There were positive developments for local government during May’s time in office
4 min read
May Days: May showed herself to be a decent person who did her best for the country and was an advocate for local government, says Lord Porter
As Theresa May’s time as prime minister comes to an end, I am pleased to have this opportunity to reflect on her legacy from a local government perspective.
As a former councillor (she served on Merton council for eight years), shadow secretary of state for local government, and party chairman, Theresa has always taken a keen interest in local government and she has been a good friend to, and supporter of, the Local Government Association (LGA) Conservative Group and the Conservative Councillors’ Association over many years.
As prime minister, she continued to set aside time to regularly canvass residents in her Maidenhead constituency along with local councillors – a signal from the most powerful politician in the country that change can be affected at the local level as well as in Whitehall.
Although Brexit crowded out much of the domestic agenda that she spoke about outside Downing Street three years ago, there were positive developments for local government during her time in office, most noticeably in relation to housing.
The most important of these was the removal of the housing revenue account borrowing cap which had prevented councils from borrowing to invest in building new homes.
This surprise but welcome announcement at last year’s Conservative party conference was recognition of the fact that councils have a key role to play in addressing our national housing shortage (the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government estimates that it will help to deliver 10,000 additional homes a year).
This announcement reflected Theresa’s wider ambition to get more houses built and to increase home ownership. Her government committed to building 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s, an ambitious target which her successor is expected to at least maintain.
To facilitate this, her government established a £5bn housing infrastructure fund which is supporting council-led projects around the country to build hundreds of thousands of homes in a sustainable way.
On other issues, her record is more mixed.
The underfunding of council services – most notably adult social care and children’s services – is impacting on communities across the country.
While the prime minister oversaw a number of significant short-term or in-year spending increases, we will have to await the spending review later this year to see whether local government finance will finally be put on a sustainable long-term footing.
Linked to this, it is deeply disappointing that the social care green paper, which has been delayed three times over the past 12 months, has still not been published.
It is now two and a half years since the government first committed to publishing this and, with adult social care facing a £3.6bn funding gap by 2025, it needs to act now to ensure we are able meet the needs of our ageing population.
Finally, I was delighted that the prime minister recognised the fact that Brexit has profound implications for local government with the creation of the Brexit delivery board, chaired by James Brokenshire, the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, and which includes senior councillor representatives from the LGA.
The board has allowed us to make progress in various areas, although it is frustrating that there is still uncertainty regarding the future domestic replacement for the European structural and investment fund.
I will leave it to the commentators and historians to argue over the prime minister’s legacy. What I will say is that, from a personal perspective, I have always found her to be a fundamentally decent and hardworking person who did her best for the country and who was a friend of, and advocate for, local government. I wish her all the best for the future.
Lord Porter is a Conservative peer and former chair of the LGA
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