Alex Thomson in The MJ: The sun shines on the LGA
Author: Alex Thomson, Localis |
Localis’ Alex Thomson writes in the MJ on the mood at the LGA conference this year.
Nothing says the start of summer like the LGA’s annual conference and this year the atmosphere was pleasingly upbeat.
Perhaps it was due to the sunny weather. Or maybe it was because everyone was reflecting on another successful year of local government delivery, despite the ongoing ratchet of financial pressure? A triumph made more piquant, as it is every summer, by the knowledge that councils need to keep on functioning and providing vital services all year round, unlike the Whitehall machine, which tends to grind to a halt as the mercury rises.
Could it be that the optimistic new faces in the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) ministerial team, seemingly everywhere as they went about reinvigorating the department’s relationship with the sector, proved infectious? Possibly, though the spending review may dampen the mood somewhat.
Perhaps, everyone was revelling in Localis’s new essay collection on the future of healthcare? Or maybe everyone was just looking forward to England regaining the Ashes this summer? Let’s hope so.
All of these could be true (although I fear the last may prove painfully tense whatever the result) but the most likely reason for the bullish mood at the conference was that it was the first mass congregation of council people since we entered what is beginning to look like a new era for local government.
With the new government opening up the possibility of securing devolution deals to all parts of the country and to all tiers of governance, there is now a matchless opportunity for councils to come together and bid for power.
It’s an immensely exciting period and one that we at Localis will be exploring in depth as part of a project on the mechanics of devolution deals that we are doing with Grant Thornton over the next few months.
With the Government promising bespoke deals to each locality, there is much to investigate and discuss. So if any of The MJ’s readers have anything you would like to contribute, please do get in touch.