From Town Hall to Whitehall...

When you think of local Government you probably think of council tax, bin collections and running out of salt during the blizzards. All the main parties have different policies on how much responsibility local authorities have and which decisions should still be made nationally. Obviously the people in Westminster have given this its own word – ‘localism’.


The Tories are particularly keen on localism, broadly believing that too much power in the state results in poor decision making and waste. Which is why it was surprising to see that their new schools policy will mean that, instead of local authorities deciding when and where new buildings are built, these decisions will be made by the Government.

The Conservative’s argue that this is necessary to facilitate their national schools policy- but it does seem rather odd to take power away from local people on education when your overriding aim is more local decision making. This was certainly the view of the Liberal Democrats who take this is an opportunity to state that they were the only party truly committed to localism. Labour’s main concern was that school standards would drop if this policy was implemented.


So who do you want making decisions on your local services?

Poli-chick xx