So far, councils have given a lot more than they’ve received

The coalition government came to power loudly proclaiming its commitment to localism. Local authorities, said David Cameron and communities secretary Eric Pickles, would reclaim their authority and suck powers back from Whitehall. The era of an overweening, over-centralised UK government was over.

   The idea won support across the coalition. The Liberal Democrats have long supported devolution, while the Tories – following an era of centralisation under Thatcher – experienced a conversion in opposition. What’s more, both parties have seen a renaissance at local level, seizing control of many cities once seen as reliable Labour strongholds.

   As the rhetoric turns to reality, however, councils appear to be losing as many responsibilities as they are gaining: some powers are moving down to the community level, with others going up to central departments. Michael Gove’s education reforms, for example, will create ‘free schools’ and academies – in which the link with councils is broken, and control passes to school leaders and Whitehall officials. In health, Andrew Lansley’s proposed abolition of primary care trusts denudes councils of weighty partners with whom to collaborate; instead, they’ll have to deal with dozens of small GP collectives. And while many of the regional development agencies’ responsibilities are to pass down to Local Enterprise Partnerships – in which councils will play a key role – these LEPs will not take over RDAs’ budgets: instead, they’ll have to submit bids to Pickles to fund individual projects on a case-by-case basis.

   On the crucial matter of funding, too, councils will for some years have less freedom of maneouvre – not more. The coalition’s £6bn savings slashed £405m – 3.6 per cent – from local authority spending, and councils are likely to suffer badly in October’s spending review. Yet the government has moved to prevent councils from raising more in taxes. 

   Even before the election, the Tories argued that councils should have to put council tax increases to a local referendum; they would, of course, be extremely unlikely to win such a poll. Then George Osborne’s Budget generously promised a freeze on council tax: a Westminster tax giveaway at the expense of local authorities. And this week, the Telegraph reported that the Department for Transport is set to “call a halt to plans by some councils to impose a levy on workplace car parks”. New DfT rules, it explained, would force councils “to demonstrate they had the support of the local business community before DfT approval is given” – a stricture that takes no account of councils’ democratic mandates, or their responsibility to balance the needs of business against tackling congestion, pollution and investment in local transport infrastructure.

   Of course, both coalition partners have always been open about their intention to empower local people, not just local authorities; an aim that inevitably involved eroding councils’ freedom of manoeuvre. And councillors are set to gain new powers: they’ve already been freed from regional housing targets. How much real substance there is behind departments’ plans for devolution to LEPs, however, will become clear only slowly – some time after that punishing spending review.

   For now, councils are frantically teaming up to establish LEPs; scrambling to find new auditors; rushing to collate the data that Pickles expects them to publish; busily cutting out any unnecessary costs. But when the dust settles and Whitehall shows its hand, they’ll take a good, long look at what exactly LEPs are being offered. And if councils don’t then win substantial powers to compensate for their lost freedoms and income, Westminster will find itself at loggerheads with town halls – not just the red ones, but the yellow and the blue ones too.