British Local Government: A Case for a New Constitutional Settlement

Abstract

As a creature of Statue, British local government is subject to constant change emanating from a superior constitutional source: central government. Much of the change that is imposed upon local government because of the need for governing institutions to respond to two competing sets of requirements: those that drive and are driven by either, technocracy or democracy. In all major reorganisations of local government, the attempts tofind a structuralfit between these two mutually antagonistic factors have seen the latter lose out to the former The question of local government size is part of the clash between technocracy and democracy that has been played-out in various reforms of local government in Britain. Indeed, current discussions about unitary councils and city-regions will ultimately result in larger, more remote and technocraticaly driven units of local government The article sets out a construct for British local government that would rest on the creation of a new constitutional settlement between the centre and the localities. It explores the role newly empowered local government could play within the context of a federal UK, and addresses how the politics of these new councils should be conducted. The article also explores what new formns of political accountability would be required in this new constitutional settlement and to whom local government should be accountable. It also examines the mechanisms by which that accountability can be secured. The article sets out a radically new context for central local relationships resting on a new balance of political power; responsibility and accountability.