Government to Dictate Council Structures

I have been at the LGA assembly today. It was fairly interesting, not least because the Government published its local Government Bill yesterday, so it was an obvious topic of conversation.

Phil Woolas, Minister for Local Government addressed the meeting and did a fairly good job. He tried to make the point that he wanted to put the argument about restructuring of 2 Tier authorities to bed for 6 years. Unfortunately however, there is a clause in the Bill which allows ministers to instruct local authorities to come up with plans for restructuring.

He tried to claim that this power would only be used in extreme circumstances and, actually I suspect that he personally does believe that. The trouble is Ministers come and Ministers go and come the era of Brown the autocrat it is inevitable that this power will be used to force restructuring.

It is a shame this clause has sneaked in because, apart from that, there is some good stuff in the Bill.