The erosion of local democracy is documented our report entitled Local Government in England - 40 Years of Decline, commissioned by Unlock Democracy from De Montfort University. 

The research assesses the state of local government in England and documents how local government powers, finance, responsibilities and autonomy have been consistently eroded by successive governments, of all political persuasions, since 1979.

Commenting on their research, Arianna Giovannini, Deputy Director of the Local Governance Research Centre (LGRC) at the Department of Politics, People and Place, De Montfort University said: “Our research shows that over the past 40 years, local government in England has been repeatedly reformed, reshaped and hollowed out. In this way, we have walked backwards into increasing centralisation of our practices of politics, policy-making and democracy. Local government has been weakened by a thousand cuts to its funding, powers, accountability, services and size – with huge negative impacts on local communities. This has been possible because central government has been playing with a loaded deck”.

She added: “At a time when ‘sovereignty’ is high on the agenda, it’s easy to forget that power does not need to, and should not, be placed only in the hands of a few at the centre. Throughout the pandemic, we have learnt the hard way that decisions taken by central government are not necessarily the best for local communities. Local government is the backbone of a healthy democracy and must regain its ‘sovereignty’: it needs greater independence, financial autonomy and constitutional protection.”

The key findings from the research include; 

• From the late 1970s onwards, there has been a considerable shift away from the model of the ‘sovereign council’ towards a more disempowered local government.

• Local government reform in England has been a persistent feature over the past forty years. The ‘tools of central control’ adopted by Whitehall to achieve this have changed under different administrations, but the direction of travel has been clear and consistent, with more and more powers being chipped away from local authorities. 

• This erosion of local autonomy has been enacted through the more frequent resort to law courts and legalisation of central-local relations, but has also often come ‘in disguise’. The use of secondary legislation has spiralled, allowing the centre to extend further its hold on local government through the backdoor.

• The financial autonomy that local government enjoyed in the past has come under increased top-down constraints. Local government is bearing the brunt of severe cuts, which it is legally obliged to implement. While imposed by the centre, it is left to local government to deal with the impacts of cuts on communities.

• Local government services have been hollowed out through the increased use of outsourcing, and now local authorities have to operate within a complex, expanding web of partnerships that dilute accountability.

• Reforms to leadership models within councils were meant to improve accountability. Instead, they have created new divides, and the role of the councillor has been increasingly ‘managerialised’ and ‘depoliticised’. This is generating a growing democratic deficit.

• This process of centralisation on steroids has been possible because central-local relations have progressively swayed towards one side. It is central government that has allowed, and often directed, the erosion of local democracy. Over the years, a new form of central-local relations has emerged: one which is undermining previously held assumptions about local government’s role in the political system and its invaluable role in building a healthy democracy.  It needs urgent reform.