Published The herald On line -

20/8/2020

News

13 hrs ago

Opinion: Andy Maciver: Want local democracy? Give us a reason to vote then

By Andy Maciver

WHO can name their local councillors? All of them? OK, what about their council leader? What about the transport convener? Do you know your provost? Really?

Readers of The Herald’s comment pages may be more able to answer those questions, being a fairly self-selecting bunch of people who are by definition interested in politics and government.

But, go to the general population, and I’d be prepared to make a fairly substantial bet that name recognition for the politicians elected by the people to represent them in council chambers around the country, is breathtakingly low.

It shouldn’t be.

One can make a pretty easy argument that those areas for which a local authority is responsible have far more impact on our lives than the issues within the competency of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh or the UK Parliament in London.

The things that really matter to most people, that they encounter every day, are decided locally, not centrally. How often your rubbish is collected. Whether that pothole outside your house will be repaired.

Where your children go to school. All decided by councillors, not by MSPs or MPs, elected by us.

Or, at least, elected by some of us. Turnout at the last local government elections averaged less than 50 percent, lagging behind elections to Holyrood, and even further behind elections to Westminster. It is a curious twist that, in the elections which matter most to our lives, we participate less.

How can we change that? Well, there has been no shortage of discussion, taskforces, panels and commissions charged with reinvigorating local democracy. The trouble is that none of them appear to make any discernible difference.

Perhaps, then, we need to think bigger; to remove the parameters of local government reform so that we can start again.

We have 32 local authorities. Do we need them all? Every single part of Scotland now has a city-region growth deal – a joint venture between Westminster and Holyrood which injects cash for a variety of big-ticket projects including infrastructure and digital development, and which tend to operate across larger territories encompassing several local authorities.

The Ayrshire Growth Deal has been delivered across South Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and East Ayrshire councils. The Aberdeen City deal includes Aberdeenshire Council. Stirling and Clackmannanshire share a deal. These are not the only examples, and we must surely ask ourselves what else might be able to be delivered more successfully by local authorities coming together (at least in urban areas; the Highlands and Islands would probably have to retain the status quo).

Improving delivery and accountability is one side of the coin; the other is building recognition for local leadership. In this endeavour, creating elected mayors would help. Whilst it would be impractical and probably meaningless to have 32 mayors with often small jurisdictions, having perhaps 15 of them would be far more workable.

Mayors would provide a focal point for the local population. If adequately compensated at, say, at least the salary of a government minister, mayoral elections could attract high calibre candidates, in some cases standing for an established political party, but with a reasonable chance of also seeing high quality independent candidates coming to the fore.

It is, I suppose, a fair counter-argument to say that amalgamating councils into larger entities would take political decision-making further away from people, which is the opposite of what I would wish to achieve. However, this could be more than offset by further empowering community councils, which are often populated by people capable of far more than simply adjudicating on the flower arrangements at the Scout hall.

However, the election of mayors is a necessary rather than a sufficient condition to light the fire of local democracy. We have seen this in England where, even in London and despite its mayors having outstanding name recognition, turnout remains depressingly low.

Some of that will be improved simply by the passage of time, but if we are to make a success of mayoralties in Scotland there will need to be a more pressing reason for people to take the walk to the polling station.

Inevitably, this will involve giving local authorities more power to put their hands in our pockets. This would be a useful tool for encouraging democratic participation, sure, but it would also create an important principle that local government should raise the money it spends.

It is far from this point at present. Council tax raises only a small fraction of a council budget, with the rest from a central grant, and business rates are local in name only. Far better would be to say to local authorities: if you spend it, then you must also generate it.

There would be a number of benefits associated with giving local authorities the power to create, set and raise taxes as they see fit. I have already discussed here the first of these – to encourage more local democratic participation. It stands to reason, and is held up by evidence, that people are more likely to vote when there is more on the line for them.

However, arguably the primary benefit would be to enforce more fiscal responsibility onto local authorities. As is the case in every financial relationship, from that between parents and a child, to that between Holyrood and local authorities and between Westminster and Holyrood, we can only expect responsible behaviour when there are consequences to irresponsible behaviour. If you want to spend it, you have to raise it.

Finally, a new start in local taxation would allow for bespoke solutions. Perhaps in Edinburgh the most appropriate mechanism would be an income tax. In Glasgow, a sales tax may provide solid income generation. In Aberdeen, a property tax along similar lines to the existing Council Tax might work. Most likely, local authorities would opt for a so-called ‘basket’ of taxes to both spread the load, and spread the risk.

Localism is a concept largely characterised by politicians talking the talk, but not walking the walk. However Covid-19 gives us the chance to start afresh in a whole range of policy areas, including this one.

You want local democratic participation? Give us a mayor, and give him or her the powers to think big, and do big. And stop feeding the beast, because you can’t expect responsibility without obligation.

Give us a reason to vote. I know I would.

• Andy Maciver is Director of Message Matters

Our columns are a platform for writers to express their opinions. They do not necessarily represent the views of The Herald.