Ex-minister questions delays to local government shake-up

Lord O'Neill has said that a long-awaited plan to shake-up local government appeared to have been delayed again, stating that it was ‘worrying’ that ministers had yet to deliver it.

The former Conservative minister said that the government has proven itself more than capable of talking about boosting the ‘left behind’ parts of England, but is failing to actually deliver it.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised the biggest reform of local government in a generation, as part of a plan to close the North/South divide and boost parts of England that voted Conservative for the first time in the General Election last year.

O'Neill, who is vice-chairman of the Northern Powerhouse partnership, said it was a ‘worrying’ sign that ministers were not ‘capable’ of dealing with anything but the coronavirus pandemic. The latest delay, which the Financial Times claims will push the plan back to next year, is a further cause for concern for O’Neill.

Speaking to BBC Somerset's political reporter Ruth Bradley, he said: "It's consistent with a worrying, reoccurring sign that this government is not really capable of dealing with anything other than the immediacy of Covid-19, which I'm sure some people would have sympathy for.

"But when you start by talking repeatedly about levelling up, and with a prime minister visiting, deliberately, left-behind places to do so, it doesn't really create a very good impression, especially because the left-behind places have almost definitely suffered most from Covid-19. This is a mysterious government. It strikes me that it's very long on public relations and rhetoric, but not really figured out how to focus on delivering anything, and it gets more and more disappointing by the week."

The County Councils Network, which represents 36 mainly Conservative-controlled local authorities across England, said: "Suggestions that the white paper is to be delayed is disappointing. When it is ultimately released, it must follow through on the government's commitment to extend devolution in England and set out a clear blueprint of how this can be achieved in county areas. Given the financial and economic shocks of coronavirus, it is imperative that county authorities have as much resource and powers at their disposal to address the issues in their left-behind communities."