Hidden in the hot air of Angela Rayner’s devolution white paper published just before Christmas – there are promises, for example, to empower councillors to ‘convene local people to engage in their community as respected leaders’ – there lurk some proposals which need careful investigation.
By-laws currently passed by local authorities are subject to confirmation by central government. But in Rayner’s white paper this rather prudent requirement is pooh-poohed as ‘hundreds of years old and outdated.’ Local leaders, the proposed legislation says, should have the final say over what they want to ban. Furthermore, it continues, authorities should probably get powers to enforce prohibitions by using on-the-spot fines rather than criminal prosecution.
There is little evidence that local authorities will use their new powers sensibly
All this may look like healthy localism, but is likely to turn out to be nothing of the sort. Rather, it will extend petty authoritarianism.
Under Rayner’s proposals, councils will be given remarkably open-ended powers.
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