The dead hand of Whitehall

Published: 17 June, 2011

• AS the Localism Bill continues to work its way through parliament, it’s important to note that in our experience it’s mandarins and not ministers who are to blame for Whitehall’s resistance to returning power to local people.

Over the last two years we’ve delivered £14million in efficiency savings without raising council tax. 

We are cutting officialdom.

But we could do so much more if we were not constrained by intrusive and prescriptive edicts to local authorities on how they should serve the people who elect them.

Red tape costs my own authority almost £1million a year, enough to cover the salaries of 26 teachers, 28 social workers or 44 street cleaners.

We provide Whitehall with more than 2,500 separate pieces of data covering everything from noise, planning and pollution to food safety, rubbish collection and parking. 

Not because we want to, but because we have to.

The coalition must free councils from the stranglehold of suspicion that civil servants impose.

We have our own electoral mandate and we need to be free to do what is necessary in our areas, incentivised to build new homes, and grow the business base, sharing services with our neighbours. 

None of this requires the dead hand of Whitehall. 

Success will belong to the swift, the imaginative and the bold, not to the bureaucracy.

There is a great prize within reach as the people and their representatives reclaim decisions that affect their lives. 

Efficient, low cost, responsive local services. 

This government set a cracking pace of reform in its first year. It must not lose its nerve now.

CLLR COLIN BARROW
Leader
Westminster City Council