ConservativeHome's Local Government Blog

It can be done (lower taxes, less debt and better services)

Tim Montgomerie writes:

Tory leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council, Stephen Greenhalgh has written for today's Sunday Telegraph about best practice in local government.  It is a distillation of a longer analysis he has written for the Centre for Policy Studies; The New Good Council Guide.

Here are Cllr Greenhalgh's key conclusions:

"Average council taxes in H&F are now £350 lower than they would have been had the council maintained the previous rate of increase under Labour. Despite significant cost pressures on local government, our relentless pursuit of value for money has meant that we have cut council spending by £7 million (or 4 per cent) in cash terms, cut the workforce by 18 per cent (or 950 full-time equivalent employees) and cut the council's debt by £20 million.

At the same time, services have improved significantly. High-profile, round-the-clock beat policing has been introduced and paid for by the council - there were 2,000 fewer recorded crimes this year. Street-cleaning services and council estates are being improved."

His article discusses cuts in communication budgets, sacking of political advisers, compulsory tendering of inhouse council services and a particular commitment to provide better services for low income families.

Earlier this week Cllr Nigel Fletcher discussed life as an opposition.  Cllr Greenhalgh noted its importance for what his administration is now doing:

"My political career is based on a solid foundation of failure: I was in opposition for more than 10 years, and all my time was spent talking to local people and getting to know the issues that mattered to them. Opposition gave us the time and space to develop our policies and to communicate them."

Eric Pickles talks to Stephen Greenhalgh about the Conservative Councils Innovation Unit

Related links:

> Eric Pickles' previous video.

> Stephen Greenhalgh: Help me write a bold Conservative blueprint for local government

Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh: What three things define your Council as a Conservative Council?

A guest article by Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, Leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council and also of the Conservative Party's Council Innovation Unit.

Later today the Conservative Council Innovation Unit is holding its first event at the LGA Conference in Bournemouth. The roundtable, hosted by Localis aims to answer three simple questions:

1. What three things define your Council as a Conservative Council?
2. What are the three most innovative things that you have done as a Conservative Council?
3. What are the three key barriers you face?

Today as the majority of councils are Conservative councils we have a great chance to define the Conservative brand in local government. We cannot settle for doing the same things better than our political opponents. We have to make clear to council officers what we stand for and explain our vision and priorities for our residents. You achieve nothing without the support of your officers. Sometimes you feel that the message is getting through: One of our regeneration officers explained that under the Labour Council her job was to help people maximize their benefits. Under the new Conservative Council it is to get them a job! We also need to move away from an obsession with the Government inspection system. In Hammersmith & Fulham we now focus on measuring residents’ satisfaction with council services. At the same time as cutting Council Tax residents’ satisfaction has increased by 11% in just two years so that we are in the top 5 authorities in London instead of being bog standard. Our value for money rated jumped up 23% over the same period.

For Hammersmith & Fulham Council the three things define my Council as a Conservative Council are:

1. Delivering value for money with two successive 3% Council Tax cuts
2. Focusing on improving core council services such as street cleaning, refuse, recycling services and improving our parks
3. Borough of Opportunity: Tackling poverty and the widening social divide by giving a “hand up” instead of a “hand out” by transforming our state schools, providing a housing ladder of opportunity with home ownership at its core and regenerating our most deprived areas by using the public sector to pump prime major investment by the private sector.

Eric Pickles urges Tory councils to "say no" to this dying Labour government's demands of them

Later this morning Eric Pickles MP will be addressing the Conservative Councillors Association's Leadership Conference in Nottingham.  He intends to deliver a blunt message: Stop Implementing The Orders Of This Dying Labour Government And Start Behaving Like Conservative Councils.

Here are three key extracts of what he is expected to say:

Labour is dying: "Time is running out for Hazel [Blears] and her friends. Every week that passes the government’s authority diminishes. With every passing week their ability to dictate to local authorities gets that little bit less. In its remaining few months in office Labour now has fewer levers of power to pull.  The ability for Labour Ministers to influence local events without our support is slipping away."

Conservative councils have waited too long to stand up to Labour bullying: "Over the past 10 years Conservative local authorities have cooperated with the government to make the best of ill thought out plans and deliver the best possible results for local residents. Swamped by ever changing government targets, overburdened by red tape and overloaded by regulation we have delivered quality services and low council tax. The time is overdue for Conservative Council's to stand up to this bullying and controlling government on behalf of their communities. It is time for Conservative councils to “just say no.”"

It's time for Conservative councils to be Conservative: "The electorate in a series of successive elections have soundly rejected Gordon Brown and this Labour government. Right across the land Labour has lost its mandate, it is unreasonable to Conservative councils to deliver for the government unless there is consensus. We are not in the business of delivering “Labour Lite;” local priorities now must take precedent. Local residents want quality frontline services at value for money prices. They don't want their council wasting time on money on nanny state, politically correct or vanity projects. They want councils who serve the people, not wasteful or intrusive town halls who serve as agents of the state.  Local people elected a Conservative council and they have the reasonable expectation of enjoying one and anticipating a Conservative government."

Mr Pickles encourages Conservative councils to cooperate with Labour but not to underestimate their power in setting the terms for that cooperation.

One of the big themes of the next two years will be attempts by the Conservative leadership in London to encourage local councils run by the party to tap into the best and most innovative policies being pioneered by other Tory councils.  To that end Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh of Hammersmith and Fulham recently launched the Conservative Council Innovation Unit.  This has been a consistent theme of Christina Dykes in contributions to ConservativeHome; see here and here.

Stephen Greenhalgh: Help me write a bold Conservative blueprint for local government

Stephen Greenhalgh is Conservative leader of Hammersmith and Fulham and a key member of the team that Boris Johnson has appointed to audit City Hall.  He won ConservativeHome.com's 2007/08 'Local Hero Award'.  In this article Stephen introduces the aims of the new Conservative Council Innovation Unit and its aim to write 'the bible' of best practice for Conservatives in local government.

This May we have witnessed the death of both New Labour and old Labour in power. Last week Eric Pickles masterminded Labour's first by-election defeat since the 1978 by-election in Ilford North, a Labour seat, when a young Tessa Jowell lost to Vivian Bendall who is currently my Association Chairman. A couple of weeks ago my Labour predecessor as Council Leader described the loss of Ken Livingstone as Mayor of London "as the worst blow to Labour since the 1992 general election defeat".

However, many of our critics point to a lack of vision or programme for government. As we already dominate local government, our challenge is to define and articulate our Conservative vision. It is an opportunity for our party to demonstrate our priorities and goals for the communities we seek to represent.

We need to find the right language, establish Conservative values and develop a new Conservative lexicon to replace the New Labour mantras that dominate public sector thinking today.  Frankly New Labour's sole political legacy has been to rewrite the language of local government. For instance this month's pamphlet published by the SOLACE Foundation which is the professional network for local authority chief executives and senior managers is entitled "How equality shapes place: diversity and localism". Their rhetoric has been about "equality and diversity", "fairness" and "social justice" and the reality has been greater levels of inequality and a decrease in social mobility.