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The Prosser Perspective.... a weekly column from Dover and Deal MP Gwyn Prosser.

6 August 2009

It was hardly noticed by most of the national press but last week the Communities Secretary John Denham heralded the biggest single transfer of power to local government in a generation – allowing Councils to fight their corner on your behalf.

Fundamental reforms being proposed by Government in the Strengthening Local Democracy Consultation will result in a radical strengthening of local democracy by giving citizens a much bigger role in shaping the places in which they live and the public services they use.

Councillors will be given enhanced scrutiny power and take a lead role in ending bureaucracy, ending duplication, increasing value for money and personalising services. They’ll have local influence and accountability over more than £100 billion of public money a year that is currently spent on key local public services but sits outside your elected councillors' control.

During my ten years on Dover District Council I always found it deeply frustrating that so many services which we were responsible for were largely outside our control when it came to financing them and we were often restricted by central government into doing things in a prescribed and inflexible manner.

The Government’s new proposals are designed to maximise the financial freedoms of Councils. For instance, through crucial changes to council house financing to enable local authorities to keep all their rental income and gain the freedom to manage their housing to meet local needs. This is an area of reform which my Constituency Labour Party and I have been campaigning on since the Thatcher years. I’m disappointed it’s taken so long but I warmly welcome the changes.

Other reforms which will help secure the long-term economic prosperity of our communities will include new discretionary powers to raise a supplement on the business rate and retain their funds to support local projects aimed at economic development – this will be especially welcomed in places like Dover where we have seriously ambitious plans for regeneration.

When I was elected to Kent County Council in 1989, Kent had responsibility for commissioning education and training provision for 16-19 year olds through the Further Education Colleges but within a few years Mrs Thatcher broke the local funding link and institutions like our own South Kent College (SKC) had to go direct to central government for the dwindling amount of financial support available. This change left lots of colleges worst off, SKC suffered more than most and it’s never really recovered.

During Tony Blair’s watch the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was created with the purpose of distributing funding for our FE Colleges but as part of Labour’s Strengthening Local Democracy proposals responsibility for some £7 billion a year will be transferred to local authorities next year.

Local democracy starts with the citizen. The changes being proposed are not about strengthening councils for their own sake, rather to strengthen the rights of citizens through their elected representatives, and making sure local government can really fight their corner for local people – and what true democrat would argue against that?