Conservatives urge Labour government to include borough councils and not just devolve power to City Hall, reports Kumail Jaffer, Local Democracy Reporter
Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s devolution agenda must not just hand power to City Hall while ignoring the capital’s boroughs, ministers have been warned.
The government’s ‘Rewiring the State’ plans aim to shift power, funding, and accountability from Whitehall to local leaders across England. Some powers have already been handed over, including the ability to implement an overnight levy on visitors and to retain a share of income tax raised in the area.
With more responsibility set to be devolved in the coming months and years, senior Conservative council leaders in the capital have warned the government not to ignore town halls for the sake of City Hall.
“London boroughs aren’t at the table – the conversation is strictly between City Hall and central government,” said Elizabeth Campbell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council.
“Civil servants often assume talking to the mayor means they’ve spoken to London – ignoring the 32 boroughs that actually deliver services. This government has to understand that there’s more [to this].
“If they’re talking about devolution, it’s more than Whitehall to City Hall. It’s actually Whitehall to the town halls. That’s what we mean, because we are closer to the communities we serve.”
Cllr Campbell was speaking at a fringe event held by Central London Forward (CLF) at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham this week.
John Dickie, from BusinessLDN, said the capital is “unique” compared to other mayoral authorities because City Hall “operates independently of boroughs”.
However, he added, “after 25 years of the Greater London Authority (GLA), London Councils and City Hall need a grown-up conversation about which services belong at strategic level and which belong at borough level.”
Cllr Campbell and Westminster City Council leader Paul Swaddle appealed to ministers for a direct “financial link” to ensure boroughs benefit from visitors and major events as well as cleaning up after them.
“We do that stuff now because it’s the right thing to do, not because of the benefit, but if we had the benefit, then it would be massive,” Cllr Swaddle said.
Cllr Campbell added: “Think of the Notting Hill Carnival – we get two million visitors, it costs us more than £1million.
“It would be quite good to capture some of that uplift from businesses and traders and then be able to plough it back into the area. It’s good for the local area, it’s good for London – and it’s that connection which is being broken.”
This is the subject of a political tussle between London’s councils and City Hall as the overnight visitor levy looks set to come into force. Last year London Councils, a collective body representing the city’s borough councils, demanded that boroughs retain 50% of all revenue raised “by default”.
Speaking at a separate fringe event hosted by London Councils, the Conservative Party’s shadow minister for London, Gareth Bacon, took aim at Burnham’s current devolutionary model, claiming: “Everything the current setup is doing disadvantages London. High business rates, high income tax, tax on labour, and proposed mansion taxes drive wealth and entrepreneurs away.
“Andy Burnham talks about devolution, but for London, ‘devolution’ often means siphoning off London’s business rates [revenue] to spend elsewhere. Real devolution means power passing from Whitehall to town halls, not just to City Hall.
“Fundamentally, it sounds like a structural problem in that the prime minister’s view is devolution, but to him, devolution just means giving more power to the mayors. And he doesn’t really care whether those powers come from Central Government or from local authorities.”
Mark Williams, director of CLF, told the event that “the flexibilities London needs from government are quite significant” and that there have only been “some tentative steps so far” such as the Integrated Settlement for the GLA replacing individual pots of cash from different government departments.
“However, it does not nearly go far enough, because it’s about how you spend money that is handed down centrally. The freedom and flexibilities that are needed are much more, as has been mentioned, around control of income streams.”
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government was contacted for comment.
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