ConservativeHome's Local Government Blog

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.

Other Tory councils consider following Essex's lead and may save threatened post offices

A leader in The Daily Telegraph praises Essex County Council's plan to put aside £1.5m of council taxpayers' money to save fifteen endangered post offices:

"To those who say council tax revenues should not be used to prop up ailing enterprises, we would argue it is better that they be invested in this way than squandered on some of the inessentials that beguile too many local authorities, such as PR flummery or twinning junkets.  The value of a post office to a community cannot be calculated on a dry profit-and-loss ledger; many are an invaluable part of the local social infrastructure. How heartening that a growing number of councils recognise this as a cause worth fighting for."

Essex plans to help the post offices become self-sustaining enterprises and does not envisage long-term subsidy.

The Telegraph reports that "dozens" of other local councils are considering following Essex's lead.

Henry Smith, for example, of West Sussex Council and our candidate in the super-marginal seat of Crawley is considering options:

"We are looking at ways in which we might be able to help protect some of the post offices. What Essex has done is an option we are exploring, but it will be dependent on whether the Post Office will let us look at the books to see if it is viable."

The Telegraph also mentions Leicestershire and Suffolk.

Last week, also in The Telegraph, David Cameron underlined his commitment to post offices:

"Post Offices provide much needed services for millions of vulnerable people in this country, particularly the elderly, and Labour has been closing almost 10 a week since 1997. Post Offices often provide the only community service in rural areas and the strength of public protest against closures is being ignored by this Government."

2.30pm: Tim Aker at the TPA doesn't approve of local councils doing new things like this.

Gloucestershire Conservatives use council tax to put 63 more police officers on the county's streets

Congratulations to Cllr Julie Girling who sent ConservativeHome this YouTube video of a recent Politics Show programme report dedicated to Gloucestershire Tories' decision to spend £2.2m putting 63 extra police officers into areas where high visibility policing could reassure and protect the public: