London and Local Government

Background – Motivation/The need for reform?

London

• The previous London-wide  Local Government Body – the Greater London Council (GLC) was abolished by Margaret Thatcher in 1885 (GLC = too socialist)
• London was then divided into 33 boroughs – with some services which had previously been overseen by the GLC being handed to Quangos
• Labour was determined to restore government to London when it returned to power in 1997 – to give back a ‘voice’ to London
• This was to be done in addition to the election of a London Mayor with substantial executive powers.
• A referendum was held in 1998 in which the people of London voted in favour of the Greater London Authority and elected Mayor.

Local Government

• Labour showed much enthusiasm for reform of Local Government before being elected in 1997 – but shortly afterwards – this enthusiasm seemed to wither

Reforms

London

• In 2000 the GLA was established (Under the Greater London Authority Act 1999 )
• and the post of Mayor created and elections were held for both (Ken Livingstone – elected Mayor) [powers = extended under the GLA Act 2007]
• However, the legislation which enabled this to happen was criticised as it seemed to not give either the GLA or the elected Mayor a significant amount of political power
• The Mayor/GLA has important responsibilities for areas such as transport, planning, economic dev, environment, culture media and sport
• The Mayor controls the allocation of funds to different uses in London and such funds are then distributed and administered by the elected assembly of 25 members
• The assembly has the power to veto the Mayor’s budgetary and other proposals [provided it has a 2/3 majority for such a veto]
• The Mayor has powers of patronage [can give jobs/roles to people] – but again the assembly can veto this. [Assembly = acts as scrutiny to the Mayor]
• This is a classic example of the system of ‘checks and balances’ of the US model.
• The Mayor is elected every 4 years by the Supplementary Vote System
• The electoral system used for the Assembly =  Alternative Member System [as used in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly] (14 elected by FPP and 11 from party list)- means that no one party can enjoy an overall majority in the assembly [composition as of October 2010 – 11 Conservative; 8 Labour; 3 Liberal Democrat; 2 Green; 1 independent]
• This ensures that the Mayor always faces obstruction for controversial measures – this was particularly evident after the 2004 elections when although re-elected as Mayor, Ken Livingstone had to face the fact that the majority of the members of the GLA were Conservative

Local Government

• Towns, Cities and Districts have been given the opportunity to elect Mayors if a local referendum shows that there is popular support
• Local Government = given the option of changing to a ‘cabinet’ system of government – with a central cabinet of leading Councillors making key decisions and setting general policy [previously = committee system]

What were the effects of the reform?

London

• The office of London Mayor was granted relatively limited power under the legislation – not as powerful as Mayors of New York or Paris
• However Mayor Ken Livingstone (Labour 2000 – 2008) was influential- Congestion Charge; London Olympics (only one element – but his support = critical to success); influential in gaining CG approval for a crossrail system in London; secured funding to increase number of police officers in London
• However Livingstone did lose battle with central government over privatisation of London Underground system
• Election of 2008 = Boris Johnson (Conservative) elected Mayor – he = influential in leading developments to make London more cyclist friendly and promises to improve the bus system

Local Government

• In first few years very few localities held referendums – take up of idea = ‘patchy’
• Of those that did hold a referendum – few voted in favour of an elected Mayor (only 11 by 2005)
• Take up of option of cabinet style system is again ‘patchy’

How successful has it been? – Praise/criticisms

London

• Can be viewed as one element in the New Labour programme of constitutional reform and modernization,
• Criticised because not enough power – Mayor has influence rather than power
• BUT because of high profile of the role – this influence is strong

Local Government

• Take up of new measures – not as enthusiastic as had been thought
• Does not tackle the real problems of Local Government:  Lack of autonomy from CG; lack of accountability to local electorates; very low public interest in Local Government politics

Future

London

• The Coalition have announced the closing of the Government Office for London (a Cental Government Unit with a budget of approx £20M previously dealing with things like crime prevention and community projects).  It is proposed that many of the functions of this body will be taken over by the GLA
• Boris Johnson, current Mayor of London = “Despite providing this world city with clear leadership, the mayoralty has few formal powers, despite substantial informal powers. This will no longer do … It is time to act and, with a new coalition government strongly supportive of devolving powers, we must seize the day for London” (Financial Times)
• Coalition plan to give more powers both to the Mayor (including increased control over the budget and housing regeneration) and the Assembly

Local Government

• In the section on communities and Local Government the coalition say that they will: create directly-elected mayors in the 12 largest English cities (e.g. Liverpool now has an elected mayor without a referendum, whereas Birmingham had a referendum and rejected the proposal to have a directly elected mayor). And devolve more power and financial autonomy to local government.