I believe that local government can be most effective for local people when Councils are given more freedoms by central government to make decisions more locally. Ultimately, any form of government is most accountable when they have full control over their own tax and spending powers, which is why in Scotland the SNP resist full fiscal autonomy because they would be found very wanting. Since 2010 under the Coalition and since this year under the Conservative government, we have seen the biggest transfer of powers from central to local government in a generation.
By 2020, councils will be 100% funded by council tax, business rates and other local revenues rather than reliant on grants from central government. This shift to financial autonomy will bring real accountability to local government and bring greater realism to local politics. Ever since 2010, we have had an incessant chorus of local Labour politicians cynically complaining about reductions in funding from central government, while the country recovers from the last Labour government that wrecked the public finances in the first place. There will be no hiding place for local political failings when you are raising and spending all your revenue locally.
To help Councils make the journey to full financial autonomy, the Conservative government has taken the unprecedented step of offering a four-year financial settlement to Council which wish to plan ahead and the overall amount of money being allocated to local Councils will remain unchanged at over £44 billion from this year until 2019. While there are increasing demands on services that is higher than the actual inflation rate of zero, the actual amount of funding is not reducing, despite what Labour like to claim.
There are certainly some tough challenges in local government if we are to protect and enhance good local services here in Crawley. I take the view that knuckling down and getting on in meeting those challenges is much better than Labour’s local priority of using the Council to politically attack the government, while simultaneously claiming the credit for the achievements of the last Conservative Administration at Crawley Borough Council.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
23rd December 2015