Innovative action to boost understanding of local government and the role of councillors, to attract new and more diverse candidates to stand in local elections and to deliver better quality support to those elected are among the proposals in a ground-breaking report  “Representing the Future”

The report sets out 61 proposals to transform local councils as well as encourage greater participation in local elections including lowering the voting age to 16 and creating regional Local Government Days when all seats for authorities in those areas are contested on the same day.

At the heart of the recommendations from the Councillors Commission is the demand for an explicit duty to be placed on local authorities to disseminate clear information about how councils and other local agencies work as well as promote the role of councillors and the activities of elected members, including raising interest on how to stand for election.

Councils need to support more active participation through groups such as tenant and residents’ associations and school governing bodies and provide the tools and organisations to equip councillors to act as essential two-way links between the authorities and their communities.

“Councillors carry into the council the views of the public and explain the decisions of the council to the public. As such, they must be given the tools to work effectively,” the Commission’s report “Representing the Future” urges.

Significantly, the Commission says that in order to ensure as many people as possible can play their part in local representative democracy, the role of a councillor must be compatible with full-time employment and the role of most council leaders should be compatible with part-time work.

Pay and perks for councillors should also be dramatically boosted in a bid to encourage people to participate in local democracy.  At present the leaders of Britain’s biggest town halls, who earn up to £60,000 a year as elected politicians, lose their salaries the day they lose their seats.

However, the Councillors Commission report calls for “parachute payments for elected mayors, leaders and executive portfolio-holders who lose office through the action of the electorate”.

It suggests the windfalls should be similar to redundancy money, and based on the length of time in office.

The report also says councillors should be able to enter generous local government pension schemes, while centrally-imposed restrictions on pay for middle-ranking politicians should be removed - potentially paving the way for increases.

And it indicates that some councillors should be able to claim unemployment benefit to top up their earnings, and proposes a “communications allowance” to fund public relations material.

However, town hall members would be barred from serving more than five terms in office - raising the prospect that hundreds of experienced councillors could be swept out.

Dame Jane Roberts, Chair of the Commission, said:

“Our democracy faces a major problem of disenchantment and disengagement - at times, even mutual incomprehension between citizen and the state.

“The Commission’s key message is that building effective and vibrant local democracy is a vital part of the solution to this wider malaise. We have a real opportunity to strengthen democracy in this country - we cannot afford to ignore it.

“Elected councillors are an essential part of that mission. If we are to attract new and able candidates it must become less daunting to stand for election and councillors must feel better supported once elected.

“Furthermore it must become less daunting to stand down - and for that reason we recommend that political parties should be allowed to publish a list of reserve councillors who can replace a councillor of their party who stands down without the need for a by-election.”

The Commission concludes that councillors are most effective as local elected representatives when they have similar life experiences to those of their constituents yet councillors increasingly are failing to reflect the communities they serve.

National political parties are urged to adopt fresh thinking about candidates to local government; they should encourage local parties to recruit people who share their values but may not have a lengthy record of party activity and work with a range of organisations such as Operation Black Vote and the Fawcett Society to develop presentational and political skills in under-represented groups.

And the EHRC and Electoral Commission should work with political parties to reach a voluntary agreement that they behave as if they were bound by positive duties to promote equality.

Disabled candidates should be offered assessments of their needs in advance of their arrival in post and those elected should have the same right to support as council employees with disabilities.
 
Dame Jane said:

“Local government has shown some of the most impressive improvements in performance within the public sector over the last decade and the best of local government without question far outstrips the work of much of central government.

“But this is not the view of the public, who too often see councillors as out of touch and acting out of self interest. We cannot ignore some real problems in the culture of local government and local political parties which means that in a number of areas there can be a reluctance to attract new blood.

“There is inevitably no single magic bullet to sweep away the confusion about councils and councillors and encourage more talented people to put themselves forward for election to local government. The Commission has proposed a package of reforms that we believe will renew and reinvigorate local democracy. We intend them to open up a wider debate about meeting the urgent challenge for change.”

The Commission is seeking responses to its report. People can log on and join the debate click HERE:

Isle of Wight Community News by John Coles @Island Pulse.