We have essentially broken any social contract between the electorate and the local services they pay for. So I won’t be massively surprised if a bunch of people come in and say “let’s do this totally unworkable thing” and local electors go sure ok, the current situation isn’t working, whatever - ThreadSky

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social • 44 days ago

We have essentially broken any social contract between the electorate and the local services they pay for. So I won’t be massively surprised if a bunch of people come in and say “let’s do this totally unworkable thing” and local electors go sure ok, the current situation isn’t working, whatever

Comments

mylorjames.bsky.social•44 days ago

Here is a thought. Legalise cannabis and let Local authorities keep all sales taxes. Quick, popular, safe and reduces prison spend. The “Devil’s Lettuce” is everywhere so let’s tax it.

admiralbooth.bsky.social•44 days ago

Isn’t this what the Red Wall Tories did? Certainly sounds like Teesside.

ianpethick.bsky.social•44 days ago

You've hit the nail firmly on head. Until we change how we fund local authorities, and get more money into them, local services will continue to spiral down and councils will continue to collapse. This is really bad news for democracy and how people participate in it.

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•44 days ago

The politics of local government is already not in a very good way and one reason for that - among others - is that it’s often a bunch of bald men squabbling over a comb. Local politicians often have no ability to make choices: because there’s *no money*. So you end up in a spiral

vikkic.bsky.social•44 days ago

Also the additional pots of funding you can bid for are usually for quick to deliver capex rather than opex so you get things like wayfinding and cycle infrastructure rather than potholes being filled.

hep5g.bsky.social•44 days ago

Erm, Jen, it's actually antisemitic to comment on a lack of vital investment in public services.

mcdaragh.bsky.social•44 days ago

This is totally true - but the obvious answer is that "local authorities need more authority to raise and spend revenue" and "Westminster pols need to stop seeking political benefit by interfering in local politics", which are options the UK electorate is very unlikely to endorse.

leucarum.bsky.social•44 days ago

It also features nepotism in our area. Many borough councillors are related to each other, with their businesses benefitting from council contracts. It’s almost feudal.

christophe-read.bsky.social•44 days ago

I sometimes wonder though: does it matter that they’re often literally bald?

oldtrotter.bsky.social•44 days ago

Which is why I found this comment particularly interesting

unacceptapaul.bsky.social•44 days ago

Years ago I worked for a local council. I remember trying to explain the implications of the withdrawal of revenue support grant to all sorts of people. I might as well have been speaking Klingon.

markchater.bsky.social•44 days ago

No money, but they still manage spend millions pedestrianizing the high street, against the wishes of an overwhelming majority of residents and traders ("for social distancing" they claimed in 2020), and have begin 2 years of traffic chaos installing a 4 mile bus lane for three buses an hour. 1/

markchater.bsky.social•44 days ago

Yet the lack of money means black bin collections are going to three weeks, we now have to book to go to the tip (or "Sort-it recycling centre" in local government speak) and council car parks are no longer free.

They can find money for vanity projects, but not for services people actually want.

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•44 days ago

It’s why I’ve been watching the local govt reorg stuff through slightly narrowed eyes. In the one hand yes, we have a mad map. But on the other what we are NOT doing is working out how any of this stuff is sustainably paid for. Splitting Derbyshire into two unitaries or whatever won’t fix that

juliedoughty.bsky.social•44 days ago

are there plans to split Birmingham? It's far too big

cathiew.bsky.social•44 days ago

I'm surprised they haven't tackled council tax alongside the re-organisation. Lots of pain for minimum gain. Especially painful if people like Andrea Jenkyns get into power and trash everything even more.😔

colmquinn.bsky.social•44 days ago

Nothing will be fixed without reforming the funding, but I do look forward to not having a District and County Council controlled by different parties blaming everything on each other and constantly engaging in self defeating NIMBY oneupmanship.

stevieinselby.bsky.social•44 days ago

One hope is that by making two-tier councils into sensible-sized unitary authorities, we will be making them more efficient because we're reducing duplication and confusion – it isn't just about the mad map.

Whether that actually works in practice is a different question!

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•44 days ago

And yes - that applies even if you stick a mayor on top of it!

moonlighthanger.bsky.social•44 days ago

Broadly speaking it's a consequence of the Thatcher and Coalition-era central governments taking advantage of the fact that people don't know what councils do to pass the "insoluble" issues on to them and avoid blame, isn't it?

joshwoolcott.bsky.social•44 days ago

I do wonder whether the reorg can be used as a conduit for change in how local government is financed, though

Eg could it be that we get rid of council tax and instead give certain revenue raising powers over to a mayor (eg revised property tax, land value tax, road tax, regional income taxes etc)

padraigpostal.bsky.social•44 days ago

We await the new local Government map for Lancashire..(post '74 version-which was first attempt)..beginning to think they may have to conclave all the Council Leaders etc. and put them on bread and water for any 'plan' to emerge...and then Govt has to agree as well.

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•44 days ago

In conclusion, if we end with Reform councils, there will be thousands of words written about What This Means For Morgan McSweeney and Kemi Badenoch and far fewer written about the politics of bins and council tax. Then everyone will move on and local govt will continue its death spiral unhindered

mikef141.bsky.social•44 days ago

You're right Jennifer. Imagine if a politician ran on ending austerity and improving local services. I'm sure you would cover that policy and not engage in smears.

alastairmac.bsky.social•44 days ago

Speaking as a local government officer, I do rather feel like one of Bob Monkhouse's dad's passengers.

telson.bsky.social•44 days ago

I love that joke. It's so multifariously applicable.

radekcdydd.bsky.social•44 days ago

The simplest solution to this is to allow parties to run for only one level of government: either Westminster or councils.

cosmoiselle.bsky.social•44 days ago

You continue to be such an asset to UK media @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social ✊ 🙏

celestialweasel.bsky.social•44 days ago

The other parties' councillors in 6 months after the elections
https://youtu.be/b6CVvNRQcvE?si=PK5BxSQG5SmsZJPZ

pibasedlifeform.bsky.social•44 days ago

Trying to report damage to a cycle path that needs repairing and there is a squabble between the local council and the country council about whose responsibility it is to fix it, and of course, it doesn't get fixed

pibasedlifeform.bsky.social•44 days ago

I'm 100% sure that reform won't fix that, or even try to to

Probably turn it into a car park for 4 x 4s

mehero.bsky.social•44 days ago

depends on who: I'm told in Surrey there is split responsibility for verges and road-side hedges between county and local

britsagainstbrexit.bsky.social•44 days ago

Central gov continually shoots itself in the foot by defending local councils instead of increasing taxation. They naively think it makes the local council the bad guy as they have to increase council tax to make up the funding cuts. Of course all it does is make people clutch at baseless promises/1

britsagainstbrexit.bsky.social•44 days ago

*de-funding (bloody predictive text 🙄)

britsagainstbrexit.bsky.social•44 days ago

thrown out like birdseed to the masses by those with ever more extremist views, none of which need to hold water unless they are actually elected, upon which everything turns to Clacton.

glensidetwo2.bsky.social•44 days ago

There isn't a single Govt ever that didn't seek to centralize the credit & disseminate the blame. It's the nature of 2 tier democracy in UK, always has been.

loueatskale.bsky.social•44 days ago

this is interesting given that Morgan McSweeny's initial politics / experience very publicly revolved around bins and pot holes.

telson.bsky.social•44 days ago

Maybe he'll do something about the disaster area that I'd local government.
Not holding my breath though.

katebevan.com•44 days ago

yes, this. And it comes back to my rant yesterday about political hacks being proxies for experts and so everything gets reported through that lens. We need more people like you, Jen, reporting on this stuff as experts in local government.

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•44 days ago

Two things I’d idly observe and both lead back to the same thing: as a media class we don’t pay enough attention to what’s happening in places on an ongoing basis, which then means we often don’t understand the root cause of what’s happening in politics. Secondly we don’t talk enough about policy

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•44 days ago

I am now going to go back to researching my article about: Reform in the local elections. Good to have a rant occasionally

jasongood.bsky.social•44 days ago

Of course Reform will try to sell people unicorns again. And many people will lap up the line about wasted money and fat cats.

It reflects their views of councils (frequently demonstrated on Facebook) and their experience of higher bills and poorer universal services.

Less money is coming, too.

amandagillender.bsky.social•44 days ago

Question: How do you organise local authorities - by population or area?
How do you fund an authority that is land rich & people poor?
The needs of rural Herefordshire are totally different from inner city Birmingham. Is this being taken into account when funding is decided?

urbaneprofessor.bsky.social•44 days ago

Cracking rant. And to think, a lot of the root cause of all this is the Poll Tax that was supposed to make local government MORE accountable for what it raised and spent 🙄

acarpen.bsky.social•44 days ago

I’d vote for you! 😁

weegiefifer.bsky.social•44 days ago

It might improve if England moved to a proportional voting system. In Scotland we use single transferable vote for local ward elections. Not a magic bullet by any means but you do get a more representative council.

research-for-act.bsky.social•37 days ago

thanks for saying this, I think it really cuts through a lot of the chat !

faithfultowhom.bsky.social•44 days ago

Council tax bills also include the police costs which regularly rise more steeply than councils’ %

faithfultowhom.bsky.social•44 days ago

Only 25% or Council spending is paid for through council tax. Another misunderstanding among the many others.

oldhobbit.bsky.social•44 days ago

STV in multi member wards would keep Reform contained and expose them.

tallgeekychap.bsky.social•44 days ago

Amazing thread and you didn't even mention the SEND elephant in the LA room

nevillesplace2007.bsky.social•42 days ago

The real problem is that Labour is underfunding local government right now, imposing mergers which don't reflect local choice and voice.

kiersturmer.bsky.social•44 days ago

people will be saying "what is the point of Morgan McSweeney"

isn't his whole thing about being the guy who fixed potholes to stop the far right?

mcduff.bsky.social•44 days ago

Ah yes but what if his thing was actually being the "whatever it takes to stop the left" guy, and people who had a rank disdain for the left just went along with it and didn't look any further?

littlemavis.bsky.social•44 days ago

I suspect one problem is that Reform members will likely not only be totally inexperienced & uninformed, unlike, say the Greens, they have no real desire to make things actually work for most people. They want power but won't accept responsibility. When people complain, they'll just shrug

littlemavis.bsky.social•44 days ago

And probably point at "immigrants".

richardkeppler.bsky.social•44 days ago

Been reading that book about McSweeney. What a dirtbag.
He focus groups a bunch of well off 70 year old retirees and then makes all their grousing into Labour policy.

ldw1.bsky.social•44 days ago

Yay! *This* is what it is (should be!) about. Central govt can’t bear to let local auths have the money they need. But they want councils to do care because the costs are horrendous.
🤷‍♂️

danspicer.bsky.social•44 days ago

Absolutely - the bit of the Devo white paper that gave me a raised eyebrow was where they more or less said “we have addressed the financial issues in the LG finance policy statement”, which felt… optimistic to say the least

lowfeller.bsky.social•44 days ago

Yes... but it's largely about amalgamating, not splitting. Why should cash-strapped Hampshire CC, say, have multiple district & unitary authorities within its boundaries? Just think of the back office duplication, municipal buildings, lack of local focused strategies?

auntiejellyfish.bsky.social•44 days ago

Some munipal buildings would be nice yes, ours are largely sold off or being sold off.

lowfeller.bsky.social•44 days ago

I'm talking about council admin offices.

auntiejellyfish.bsky.social•43 days ago

So am I.

jazzaoxon.bsky.social•44 days ago

Not in my neck of the woods! See my examples in this thread.

oldhobbit.bsky.social•44 days ago

Usually it is a bunch of bald men! 🤣

obseyxx.bsky.social•44 days ago

Many of us could see this coming many years ago and backed a left-wing Labour leadership as a result. And we saw how you all reacted to that.

stephenbc.bsky.social•44 days ago

Ah yes, I remember you lot telling normal Labour members to "fuck off and join the Tories" and then being mystified that you didn't win an election.

obseyxx.bsky.social•44 days ago

lol yes, that line has certainly been proved wrong with the modern Labour Party, you absolute clown

megalewis.bsky.social•44 days ago

That line did untold damage along with Corbyn voting for a new election when the only choice left for bojo was election or 2nd referendum. That mistake led us here. We could have remained and done damage to the Tories, perhaps even regained the 2017 momentum. Labour had to change after that defeat

kiersturmer.bsky.social•44 days ago

but you do realise that it was nothing to do with Labour voting for another election? it was lib dems and snp

megalewis.bsky.social•44 days ago

Incorrect, it required 2/3 of members to vote in favour. Labour had 40% of seats at that time. Without Labour votes it was impossible to bring forward the election. And Sinn Fein had 7 seats and they never take the seats and vote. So, again, without Labour it was impossible to have the 2019 election

oldhobbit.bsky.social•44 days ago

US style "town hall" meetings might improve communication (in two directions) ... trying to engage with local government processes is near-impossible for a citizen. Planning - the one everyone complains about - is the most open.

oldhobbit.bsky.social•44 days ago

Most people would be expected to engage via a community/parish council or elected members. If someone visits one parish council meeting, they will never go back! And getting something on a local government committee agenda is near-impossible from outside, unless you know how the system works.

oldhobbit.bsky.social•44 days ago

The one thing in Scotland that has made a difference is STV multi member wards that are quite representative. That would suit a town hall type environment

latentvariables.bsky.social•44 days ago

Thread of the day!!!!

abbyinnes.bsky.social•44 days ago

Did you see this, by Chris Naylor, about the turnaround at Barking and Dagenham? Labour should be enabling it…
https://demos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Only-we-can-save-the-state_CN_Paper.pdf

dennispatton.bsky.social•44 days ago

Labour want Mayors. No Cllrs needed. Just some local tinpot dictator.

singfoodie.bsky.social•44 days ago

To be fair mayors have worked in some cities both in this country and abroad. Think of Paris - the complete pedestrianisation would not have happened without a mayor just getting on and doing it. Some people don't like it but most agree it's an improvement - tin pot dictator?

dennispatton.bsky.social•44 days ago

FPTP has made a mess of managing settlements.
The 10 mayoral elections that took place on 2 May 2024 had an average turnout of just 30%, down from 2021 where the average turnout of the eight mayoral elections was 35%.
Democracy? No

jhannen.bsky.social•44 days ago

I know people who voted Leave on this basis - "this isn't working for me so I'll roll the dice"

that desire hasn't gone away and isn't just limited to the right of politics

duncanspalding.bsky.social•44 days ago

As Stewart Lee observed - “Voting to leave Europe as a protest vote “is a bit like shitting your hotel bed as a protest against bad service “and then realising you now have to sleep in a shitted bed.”

promiseover.bsky.social•44 days ago

Anyone who doesn't know that things can always get worse will at least never be smart enough to know how stupid they are.

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