Local government hard-wired to self-destruct under Number 10 devolution plans, experts warn
Devolution without the decentralisation of decision-making powers will marginalise traditional local government to the point of existential threat, a new essay from think-tank of place Localis argues.
In a new study ‘Shock treatment: will English local government blow a fuse in a Rewired State?’ published today as part of Localis’s ‘Other Ideas’ series, emeritus professors of local politics and local government, Colin Copus and Steve Leach, argue that prime minister Andy Burnham’s ‘Rewiring the State’ agenda and Whitehall’s approach to local government as whole ‘shows clearly that councils have far less prominence in government thinking than the comparatively new creation of strategic authorities and their directly elected mayors’.
The short report warns that despite Burnham’s public commitment to devolution, his linking of devolution to the now-paused Local Government Reorganisation process will likely still force through council mergers into massive unitary bodies – and without compelling evidence that larger local authorities deliver better outcomes or cost savings.
Creating giant unitary authorities which undermine local democracy and public connection to place, runs counter to historical evidence and international models that favour smaller, community-rooted councils, the authors assert.
Additionally, the report argues that the government’s plans:
- Lack true fiscal devolution: Financial freedoms remain restricted, with new revenue mechanisms or tax retention (such as tourist levies or business rates) primarily directed toward strategic mayors rather than granting genuine financial autonomy to local councils.
- Use economic growth as a centralist instrument: Devolution is being treated as a mechanism to implement central government policy objectives—specifically economic growth—rather than establishing a fundamental shift toward sub-national democratic self-governance.
- Do not extend constitutional protections to councils: Unlike international systems (such as Germany’s Basic Law), English local government remains constitutionally vulnerable under the Widdicombe doctrine, leaving councils subject to arbitrary central restructuring or abolition.
Localis chief executive, Jonathan Werran, said: ‘Be in no doubt about it, the ‘Rewiring the State’ agenda, despite the expected warm noises about the value of local government, poses an existential threat to the future of English councils as we have known them.
‘”Shock Treatment’ should be a wake-up call to all localists keen to maintain the connection of place and community and a stark warning to the sector that you can boil a frog without it knowing what is quite happening, by steadily raising the temperature over time.’
Report author and Localis visiting fellow, Professor Colin Copus, said: ‘The government’s rewiring of the state will cause a nasty shock for many in local government, as it creates a new form of centralism – one where mayors and strategic authorities share with Westminster and Whitehall control over local government.
‘If local government reorganisation goes ahead, we could eventually lose 85% of English councils and around 90%’ of councillors.
‘We are faced with a reduction in opportunities for people to get involved in holding local elected office; a weakening of local accountability; and a shocking hollowing out of local democracy – ironically, all in the name of devolution.
‘The prime minister, who has expressed enthusiasm with the German Basic Law, needs to ask why Germany operates, within that law, with almost 11,000 municipalities in a two-tier system.
‘That stands in stark contrast to his comments to the BBC that he wants to see: a structure of local government which is the same across the land. Certainly not something he would find in Germany.’