While the true test of how much this general election has captured the public imagination is measured by the voter turn out at the ‘only poll that matters’. Undoubtedly, with the race so close and the TV debates it has been fascinating to watch from all angles.
While all three main political parties produced weighty tomes of manifestos (no concern about the environment here) and talked about championing localism, there was a contradiction in that there was no detailed role outlined in for very local government (parish and town councils) or indeed principal local government in place-shaping and bringing greater coherence to local plans and priorities.
Now we know the Conservative Party has won the race for power. What does that mean actually for localism? We are not going to know the details straightaway. But we can draw some clues from their policy papers of this year and last year combined with their general election manifesto.
The new Conservatives – as I call them – are like the old Conservatives and like the Republicans in the US and think that central government is too big and has taken too much power to the centre. So that should be brilliant news for localism and people power right? Well maybe.
The Conservative’s Big Society ideas are a welcome suggestion to strengthen local community activity but it needed to recognise the important contribution local government will make in citizen renewal and engagement.
There is a disconnect here because the party has already acknowledged the important part, say local (parish and town), councils can play in housing and planning, but surely they are not excluded from other parts of the civic society.
When considering how we renew our neighbourhoods and communities, it is vital to recognise the role that local (parish and town) councils and their army of community leaders play. They are the closest layer of representation to people and they are already demonstrating real localism in action.
The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) continues to work with all the political parties to ensure that the needs and contribution of grass roots, community-led local government are fully understood and addressed.
Finally, is all this talk of devolution and more power to the citizens just a cost-cutting exercise, which is not really the point of localism?
