House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee Councillors on the frontline Sixth Report of Session 2012–13 Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Additional written evidence is contained in Volume II, available on the Committee website at www.parliament.uk/clgcom Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 17 December 2012 HC 432 Published on 10 January 2013 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £23.00 The Communities and Local Government Committee The Communities and Local Government Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for Communities and Local Government. Current membership Mr Clive Betts MP (Labour, Sheffield South-East) (Chair) Bob Blackman MP (Conservative, Harrow East) Simon Danczuk MP (Labour, Rochdale) Bill Esterson MP (Labour, Sefton Central) Stephen Gilbert MP (Liberal Democrat, St Austell and Newquay) David Heyes MP (Labour, Ashton under Lyne) James Morris MP (Conservative, Halesowen and Rowley Regis) Mark Pawsey MP (Conservative, Rugby) Andy Sawford MP (Labour, Corby) John Stevenson MP (Conservative, Carlisle) Heather Wheeler MP (Conservative, South Derbyshire) Heidi Alexander MP (Labour, Lewisham East) and George Hollingbery (Conservative, Meon Valley) were also members of the Committee during this inquiry. Powers The committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the internet at www.parliament.uk/parliament.uk/clg. A list of Reports of the Committee in the present Parliament is at the back of this volume. The Reports of the Committee, the formal minutes relating to that report, oral evidence taken and some or all written evidence are available in a printed volume. Additional written evidence may be published on the internet only. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Glenn McKee (Clerk), Sarah Heath (Second Clerk), Stephen Habberley (Inquiry Manager), Kevin Maddison (Committee Specialist), Emily Gregory (Senior Committee Assistant), Mandy Sullivan (Committee Assistant), Stewart McIlvenna, (Committee Support Assistant) and Hannah Pearce (Media Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Communities and Local Government Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 1234; the Committee’s email address is [email protected] Councillors on the frontline 1 Contents Report Page Summary 3 1 Introduction 5 The Councillors Commission 6 Our inquiry 6 Our report 7 2 Localism and the role of councillors 8 Councillors in the community 8 Working with external organisations 10 Empowering councillors 11 Influence over “outsourced” services 13 “Guided” and “muscular” localism 14 Structures and elections 14 Neighbourhood councils 14 Unitary authorities 15 Election arrangements 17 Ward composition 17 Structures and elections: conclusion 18 3 Representation and local democracy 19 The role of political parties 20 Looking beyond political parties 23 Independent councillors 25 The role of local government: promoting local democracy 26 Be a Councillor programme 28 4 Barriers to becoming and remaining a councillor 30 Time commitment 30 Employers 32 Remuneration 33 5 Councillor performance and training 37 Training 38 Skills 38 Providers of training 39 Training before election 41 6 Conclusion 42 Annex: Communities and Local Government Committee Discussion Forum 43 Conclusions and recommendations 57 2 Councillors on the frontline Formal Minutes 63 Witnesses 64 List of printed written evidence 65 List of additional written evidence 65 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 67 Councillors on the frontline 3 Summary The role of councillors is changing and becoming increasingly community-based. In future, councillors will be expected to spend more time out and about supporting their constituents, working with external organisations (such as GPs, schools, police, local businesses and voluntary organisations) and ensuring communities make the most of all the opportunities available to them. Councils should be devolving power and resources to their members to enable them to fulfil this role: we have seen some examples of good practice from which other councils can learn. The Government, in turn, has to fully embrace localism and give local authorities real ability to make decisions. With this new role, it is important that communities have councillors to whom they can relate. At present, the membership of many local authorities does not reflect the demographic make-up of the communities they serve. It is important to increase, for example, the proportion of women, younger people and black and minority ethnic people serving on local authorities. The political parties have an important part to play in this, and are already taking action; they need to make a concerted effort to ensure that their national policies are implemented in all parts of the country. Local authorities have to do more to promote democratic engagement, and popularise the idea of becoming a councillor. We identified three key practical barriers to people becoming and remaining councillors. First, some people are put off by the time commitment involved: as the role becomes increasingly demanding, councils should consider providing councillors with officer support to help them, for instance, to manage their casework. Second, employers do not always take a positive view of their staff becoming councillors and may not give them the support or time off work they need: the Government should consider whether employers can be given any encouragement or incentives to support their employees who are councillors. Third, while people do not become councillors for the money, the levels of allowances can be a deterrent to people standing for election. Councillors shy away from increasing allowances because they are conscious of the negative public and press reaction: to address this issue, councils should be given the power to transfer decisions about allowances to independent local bodies. It is important that appropriate mechanisms are in place to support councillors’ performance and train them in the skills they need. Councillors should be encouraged to report to their communities on their performance over the year; the parties should take this performance into account when deciding whether or not to reselect a councillor. Training should be adapted to meet the changing role of councillors, and should be considered a benefit, not a cost, to the local taxpayer. At a time when councillors are being called on to make increasingly difficult decisions about service reductions and budget priorities, they have more need than ever for the support and resources to enable them to undertake this role. It is therefore important that there are sufficient resources in place to meet their training and development needs. Councillors on the frontline 5 1 Introduction 1. Effective local democracy requires effective councillors. Up and down the country, councillors work tirelessly for their communities, as representatives, caseworkers, advocates, providers of scrutiny, and in countless other ways. Attention, however, is rarely given to who these councillors are and what their functions are, especially when compared to the bright spotlight beneath which national politicians live and operate. In conducting this inquiry, we have considered a number of issues about the role of councillors on principal authorities: the nature of their relationship with the communities they serve; approaches to recruiting candidates; barriers that might deter people from becoming councillors; and whether councillors are given the support and training they need to carry out the job effectively. 2. The last couple of decades have seen a number of changes to local government and the role of councillors, perhaps the most significant of which arose from the Local Government Act 2000. This Act brought about the end of the traditional “committee system” and required councils to choose one of four options for a new political structure: two involved directly elected mayors; one a ‘leader and cabinet’ model; and the fourth option, available only to smaller councils, a streamlined committee structure.1 Most councils opted for the leader and cabinet model.2 It led to a split on local authorities between a small number of members with executive functions, and the remaining “backbench” councillors. These non-executive councillors were expected to play a stronger role in representing their community, and also to take on a role in scrutinising executive decision-making.3 3. More recently, the Coalition Government has placed particular emphasis upon the concept of localism. Soon after its formation in May 2010, it committed itself to ending “the era of top-down government by giving new powers to local councils, communities, neighbourhoods and individuals”.4 In a speech the following month, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP, stated that he had three “very clear priorities” for government: “localism [...] localism [...] and [...] localism”.5