ACSeS president says "time is right" for general power of competence

There is a pressing need for local government to be given a general power of competence, the president of the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors (ACSeS) argued this week.

Writing in the second issue of ACSeS' Firing up the Passion for Leadership publication, Mirza Ahmad, Corporate Director of Governance at Birmingham City Council, said the “time is right” for the introduction of such a power.

Adding that the association stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Local Government Association on its work to secure the general power, he warned that failure to make the change “will continue to lead to substantial legal and constitutional nightmares for members, officers and lawyers.”

Ahmad wrote that a general power of competence should be given “to do anything that is likely to:

• improve the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of local authorities (or a group of local authorities)
• improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of any local authority's administrative area or the surrounding areas
• improve the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of any public sector or third sector organisation (or group of organisations) in the local authority's administrative area or the surrounding areas
• improve or provide political and/or managerial leadership to a region of the UK or relevant Core Cities, and
• be ancillary to, conducive of, facilitative of, or otherwise, further these powers and functions of the local authority (and permit it to charge for relevant services and/or to delegate such functions).”

The ACseS president said a power in this form was essential for achieving excellence in self-governance and shared services as well as in governance of Total Place, City regions and other wider regional agendas, and joint commissioning.

“These provisions will, of course, need to be replicated for other Total Place public sector partners – such as the NHS, police, fire – so as to avoid deserts of competence,” he added.

Ahmad said this agenda would require “great leadership courage and skills including legal and Parliamentary draftsmen's time to ensure local governance is fit for purpose for the 21st century”.