The overall effect is a:

Reduction in revenue and capital non-schools ring-fencing this year from 10.7 per cent (£4.5bn) to only 7.7 per cent (£3.2bn) as a first step to giving councils more freedom over spending decisions.

In detail that means:

Revenue schemes
Youth Opportunity Fund
Think Family Grant
Challenge and Support Funding
AIDS Support
Learning Disability Campus Closure Programme
Stroke Strategy
Bus Challenge and Kickstart
Animal Health and Welfare Enforcement
Waste Management Pilots

Capital grants
Fair Play Pathfinders
Fair Play Playbuilders
Innovation in Extracare Housing Grant
Capital Investment for Transformation in Adult Social Care Grant
AIDS/HIV
Common Assessment Framework
Social Care IT Infrastructure
Detrunking
Major Projects
NEXUS (Tyne and Wear Metro)
Green Bus Fund
Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management
Coastal Change Pathfinders
Contaminated Land
Housing Market Renewal

Traditionally Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have far from seen eye to eye over local government with devolving liberals and centralising conservatives taking fundamentally different approaches. However, this policy area offers a classic example of Cameron’s move to take his party towards a liberal centre-ground creating some genuine overlap in outlook where very little existed before. Large parts of the Conservative Party’s general election manifesto on devolving power could have been taken from previous Liberal Democrat policy statements and with a minister for decentralisation there’s a fighting chance that the talk will turn into reality.

So this part of the coalition document contains much that Liberal Democrats will be happy with – but with a significant financial caveat.

“Radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy” is promised for local government. Part of this vision is fleshed out in more detail with Regional Spatial Strategies being axed and powers returning to councils, more power in the planning system going to communities, the Government Office for London being abolished, more power for communities to save local services by taking them over and a general power of competence for local councils.

A mix of green policies are thrown in – protecting the Green Belt and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), measures to bring empty homes in to use and implementing the Sustainable Communities Act. Housing also gets a quartet of other pledges: more protection against bailiffs and repossession, more shared ownership scheme, easier creation of housing trusts and an encouragement to turn farm buildings into homes.

The Conservative obsession with directly elected Mayors is played out again, with referendums promised in the 12 largest English cities. At least the policy is to have referendums, rather than impose them, so the public will get to decide. On the up side, councils will be given the option to return to the committee system and the Standards Board regime gets the chop. Changes to local government in Norfolk, Suffolk and Devon are also halted.

More controversial are the financial proposals because, despite the general pledge for increasing financial autonomy, the agreement also says that “we will freeze Council Tax in England for at least one year, and seek to freeze it for a further year”. Add to this the cuts in local government funding announced yesterday and the outlook for council finances looks very, very tight.

There is however a civil liberties bonus in this section: “We will ban the use of powers in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) by councils, unless they are signed off by a magistrate and required for stopping serious crime”.

So we certainly shouldn’t forget the other elections on Thursday:

• All the seats in the 32 London boroughs
• One third of the seats in the 36 Mets
• One third of the seats in 20 unitary authorities
• Half the seats in 7 district councils
• One third of the seats in 70 district councils
• Four Mayors

A happy side-effect of the strong general election campaign performance by the Liberal Democrats is that this may well carry over into local election results too. As The Times put it:

Cleggmania set to boost Lib Dem vote in local elections
Cleggmania is expected to have a huge impact on the local council elections being held on the same day as the general election, with the Liberal Democrats taking control of several London councils and winning dozens of seats across England.

When the election campaign began, the Lib Dems were expected to lose at least 50 seats in the council elections. Now the party is reaping the benefits of Nick Clegg’s performances in the television debates, which could propel them into power in key town halls.

Tony Travers, from the London School of Economics, now predicts that the Lib Dems will win up to 100 seats, with the Tories losing roughly 150 and Labour gaining about 50.

Not so convinced by the initial 50 seat loss prediction, but even so the basic point stands. Most of the seats up for election were last contested in May 2006 and in the month prior to those elections that average poll ratings were Conservative 34%, Labour 33%, Liberal Democrat 20%.

In particular this should be good news for London, where all councils are elected all-up every four years with the election year often having had the annoying habit of coming just before or just after a period of particular popularity for the party. This time however London campaigners could hardly have asked for better national conditions against which to fight their local campaigns.

The whistleblower who warned that Haringey social services were failing to protect children just six months before the death of Baby P is to stand for election there as a Liberal Democrat councillor.

Former social worker Nevres Kemal, above, who will contest the Noel Park ward, said she will try to rid the council of a culture of “lying, deception and cover-ups”.

Best of luck Nevres.

Hull City Council has been crowned the most improved in England, six years after it came bottom in a survey of 150 local authorities.

Hull beat four other councils to win the ‘Most Improved Title’ at the Local Government Chronicle awards…

Leader of Hull City Council, Carl Minns said: “The most important factor is to ensure that residents get excellent quality services but it is always good to have external recognition of the improvements to services.” (BBC)

The local newspaper adds:

Reductions in litter, fly posting and graffiti, a drop in the level of crime and improvements in education were cited as some of the reasons for the award.

Step forward, David Burbage (Conservative Leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead).

However, Peter Chegwyn has taken that Standards Board ruling to the Hight Court and this week won a significant set of victories. The two-year disqualification from Hampshire County Council was quashed completely. The two-year disqualification from Gosport Borough Council was quashed and replaced by a two-month suspension, and the Judge ordered the Standards Board for England to pay Peter Chegwyn’s full costs.

The Judge also criticised the Standards Board and Adjudication Panel for the way they had handled the case.

Peter Chegwyn told us that he was delighted to have won his Appeal:

I always said that I had acted with the best of intent and the Judge acknowledged this.  It has taken me two years to clear my name but it has been worth it.

As the Judge described a Conservative Party leaflet attacking me as being “defamatory”, I think the Conservative Party owe me a great big apology.

Sadly, instead of apologising, the Conservative Party are continuing with their spiteful personal vendetta against me.  I face yet another Adjudication Panel hearing on March 15 following a quite ludicrous Conservative allegation that I somehow ‘bullied’ Gosport Council officers into accepting a lower Council tax rise in 2009 that that sought by the Borough Treasurer.

I will fight this latest nonsensical and completely false allegation as vigorously as I fought the last case.

What’s up for election?

It’s a big round of local elections:

• All the seats in the 32 London boroughs
• One third of the seats in the 36 Mets
• One third of the seats in 19 20 unitary authorities
• Half the seats in 7 district councils
• One third of the seats in 70 district councils
• Four Mayors

All the above are in England. By-elections aside, there will be no local elections in Scotland or Wales.

Note: elections in Stoke have been postponed followed the referendum decision to abolish the Mayor/Cabinet system. Elections in Norwich are being postponed as part of local government reorganisation.

UPDATE: Elections in Exeter may also be postponed as part of the Government’s proposals to bring in a unitary authority in 2011.

What’s the political context?

Due to the repeated changes in council structures and boundaries, no round of local elections is quite like another. However, this round is broadly the same as that held in 2006.

As we have not had this year’s round combined with a general election since Labour came to power, it is possible that the higher general election turnout will produce different results. Higher turnout will benefit some parties more than others, and overall higher turnout is good for Labour.

For the Liberal Democrats, although there are some urban campaigners who swear by higher turnout hitting their chances, the overall record is that the party’s share of the vote in local elections is fairly immune to changes in turnout.  2006 was the last year in a five-year streak when the Liberal Democrats gained seats at each round of local elections, even if just +2 in 2006. Since then the party has had two years of losses and one of gains. The party’s estimated national share of the vote has been constant across those years; on the Thrasher and Rallings figures it was 25% in 2006 and then 24%, 23% and 25% last year.

For Labour, the 2010 local elections are looking tough. Their share of the vote in 2006 was 26%, which has slipped via 26% and 24% to just 22% last year. Higher turnout did boost the party’s local election results in 2005 and Labour will be relying heavily on higher turnout to save it from further meltdown this year.

The Conservative share in 2006 was 39%, a figure which an opposition romping home to victory in a general election would not be afraid of besting. But there’s a bit of an if there … and in local council by-elections the party has been a long way off sweeping all before it. Well organised Liberal Democrat council by-election campaigns have often beaten the Conservatives in the last year, particularly in wards that fall within Westminster marginal seats.

You can read more about the prospects in individual councils over in the Local Government Chronicle.

Although  my own local council (Islington) is very good at dealing with them either directly themselves or passing on to the relevant company and ensuring the work is done, other councils, including Haringey and Westminster, are far less so.

Haringey in theory also gets the job done if a member of the public reports a problem to them, but in practice I’ve often found problems of things going wrong or being forgotten.

Worst of the lot has been Westminster Council, who not only sent me off on wild goose chases claiming that a box is TfL’s responsibility (when it isn’t) and then that it’s BT’s (when it isn’t) but also in both cases left it to me to contact BT and TfL. All round Westminster so far don’t seem too bothered that staff give out wrong, and at times flatly contradictory, information and nor does Westminster Council seem to feel it has any responsibility for ensuring such utility boxes are kept in good repair. Instead they view it as a matter for the utility company and me.

Which is where Clause 81 of the New Roads and Streets Act 1991 comes in useful. In short, the law says that firms who plonk boxes on our pavements have to look after them, and if they don’t the local authority responsible for the pavements can take legal action. The local authority also has the power to carry out work itself if the company doesn’t.

Westminster so far seem curiously unaware of this legal power, so in case anyone else has run into trouble with other councils unwilling to make use of the power the law gives them – or is unaware of it – you can find the relevant clause to quote at them here.

That’s not the only bad news for the Conservatives though. In Aberconwy the local Conservative president (and councillor) Dennis Tew has also quit the party, switching to Plaid. Meanwhile in Southend, Jason Luty’s switch to Independent removes the Conservative Party’s overall majority on the council.

Perhaps surprisingly, Labour has also picked up two councillors recently – John McNamee from the SNP and Arshad Hussain from the Conservatives.