Agent151: A letter to Greg Clark, at DCLG

Agent 151 writes to the new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Greg Clark.

Dear Greg,

You seem like a decent chap. Now that you are in charge of DCLG I very much hope you will consider making some changes. The very mixed performance of the department under your predecessor, Eric, is well documented and, let’s be honest, something of an embarrassment. Being rumbled about not knowing, or indeed caring, about the impact of cuts to local authority funding was less than a triumph.

Councils have also made plain their feelings about Eric’s unwillingness to make the case for councils in the spending round, his deeply cynical campaign to undermine public perception of councils through his constant sniping, and his refusal to adequately recognise their extraordinary achievement in implementing the cuts whilst improving public satisfaction with their services.

Unlike those councils, DCLG has in some important respects failed to deliver against the objectives it was set; but frankly that is not unusual for any government department.  Perhaps, a more influential factor in terms of credibility is the number of occasions on which DCLG has descended into the realm of the ridiculous.

Who could forget the 50 money-saving tips for councils, the unforeseen exploitation by fraudsters of the transparency code publication of supplier information, the pointless tinkering with protection for statutory officers, and the obsessive interference in such local issues as the publication of “town hall Pravdas”, chief executive pay, and parking?  It will not be news to you when I say that DCLG has lost the respect not only of its fellow government departments, but also of councils up and down the land.

Under the coalition government DCLG was tasked with redistributing power and funding from government to local people, transforming public services and ensuring that all communities are equipped and incentivised to grow and prosper. Many of the initiatives and interventions delivered in practice were not well aligned with these priorities.

The decentralisation of power especially did not go well.  It is hard to get the civil service to let go: we all know that. It is also hard for a government to allow councils the freedom to make local decisions when those decisions may impact upon the government’s popularity.

Not only did DCLG devote significant resources to the micro-management of issues best left for councils to deal with locally, but it failed to shift very much power out of Whitehall and indeed was perversely complicit in the ongoing centralisation of both benefit administration and education.

Furthermore, council tax used to be perhaps the most transparent tax in the UK fiscal structure. When Eric imposed the requirement for a referendum on council tax increases over a certain level he claimed he had set councils free: in practice he had not only put them in manacles but significantly eroded that transparency.
DCLG staff are an unhappy lot.  The most recently published Civil Service ‘employee engagement index’ scored  DCLG at 49%, an increase from 43% the year before, but well below the civil service median (58% in 2013). DCLG’s financial management was lambasted by Margaret Hodge following a massive overspend in 12/13, and the department’s annual accounts were qualified, but you still won’t find a qualified accountant in the top management team.

As for finding efficiencies and taking its fair share of the cuts, the fact is that between 2011/12 and 2013/14 DCLG staff numbers reduced from 3,793 to 3,547, a cut of only 6.5%. At the same time, local government funding was cut by 37%.

You have the opportunity to change all of this. Eric was universally disliked and derided, so you already have a head start in popularity. You have committed to devolution: please work with councils and not against them, and we will deliver it together.

Please don’t be bullied by your Cabinet colleagues into foolish bravado over cuts in the way Eric was. Cut out all of the silly and trivial interference with decisions that should be taken locally, and allow councils to stand or fall on their policies as they should.

Sort out the performance of the department so that there is a realistic chance that they will deliver what you ask for. And most importantly, keep talking to councils: they can be your greatest allies if you only treat them with the respect they deserve. Good luck.

Agent151 is a senior local authority finance director and s151 officer.