Community Politics in the 21St Century Community Politics in the 21St Century 3 Chapter 1
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Local Government Leadership Local Government House Smith Square London SW1P 3HZ Telephone 020 7187 7388 Fax 020 7187 7383 Email [email protected] www.local.gov.uk Great places need ambitious leadership to inspire local communities and create a better future for the people and localities they represent. Local Government Leadership works with local leaders, shifting thinking on leadership, enabling councils to work effectively with others and transforming communities for the better. Now more than ever, we need to raise the aspiration of politics locally. Through our 21st Century Councillor campaign we are committed to helping local politicians reinvigorate local democracy and ensure councillors are on the front line of building vibrant local societies. The challenge facing local government is to empower communities and individuals with a sense Community Politics in of civic pride for their place. We believe councillors should take the lead in © Local Government Leadership, September 2010 devolving power to people and the 21st century For a copy in Braille, Welsh, larger print or audio, communities and we work with the main please contact us on 020 7187 7388 political parties to respond to this The challenges and opportunities for community politicians We consider requests on an individual basis. challenge in their own way, developing and sharing their thinking on this agenda L10-710 within party traditions and values. Foreword Localism is this year’s buzz word, wrapped general power of competence. This is central up in the shiny new catch phrase the ‘Big government giving councils the freedom to get The work of DCLG in an empowering Society’. But it is not so new for those on with the job of local government. The freedom and enabling environment Liberal Democrats who remember the to innovate. To experiment. To deliver. dramatic launch of Community Politics back Already there are Lib Dem councils up and in the ‘70s. It has come round again, and it’s down the country chomping at the bit to get based on recognition that communities Andrew Stunell MP going. Sutton Council has had the honour of aren’t all the same, understanding that they Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government being chosen as one of the four vanguard have different needs and allowing them to councils to pilot Big Society programmes, and take their own decisions. Localism has long are coming up with an array of pioneering been one of the core beliefs of Liberal and inventive ideas. I keep hearing from others Democrats, but with the centralised state that that are eager to follow suit. has grown at pace over the last half-century, too often local communities have found themselves Liberal Democrat councils have consistently being dictated to from the centre. Power was in shown that they can come up with a variety of the grasp of the national politicians, and not in new ideas to tackle countless every day the hands of the people. problems despite the restrictions previously imposed from the centre. The Big Society is all The difference now is that there is a majority about giving our councils the freedom to do even Coalition Government committed to reversing more, and to develop and implement genuine that. Liberal Democrats have an unparalleled local solutions to suit their local circumstances. opportunity to deliver on the changes we have Sure, we’ll still collect and share best practice, planned for decades. We can now reverse but the days of councils having to blindly follow creeping state centralisation, and put power central government diktat are over. back in the hands of local communities. We can turn government upside down – ‘power It won’t all be plain sailing. The nation’s finances from bottom up, not top down’ – just have been left in dire straits by a Labour like we’ve talked about for years. government that was spending money like water. Difficult decisions will have to be made, And at Communities and Local Government but that only makes a localist agenda even we’re wasting no time in getting things started. more crucial. Councils won’t be able to provide The Localism and Decentralisation Bill will effective solutions to the problems that they face pave the way for the long-overdue push of whilst wearing a centrally-imposed straight powers out of Whitehall to councils and jacket. ‘Business as usual’ just isn’t an option neighbourhoods across the country, and give any more. Councils will have to innovate and Contents local communities real control over housing come up with new ideas and new solutions, and planning decisions. It will help set the ready or not. Foreword 2 foundations for the Big Society by radically Chapter 1 – Community Politics in a changing society 4 transforming the relationships between central I look forward to readers of this challenging government, local government, communities publication ‘getting the bug’, and getting stuck Chapter 2 – Advancing Community Politics: 11 and individuals. in, at their local community and local council the role of local government level, to a once in a life-time transformation of The bill will also be crucial in two other aspects. ‘subjects’ into ‘citizens’. Chapter 3 – Community Politics in practice 30 It will free councils up to select their own Chapter 4 – The way forward for Community Politics 48 governance structure, even allowing them to We’ve got an immense opportunity ahead of us return to the old committee system if they to really do local government differently in this Chapter 5 – 30 years of Community Politics 51 choose. But most crucially, it will give councils a country. We need to seize it with both hands. 2 Community Politics in the 21st century Community Politics in the 21st century 3 Chapter 1 Lib Dems have always believed that collective governance and embed it as a way of ‘doing Community Politics decisions should be made at the level closest government’ after many years in which we to those at the receiving end of the decisions. could only campaign through it and for it. in a changing society This is because we believe that people have a This Government has already done much to right to autonomy over their own lives, that they sweep away barriers posed by regulations, have a responsibility for themselves and those bureaucracies and quangos. Now it is up to Councillor Richard Kemp around them and also that decisions taken at us to deliver changes. Leader, LGA Liberal Democrats the lowest level, especially with regard to We know that there are not as many people services, are usually the most efficient ones. as active in local decision making as we Societal change and the current fiscal situation would like, but we also know that people have recently led to a wider political recognition would like to be informed more than they are. of the value of the last two of these principles, The challenge for Liberal Democrats in power Young Liberal amendment to party strategy passed responsibility and efficiency, giving rise to an and opposition is to create the structures unprecedented opportunity for the Lib Dems to within our councils where communities can at Liberal Party Conference, Eastbourne, 1970 put their long-held ideals into practice. flourish, where we provide services that “A dual approach to politics, acting both inside and outside the We should not underestimate the significant people want (not what we think they want) and where people are involved to the extent institutions of the political establishment, to help organise people in move that even uttering the phrase ‘Big Society’ represents in the Tory Party with the and in the way that they want. After 40 years their communities, to take and use power to build a Liberal power- many aspects of Community Politics can now base in the major cities of this country, to identify with the under- last Tory PM but one telling us all, “There is no such thing as society”. Nor should we leave the drawing board and become a reality. privileged in this country and the world, to capture people’s underestimate the fact that many in the Tory imagination as a credible political movement, with local roots and Party instinctively side with the Thatcherite The politics of the community local successes.” view rather than the Cameron one. in a modern age Achieving genuine devolution of power will In 1970 the Young Liberal Conference and require the removal of many institutional then the Liberal Assembly adopted what it barriers such as Whitehall targets but it will called the dual approach to politics. It also need movement at the ground level to implied, work to get elected to councils and meet the challenge and take responsibility for Parliament but also practice Community changes in the community. Without this Politics. Show that Liberalism means movement to inform and involve all members something by working with people, of a community, the mere removal of barriers ‘all year round – not just at election time’. to community action risks only empowering a Show that a liberal society would look, feel few active people, often at the expense of and taste different. everyone else. It is this version of ‘Community Right from the start it was appreciated that If Big Society is the question then Community Politics is the answer Politics’ that Lib Dems have made their own good Community Politics would lead to good 1 over the years and from which they have election results. The barn storming act of a The phrase of the moment in certain circles is Big Society. reaped the rewards politically, as predecessor of mine in Liverpool’s Church Big Society has been seen by some as the Tory version representatives of the whole community.