Why Labour?

Labour believes in delivering social justice to all wherever they live.  That means that we insist on national standards in key areas and that we fund local services to help deliver this fairly.  But we are clear that the best way to govern ourselves and to deliver excellent services is in most cases through decentralisation and devolution.  We believe that wherever possible we should pass influence, power and control to the people, to local institutions and groups, to front line staff and to local councils.  We do this because we trust the people to be the best authors of their destinies, and want to see power spread through our society.  Labour’s approach is rooted in the idea that local people and communities possess the ingenuity and common sense to run their own affairs and collectively solve their problems, given the right framework of resources and support from central government.

Labour in local government is working to deliver high quality, value for money local services.  On average, Labour councils cost the local taxpayer less than Tory or Lib Dem councils.

Key achievements:

• We are handing more powers to local authorities while supporting measures to help communities and individuals get involved in local democracy, such as participatory budgeting and citizens juries
• We have provided local government with 13 years of inflation-busting increases in grant which by 2011 will be 45 per cent more in real terms than in 1997. This contrasts with a 7 per cent real terms cut during the final four years of the last Tory government
• We have reduced bureaucracy and red tape, with a reduction in national performance indicators from around 1200 to 200 and less ringfencing of funding. Local Authorities now negotiate no more than 35 targets with central government through their Local Area Agreement
• We restored London-wide government, just over a decade after the Tories abolished it, by creating the Greater London Assembly and the position of Mayor of London
• We have seen an urban renaissance in Britain’s great towns and cities – regeneration on a massive scale in the centres of cities such as Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle

Winning the fight for Britain's future:

• We will support and develop the role of the local councillor, while seeking to encourage people from a more diverse range of backgrounds to get involved in civic life
• We will give a stronger voice to communities to help shape the places they live and local services
• We are reducing the amount of central prescription so that local authorities and their partners are better able to respond to local needs and demands
• We are strengthening Regional Development Agencies to produce single regional strategies to help end the disparity in economic development and growth between regions and within regions