The Conservatives new approach to localism – or subsidiarity – deserves a couple of cheers. It is at least a step in the right direction. Just as well since, allied with Tory education policy and, one might argue, some burnished environmental credentials, this “New Localism” is supposed to be the “Big Idea” animating a renewed, reinvigorated Toryism.
So, while today’s announcement is welcome, it’s also imcomplete. Apart from anything else, local accountability requires local financing. There’s not enough in the Tory proposals (yet) to link local councils with local sources of revenue. As the Scottish Parliament has demonstrated, if there’s no link between policy and revenue-raising then more money is presumed to be the solution to all problems. Equally, why limit the proposals for elected mayors to a dozen largish English cities? Why not every city, even every town? This would hardly be considered revolutionary anywhere else.
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