Coalition government policy programme: the impact on local government

May 20, 2010

The government has published a more detailed copy of the coalition agreement between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, which contains a wide range of measures which will affect local authorities and partner bodies.

These include a new general power of competence for local authorities, significant revisions to the planning system, a commission into long-term affordability of public sector pensions and new measures to control binge drinking.

Councils will be banned from using powers under the Regulatory of Investigative Powers Act for all but the most serious offences, and the Infrastructure Planning Commission is to be abolished. All local authorities will be required to publish items of spending above £500, and to publish contracts and tender documents in full. The Standards Board regime is to be abolished, as is the Comprehensive Area Assessment inspection regime.

However, the 34-page document was put together in nine days, which means that some of the proposals are more specific and detailed than others. Nor do most of the proposals have timeslines attached to them.

Few areas of local authority activity remains untouched by the proposals, with planning and licensing being particularly affected. Here we outline the main proposals in the coalition agreement, broken down by area of activity.

Adult social services

The role of the Care Quality Commission is to be strengthened to enable it to become “an effective quality inspectorate”.
The further erosion of the barriers between health and social care funding to incentivise preventative action.
Personal care budgets scheme to be extended.
New powers to help communities save local facilities and services threatened with closure, and a new right for communities to bid to take over local state-run services.
Directly elected members to appointed to Patient Care Trust (PCT) boards, with the remainder to be appointed by the local authority(ies). The Chief Executive and principal officers will be appointed by the Secretary of State on the advice of the new independent NHS board to ensure the right balance between locally accountable individuals and technical expertise.
PCTs will take responsibility for improving public health for people in their areas, working closely with the local authority(ies) and other local organisations.
Local authorities will have the right to challenge significant proposed closures of local services such as A&E departments, to the 'Independent Reconfiguration Panel', which would then provide advice to the Secretary of State for Health.

Children's services

The creation of 'free schools' to enable new providers to enter the state school system in response to parental demand.
Greater freedom for all schools over the curriculum.
All schools to be “held properly to account” (although it is not specified whether this should be undertaken by local authorities or not).
All new Academies to be required to follow an inclusive admissions policy. The government will work with faith groups to create more faith schools and to facilitate inclusive admissions policies in as many of these schools as possible.
The regulation of standards in education is to be “simplified” and the inspection regime is to be targeted towards areas of failure.
Finger-printing of children at school without parental permission is to be banned.
Serious case reviews to be made public, with identifying details removed.
A new approach to helping families with multiple problems is to be investigated.
The detention of children for immigration purposes is to be banned.
ContactPoint children's database to be scrapped.
The goal of ending child poverty by 2020 is to be retained.

Community safety

The use of powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) by councils is to be banned, except where they are signed off by a magistrate and required for stopping serious crime. The regulation of CCTV is also to be increased.
Measures will be introduced to make the police more accountable through oversight by a directly elected individual, who will be subject to strict checks and balances by locally elected representatives.
A new obligation on the police to publish detailed local crime statistics.
New “effective measures” to tackle anti-social behaviour and low-level crime, including forms of restorative justice such as Neighbourhood Justice Panels.
A new mechanism to “prevent the proliferation of unnecessary new criminal offences” is to be introduced.
A full review of the terms and conditions of police officer employment and changes to health and safety laws that stand in the way of “common sense policing”.
Hospitals will be required to share non-confidential information with the police so they know where gun and knife crime is happening and can target stop-and-search in gun and knife crime hotspots.
The government will ensure that enforcement agencies target irresponsible owners of dangerous dogs.

Employment

The government is to review employment and workplace laws to ensure that they maximise flexibility for both employers and employees. The right to request flexible working is to be extended to all employees, after a consultation with business on how best to do so. The government will also work to limit the application of the Working Time Directive in the United Kingdom.
The government is to undertake a fair pay review in the public sector to implement its proposed ‘20 times’ pay multiple between the highest and lowest paid staff. Councillors are to be given the power to vote on large salary packages for unelected council officials.
The default retirement age is to be phased out.
Public sector workers on low incomes to be protected from the effect of public sector pay constraint.
New protections will be introduced for public sector whistleblowers.
An independent commission is to be set up to review the long-term affordability of public sector pensions, while protecting accrued rights.
National pay and conditions rules are to be reformed in order to give schools greater freedoms to pay good teachers more and deal with poor performance.
Teachers accused by pupils will be given anonymity to protect against false accusations.

Governance and risk

The government has reiterated its promise to “promote the radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy” to local government and community groups, including a review of local government finance and the granting of a general power of competence.
Directly-elected mayors will be installed in the 12 largest English cities, subject to confirmatory referendums and full scrutiny by elected councillors. The Government Office for London is to be abolished and the case for abolishing the remaining Government Offices is to be considered.
Councils to return to the committee system if they wish.
The Standards Board regime is to be abolished.
The Comprehensive Area Assessment will be abolished and levels of local government inspection generally will be reduced.
The governance arrangements of National Parks are to be reviewed in order to increase local accountability.
A new obligation will be placed on public servants to manage taxpayers’ money wisely.
Councils will be required to publish meeting minutes and local service and performance data.
The Government also plans to hold a referendum on the further devolution of powers to the Welsh Assembly.
The government has also promised a “full programme of measures to reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties and roll back state intrusion”. For councils, this means that the use of powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) is to be banned, except where they are signed off by a magistrate and required for stopping serious crime. The regulation of CCTV is also to be increased.
New powers will be introduced to help communities save local facilities and services threatened with closure, and a new right created for communities to bid to take over local state-run services.
The government will support the creation and expansion of mutuals, co-operatives, charities and social enterprises, and enable these groups to have much greater involvement in the running of public services. Public sector workers will have a new right to form employee-owned co-operatives and bid to take over the services they deliver.
Residents are to be given the power to instigate local referendums on any local issue.
Plans to regionalise the fire service are to be stopped.
The number and cost of quangos will be reduced.
New rules are to be imposed on local authority newspapers to prevent unfair competition with commercial local newspapers.
The public and companies will be give a new ‘right to data’ so that government-held datasets can be requested and used by the public, and then published on a regular basis. Public sector bodies will be required to publish data in an open and standardised format, so that it can be used easily and with minimal cost by third parties.
The implementation of individual voter registration is to be accelerated to minimise electoral fraud.
The imposition of supplementary business rates will be prevented if a majority of the firms affected do not give their consent.

Housing

Regional Spatial Strategies will be “rapidly abolished” and decision-making powers on housing and planning returned to councils.
New trust structures will be created to make it simpler for communities to provide homes for local people.
The Housing Revenue Account will be reviewed and the ring-fencing of grants to local government is to be phased out.
Social landlords will no longer be able to ban social tenants starting businesses in their own homes.
A “range of measures” will be explored to bring empty homes back into use.
Shared-ownership schemes are to be promoted to help social tenants and others to own or part-own their homes.
‘Home on the Farm’ schemes that encourage farmers to convert existing buildings into affordable housing will be promoted.
The government will require continuous improvements to the energy efficiency of new housing.

Licensing

The Licensing Act is to be overhauled to give local authorities and the police much stronger powers to remove licences from, or refuse to grant licences to, premises that are causing problems.
The sale of alcohol below cost price is to be banned.
Councils and the police will be given the power to permanently shut down shops or bars found to be persistently selling alcohol to children and the maximum fine for for under-age alcohol sales to £20,000.
Councils will be permitted to charge more for late-night licences to pay for additional policing, but there is no commitment to ban 24-hour drinking.
“Red tape” will be cut to encourage the performance of live music.

Litigation

The government is to establish a Commission to investigate the creation of a British Bill of Rights that “incorporates and builds on all our obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, ensures that these rights continue to be enshrined in British law, and protects and extends British liberties”.
Bailiffs will be better regulated and orders for sale for unsecured debts of less than £25,000 will be banned.
The Legal Aid system will be subject to a “fundamental review” to make it work more efficiently.
There is no mention of whether the government plans to implement the recommendations of the Jackson Review.

Planning

Regional Spatial Strategies will be “rapidly abolished” and decision-making powers on housing and planning returned to local councils.
The Infrastructure Planning Commission is to be abolished and replaced with “an efficient and democratically accountable system that provides a fast-track process for major infrastructure projects.”
The government will ask Parliament to approve a simple and consolidated national planning framework covering all forms of development and setting out national economic, environmental and social priorities.
Councils will be given the right to take competition issues into account when drawing up local plans to shape the direction and type of new retail development in order to level the playing field between large and small retailers.
Councils are to be given new powers to stop ‘garden grabbing’.
A new designation – similar to Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) – will be created to protect green areas “of particular importance to local communities”. The Green Belt, SSSIs and other environmental protections will be retained and new measures to protect wildlife and promote green spaces will be introduced.
Incentives will be provided for local authorities to deliver sustainable development for new homes and businesses and a presumption will be made in favour of sustainable development in the planning system.
In the longer term, the government has committed itself to “radically reform” the planning system to give neighbourhoods far more ability to determine the shape of the places in which their inhabitants live, based on the principles set out in the Conservative Party publication Open Source Planning.
An emissions performance standard will be created to prevent coal-fired power stations being built unless they are equipped with sufficient carbon capture and storage. A new National Planning Statement will brought forward for ratification by Parliament to enable new nuclear construction becomes possible.
The findings of the Pitt Review into the lessons learned after the 2007 floods in Cumbria will be implemented to improve flood defences to prevent unnecessary building in areas of high food risk.
The Marine and Coastal Access Act will be taken forward to ensure that its conservation measures are implemented effectively.
The government will work towards a ‘zero waste’ economy, encourage councils to pay people to recycle, and work to reduce littering.

Procurement

All councils will be required to publish items of spending above £500, and to publish contracts and tender documents in full.
Small business procurement will be encouraged and an aspiration that 25% of government contracts should be awarded to small and medium-sized businesses will be introduced. Government tenders will be published in full online and free of charge.
The government will try to create a level playing field for open- source software and will enable large ICT projects to be split into smaller components.

Projects and regeneration

Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) will be abolished and replaced by Local Enterprise Partnerships – joint local authority business bodies brought forward by local authorities to promote local economic development. These will be able to take the form of the existing RDA in areas where they are popular.

Transport

The way that government decisions are made on which transport projects to prioritise will be reformed so that the benefits of low carbon proposals (including light rail schemes) are fully recognised.
Joint working between bus operators and local authorities will be encouraged.
Central government funding for new fixed speed cameras will be stopped and resources switched to “more effective” ways of making the roads safer, including authorising the use of ‘drugalyser’ technology.
The government will take action to tackle rogue private sector wheel clampers.