23 August 2002
The local government reforms will turn authorities into 'performing dogs', desperate to please ministers in order to win a small measure of freedom, a leading local government figure has warned.
Peter Rogers, the outspoken chief executive of Westminster City Council, has launched a blistering attack on the measures outlined in the draft Local Government Bill.
He told Public Finance that, far from giving councils greater autonomy, the proposals would merely reinforce the current 'parent-child' relationship between local authorities and Whitehall. 'The promised freedoms should be given to all councils, not just a few successful ones, and then taken away from the few that are failing. These plans are very divisive,' Rogers said. 'Councils will end up like performing dogs hoping to get a biscuit.'
He called on ministers to spell out the much vaunted 'freedoms and flexibilities ' that the draft Bill promises, and include them when it is laid before Parliament.
'I would like to see a timetable for the freedoms and flexibilities and a document that says exactly what they will be. They should be included in the Bill and not introduced through regulations.'
Rogers criticised the government for refusing to cede overall control in a range of areas where it claims to be devolving power to councils. He cited the reserve powers to place limits on councils' ability to borrow for capital projects under the new prudential system as just one example.
Rogers voiced his criticisms of the draft Bill in the same week that the Local Government Association was due to submit its response to the consultation by the August 23 deadline. The organisation was expected to give the draft Bill its cautious backing, but urge the government not to delay its introduction to Parliament.
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