“There is an urgent and pressing need for significant reform of the governance arrangements of England, so that they not only work effectively, but can be seen to work effectively, in order to strengthen and restore public trust in the functioning of our democracy at all levels.”
House of Commons Committee report,’Governing England’ October 2022
England has one of the most centralised systems of governance among democratic countries in the world. The instinct in Whitehall is to maintain control of the levers of power and the purse strings.
Successive Governments, far from putting in place careful reforms to nurture and develop decentralised and durable governance structures for England, have adopted a piecemeal approach.
From the viewpoint of Uttlesford and the many other district councils around England there is a distinct possibility that the pressure to reorganise combined with Whitehall’s persistent urge to cut costs will result in the creation of mega-councils by combining Uttlesford with several other district councils.
This ‘bigger is better’ approach flies in the face of evidence from around the world showing tiered local government with smaller decision-making units do a better job of sustaining democracy and maintaining links between communities and their representatives.
There is nothing sacrosanct about UDC but would rolling us into a vastly bigger council produce a better result for residents?
Our earlier posts on the subject of governance and local democracy:
A summary of the 2022 House of Commons report which is highly critical of the centralised nature of government in England –
Our 2022 look at local democracy including the example of Salisbury, which had many of its functions centralised away from the city when Wiltshire became a unitary authority –
Back in 2021 we were warning about the disappearance of district councils –