CLG Committee To Look Into Localism

"We will look at localism and concepts like Total Place and how they fit into a very difficult budgetary position."

"We will need to look at what it all means in practical terms. I'm very much supportive of the commitment to remove ring-fencing, for example, but if it means taking all the money away at the same time – then local government may not be getting a great deal out of it," added Betts.

"And with the Big Society, it means government pulling out of things – which is fine if the voluntary sector is there to pick it up. But very often the people willing to volunteer are more evident in the affluent areas so the poorer areas lose out. With some of the reforms announced, such as health, I am worried that responsibility is just being handed over to the private sector."

The ramifications of education, NHS and police reforms for councils will be considered by the committee with ministers, experts and the Local Government Association being called to give evidence.

"We also want to explore topics like the general power of competence for local government; they are nice words but does it actually mean anything different,"

"I wasn't satisfied with how far we went, but the relationship between central government and councils did improve substantially after an initial period where the centre said 'local government isn't very good so we are going to tell them what to do'.

"But we never dealt with the fundamental issue of local government finance and the fact that the average council gets 75 pence of every pound it spends from central government, which is not a healthy situation and has to be addressed. There also needs to be a proper constitutional settlement between central and local government and the Deputy Prime Minister has indicated that he is now interested in pursuing one."

"You cannot say you want councils to deal with things in the way that they think is most appropriate locally and then turn around and say that this is how they are going to do it,"

"I am not sure that the partnerships between councils are yet sufficiently developed enough yet to take on the RDA role. They certainly are in places like Manchester and Leeds where they have had city region pilots – I am not sure that is the case elsewhere."