14 April 2005: The General Election for Britain’s Parliament will take place on 5 May 2005. On the same day there will be local elections in some parts of the country. After the British Prime Minister Tony Blair (Labour) announced the election date, campaigning was somewhat delayed by the papal funeral and the second wedding of Britain’s Crown Prince, Prince Charles. The election campaign by all parties started in earnest on 11 April. With the campaign now in full flow, City Mayors examines each of the parties’ policies on local government.

Labour
The saying that the longer the manifesto, the further you are from government might not be said to apply to Labour’s lengthy document, ‘Britain forward, not back’, which suspends convention by appearing in A5 format. Aside from the pitch on the economy and eye-catching initiatives around health, immigration and anti-terrorism, the party actually devote some considerable analysis to what it sees as the problems facing local government and makes specific recommendations in this area. Tensions are present between the government and local councils due to a perceived lack of available resources and the pace of modernisation being forced upon councils.

Acknowledging the need to renew Britain’s transport infrastructure, its section on the economy claims that a re-elected Blair government would seek to solve the dispute over who will fund the much-needed Crossrail project to join-up rail links between East and West London and would support light rail elsewhere as part of integrated transport, but only if such schemes represent value for money. It goes on to promise free off-peak bus travel for all pensioners and disabled people and the power for local councils to provide more generous schemes in this area, as well as to promote more cycling and walking. Surprisingly, given recent curbs on their powers, it also promises more discretion for Passenger Transport Executives over local transport.

Possibly acknowledging public concern over the recent moves to allow for 24-hour drinking, it outlines plans for Alcohol Disorder Zones in city centres to allow local authorities to pay for extra policing in these areas and provide extra powers to close down premises that sell alcohol to minors and to ban persistent drunks from them also. In its ‘Local environment’ section, it promises that councils will be able to go further on tackling environmental crime and allow for universal kerbside collection by 2010.

Although the document has a section on ‘Creative cities’, this does not go into much detail beyond heralding an existing rebirth of city culture through regeneration projects. However, it does have an expansive section on the party’s plans for local government if re-elected for a third term. In particular, it promises to lift the legislative ban on the creation of parish councils in London and to endow existing parishes with greater powers to tackle anti-social behaviour. While its section on lifting bureaucratic burdens on local government by relaxing some inspection regimes and streamlining funding arrangements will not inspire much public debate, it does promise more consultation on the creation of new elected mayoralties and to examine the powers of existing mayors, as well as simplifying local elections by moving to a national election cycle for all councils with whole council elections on one date every four years. Understandably, the section on Council Tax reform is lengthy, if non-committal.

Finally, one surprise is contained in its section on devolution as it promises to allow for a review of the powers of the London Mayor and Assembly and to consider a possible further devolution of powers relating to planning, housing, economic development and transport. Whether or not this would have taken place without the Mayor of London’s readmission to the Labour Party last year is something we will never know.

Conservative
As the official opposition and the second party in Parliament, the Conservatives’ manifesto is relatively light on prescription when it comes to local government, which is surprising given that they are the party with the largest number of councils under their control in England after last year’s local elections. However, the Conservative approach to local government, despite the manifesto’s boast of their aim to ‘liberate’ local government, is pretty much to instigate a bonfire of much of the Labour government’s reforms of the last seven years.

The document, ‘The British Dream’, is light on actual proposals, but promises less interference from central government and the lifting of bureaucratic burdens on councils. Though not mentioned in the document, the party has made it known recently that it would abolish the Standards Board watchdog which monitors councillors’ conduct, axe the inspection regime and repeal the legislation which forces councils to subject the services they provide to ‘Best Value’ criteria. It does however promise an end to building on Greenfield sites and the return of planning powers to local government from unelected regional assemblies, which it has also pledged to abolish. The party also promises to consolidate on its ‘right to buy’ legacy of Margaret Thatcher (the policy that allowed council tenants to purchase their homes at a massive discount) by extending that right to tenants in housing association properties.

Prior to the election being called, the party also promised to legislate for directly-elected Police Commissioners for each police force area in England in order to connect citizens to the fight against crime. In addition, the manifesto also calls for fire brigades to be brought back under local government control. There were no statements concerning policy on elected mayors in English towns and cities. Opinion within the party varies widely and a Conservative government would be unlikely to push for the creation of more but would probably leave existing mayoralties in place.

The party’s boast of being on the side of local government against the centralising instincts of New Labour will not be taken seriously by those who remember the last Conservative government’s abolition of the Greater London Council in 1986 or the imposition of the hated Poll Tax by Margaret Thatcher as means to curb local spending.

Liberal Democrats
As Britain’s third party, the Liberal Democrats are generally thought of as the recipients of protest votes against the two main parties. But as well as increasing their share of MPs at the last election they are being taken more seriously as a party of local government, controlling a number of English cities under their banner. Which can be a problem as it is not hard to pick holes in their policies due to variances across the country, as well as the peddled perception that they are just that, a party of local government.

The party prides itself on its commitment to decentralisation and reform and local government is no exception here, with a general commitment to (like the Tories) set local councils free. The central plank of the Lib Dems’ document, ‘The Real Alternative’, is their longstanding pledge to abolish the property-based Council Tax and replace it with a Local Income Tax. This would include the Mayor’s precept in Greater London, which would be replaced with the ability to levy his own income tax.

Though not mentioned in the manifesto, they have also pledged to scrap central government’s ability to curb spending by local councils through capping. Their other longstanding policy in this area is to allow for all councils throughout the UK to be elected under proportional representation. The party strongly opposed the introduction of directly elected mayors on the grounds that it concentrated power into one person’s hands. Their policy here is that all councils should be free to determine their own executive arrangements, including a return to the old committee system, should they wish. Local councils should possess the power of general competence and a proposed written constitution for the UK would protect their existence from central government interference, they argue.

Green Party
The Green Party of England and Wales does not share the same electoral profile as its more successful counterparts in continental Europe at national level, but it does have two members on the London Assembly and a handful of local councillors. Outside of Parliament it tends to vie for fourth party status alongside more marginal and sectional groupings such as the anti-war party Respect and the Europhobic UK Independence Party but its policies on local government tend to be more developed than either of these. The Green Party’s manifesto, ‘People, Planet, Peace’, does have a lengthy section on democracy which goes into detail about its policies for local councils, which include more community-level government, allowing councils to set their own taxes, the election of regional assemblies and the introduction of proportional representation for local elections.

Statistics
2001 General Election results: Labour 413 seats, Conservative 166 seats, Liberal Democrat 52 seats, Others 28 seats.

Local councillors across England and Wales: Conservative 7,912; Labour 6,155; Liberal Democrat 4,550; Independent/Others: 2,150