and boards;
• represent regional interests in the formulation of central government policy relevant to economic growth and sustainable development in areas that have not been devolved to the RDAs;
• facilitate a joined up approach across government departments and agencies to enable the effective delivery of the single regional strategy;
• champion the region at high level events and with regard to high profile projects (including through a programme of regional visits); and
• represent the government with regard to central government policy at regional select committee hearings and at parliamentary debates focused specifically on the region.

In summary, regions get select committees and a parliamentary 'Question Time'. It's still not clear how this will work as the paper also talks of the need for limits on the number of meetings at a select committee level. It's also hazy where local government fits in, as councils will certainly also want to have more say now than ever about what regional bodies and ministers are up to.

Added by Nina Lovelace

LGA Conference - Sub-national review report could be imminent

At first listening, new local government minister John Healey’s take on councils is no different to that of his predecessor, Phil Woolas. The tone may be slightly less laconic but the familiar themes are all present and accounted for. Tight settlements, the importance of local accountability and, underpinning everything, the local area agreement as the answer to councils’ woes.

As he took the lectern to address the Local Government Association’s annual conference this afternoon, Mr Healey warned his first speech should be treated as a work in progress. The same certainly applied to the answers he gave to questions from the floor. Urged to abandon local government reorganisation, fully fund concessionary bus fares and reform the grant distribution system, all on his second day in office, he understandably pled the fifth.

But if there was one thing to prick the ears of the delegates, it was the revelation the Treasury’s sub-national review of economic development and regeneration was completed last week. It is this piece of work that will reveal what steps Gordon Brown plans to take to enable councils to grow their local economies. Supplementary business rates? Super-LABGI? Regeneration bonds? All will be revealed.

Mr Healey refused to elaborate on when the review will see the light of day but the word on the lips of some in Birmingham was that it could be as soon as ten days’ time.

The only signs of discontent in the audience came when he spoke of the tough settlement to come for councils. But for most this has become a familiar theme.

He finished off by telling the conference “I will consult you, I will challenge you, I will make some decisions you won’t like but I will remain completely committed to local government”. An intriguing start.

Added by Daniel Drillsma-Milgrom live from conference

LGA conference - Sir Simon talks tough

Well it appears Sir Simon Milton (Con) has marked out his opinion clearly on the efficiency debate at the first day of the Local Government Association conference.

As readers well know, government is very keen on local government making savings by ‘transformation’, that lovely bit of jargon which essentially means councils changing the way they deliver services rather dramatically to make them more customer-focused and, frankly, cheaper. Shared services and shifting more transactional services online are two such options as to how.

However in his first speech as new LGA chair, delivered around an hour ago, he has said: "Innovation and efficiency cannot make up for an inadequate funding settlement that fails to deal with the real cost pressures in adult social care and waste. We cannot let government pile more costs onto the council tax."

I think we can expect there to be a few tough words between government and local government over the issues of funding pre and post- comprehensive spending review. The thing is, like most issues, this is not black and white. It is probably safe to say there are councils out there who have not investigated all their options to ‘transform’ in these key pinch point areas, and for as long as they stay that way, government will have an argument to turn the screws.

Another interesting quote from the new chair was: "There have been reports that the prime minister wants to create an independent board to run the health service. But I say these services should be run closer to the people not further from them. We should develop a local health service alongside the National Health Service. So I am inviting the group leaders today to establish a cross-party commission to examine the practicalities of this approach and produce an initial report in time for our next conference."

There has been much chat of late in some local government circles about basically decentralising some aspects of the health service, and indeed some are quite keen on the idea of decentralising it pretty much altogether, such as councils taking over primary care trusts. Considering the political importance of the NHS this seems unlikely to happen any time soon, although interestingly new communities secretary Hazel Blears recently wrote in LGC how keen she was to see elected members on PCTs.

LGC launches 2008 Awards

LGC launched its 2008 Awards last night on the eve of the Local Government Association conference in Birmingham, and with it some exciting new categories for the best councils out there to enter.

For example, a new category this year is one for Health and Wellbeing which is a growing area of interest for local government, especially in terms of partnership working with the NHS. The full details about this and all the categories will be made available later this week on the LGC Awards 2008 website.

Another change happening this year is that we're going to ask shortlisted entrants to come and present to the judges for their category. This is because LGC, its awards judges and sponsors are all keen to ensure the quality of awards entrants and winners continues to improve, although obviously they are already of an extremely high standard!

Hazel Blears' special advisers

LGC has just got a phone call from Paul Richards, one of Hazel Blears' special advisers. The other is Andy Bagnall, and both have local government backgrounds - Paul was once a councillor at Lewisham and Andy at Croydon.

He was purely calling to introduce himself but LGC takes this as a very good sign. Even during the reign of the localist David Miliband it was a struggle to always get the attention of his special advisers, and here we have one ringing us up.

Obviously we will be meeting with Paul in the near future to find out a bit more about Hazel's priorities. We may even see her herself at this week's LGA conference, although Paul says the exact dates and time either of them will be up there are currently being sorted out.

We also hear that the regional ministers will be meeting as a committee - not sure how regularly but it does appear that there is some kind of strategy in this regional minister plan. Obviously we're just as interested in delivery.

And Phil Woolas has been moved to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as a minister of state.

Brown appoints regional ministers

The New Local Government Network has already leapt on the announcement that there will now be ministers for all of the English regions. Director Chris Leslie and his colleagues obviously view this as a significant step towards proving the devolutionary rhetoric Gordon Brown has been talking is about to become action.

For those who haven't picked this up yet, the new posts have come about as part of the reshuffle (which we will be reporting on in detail in the July 5 issue). The following have been given regional roles:

• Minister for the North East of England: The Rt Hon Nick Brown MP



• Minister for the North West: The Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP



• Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber: Caroline Flint MP



• Minister for the Olympics and for London: The Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP



• Minister for the South West: Ben Bradshaw MP



• Minister for the East Midlands: Gillian Merron MP



• Minister for the West Midlands: Liam Byrne MP



• Minister for the East of England: Barbara Follett MP
  

This move is not as significant as many would have hoped, mainly because the above have bigger 'day' jobs, but it is a certainly a shift. However, some have met the news with considerably less enthusiasm than the NLGN, especially by those who remember what happened the last time government tried to inch towards regional government.

For example the Conservative MP for Shrewsbury & Atcham, Daniel Kawczynski, told the West Midlands NO! campaign: “The Conservative Party is continuing to fight this government’s move towards regionalisation and I am deeply concerned at the appointment of ministers for the regions.

"What is more, I note that Gordon Brown has appointed a Birmingham MP as Minister for the West Midlands – yet again ignoring how much of the West Midlands is a rural area, whose interests are unlikely to be effectively represented by an inner city MP. This in itself demonstrates the nonsense of a regional system of government that does not reflect the diversity of an area.”

Exactly what the regional ministers' roles and responsibilities will be are as yet unclear - we are in the process of finding out - but this is probably a prelude to proposed changes in Westminster that will see Commons question time sessions for each of the regions, along the lines of those already held for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The other big news is that John Healey is now the new local government minister, taking over from Phil Woolas. This is more good news as Healey is considered a fan of devolution. For the moment however it's not apparent what fate has befallen Phil.

Link up through Facebook

LGC's acting editor Nina Lovelace is now listed on networking site Facebook, which puts people in touch with each other and lists details about people's career histories and interests. If any readers are interested in linking to Nina you need to go to the Facebook site and sign up. It is also a great way to link in with present and past colleagues and even people with whom you may have attended university or school.

Goodbye Sandy, welcome Simon

Well, it's the end of an era. This week sees Lord Sandy Bruce-Lockhart step down as chairman of the Local Government Association, and as exclusively revealed by LGCnet on Friday, Sir Simon Milton will be taking over.


Lord Sandy has been, in LGC's opinion, an extremely effective chair and is obviously well respected in both in central and local government circles. LGC's political editor Nick Golding interviewed Lord Bruce Lockhart ahead of him stepping down, which readers can see in detail in the forthcoming July 5 issue. Without giving too much away however Lord Bruce Lockhart had some strong words to say about how the government handled the publication of Sir Michael Lyons' report.

He said: "When they've commissioned a report that had taken five years of work and a very large amount of people's time, to reject the bulk of its recommendations with 24 hours is, I think, disgraceful."

Meanwhile, what do we know about Sir Simon Milton? He set out his stall on what he wanted to do as chair exclusively in LGC last month, which is archived online for LGCnet subscribers. For non-subscibers however here is a summary of his three main priorities:

"We must have a relentless focus on council performance in terms of service quality and value for money. Nobody should be able to claim that councils aren't up to the job. I would look to create a performance board at the LGA with a commissioning role that would lead to a significant reshaping of the currently confusing array of support bodies.

We must take responsibility for generating local solutions to problems rather than waiting for Whitehall guidance. Collectively, as a sector and across the political parties, we have some of the best brains in public service. I want to make better use of them as one-size-fits-all Whitehall solutions rarely work.

Finally, we need to promote and celebrate the importance of local democracy and not just local services. We need to re-connect local democratic institutions with the people they serve. That means listening to the public on issues like weekly rubbish collections."

Nick Golding is interviewing Sir Simon on Monday however so we hope to have some more detail then on how he now intends to go about achieving these, working in partnership with chief executive Paul Coen.

Added by Nina Lovelace