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The Current State of English Local Government: Will Structure Solve all Problems?

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
DOI10.1177/2041905818779332
Published date01 June 2018
Date01 June 2018
JUNE 2018 • POLITICAL INSIGHT 29
In 2015, the then Chancellor George
Osborne set out bold plans for greatly
enhanced English devolution. A
‘northern powerhouse’ would be
created with elected mayors in regions
across the land. It was an easy prediction
to make that the heady and exciting days
of the launch of Osborne’s devolution
revolution would rapidly degenerate
into the usual sterile debate about
reorganisation, unitary councils and
increases in council size.
The Current State of
English Local Government:
Will Structure Solve all
Problems?
In England, the local government mantra has long been ‘big is beautiful’.
But with Northamptonshire County Council effectively going bust and
many other councils struggling, Colin Copus argues that the time has
come for a radical re-think of English democracy’s lowest tier.
While metropolitan areas like Manchester
and Liverpool seized the initiative and
now have sub-regional directly elected
mayors overseeing considerably more
chunks of the public sector than traditional
local government, many counties and
districts were slower off the mark. Indeed,
almost as soon as the whistle was blown
on devolution – which promised much
of what local government had been
demanding for years – the distraction of
structural upheaval, reorganisation and the
Political Insight June 2018 NEW.indd 29 02/05/2018 15:40

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