End of day adjournment debate on District Councils - Nov 15

Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con) 

I am grateful for the opportunity to debate district council collaboration and devolution in England. As an MP representing a district area and a former member of the district council in my constituency, I am keen to champion the vital role that district councils play in delivering public services and shaping local communities.

It is a great pleasure to see that my hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Jake Berry) will respond to the debate on behalf of the Government, as the Minister for Local Growth. I look forward to his remarks about the role that district councils can play in supporting their local economies.

Today’s debate follows the publication of a report on collaboration between district councils and devolution to district councils, which the newly formed all-party parliamentary group for district councils undertook earlier this year. It did so to support the interests of district councils as the tier of local government with an unrivalled understanding of the local communities and economies they serve. District councils are the tier of government closest to residents, and they are anchored in the communities they serve.

The report was a significant piece of work, and I have a copy here. It was supported by the District Councils’ Network and by Professor Colin Copus and his team at the Local Governance Research Unit at De Montfort University in Leicester. I pay tribute to and thank the DCN and the LGRU for their valuable contributions to the report.

I also wish to put on record my gratitude to the 70 district authorities around England that gave written evidence and to the 15 districts represented by elected leaders and senior officers, who came along and sat before us in Select Committee style, providing evidence of the work they had done on collaboration and devolution.

I also thank my hon. Friends the Members for Witney (Robert Courts)—in west Oxfordshire—for North Dorset (Simon Hoare) and for Amber Valley (Nigel Mills), and the hon. Member for Burnley (Julie Cooper), who attended the evidence sessions. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Eastleigh (Mims Davies), who attended before her appointment as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. Our evidence sessions took place before the 2017 general election, and I thank the former Member for High Peak, who also took part. In addition, we were assisted by Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville and Baroness Pinnock.

In addition to evidence sessions with English district councils, we took information from leading local academics from across Europe, who provided fascinating insights into local government in their respective countries. They demonstrated that there is not, and cannot be, a one-size-fits-all approach, as we know is the case in England.

We learned that collaboration is clearly in the DNA of the districts; it is something they have embraced for some time. It assists the strengthening of service delivery to residents, encourages innovation and new ideas, and stimulates economic and housing growth. That is something I have seen first hand in my constituency, where Rugby Borough Council has successfully collaborated with its neighbours. It collaborates with Daventry District Council in the provision of a crematorium serving both authorities.

Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP) 

Madam Deputy Speaker, I spoke to the hon. Gentleman beforehand and sought his permission to intervene. He outlined a number of councils he had spoken to across Europe. He will be aware from our conversation that we reduced the number of councils in Northern Ireland from 26 to 11 to cut costs and to increase efficiency and responsibility. Did discussions take place at any stage with the Northern Ireland councils to see what we are doing to achieve those three goals?

Mark Pawsey 

We looked specifically at what is happening in England. One of the key points for us is that these should be voluntary arrangements. These should be arrangements where councils get together and work out what is the best for them and their local communities, rather than having something imposed from the top down—from the centre. To that extent, the processes we looked at differed from those in Northern Ireland.

I was speaking about the collaboration arrangements my district council has. Rugby Borough Council works with Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council on procurement, and with Warwick District Council and Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council to create a joint building control service.

Our report came up with six recommendations, and I would like to place those on record. The first involves the role of district councils in working with local enterprise partnerships. We know these are important building blocks in developing local economies, and it is important that the level of local government that is closest to its residents should have a strong say in the LEP area. In a large LEP, the districts might come together to pick one person to represent their interests. If LEPs are to have greater involvement in delivering local industrial strategies, which I think we all endorse, it is crucial that they have greater democratic representation on their boards. A review of LEPs is under way, and I hope the Minister will look at this point to make certain we get that democratic accountability on LEPs. We also looked at the duties to collaborate. We would like to see an extension of those to provide further representation for district councils on some of these bodies.

Robert Courts (Witney) (Con) 

My hon. Friend is making a very powerful case. I declare my interest as a deputy leader of West Oxfordshire District Council until I was elected to this House. I know that I am not the only alumnus of that council in the Chamber. The Publica Group is starting work this month for Forest of Dean District Council, West Oxfordshire District Council and partner councils, with all the public sector workers working for that publicly owned company, enabling savings of over £40 million to be made by those councils together over the course of the next 10 years. Does my hon. Friend agree that that is a very good example of how excellent services can be provided at a minimum cost and very good value for the taxpayer?

Mark Pawsey 

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention and for his contribution to the report. He is entirely right. We identified all sorts of valuable arrangements in taking evidence, and he gives a good example. It is important to realise that the examples of collaboration that I gave from my district council are very much with authorities that are immediately adjacent, but we also discovered great working in authorities that may be some distance apart but perhaps share common issues and common problems. My hon. Friend picks those issues out very well.

Our third recommendation is that district councils should be empowered to produce a local governance framework policy to identify a shared vision of collaboration and an agreed set of priorities for public services within the district. Our fourth recommendation is that there should be no legal restrictions on districts regarding the partner organisations they choose to negotiate with. I just mentioned that they may be some distance apart geographically.

Dr David Drew (Stroud) (Lab/Co-op) 

As a supporter of district councils, I am delighted by the hon. Gentleman’s remarks. Does he agree that one of the ways in which this could be helped is by freeing up some of the housing activities that district councils perform, whereby they could be part of the solution to the housing crisis?

Mark Pawsey 

District councils’ housing authorities have a big role to play in bringing forward additional housing. We need district councils to work more effectively with other agencies to identify land to bring forward for development. There are many ways in which district councils can work more collaboratively, both between one another and with other agencies, many of which will be landowners.

Our fifth recommendation is that the framework of devolution should permit district councils to develop and propose devolution deals to Government at any stage. District councils have a big role to play in devolution. Our sixth recommendation is that district councils should encourage their overview and scrutiny committees to review the opportunities for collaboration. That should be happening on a proactive basis. I look forward to the Minister’s response to our recommendations.

We launched our report in Parliament some months ago, when we were delighted to be joined by the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones), who committed to taking our recommendations back to the Department. I look forward to the Minister perhaps bringing us an update on where his Department stands regarding some of the recommendations that we have made.

Mr Christopher Chope (Christchurch) (Con) 

In the light of the response that my hon. Friend is yet to get from the Minister, does he share my disappointment that it is proposed that the partnership between East Dorset District Council and Christchurch Borough Council should be broken and that those councils should be absorbed into unitary authorities against their will? That is contrary, surely, to the principles being enunciated of voluntarism and the importance of keeping shire districts that are close to the local people.

Mark Pawsey 

My hon. Friend refers to specific incidents in his area, and I am concerned about the compulsion that appears to exist. The evidence that we received shows that these arrangements are much more effective when people work collaboratively and identify the relationships that most suit them.

We think that encouraging collaboration across functional economic areas will have many benefits, and that it will help to ensure that services are delivered in ways that match how people live their lives. The sharing of services can bring substantial efficiencies and much-needed savings to the public purse. Recent studies published by the Local Government Association show that district councils have already saved more than £224 million through shared service arrangements; that is by far the highest saving made by any type of local authority.

Districts have made enthusiastic and important contributions to the devolution and transformation agenda in local government. We heard evidence at our sessions about the significant amount of time and resources being invested by senior councillors and officers, although we heard some evidence to suggest that from time to time, the enthusiasm and drive can be slowed down by the Whitehall machine.

We heard some evidence that collaboration between district and other bodies such as local health services can be important, and we are keen to ensure that districts have effective representation in the sustainability and transformation plans that are currently being developed. That is why we recommended that they should involve full engagement with district councils, including statutory representation and involvement in decision making. I wonder whether the Minister might speak a little about the role of districts in the sustainability and transformation plans.

I would also like to raise with the Minister the calls being made by the District Councils’ Network for the introduction of a 2% prevention precept on the district council element of council tax, along the lines of the county councils’ 2% social care precept. We know that for every £1 spent on prevention—for example, by adapting homes to prevent falls, improving home insulation or providing recreational and leisure services—district councils can save the national health service substantial sums. The District Councils’ Network has submitted this proposal to the Chancellor ahead of the Budget, and I wonder whether the Minister might share his views on that idea.

Although the report seeks to encourage greater collaboration and devolution, we are anxious to ensure that there is accountability and transparency—that perhaps comes to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr Chope)—and that districts maintain their unique relationship with their local community. I hope that the Minister agrees with our report that flexibility is important in devolution arrangements, and that different approaches are required in different parts of the country. To pick up my hon. Friend’s point again, devolution cannot be done using a simple mathematical equation developed here in Westminster. Does the Minister agree that, in this instance, one size does not fit all?

I hope, in conclusion, that this report from the all-party group for district councils demonstrates that the approach must be bottom up. It must come from the district councils getting together and working together to develop something that suits the particular circumstances of their locality. I look forward very much to the Minister’s response.