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Lucy Nicholson reveals...
Meet the entrepreneur on a mission to cool down stresses execs over a hot stove at her base in Cumbria. EN reaches for the blue plasters as Lucy Nicholson reveals...
| Wiping away the tiers |
| Thursday, 30 November 2006 | |
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EN's new political commentator, Jim Hancok reports. With bonfire night already a fading memory, I’m reluctant to use the epithet “damp squib” to describe the recent White Paper on local government. But in many people’s eyes it is indeed something of a wet pyrotechnic.What goes on in the Town and County Halls of the North West is, at best, a mystery and often an irritation to most business people. Entrepreneurs trying to earn a crust don’t take kindly to councils telling them they can’t build here and can’t park there. The reality is that much good work is done by councils. Services vital to everyone ranging from caring for kids and the elderly to collecting the rubbish are all overseen by them. But they are activities that don’t set the pulse racing – except when there is a foul-up. Then the media pack descends and finds what? Often a hapless council leader that nobody has heard of delivering a defensive performance that England keeper Paul Robinson could identify with. What local government desperately needs is clarity of structure and high profile accountability of its leadership. Bolton MP Ruth Kelly’s White Paper has made some proposals to achieve this, but they are likely to prove ineffective. Why? Because the White Paper is a victim of the black cloud of uncertainty that hangs over the whole Government this winter...the unresolved struggle between Blair and Brown. Blair is a fan of elected mayors and city regions. Brown puts his faith in bodies like the North West Development Agency. So we have a White Paper with confusing proposals and half-hearted solutions. Top-tier councils like Liverpool, Manchester and the shire counties are to be major partners in a new contract with central government. They are expected to work with their partners in health and the police force to deliver national policies like education, health and crime reduction. Beyond that, Ruth Kelly promises to give councils more freedom to decide local priorities. And the business community is promised a much bigger say. But on the vexed question of “city regions”, the White Paper is inconclusive with no indication of new powers or funding, despite a model for this already existing in Greater Manchester. There, the Government’s golden boy Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council, has helped set up a de facto city region already. Influenced as well by Lord Peter Smith of Wigan, the ten districts of Greater Manchester have agreed to sink their differences and sell the powerful brand of Manchester. The Central Lancashire city-region, based on Preston and with the second largest economy in the North West, is ready to roll, too. However on Merseyside there remains a reluctance by some of the councils to get fully behind the Liverpool city brand. Where does all this leave Hazel Harding and Paul Findlow? As the leaders of Lancashire and Cheshire gaze out of their County Hall castles, they resemble knights besieged by the armies of all-purpose unitary councils. Although shying away from a bold decision to sweep away all two-tier council arrangements, the Government is going to allow a few new single tier councils to be formed. Preston and South Ribble and the city of Chester are potential candidates to go it alone. That would leave both counties, proud of their cheeses, looking more like slices of emmental. However, my sources suggest that the most likely change is the creation of one all-purpose council for Cumbria. None of this will end the complex structure of local government in the region. We’ll still have the 57 varieties of metropolitan and shire districts, county and unitary councils. And what about high-profile leaders? Are we about to get a clutch of Ken Livingstones? Unlikely. Take elected mayors. At the moment, there are two campaigns to trigger a referendum in Liverpool. The donnish former BBC broadcaster Liam Fogarty and the youthful champion of entrepreneurs Frank McKenna are both trying to get enough signatures to secure the vote. The Government will now scrap that hurdle and leave it to a straight vote of councillors. But as the ruling Lib Dems are opposed and the public don’t seem very interested, the plan may flop. So, post-White Paper it will be largely business as usual for councils and their partners in private firms. But watch out for more significant change (maybe even some real devolution of power?) to North West bodies when Gordon Brown delivers his Comprehensive Spending Review in the spring. Coming from the new (or about to be) Prime Minister’s mouth, let’s hope we can expect something less damp squib and more sky rocket.       |
