Why I support the New Local Democracy for Scotland – Dave Watson

Twenty-five years after the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, we rightly celebrate devolution. In the words of Donald Dewar this was, ‘the day when democracy was renewed in Scotland when we revitalised our place in this our United Kingdom.’

While the Scottish Parliament has brought democracy closer to Scotland, it has not created a genuine local democracy. The Scottish Constitutional Convention envisaged that devolution would not stop at the Scottish Parliament. They argued that local government provides for the dispersal of power both to bring the reality of government nearer to the people and to prevent the concentration of power at the centre. They also emphasised the importance of participation – local government by local communities, not of local communities.

Scotland still has some of the largest basic council units in the world, with an average population of 170,000, compared with a European norm of 10,000. Scotland also has the lowest number of elected members to population in Europe. Despite initiatives between COSLA and the Scottish Government, several commissions and numerous reports, we are no closer to achieving the principle of subsidiarity. In practice, powers have been stripped from councils and services such as police, fire, further education, and water have been centralised. Three-quarters of public spending is directed by Scottish Ministers, including around £23 billion spent by quangos.

I have been involved with most of those initiatives, which sadly have mainly gathered dust on the shelf. The Commission on Strengthening Local Democracy (2014) is a good starting point for understanding why local democracy matters. It concluded that ‘a radical transfer of power to communities is essential if we are to rebuild confidence in Scotland’s democracy and improve outcomes across the country.’ I was an expert advisor to the Christie Commission, which recommended, ‘A first key objective of reform should be to ensure that our public services are built around people and communities, their needs, aspirations, capacities and skills, and work to build up their autonomy and resilience.’

As the Director of the Jimmy Reid Foundation, we have published several reports on this issue. In The Silent Crisis: Failure and Revival in Local Democracy in Scotland (2012), we argue that Scotland is the least democratic nation in Europe, below the national level. In my paper, Building Stronger Communities (2020), I highlighted that the governance of public services in Scotland is one of the most centralised in Europe. I argued that the starting point is subsidiarity, building integrated public services from the bottom up and sharing where appropriate. The role of central government should be to set the strategic direction based on outcomes – rather than trying to direct services from Edinburgh. However, a country the size of Scotland cannot justify duplication and difference for the sake of it. Therefore, we need public service frameworks that allow local services to focus on what matters to achieve positive outcomes. Even where decentralisation is not viable, services should still be required to cooperate locally more effectively than currently. The somewhat loose duties placed on quangos to collaborate in community planning have no effective teeth.

It sometimes feels that the only discussion around local government comes from those advocating directly elected mayors or provosts. These top-down initiatives have not produced a strong sense of local empowerment. Instead, they centralise power in a single individual, which could lead to unaccountable, authoritarian leadership and open the door to corruption.

There will be trade union and workforce concerns over creating a larger number of councils and other public bodies, along with cost concerns over duplication. This is where national frameworks are essential. Local decision-making should be focused on what’s important to communities, such as service design that reflects local needs. We do not need a hundred-plus grievance procedures, different terms and conditions, contract documents, etc. Neither do we need a bureaucratic infrastructure of senior managers. This is an opportunity to introduce the concept of a single public service worker on standard terms and conditions with joint introductory training for all jobs – both envisioned by the Christie Commission. A revitalised Standards Commission could provide governance models that would address the weaknesses we see in some parts of the disparate voluntary sector. It would also be an opportunity to test different working methods, including autonomous teams and genuine partnership working.

In an era dominated by austerity economics, local services continue to face the brunt of budget cuts. Successive administrations have avoided the reform of local government finance despite credible proposals in the Burt Report (2006) and The Commission on Local Tax Reform (2015). The Scottish Government and COSLA supported the ‘fiscal empowerment of democratic decision-makers to deliver locally identified priorities.’ However, the Scottish Government quickly returned to the regressive council tax freeze without even consulting COSLA. Council tax accounts for less than 20% of local government expenditure. The average for Europe is around 40%, but for countries where local governments have the equivalent responsibilities to Scotland, the average is between 50% and 60% of income raised locally. Local election turnout is generally significantly higher in countries with greater devolved taxation.

Local election turnout is generally significantly higher in countries with greater devolved taxation. Smaller councils on the European model also enable local people to engage with local democracy, moving away from the full-time councillor model, which restricts membership to professional politicians, the wealthy or pensioners. The many initiatives to improve citizen engagement and participatory practices in Scotland have almost all failed to engage working people, not least because they haven’t put real power in the hands of recognisable communities. In several visits and discussions in the Nordic countries, I have seen how public service workers and councillors engage meaningfully with their communities when accountability is local rather than regional or national.

I view the Declaration as a starting point for a new conversation about genuine local democracy in Scotland and how we deliver public services. We must put right the forgotten aim of devolution – to disperse power not just from Westminster to Holyrood but onwards to communities. A comprehensive, coherent and irreversible plan for reform built up from communities not imposed from the centre.