Gordon Brown’s report should warm the heart of every localist
This article was first published by the LGC.
Adam Lent argues the former prime minister has produced the most radical devolutionary programme from either of the two big parties in decades, but far less ambitious plans than this have become lost in the weeds of internal party politics.
To be honest, when I heard that the Labour Party had asked Gordon Brown to head up its commission on the future of the UK constitution, my heart sank. Brown is a man with a reputation as a traditional, top-down social democrat keen to pull every Westminster lever to achieve his personal vision of a new Britain. Today, I am very pleased to admit that I was sorely misled! The former PM has produced a report that is the most radical devolutionary programme presented by either of the two big parties in decades.
The radicalism begins with a striking change in tone. For years now, we have got used to devolution being presented in largely technocratic, economic terms. From the early days of the Coalition Government right up to the recent Levelling-Up White Paper, the goal of reform was higher regional productivity and growth. By contrast, Brown’s starting-point is a failing state – one that has lost the trust of the people, cannot deliver regional equality and has messed up public services. The report makes a passionate case that these failures are the result of a hyper-centralised system that simply cannot deliver, precisely because it is so centralised.
The former PM has produced a report that is the most radical devolutionary programme presented by either of the two big parties in decades.
As such, the report breaks with the history of half-hearted devo deals and competitive funding pots, detailing instead a thoroughgoing reform programme. Local government autonomy and the subsidiarity principle would be written into law. Control over skills, employment support, transport, housing, infrastructure and childcare would be devolved with the exact nature of the body receiving those powers to be developed locally rather than imposed from above. Councils would have new fiscal freedoms and three-year financial settlements. Individual councils would get a fast-track process to introduce legislation to Parliament to draw down powers from Westminster to the local level. And the reformed upper chamber, the Assembly of the Nations and Regions, would act as a constitutional and political guarantor of this new settlement.
The new community power forms of public service delivery and participatory democracy that many councils have been developing also appear, with a call for a Labour Government to make the approach its touchstone for reform of all public services.
far less ambitious devo programmes than this have got lost in the weeds of internal party politicking and the day-to-day pressures of governing.
Of course, the big unknown is how much of this will actually come to pass. At the report launch this morning, Keir Starmer was notably feisty in defence of the report’s recommendations when confronted by journalistic cynicism. But far less ambitious devo programmes than this have got lost in the weeds of internal party politicking and the day-to-day pressures of governing. There are many hurdles to jump for Brown’s agenda – not least Labour actually getting elected with a majority big enough to enact it. But as an intervention into the long-running debate on where exactly the balance of political and economic power should lie in this country, Gordon Brown has done local government and communities an unexpected favour.
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