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!