County Councils add voice to calls for general power of competence

The County Councils Network has become the latest organisation to call for local authorities to be given a general power of competence.

In its ‘manifesto’, the CCN said councils should be able “to enter into any venture intended to benefit local people and local communities”.

The network also called for:

• Recognition that the accountability derived from the local electoral process means that local authorities (and in multi-tier areas, county councils) are uniquely placed to convene and lead partnerships locally
• A duty on all public bodies to cooperate with the local authority on an area-based approach to the delivery of local services to local communities
• Extension of local democratic influence over other public services operating locally, including health and police
• A radical reduction in the number of quangos and other agencies and the transfer of powers, responsibility and full funding to local government
• Powers, functions and funding to be devolved from unelected regional and sub-regional bodies to elected local government, to unitary authorities and to county authorities in continuing multi-tier areas
• A dramatic scaling back of nationally prescribed indicators, service frameworks and inspection and audit, and
• Local authorities to have the ability to raise revenue locally to support local services and to enable the exercise of local political choice.

Writing in the foreword, CCN chairman Cllr Tim Palmer said: “We have reached the limits of ‘doing more with less’ and need to find more radical solutions to the issues we face.

“The challenge to member authorities will be to find smarter ways of working together with partners and communities. Central government will be faced with the challenge to step back, remove unnecessary bureaucratic and legal barriers to form a supportive framework for success, and to trust localities to deliver.”

Earlier this week, the president of the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors said there is a “pressing need” and “the time is right” for a power of general competence.

Mirza Ahmad, Corporate Director of Governance at Birmingham City Council, said failure to make the change “will continue to lead to substantial legal and constitutional nightmares for members, officers and lawyers”.