This month's discussion is about Local Government. The brief is as follows:
The Conservative Party knows that local authorities deliver the most effective services when they have genuine freedom to respond to what local people want, not when they are told what to do by central government. This is why since entering Government we have introduced wide-ranging reforms to increase local authority freedom, given neighbourhoods greater power to do things for themselves, reduced the size and cost of both regional and central government and enabled some of Britain‟s largest cities to choose a directly elected mayor. This is in contrast to the previous Labour Government which hoarded and concentrated power in central government.
Local authorities must, of course, be accountable to the local people they serve about how they exercise their power; greater accountability leads to greater trust which makes effective local government possible. In recognition of this, the Coalition Government has encouraged local authorities to publish more expenditure data, introduced a code of recommended practice for local authorities on data transparency and transformed the local audit regime.
Finally, it is more important than ever for local authorities to be innovative in how they deliver public services in order to offer the best value for taxpayer‟s money. Examples of such innovation include sharing services and having community groups run services. Ensuring and encouraging this innovation will be crucial in 2015.
These are some of the issues in this CPF discussion brief on which we would welcome your views.