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Local Government Structure

Conservative & Labour Liberal Democrats
The Conservatives while in office centralised, undervalued and undercut local government, taking power away from locally elected councils and giving it to Whitehall or unelected, unaccountable quangos.

Inefficiency and poor standards of services by Labour run councils have paved the way for Tory attacks on local government. Labour will not even replace the Tories' Council Tax.

 

 Liberal Democrats would fundamentally reform local government in England. We want to make local councils effective and give local people the power to run and control their own services. We would:
  • Open up local decision-making,with better consultation, devolved power and proportional representation using the Single Transferable Vote (STV).
  • Make local authorities responsible for crime prevention, funded partly from confiscated drug money.
  • Set up a comprehensive network of neighbourhood, community, parish and town councils.
  • Insist on a drive for quality services and user-friendly councils of the sort already pioneered by Liberal Democrats up and down Britain.
  • Create Regional Authorities throughout England, starting with London, to exercise powers devolved from central government.
  • Remove from central government control the equalisation of grant income mechanism, to be exercised instead by local councils collectively.

 

Facts & Figures.

  • The Conservatives own Research Department came to the conclusion that "A system of local government finance based on rateable values is deeply flawed" (Politics Today 27.9.90).

Questions & Answers.

Q.
Decentralisation leads to extra bureaucracy and more confusion?.
A.
By bringing decision-making nearer to the people we would reduce central bureaucracy and make the system better for those who use it.

Related topics:

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