Councils must be at the heart of rewiring the state
3 min read
Councils are the bedrock of our society. They, like no other public body, know their neighbourhoods best, working at ground level with a real understanding of what residents need and how the services so many people rely on every day should be delivered.
From building new homes and driving economic growth to improving the health and life chances of the most vulnerable, councils are key to solving our biggest local and national challenges.
That is why the government’s ambition to “fundamentally rewire the way our country works” potentially marks one of the most significant shifts in English governance for decades.
As the government itself recognises, “strategic authorities are only as strong as the local authorities that constitute them”.
Making our country fit for the future and changing people’s lives for the better is not just about new structures or geographical boundaries. It is about building stronger communities, keeping people safe, intervening earlier, helping people remain independent and ensuring everyone has the opportunity to live fulfilling lives.
Prevention must be at the heart of how public services work together.
In many ways, local government is the wiring of the public sector: connecting services, organisations and communities, bringing together local networks and ensuring power and resources can flow to the places where they are needed most. This convening role is one of councils’ greatest strengths.
They are also the everyday infrastructure of growth. Councils align planning, housing, transport, skills and regeneration around local priorities, bringing together businesses, anchor institutions and communities. As employers, service providers, convenors and local anchors, they already inject around £117bn each year into local economies.
The White Paper this autumn will shape how powers over skills, transport, employment support, housing, innovation and public services are devolved to local and strategic authorities. But devolution must extend to council level and be built on this local expertise.
Strategic authorities bring scale, coherence and the ability to shape wider economic geographies. Councils bring democratic legitimacy, deep knowledge of place and the ability to integrate services at the level where residents experience them.
While funding levels have begun to increase, councils’ current spending power is still 12.4 per cent lower compared with 2010/11.
And while national government has expanded, particularly since the pandemic, local government is threadbare and without the resources to properly fulfil even statutory responsibilities, including caring for vulnerable children and adults, supporting children with SEND and tackling homelessness.
Funding is only part of the answer, though. Government should also deliver on its previous commitments to look at ways to reduce burdens on local authorities by reviewing sales, fees, charges and statutory duties, ensuring the balance of responsibilities between central and local government remains fit for purpose.
These pressures cannot be separated from the government’s devolution ambitions. Strategic authorities will only succeed if the councils that constitute them are financially sustainable.
If devolution is to unlock growth everywhere, the government must also remove the constraints that limit local flexibility. Councils need the ability to align funding with local priorities, access integrated settlements more widely and work within systems where public service boundaries match local geographies.
Rewiring the state cannot simply mean moving responsibilities around the system. It has to change how the state works for people: enabling services to work together around communities, intervening before problems escalate and shifting resources towards prevention rather than crisis.
My message to the Prime Minister is simple: put councils at the heart of our nation’s future.
Rewiring the state is a generational opportunity. To seize it, government must ensure the people who know their places best are fully part of the design.
Cllr Eamonn O’Brien is Chair of the Local Government Association
