‘growth coalitions’ and ‘smart local government’
new regimes for regeneration and public services in the context of the future of local government
Quotations
John Healey MP, Minister for Local Government speech 'Local Government Futures: the New Central Local Relationship' to Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Conference, 15 May 2008:
I chaired an LAA workshop yesterday, with five demonstration areas. One senior Council manager said:
"We're having a new type of conversation about local priorities and, with these other agencies, we're completely focussed on our 35 priorities".
A Police Chief Superintendent put it more bluntly, saying:
"LAAs have given our partnerships a kick up the backside… I've now got the Director of Children's Services chairing the youth crime taskforce and the PCT chairing the drugs and alcohol strategy, when before they just turned up to some of the meetings".
If we can make this LAA approach work over the next couple of years, why should we not see this as a potential way that the centre commission and funds local services - well beyond local government, with stronger shared services, pooled budgets, duties to co-operate, and cross-agency scrutiny?
Chancellor switches strategy with new working neighbourhoods fund:
Independent policy and regeneration consultant Adam Fineberg welcomed the government’s commitment to a new strategic and focused approach to regeneration policy.
He added: ‘Government policy now represents a step change away from the national strategy for neighbourhood renewal and the pepper-pot approach to funding and delivering regeneration.
‘The Ł2bn available over the next three years will incentivise more strategically focused renewal programmes, with a strengthened emphasis on economic development in local areas.
‘Growth, as the overarching objective for wide-ranging renewal activity, will ensure that there is a bigger, more productive, bang for the buck in pursuing truly sustainable communities.’ New Start, 12 October 2007 new
Rt. Hon. Phil Woolas, Lyons Review conference, 27 March 2007 stated:
"Local governments' responsibility and power over other public service sector expenditure is spot on...through the sustainable Community strategy"
"Phase two LAAs from 2008 are in effect local governments' spending plans...with influence over public sector agencies in the area...resulting in financial efficiency and effectiveness of better joining-up"
Sir Michael Lyons, Lyons Review conference, 27 March 2007 stated:
"The vision for local government of the future is of strong, confident local government with the ability to improve well-being and prosperity in every community"
Rt. Hon. Ruth Kelly states:
"...the role of councils as local leaders, economic as well as social development...are themes central to the next phase of Labour's reform package", letter to Local Government Chronicle, 15 June 2006
Lyons Inquiry into Local Government, Spring Paper, 8 May 2006
"It involves developing a vision for the area, linking together the priorities and resources of a range of organisations in the pursuit of overall priorities, as well as actually organising the actions needed to improve the delivery of services and the achievement of outcomes for individuals and areas…"
"...effective local government, and place-shaping, can be about recognising when it is necessary to build coalitions or seek support outside an authority’s own boundaries to achieve certain outcomes"
"In enhancing social well-being, local government’s role lies both in delivering and influencing services and the strategic approach to economic development."
was the icing on the cake!
"Actions needed for place-shaping: Building coalitions and consensus about the direction of travel (councils will need to build coalitions of interest with other players who have a role to play in making change work...to engage more actively in the coalition-building)"
"Adam Fineberg, consultant and author of the Growth Coalitions project, says: "It's difficult to ascertain the extent to which LSPs have added value." Fineberg argues that the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal, published in 2001, did not provide LSPs with a key driver. As a result, he says, many LSPs have taken a "scattergun approach" that has not been strategic or resulted in significant outcomes for local people. "There is a pepper-potting of expenditure on programmes," he says. "However, the sum total of the work is not creating a step change." Fineberg argues that LSPs need an "over-arching economic imperative" - local strategic partnerships feature, Regeneration and Renewal, 27 January 2006
Phil Woolas MP, LGA LAA conference, 11 January 2006:
"developing the strategic function of local government requires the engagement of the private sector"
"the lsp is the partnership of partnerships, the local council is first among equals"
"political, economic and social leadership through LAAs requires strong leadership"
"only local government has the democratic legitimacy to lead...drawing people together around shared ambitions...with responsibility for 20 to 22 per cent of total local public expenditure...the rest is not accountable" - Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, LGA LAA conference, 11 January 2006
The Rt. Hon. David Miliband states:
"Our vision for the role of the LSP is that it takes the strategic lead in the locality by bringing together the views of the local partners" - drawing on 'growth coalitions' and 'smart local government' - 'local strategic partnerships: shaping their future – a consultation paper' 8 december 2005
"LSPs have the opportunity to drive forward an agenda that recognises the economic development role of mainstream services; something that economic development agencies do not have the capacity to undertake. This is particularly important given the impact of such activities on local economic well-being. It should therefore be a priority of LSPs to act as a strategic framework and conduit between economic development agencies and mainstream service providers." - National evaluation of LSPs – Economic development issues paper, 8 december 2005
"I am basically a believer - a strong believer - that one of the lessons of history is that local coalitions are very important. The governing class cannot do it on its own. It needs to engage the business class, needs to engage citizens. You only develop coalitions around strong vision, which inspires, motivates, engages people a hundred times more than a piece of statute that commands a duty to do X, Y or Z." - The Guardian, 1 June 2005
Sir Michael Lyons states:
"I will be looking at local governments' role in facilitating economic growth through their action on infrastructure and other issues related to the competitiveness of their local area", letter to Local Government Chronicle, 20 September 2005
"I believe we want to see communities which are socially cohesive, economically vibrant, and able to celebrate their distinctiveness. Local government is not just about the provision of services. It has a major and unique role to play in helping to develop and deliver vision for its communities, making decisions and trade-offs on their behalf, and shaping a strategic view of the area and its future – a role we might refer to as ‘placeshaping’. This role requires local government to have the trust of its citizens, and effective structures and processes to support it."
The strategic role of local government
"Most people would consider a strong and successful community to be an attractive place to live and work, with effective public services and a good quality of life. Such communities will also be economically successful, providing opportunities for individuals and businesses to thrive, and socially cohesive…Local government is uniquely placed to address these aspirations. It is…responsible for promoting the wellbeing of the area."
Scope for a new agreement between central and local government
How could responsibility for local services be made clearer between local government, central government and other agencies?
What might this mean for the current performance management framework?
Would a more contractual approach for a small number of key central priorities help to achieve this?
Lyons Inquiry into Local Government, Consultation Paper and Interim Report, 15 December 2005
“Local government is able to bring together in partnership the diverse range of bodies that can contribute to the life of the community. It is uniquely well placed to act as a catalyst for building partnerships, or influencing organisations to invest in the area, or acting to get people to work together to achieve the best result for its area. This role cuts across all sectors - public, private and the voluntary and community sectors - and reaches out beyond its geographical boundaries to ensure, for example, the area is locked into regional or national initiatives.”
Rt Hon Nick Raynsford MP, then Minister of Local & Regional Government. Excerpt from a December 2004 speech on the Future of Local Government
David Miliband believes that national regeneration goals are best achieved by powerful local coalitions - as long as they are prepared to cooperate with central government:
|
|
..towns and cities growth is best driven by coalitions of the public, private and voluntary sectors..."It's all about aligning people on the ground - be they citizens, public service providers or private enterprise - with local government and central government...It's about clarity with outcomes, strategies, funding and accountability" - Rt Hon David Miliband MP, Minister of Communities and Local Government, interview in Regeneration and Renewal, 8 July 2005 |
"The plethora of overlapping, but differently funded and monitored, area based regeneration bodies has reduced the delivery effectiveness of public sector led regeneration schemes. This has been exacerbated by the disconnection of regeneration expenditure between Government Regional Offices, Regional Development Agencies and English Partnerships and the huge number of new ineffective partnerships at local and sub-regional levels" -
Lord Rogers' Urban Task Force Report, 22 November 2005|
"Building on local area agreements, local government will play a stronger role influencing policing, health, skills and transport as the first among equals among local public service providers" - Rt Hon Tony Blair MP, 'Our proposals are a vital part of the new localism', LGC, 24 November 2005 new |
|
"develop local area agreements into agreements on deploying the totality of local public resources...we want to see them grow into local agreements to deploy the totality of local public resources to meet shared local priorities" - 'The future is local', Local Government Association, 14 September 2005
|
|
"Local
area agreements also reflect work by policy and regeneration consultant Adam
Fineberg on ‘growth coalitions’ - enhanced
local strategic partnerships with a focus on economic development and
regeneration. The ‘growth coalition’ idea was first mooted in New Start (21
February 2003) and has been developed in talks with senior officials at the
Treasury and ODPM"
Julian Dobson, Editor, New Start:
'Moving targets' - New Start, 21 July 2004 |
|
"The
question then is whether some development of the LSP idea can move us
forward, leading to a simplification of decision making, a reduction of
funding streams and a joining up of council community leadership with
business acumen and investment. These ideas have
been promoted as ‘Growth Coalitions’"
- Dan Corry, Director, New Local Government Network:
'Local government can get down to business' - Local Government Chronicle, 2
July 2004". Also,
“The added value of a
democratically elected authority…in terms of its community leadership
role…includes the drive and focus it can bring, encouraging innovation at
all levels and helping to direct all major players in the area towards a
common goal”,
Dan Corry, LGC, 29 October 2004 |
|
"Primary
Care Trusts and the police need to become drawn into the local
accountability framework for at least some aspects of their work. This may
be through new, dedicated, elected bodies but may also be through giving
more leverage over them to locally based institutions...Core to all of this
is the need to really sort out a proper and crucial role for local
authorities...giving them the power to play the community leadership role
that we should be electing them for - especially in areas like liveability,
community cohesion and anti-social behaviour"
- Dan Corry:
'Fuzzy future' - Progress, 1 September 2004
"...a
Department of Devolved Governance should be created...given the “joining-up”
agenda, this new department would coordinate the local engagement of
all...in Whitehall"
- Ian Parker: 'Time to learn from modern history' - Public Servant, 25
February 2005 |
|
"Councils'
true vocation is…bringing a vision and leadership to a local community...
joining-up services, representing the area to other bodies, boosting
engagement…Community leadership…must be about influence and the ability to
make that influence count. That means ensuring town halls have the levers
needed to enable them to articulate community needs and respond to them.
Levers are diverse…they can include the power…to feed powerful concerns up
to higher tier bodies. These powers will…help councils deliver on what is
now known as the liveability agenda…to ensure that services delivered by
other public and private sector institutions reflect local needs and are
delivered effectively."
- Dan Corry:
'Councils' true vocation', The Guardian, 19 January 2005 |
|
"The
LGIU wants councils to have the role of co-ordinating the delivery of all
local public services, with new powers to scrutinise services provided by
others" - Dennis Reed, Chief Executive, Local Government Information
Unit: 'Campaign supernova' - Local Government Chronicle, 21 January 2005 |
|
"On a minimalist view, a local public service board might be no more than a subgroup of the local strategic partnership drawn from the public-sector component. The most radical interpretation would go much further, and allocate all growth money emerging from a spending review to the board", 'smart localism', the Smith Institute, March 2005 |
|
"Deprived areas have seen a series of area-based initiatives. But their
track record is not great. Even now, questions are being asked about
neighbourhood renewal fund areas. We've seen them come and go, but with
little marked improvement in outcomes for the people who live there. The
problem is that area-based initiatives are too inward-looking. They breed a
culture of dependency on central government funding. And they lack a strong
economic dimension. Instead we need to connect deprived neighbourhoods with
their local and regional economies", 'The price of poverty', Dermot Finch
and Dominic Maxwell, ipprs' centre for cities -
Progress, 1 September 2005 |
|
"Devolution and local decision-making empower public service staff and professionals, allowing services to be tailored to meet local needs and encouraging innovative approaches to delivery. For example;...the Government is also developing the relationship between central and local government...piloting Local Area Agreements." 'Pre Budget Report 2004', Ch. 6 - 'Delivering high quality public services' |
"how
do we achieve social cohesion and economic success locally" Rt Hon Gordon
Brown MP
"we need to achieve social justice and economic success" Rt Hon Patricia
Hewitt MP
Both speaking at compass conference, 23 October 2004
