Councils ’should have more autonomy’
An informal group of MPs has called for local authorities to be more independent and manage their own monies.
A cross-party group of MPs and peers, the Chamberlain Group (not to be confused with a finance management company of the same name), said that councils should be free to generate their own revenue and spend it how they see fit.
Also, the government should work more closely with local authorities when drawing up national policy and there should be yearly meetings of a joint committee to monitor the progress of devolution.
Former Labour local government minister Nick Raynsford said: “To counter public cynicism about political institutions and low levels of turnout in elections, we have to find new ways to engage citizens in the political process. More devolution of power and the active involvement of local communities in decision-making are essential if we are to rebuild confidence in our democracy locally and nationally.”
And former Conservative local government minister David Curry said the government and opposition parties should look to turning their rhetoric about devolution of power “into firm measures to deliver it”.
Two years in the making, the group’s report said that the current state of affairs, where councils generate around 25 per cent of their revenue themselves, needs to change and the government needs to realise that different regions need to provide different services at different levels and centralisation cannot cater for this. Central government should only get involved as a last resort, the report said.
It went on to suggest that councils could get a percentage of income tax or car tax to fund their services. Or they could issue bonds like London has done to finance its transport network.
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