David Cameron’s zeal for localism was a fig leaf for cuts. But schemes to push power down should not be abandoned
When a campaign in Queen’s Park in Westminster led to the creation of London’s first parish council a decade ago, the expectation was that more new urban parishes would follow. Around half of people in Queen’s Park live in social housing; 45% of children are eligible for free school meals. But community development work was well established in the neighbourhood, and sufficiently valued that when government funding was cut, residents formed an action group.
Queen’s Park community council marked its 10th anniversary in May. But it remains the sole example of this form of community governance in the capital. While devolution deals have continued to be struck between central government and English regions, proposals to reinvigorate democracy at the ultra-local level have petered out. Neighbourhood plans, which were supposed to give communities more say over planning, proved to be highly labour intensive. The listing of community assets conferred limited entitlements, compared with those of landlords. Rhetoric around localism turned out to be a fig leaf for deep cuts to council budgets – just as the “big society” did.
