Michael Howard: local leadership in a perfect storm
Author: Michael Howard, in the Guardian Professional |
Councils need to become drivers of growth, but leaders shouldn’t wait to be told to make their move
Local government is facing a perfect storm: an economy in need of a boost; austerity, with reduced funding for public services and the councils that provide them; new reforms from government which cry out for local leadership.
When I was leader of the Conservative Party, I initiated the James Review which identified £35bn in savings across the public sector. It was controversial and some of the figures were hotly disputed by my political opponents. The siren claim of the time was that it was simply not possible to make such savings and improve services at the same time. More for less could not be done. How very old fashioned that sounds today.
It’s not simply a question of cost pressures for local authorities. Localism is already re-shaping the dynamic of many of the public services councils deliver. Personal budgets in social services are changing the relationship between citizens and councils. The new ‘right to challenge’ will further open up many of the services and functions of the traditional local authority. Councils will more and more commission services and hold those delivering them to account on behalf of their residents.
This perfect storm offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for local government. I would argue that local government now lives in an opportunity society, some may call it a permissive society.
One in which councils must define their role by action, not by right. In defining a new local leadership, I would argue it has two strands: economic, and civic, national imperatives at a local level. Of all of these, economic leadership is now the most critical.
Councils need to become local drivers for growth and jobs. They have a pivotal role to play in promoting place and creating an environment conducive to business. Who should know the companies on their doorsteps best? Who controls planning? Who has the scale to stimulate new investment and growth? Who is best placed to join up locally? Local authorities.
Civic leadership is closely linked to this. I define it as standing up for the interests of your residents. It’s not just issuing a press release here or a newspaper story there, it’s a complete cultural change. You will know you are doing it when your residents look to you as a matter of course and your services are changing to reflect new demands while, as councils, you are increasingly commissioning these services and not delivering them yourselves.
In short: how do you change your role in the public eye from apologist if things go wrong in a service you deliver, to community champion – acting on behalf of your residents – to ensure that somebody else is delivering them right.
The beauty is that the challenges in achieving this for council X may not be the challenges for council Y, and nor should they be.
The Economist last month wrote of “political petri dishes” and the flourishing of “bottom-up localism”. It looked to Barnet’s ‘Easycouncil’ and the Tri-boroughs at one end of the political spectrum and Islington’s “fairness commission” and Lambeth’s co-operative council model at the other. Kent, Essex and East Sussex among others demonstrate further work to do things differently, rising to the challenge of localism in an era of austerity: where Wandsworth’s pioneering privatisation helped transform the national economy of the 1980s, today we have an “accidental revolution” in local government.
The joy of it is that you don’t have to be told or wait for permission. Local government has entered a new and exciting phase and you are the leaders who can redefine local democracy and local leadership by what you do.
The culture of government has changed. Leaders should no longer wait for national approval to take local action; no longer ask for sweeping new powers when the power to do almost anything through the power of competence rests in your own hands; no longer seek meetings with ministers if only to tell them your problems when all they really want is to get out of the way of your solutions.
This year, the Olympics and Paralympics inspired a new generation of athletes. By your leadership at a local level – by reinvigorating the role of the local councillor and by exciting the leaders of tomorrow – you too can inspire a generation.
The wave of the perfect storm has formed and it is up to you to ride it. The national economic situation undoubtedly provides a challenging backdrop, but it also presents a major opportunity for local government. Fortune, I hope, will favour the brave.
Lord Howard is the former leader of the Conservative party and former home secretary. This is an abridged version of the Sir Sandy Bruce Lockhart memorial lecture, supported by Localis, which he delivered on 18 October 2012