Are they afraid?

The Total Politics website recently sponsored a survey by ComRes, at least partly on the opinions of councillors on where council funding should come from.

The results may be briefly summarised:

Of the respondents 62% believed that a mixture of local and national funding is ideal, 37% wanted only local funding, from a local income tax and 19% wanted local sales tax to fund councils.

Over 30 years national government has provided an increasing proportion of council spending, and have capped local authority at times to prevent them raising and spending too much. At the same time central government has imposed controls on directions of spending - ring-fencing some, or stipulating how grants must be spent. It is perhaps this experience which led respondents generally to be opposed to 100% central funding, - in fact 85% rejected it.

What may have surprised some was the breakdown by party affiliation. Among LibDem councillors only 25% wanted entirely local funding, among Conservatives 23%, among Labour only 12%, with the Greens at 18% and Independents at 15%.

What is more revealing is perhaps the attitude of Conservative Councillors. The party is the largest in England in terms of councillors and councils, of course. The present system was felt unacceptable by only 33% of their councillors, well below the levels of the LibDems at 57%, Greens at 54% and Independents at 45%. The Labour percentage was 13%.

Among councils the highest level of satisfaction with the present system was county councillors at 80%, again predominantly Conservative and the lowest at 51% by parish and 54% by town councillors.

By age group, of councillors over 65 62% favoured the present system, while at the other extreme among 18-24 year old councillors 64% disliked the present system.

Broad conclusions seem to be that the present system is favoured by the older councillors and county councills, and by Labour councillors.

Some conclusions have been drawn by readers of the report. Some have argued that older councillors may not welcome the hassle of accountability which would result because there was nowhere to hide if locally raised finance was not matched by performance. Some councillors may feel that the present system permits their own party to benefit their areas when their party is in power nationally and increases electoral safety and the chance of re-election. These two factors would amount to fear - of exposure and blame, and of dismissal. Are they just afraid?

There are many non-councillors who would welcome the accountability and transparency, and the reduced interference by London. Some suggest that it is the London domination which turns peopkle away from voting.

The fact that for various reasons the LibDems have been advocating a local income tax for many years may explain why they seem to be the group most against the present system and most in favour of local financing.

The Conservatives, some of who haverecently advocated a local sales tax to replace rates and grants, are almost as keen to have local finance but some of their colleagues are among ther most intransigent in defending the present system. In some ways the sales tax is the most challenging, - efficient councils, and those able to reject special interests, will keep their tax rates down and make the local area more attractive to shoppers, while inefficient and over-spending councils will be revealed.