The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee report “Prospects for codifying the
relationship between central and local government”, lays out the blueprint for local
government to have control over its own affairs. The Committee created a draft code
setting out a clear relationship between central and local government as two equal
and independent partners. Since central government can remove any independence
currently given, the Select Committee drew up a code that would be enshrined in
statute, which would constitutionally protect local autonomy.
The code itself set out the broad principles that would govern the relationship
between central and local government. These included that local government should
be independent of central government, have a secure financial base through the sort
of income tax retention that now smoothly operates in Scotland, and, with the
consent of its electors, be able to exercise a range of revenue-raising powers suitable
to the needs of the local community.
Bad government
If localism is truly to take root and flourish, petty interference from the centre must
be denied any legal or financial basis and local government given unchallengeable
legitimacy. This can be done in two ways. First, to guarantee their independence, local
authorities must be created in law as independent and sovereign entities. They would
then be able to undertake, as of right, all those duties for which they are elected
locally. Local government, like any other public body, would have to perform its
duties within a legitimate inspection regime and be held to account by any citizen.
This independence must be protected from easy repeal, by amending the 1911
Parliament Act, which would allow the second chamber to veto legislation that
threatened the rights of local government. In the longer term, such fundamental
bedrock of our democracy must be guaranteed by clauses in a written constitution
for the United Kingdom.
Second, political independence for councils would be meaningless without financial
independence. Of all local authority spending, the bulk is now provided by central
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